I would like to get surround sound for my husband for christmas. I have a JVC DVD Player/Video Recorder and have been informed by JVC that I will need a Prologic Amplifier. Question - Will an active speaker system work or not.

You would need a decoder of some kind somewhere in your system. Apart from prologic, the standards are DTS and Dolby Digital of which in the UK, the last is the most useful as that is the one which is used on almost all of the DVDs that we get. There are other standards but they are pretty marginal in relation to the whole market.

Usually what people do is to get a receiver that does all of the decoding and amplification in one box. An example of that would be this;

http://ws4.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=SONY-STRKSL500

There are larger and more elaborate versions of this depending on what you want to spend. Plug your DVD and speakers in and that should be it.

Which particular active system are you looking at? Presumably you're looking at active to keep boxes and wires to a minimum? There are a number of different ways of doing active.

I didn't have any particular system in mind, I had just heard that an active system would have the amplifier built in and as you so rightly said I would like to keep boxes and wires to a minimum. Also we are not very technically minded so the easier it is the better.

Budget is a factor, I can't afford vast sums but I would like to make sure that the sound is good.

Active has it's own problems. Apart from the speaker wires, you've also got mains leads going to each one so there's no advantage for you. Also, you would need a preamp so you're not getting rid of boxes.

There are advantages to active at the very high end but at the cheaper end it's usually badly implemented.

You might want to think about getting a 'one box' system with a DVD player in it. They can be fairly good. You pretty much get what you pay for though. A good brand name is pretty much essential - Marantz, Pioneer, Teac, Denon, Sony, Yamaha and Panasonic are usually reliable.

This would be a good one if it's within your budget;

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo-2.cfm/Product_ID/1974

The above is a good unit and multi region so you can play cheap foreign discs.

I'd try somewhere like Richers - this is the website but it's best to go to the shops;

www.richersounds.com (there is a list of branches on the website).

www.superfi.co.uk

www.hifibitz.co.uk

http://www.johnlewis.com/Audio+and+TV/DVD+and+Video/DVD+and+Video/Home+Cinema+Systems/ProductType.aspx

Look under the 'systems' and 'home cinema' categories. If you can get a unit that is marked 'multi region', that is a good idea.

Thank you for your very informative answer, is was really appreciated.