New Livingroom sound system.

[paulca]

I still can't kill the Sony amp from 1994 in the living room, still sounds as good as it did day one.  It just looks damn ugly and I'm itching for tech.

I could just buy an amp and speakers, but... it's the main TV room, it would be shame to look straight past Dolby 5.1, 7.1.

I was hoping that wireless surrounds were a thing, but while apparently they are, via numerous sound bar add-ons or £1000+ bleeding end WISA rigs, they are mucho $.

I was hoping I didn't need to buy a big bulky receiver in 2022 but, it seems I do.

I just wanted to check I understand what actually happens if I go with the receiver approach, like a Yamaha or Denon.

My main input to the TV is the multimedia PC via HDMI 2.1 4K @ 60Hz.  In addition the TV is a smart TV and as Netflix only support 4K via their app, I still use the smart TV apps.

So in those cases, the HDMI lead from the PC goes as an input to the receiver and the output from the receiver goes to the TV.  The eARC or ARC HDMI from the TV goes to the eARC input on the reciever.  If I am "watching" the PC, I set it to HDMI1 and if I'm using the smart TV I set it to ARC?

How linked are the A/V on the HDMI?  For example if I wanted to listen to music from a BT source, will it still pass through the HDMI video of my choice?

Sorry for having no clue about these things, I just don't want to spend money without understanding what exactly I need and what it will or wont do.

How likely is this to work and can the PC output Dolby/THX et. al. over HDMI?

[NiHaoMike]

I was hoping I didn't need to buy a big bulky receiver in 2022 but, it seems I do.

Are you looking to go to an all digital setup with digital amplifiers or just looking to add surround to your existing setup? For the latter, you can just get some amplifier modules to add surround channels and a sound card with surround or a HDMI audio extractor with surround. (Too bad digital amplifier modules are still a lot more expensive than analog amplifier modules of comparable power output. Also, using them for surround generally only works for the two front speakers and that's if the sound card or audio extractor can output digital and analog at the same time.)