Home Theater System Buying Guide

Benefits of a Home Theater System (back to top)

A home theater system is meant for just about anyone in the family. While movie aficionados will definitely fall head over heels in love with the system, other member of the household will find the experience of watching daily soaps enthralling on a home theater system as well.

After a hard days work, very few people have the energy or the mood to actually dress up and travel to a theater to catch a movie, risking the chance of getting stuck in traffic and being late. There is also no guarantee that tickets may be available. Due to these and many other reasons, people mostly postpone their intentions to watch a good film on the weekends. This inconvenience is now a thing of the past. Home theater systems now enable one to rent or buy a DVD and watch a favorite movie in the convenience of one's home, sprawled on the sofa, with all the effects the best cinema hall can offer.

This system has especially become a necessity in today's fast paced world, where time is a constraint for just about everyone, and going out to a theater has almost become a luxury. Truly, the home theater system can become a movie buff's dream come true.

1. How Home Theater Systems Function (back to top)

As mentioned earlier, the home theater system includes four main components: the television or projector, the player, the speakers, and the audio/video receiver. All of these electronics work in conjunction to provide that out-of-this-world experience. In order to get an understanding of how the home theater system works, we will understand the role played and the functionality of each of these components separately:

• Television or Projector: For a home theater system, it is advisable to go in for a big screen television having a diagonal width of at least 29 inches, with bigger screens being even better. Normally, home theater systems do not ship with a television and it may need to be bought separately.

 

Another alternative viewing device is a projector from which the image can be projected to a screen or a white wall.

 

• Media Player: The movie could either be recorded in digital format on a DVD or in analog format on Video Home System (VHS) magnetic tape. The player could either be a DVD player or a video cassette recorder. This device will output the video data to the television and the audio data to the speakers through the amplifier.

 

• Speakers: These are the most important components of a home theater system. It is the speakers that distinguish the home theater system from any other television-video player combination. The key speakers of a home theater system are mentioned below:

 

• Left and Right Front Speakers: These are the primary pair of speakers in the system, providing the first line of sound and music output. In order to prevent jarring or clashing of sound waves, these speakers should face the viewer and should be placed equidistant from the television. These speakers could also be placed at an angle with the sound output converging onto the center of the rear wall of the room.

 

• Left and Right Rear Satellite Surround Sound Speakers: The ideal spot for these speakers is a few feet behind the rearmost seat in the room. However, if the viewer is sitting almost touching the rear wall, then these speakers could be placed in either corner of the rear wall. It is these speakers which actually give the viewer the feeling of being inside the screen. Audio concerned with any happenings at the extreme edges of the screen such as a character talking towards one side of the screen or a vehicle moving past the camera, is transmitted to these speakers, on the corresponding side to the action on the screen.

 

• Center Channel Speaker: This speaker provides the focal source of crisp dialogs and other subtle sound effects. This speaker directly faces the viewer and can be placed either under the television or above it.

 

• Subwoofer: This speaker outputs the low frequency bass sounds. This is a key speaker for action and adventure movies or of you are watching a recording of a live rock concert.

 

• Audio/Video Receiver: This is the single most important component of most home theater systems, as it is the receiver which controls the video display on the screen as well as the sound output from all the speakers. The receiver consists of the audio/video inputs for the DVD player or the VCR, a preamplifier, a surround sound decoder, power amplifiers for each sound channel, and lastly outputs to the speakers and the television or projector. The video output is directly sent to the display device, whereas the sound output is sent to the decoder which separates sound input for the relevant sound channels the output of which is sent to the correct speaker. The decoder can be either analog or digital, the output from which is responsible for the picture on the screen and sound from the speakers, both offering an experience to cherish.

