What Do I need in a Home Theater?
You can have a "Home Theater" with a setup as simple as a TV a pair of speakers, and a DVD player (Or any video source). But usually Home Theater consists of something a little more elaborate.
The goal is to duplicate, in your own home, the experience in a commercial Dolby Surround movie theater, only on a smaller scale. The entertainment is for you, and your friends and family. A basic home theater system consists of a pair of front left and right speakers on either side of the TV, a center-channel speaker on top (or beneath) the TV set to anchor the actors dialogue at the TV screen no matter where you sit, a pair of smaller surround speakers to either side of your couch that carry all the effects and ambient sound of a movie or TV show-street noises, planes flying, jungle sounds, the noise of rain, thunder, or crickets, distant explosions or rumbles of tanks, and all the myriad of other sounds that make up a complicated movie soundtrack, including, of course, the movie score, the music and rock songs that underscore the action on screen. Lastly, most home theater systems add a subwoofer, typically a square black box that produces ultra-deep bass sounds-rumbles, storms, deep musical bass and the like.
What will I Need?
HDTV - Plasma, LCD, or DLP - Whatever technology you choose, you will receive a high quality television that is ready for your home theater use.
DLP - DLP is a method of displaying images developed by Texas Instruments. DLP
projects video images by reflecting a light source off an array of tens of
thousands of microscopic mirrors. Each mirror represents one pixel and reflects
light toward the lens for white and away from it for black, modulating in
between for various shades of gray. Three-chip versions use separate arrays for
the red, green, and blue colors. Single-chip arrays use a color-filter wheel
that alternates each filter color in front of the mirror array at appropriate
intervals.
LCD - Liquid crystal display television is, as indicated by its name, a television
using LCD technology (generally TFT), as opposed to cathode ray or plasma for
its visual output.
Plasma - A plasma display is an emissive flat panel display where light is created by
phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. The
gas discharge contains no mercury (contrary to the backlights of an AMLCD); a
mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon) is used instead. This gas mixture is
inert and entirely non-harmful.
Speakers - The number of speakers required depends on the type of system you wish to install. A 5.1 is 5 speakers 1 subwoofer (The subwoofer is always the .1) All of the speakers don't need to be that big . Because the subwoofer carries much of the low bass energy, the other "satellite" speakers can be compact and visually unobtrusive, no larger than a hardcover book.
5.1 Surround Sound - 2 front main speakers, 1 front center channel, 2 rear surround sound, and 1 subwoofer
6.1 Surround Sound - 2 front main speakers, 1 front center channel, 1 rear center channel, 2 rear surround sound, and 1 subwoofer.
7.1 Surround Sound - 2 front main speakers, 1 front center channel, 2 mid-room surrround, 2 rear surround sound, and 1 subwofer.
Dolby Digital Receiver - To this mix, you must add a Dolby Digital Surround Sound Audio/Video receiver, which will "decode" the DVD soundtrack and effects, plus five built-in amplifiers for each of the five loudspeaker channels (the subwoofer always has its own dedicated built-in amplifier). This Receiver should consist of a
DVD player. A good DVD player will consist of optical, or coaxial audio outputs, and Component or HDMI video ouputs for the best picture quality on your digital tv.
Monster Cable - If you use poor quality cable you just defeated the point of purchasing nice equipment. The quality of the audio and video is only as good as the signal it receives. Monster Cable is high quality wire, that is designed to pass only the best quality audio/video signals to the components. |