Home Theater setups for under $400, any recommendations?

[badass88gt]

I dont need top of the line stuff, I have some discounts from Best Buy and was thinking of a cheap home theater setup. I was looking at these:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8268386&type=product&id=1170290375713

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8724357&type=product&id=1200703057877

Another thing, its been many, many years since Ive even looked at stereo stuff, don't these systems have FM tuners anymore?

[badass88gt]

Also, I have a Panasonic Plasma and Dish HD, do I want HDMI inputs on the home theater reciever? I am using HDMI right now, both for the dish and for my current up-convert DVD.

[PureSound15]

A friend of mine has the yamaha setup and it sounds great for the money.

$.02

From the looks of it, the Yamaha has FM, and the panasonic does not. I could, of course, be wrong.

[UnderPSI]

I would save a little longer and get the next step up Yamaha if that is the route you want to go.

[Flight_740]

Onkyo

[badass88gt]

Also, I have a Panasonic Plasma and Dish HD, do I want HDMI inputs on the home theater reciever? I am using HDMI right now, both for the dish and for my current up-convert DVD.

What about HDMI inputs and outputs? Would I want/need them?

[GinoRin]

If you have a TV that supports HDMI you definitely want HDMI support on the receiver.

[PureSound15]

When I finished my high-end theatre last spring, even the ultra- high end recievers had not perfected HDMI switching on the recievers. I'd have to do more research, 12 months is decades as far as electronics technology ages, so I'm sure there has to be some reliability to them now.

BUT, the recievers that offered HDMI switching at that time were also sacraficing quality audio components to make up for the lost space inside the reciever. This too, might be solved by now.

I'd agree with Brad. There can be a huge difference in $100 when it comes to home theater in a box setups.

If I were to make my own system and stay in that budget, I'd pick up one of the home theatre speaker sets from Fluance. (www.fluance.com)
This http://www.fluance.com/fluan5speaks.html
or this http://www.fluance.com/fluanceavhtb.html
and add a reciever to that. Maybe a powered sub if you were to purchase the cheaper of the two.

I have fluance speakers in my room, and Boston Vr3's in my theatre, and although there is a true difference, those fluance speakers sound fantastic and have gotten fantastic reviews on mnay of the audiophile forums. IMHO you'd get a better sound from adding a reciever to one of the packaged deals from Fluance. But, I understand how easy it is to just buy one of the home theatre in a box deal like you posted.

It all depends on how picky your ear is. Just my $.02

[wrath]

www.clubonkyo.com

[UnderPSI]

I get Onkyo at wholesale if you are interested.