 

2. Purchasing Criteria (back to top)

When investing in a major purchase such as a home theater system, it makes sense to spend time to evaluate the various readymade systems available in the market. Thus, you will get an idea as to whether you need to buy the complete package at one time or purchase individual components separately. Below are listed a few pointers you need to keep in mind when buying a home theater system:

• Recording Format Compatibility: It is always safer to confirm that the player of the theater system supports multiple audio and video formats. Thus, you will not be left in the lurch if you rent a DVD and discover that it is not supported in the player. The disc formats that should be supported include DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-RW, DVD-R, +RW, +R, CD, CD-R/RW, SVCD/VCD, MP3/WMA/JPEG Digital Still (CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW), MPEG-4 (ASP)/DivX (CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW).

 

• Multi Region Player: Some DVD players can play only DVDs of the region in which they are manufactured. DVDs are very often regionally encoded, preventing their playback in players from other countries. This has been done by the movie studios to prevent unauthorized viewing of movies in certain countries. These region codes vary from 1 to 6. It would be preferable in your theater system DVD player has a region code of 0, which ensures compatibility with DVDs from all region codes. Thus, you can be assured of peace of mind that your player will play all DVDs.

 

• Surround Sound Format: To ensure proper sound output, the home theater receiver should be able to split and output sound of all audio formats. Some of the commonly used sound formats include: DTS, (Digital Theater System), Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, and Dolby Pro Logic-II (an encoding system that digitally compresses 5 to 7 unique audio channels). A 5. 1 speaker system that includes 4 speakers and one subwoofer is the ideal combination for superior quality sound.

 

• Video Up-Sampling: This is a method of improving video quality by intrinsically increasing the signal bandwidth. The system should have an up-sampling rate of 4x.

 

• Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC): At the final stage of the video transmission, before display on the screen, all digital signals need to be converted to analog signals. This job is done by the DAC. The higher the bit range used by the DAC, better is the quality of the signal. The home theater system should have a minimum 24 bit DAC converter.

 

• Wide-Spectrum Speaker System: The speaker system should cover the entire humanly audible audio frequency range ensuring reproduction of even the most miniscule sound effects, with minimal phase and time distortion. The audible frequency range varies from 20 to 20,000 Hz.

 

• Progressive Scan: In certain conventional technologies, the image is painted on the display screen line-wise with the odd lines being drawn first, followed by the even lines. This results in a less clear image. However, in progressive scan technology, both lines are displayed together, resulting in a sharper picture.

 

• Aspect Ratio: This represents the ratio of the image width to the height. While analog television pictures have an aspect ratio of 4:3, High Definition TVs (HDTVs) have an aspect ratio of 16:9.

 

• Impedance: This is the total resistance offered by a conductor to the flow of alternating current across a circuit at a certain frequency. Low impedance translates into more efficient distribution of power.

 

• S/N Ratio: This represents the proportion of actual audio signals as compared to noise output, measured in decibels. Higher the S/N ratio better is the sound quality.

3. Making the Decision (back to top)

After conducting adequate research and finalizing your requirements and preferences with regards to the various features mentioned above, you should compare various home theater systems that match those requirements offered by leading brands at a comparison shopping site such as www.smarter.com. The home theater system is set to give you years of entertainment. Therefore, it stands to reason that you should invest some time and research when purchasing this system. In addition to the above requirements, make sure that you get a full function infra red remote control. This may not be possible if you have bought individual components of the home theater system separately.

As with most expensive home gadgets, the after sales service and warranty details are very important. Even though there is no hard and fast duration for this facility, see that you get a fair deal on both these offerings if possible. Keep in mind as well that the installation of a home theater requires a personal touch. Therefore, most manufacturers send qualified personnel to the customer's residence to examine the room and plan how to best place the screen and the speakers to generate the best output. The rooms acoustics coupled with proper maintenance will ensure you get the best service from your home theater system.

Buying a good home theater system requires investment of a reasonable amount of time in researching and evaluating the various contenders. The trick is to strike the perfect balance between price and functionality and the best way to begin is to find out exactly what your needs are. Hopefully, you now have more information to help make your purchasing decision more informed, now go find a great home theater system!