Home theater entertainment tips and information


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The whole point of a good home theater system is that it caters to your room just as it is. Hence, that word “home”. Whether your room is enormous or tiny, rest assured there is a home theater solution ideal for you. Let’s begin with an examination of your space with the following tips in mind:

1. You should be able to limit the amount of incoming light that might cause glare on your TV

2. Hard surfaces will reflect the audio signal in unwanted directions. These surfaces can include bare windows and walls as well as uncarpeted floors. Drapes, carpet and other sound absorbing materials are simple room treatments that can make a big difference in sound quality.

What type of home theater system are you looking for?

Homework:

Even if your art skills are lacking, it’s time to put pencil to paper. First, sketch the outline of the room you have chosen for your home theater. Now measure your room and write the dimensions down next to your sketch. Draw some of the possible placements of your furniture, speakers, couch and retractable wet bar. Erase, rearrange, erase and rearrange again. You’ll get some very clear ideas about seating, configuration and possible room limitations. Keep this map handy. You’ll be referring to it later on.

If it’s got a play button on it, it’s an “input”. DVD players, CD players, VCRs, or any source of audio or video material are kindly known as inputs. That includes cable TV and satellite receivers, turntables, radio tuners & cassette tape players.

Homework:
Using the artful doodle of your room, add two columns to the right or left of your drawing, then write down:

Column 1.
A list of all the inputs you currently have and will continue to use. (Do you need to be able to play your old albums or cassettes in the Home Theater?)

Column 2.
A list of all the inputs you intend to add to your new home theater system - Satellite Receiver, DVD, etc. Now, before you faint over the amount of electronics you will need, keep in mind that most new DVD players are actually multi media players that can play DVD, DVD Audio, CD, CDR (CDs you recorded), SACD (Super Audio CD is a higher resolution CD from SONY), and MP3. An “All-In-One” if you will, which means you may need to buy fewer electronics pieces than you think.

Outputs in a Home Theater refer to your speakers and TV. That’s it. Let’s hear it for brevity.

The short lesson on receivers goes something like this: receivers select an input, reads those signals, and then sends these signals off to their corresponding outputs. Those would be your speakers and TV.

The good news for today’s consumer is that most receivers on the market support the most current surround sound formats. Let’s consider some nuances you will want to pay attention to regarding Surround Sound.

Surround Sound, and the quality of the sound, is what makes it all so real. Without it, you’re just watching plain old TV. But with it you get the rich texturing of sound effects, the sensation of dialogue being spoken right at you, and a profound detailing of music, all seamlessly integrated to vibrate and resonate into your room, your furniture, and your body.

“Multi-channel” refers to the way specific qualities of sound are isolated and then piped to different speakers. The Producer making the film ultimately decides this, but most movies are all similar in how they are recorded. For example, dialogue goes to the front center speaker, while the bone-rattling lows go to the subwoofer (Consumer Alert! Your subwoofer doesn’t have to be a big ugly black box! See SubTable).

There are a few recording formats (Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital-EX and DTS-ES, all defined a little later) that create the surround sound affect in a movie, but any new receiver can reproduce these formats so don’t worry about what has what when you shop. In fact, you will see these logos on the front panel of any reputable receiver. They all sound good and the receiver does it all for you when you insert the DVD into the DVD player.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound system when all compiled looks like this:

- 1 Center Channel speaker for dialogue and other audio that should sound like it is coming from the TV

- 2 Front speakers (left and right) for stereo sound and the front surround sound

- 2 Back Speakers (left and right) for surround sound

- 1 subwoofer for low frequency effects (the “.1” in 5.1)

So, what is 6.1? The addition of a surround speaker to the rear. And 7.1? Two additional surround speakers added to the rear. Don’t get caught up in 6.1 and 7.1 just yet, movies are still produced (recorded) in 5.1 and so they still sound best being replayed in the same format. 6.1 and 7.1 just massage the true 5.1 soundtrack and they also require more speakers. It is mostly a marketing push to those who already have a 5.1 receiver in hopes they will buy a new “improved” version. As you will see below, if you invest in good speakers you will be more than pleased with a 5.1 speaker setup.

Homework:
Reach for the map of your room you scribbled. Now, as you review your room size and the amount of available wall space for rear surround speakers, you should get some idea of where your 5 speakers will be placed.

If the receiver is the brain of the system, the speakers are the voice. They are the components that flush out the nuances of the voice, the emotion of the scene music, and of course the clarity in the explosion. In short they are the most important part of your Home Theater system. Let me say that again: they are the most important part of your Home Theater system. Since we are talking about a Home Theater we understand how important aesthetics is to the cause. It is true that the better the speaker the larger it’s size, and usually the more ominous it’s appearance. Most high end speaker manufacturers conspicuously disregard aesthetics so there are challenges here, but have faith, finding superb full range speakers that also fit your décor is not impossible.

PerformanceFurniture.com has taken to task building the first true high performance speakers designed as furniture. See Cabinet Speakers.

Homework:
Go listen to the best pair of floor standing speakers you can find, no matter how ugly, how big, or how expensive. Great speakers take the experience from interesting to captivating, from a tear to a flood, from watching a movie to a memorable experience. Also ask to listen to a well recorded DVD concert (Fleetwood Mac/The Dance, James Taylor/Live at the Beacon Theater, or the last track from Diana Krall/Live in Paris.) Still willing to compromise on your speakers? I didn’t think so.

Properly chosen, your speakers should disappear from your consciousness, allowing you to immerse yourself in your favorite music or movie. Conversely, skimping on your speakers will only provide a nagging distraction from the audio experience you so richly deserve. More specifically, high quality speakers emit less distortion, which means the sound is cleaner and easier to listen to, especially at higher volumes. Lower quality speakers can simply be annoying, especially at higher volumes. The good news is it’s absolutely possible for price, performance, and aesthetics to blissfully marry.

Balance is the name of the game in choosing the right TV for your home theater. Ideally, it’s when the right size for your room meets the right format capabilities for your system meets the right budget for your wallet. If you’re looking for a Home Theater TV, consider that they come in a variety of flavors:

• CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. Also known as direct view TV, these are the sets we’ve all grown up with.
• Projection TVs include front projector units and big screen rear projection televisions such as LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), DLP (Digital Light Projection), and LYCOS the newest technology to the scene.
• Plasma is a large, flat TV, which is currently the most expensive of the three.

This is the part where you will need to begin considering what type of furniture you will use to house your TV and stereo. Finding quality furniture for this concern is another challenge we will admit, especially when you want to create a certain décor. But again, there are a few manufacturers who do this exclusively and you will be quite pleased. See Home Page. Consider if you want your TV enclosed or if you want it placed on a large TV Cabinet. We advise shopping for furniture while you consider your size and type of TV as they will ultimately be chosen together for the best fit and finish in your Home Theater.

There really is a noticeable difference between the quality of your cables and the quality of your home theater experience, but only to a certain point. If you are spending a little more for higher quality speakers and a higher power receiver then you will want to step up accordingly with your connection cables. As you’re drafting a budget for your entire home theater system, plan on spending about 5% on cables and wires.

Homework:

Remember the snazzy map of your room? Having toyed with the possible placements of your furniture and speakers, having recorded your room dimensions and, finally, having written down the inputs you want, you should now have an idea of the lengths of cables and wires you’re going to need. Take a moment and jot these lengths down on the map.