Home Theater and Blu Ray QUESTION!

[My_Two_Cents]

As of late, I seem to be seeing a lot of these types of threads and questions all dealing with the same thing: I can't get the sound quality I want/expected from my (fill in the blank) HTIB system. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to slam anyone on their choices. I understand that in just about every one of these types of cases, it is because the buyer/owner was simply not as informed as a lot of us, and by the time the questions start coming it is too late. In this case, the OP has not yet made the purchase (and Dad should just give the system to you ) so it's good to find out what you are getting into before hand.

Would it benefit the folks new to the whole A/V world if we had a sticky (authored by our resident expert, Crackin') explaining the pros and cons of HTIB systems as they apply to Blu-Ray? I just hate seeing folks spend hundreds (and sometimes >$1000 if sucked-in by the Bose Marketing machine) on these type of systems, only to find they won't play HD audio, or worse yet, won't even do surround from external sources. I don't buy the "they're easier to set up" argument, particularly when you involve other external components. It doesn't take take a lot of researching to understand the basics of properly hooking-up an AVR and seperate speaker system. It will do soooooo much more, and will sound 10X better at a cost comparable to what you would spend on the HTIB.

Thoughts/comments? I would attempt this myself, but I think it would be much better received coming from the expert. Or do you think that by the time folks get to this site, they've already made the investment and it's too late to change anything?

Enough of my rant.