If your room is confirmed to be only 8' long, i suggest just to get a Media Centre CPU with BD & DVD, with enough power to address a full fetch gaming graphics and sounds.

Then your chair should be at about 6 ft from the screen. That leaves u about 2 ft from the wall behind. You will need some space for the rear surrounds speaker to work wonders. For 6 feet viewing, you just need a 32' LCD monitor or TV. I don't think you need a couch for that 6ft viewing. Just a comfortable office chair with good support and you will need a table right in front for your keyboard etc.

kelvin, if your budget allows, get the separates.

If your budget does not allow, get the used separates.

If your budget does not allow and you mean it, get the 5.1 units.

If your budget does not allow, you mean it and your wife threaten with divorce if you get anything like that, then just opt for a normal TV, and connect its audio output to a stereo old amp with decent speakers. Its sound will still beat any of the modern LCD TV anytime.

This post has been edited by peter32: Nov 10 2009, 07:59 PM

Kelvin, just for fun sharing from my own experience.

If you just want it for your parents, I would suggest any device with minimal controls. Eg. a good 42 inch LCD means much more than a whole system with 4 remote controls.

I got one for my parent too, and to teach them to change 4:3 to wide screen, either full screen or native 19:6 can already be difficult. Perhaps your parents are tech savvy? Whats your take in this?

Stereo Amp comes with only simple big volume Dial, ideal for them.

What I did when I was just a poor worker last time was, first, get a cheap Kenwood prologic receiver, it was quite cheap. Then I settled with only one pair of front speakers.

After a year, I got a 2nd hand pair of speaker, slightly better than the first pair, to be the front R & L. The original pair went to become the surrounds.

After a short while, I bought One hifi speaker to be the centre.

That was almost 17 yrs ago! And all of them are still working well today.

Believe it or not, I still do not have a subwoofer !! Will slowly hop in once I settle in new place.

I think a decent AVR will cost at around 1.5K nowadays. Pls read other forum posting about it. I got mine 2nd hand, so less tech but with good DTS and other decoding with pre-post amp facilities.

I think a good floor standing speakers, used item again, can be very good for less than 1K, and with good bass too. No need a sub initially