When you're assembling a $10,000 or $20,000 home theater system, it's tough to think of all these expensive components as "gadgets," yet gadgets they are just very expensive ones. To my mind, there's nothing more gadgety than home theater components, with all their fancy inputs and outputs, knobs and pushbuttons, and lights and displays. And then there's the most fun gadget of all, the remote control unit. Hey, a home theater system is a gadget lover's dream! It All Starts with the (Big) ScreenPutting together the ultimate home theater system starts with the big thing right in the middle of your front wall the video display. Let's face it, there's nothing more important than a big television screen to impress your friends and family. (Don't bother trying to impress your spouse; a giant TV will only become a point of conflict, so you might as well prepare yourself for it.) The better and bigger your video display, the more realistic your home theater experience. Today's state-of-the-art video displays are much, much different from the simple television sets of yesteryear. Not only are they bigger and shaped differently (widescreen vs. squarish), they're also capable of reproducing high resolution programming broadcast in the new HDTV format. If you're purchasing a new home theater system, plan on allocating at least a quarter of your budget to the video display. Also unlike the past, today you can choose from four different types of displays and various technologies behind each display type. Which technology and type of display you choose depends on your budget, the demands of your room, and your personal preferences. Here's what you have to choose from:
With all these different display technologies crowding your brain, how do you choose the right display for your own home theater system? As you can tell, it's definitely not a one-size-fits-all world. In general, each of the display technologies is best for specific uses. For example, direct view is good for smaller rooms, when you want the brightest possible picture and a wide viewing angle, or if you're on a tight budget. On the other hand, rear projection is good if you have a larger room but want to make as few compromises as possible in terms of room lighting or viewing angle. Rear projection is also a good choice if you prefer to watch movies in their original aspect ratio without worrying about screen burn-in. Then there's front projection, which is the best choice if you want the largest, most theater-like picture possible and don't mind restricting both viewing angle and room lighting and if price isn't an object. Finally, a flat panel display is good if you have little or no floor space for a television set or projector or if you just want to show off the neat technology. Plasma flat panels are especially popular when you want a larger picture, but present somewhat of a burn-in problem. Whichever display technology you choose, you should also consider the number and types of video inputs on the back, the usability of the remote control, and any additional features offered, such as picture-in-picture and onscreen program guides. You should definitely go with a set that's ready for HDTV broadcasts, and that offers a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. The Brains and the Power: The A/V ReceiverTo many know-nothing consumers, the phrase "home theater system" really means "widescreen television." While a big TV (with HDTV capability) is certainly the visual centerpiece of a home theater, true techies know that the full theater experience depends as much on sound as it does on picture which is why the audio components in your system are every bit as important as the video display. Home theater sound all starts with the audio/video receiver, to which you connect all your audio and video components and then switch between inputs with a single remote control. Connect your DVD player, digital video recorder, cable/satellite box, and Media Center PC to the inputs of your A/V receiver, then connect the output of the A/V receiver to your video display. Whatever you select on the receiver's remote appears on the television screen. The A/V receiver also serves as the main processor/amplifier for your system's audio. Surround sound sources (either broadcast or DVD) are fed into the receiver, which decodes the surround sound signal using the appropriate technology. Most soundtracks today are encoded with Dolby Digital surround sound, which feeds the audio to six separate speakers three in the front of the room, two in the back, and a final subwoofer for the deep bass signals. Pop in a DVD or tune to an HDTV broadcast with a Dolby Digital soundtrack, and your A/V receiver will create room-filling sound. A/V receivers are available at a variety of price points, and if you can't tell the difference between a $200 and a $6,000 receiver, you need an ear exam. It's all about the sound and, of course, the control. While all A/V receivers perform similar functions, the higher-priced models simply provide better quality sound and more flexibility in terms of control and component switching. Consider the following variables:
And here's a little tip. When you can't tell one spec from another, go with the heavier unit. Yeah, it's simplistic, but it works; nine times out of ten, the heavier unit is better constructed and will probably sound better, too. Speakers, Speakers, EverywhereYou can have the best surround-sound processor in the world and run through the cleanest and most powerful amplifier, but your system will sound horrible if you use the wrong or poor-quality speakers. Choosing the right speakers is essential to creating the best possible home theater experience; if you have any spare money in your home theater budget, there's no better place to spend the bucks than in upgrading your system's speakers! While all speakers contain some type and combination of woofer and tweeter, there are several different types of speaker enclosure. Which type of enclosure you choose depends on your room, the space you have, and your personal tastes. The three primary types of home theater speakers are
If you're using bookshelf or satellite speakers (or even some floor-standing speakers), you'll want to include a separate subwoofer in your system. The subwoofer is a powered speaker (it contains its own power amplifier) that reproduces the very lowest bass frequencies. In a Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack, the subwoofer is the .1 of the 5.1-channel system and is fed a separate low frequency effects (LFE) audio channel. Oh, about that 5.1 business. The 5 represents the five main audio channels: front left, front center, front left, surround left, and surround right. The .1 is the subwoofer. If you want a 6.1- or 7.1-channel system, the extra speakers go behind you, with the standard surround speakers to either side of the room. Whichever type of speaker system you go with, make sure you listen to it before you buy using a variety of different programming, both audio and video. Make sure that your speakers sound as good with music as they do with movies, which not all speakers do. (Music is harder to reproduce than even the loudest action film soundtrack.) Also, for those speakers near your television definitely your center speaker, and perhaps your front left and right speakers make sure you're looking at models that are shielded. This shielding is actually for the benefit of your television, which can be effected by the impulses from the speaker magnets. If you put an unshielded speaker too close to a CRT, the tube's colors can be distorted. Everybody Needs a Good DVD PlayerThe DVD player is an essential component of any home theater system. Whether you choose a basic sub-$100 player or an uber-expensive $3,500 one (yes, they exist and one is my Leo's Pick in this category!), you want a progressive scan player that can handle both DVD movies and CD audio discs, as well as all the important subcategories, such as DVD-R and CD-R discs. The more money you have to spend, the better the performance and the more features you get. For example, that $3,500 player is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar, and also plays DVD-Audio and SACD discs. You can also splurge and go for a DVD megachanger, so you can store your entire movie collection in a single machine, no disc-swapping necessary. Record What You Want, When You WantAnd then there's the issue of recording. There are many different ways to record television programs. If you're in an old-school mood, you can search eBay for a deal on a old-tech video cassette recorder. If you're more of a new-school guy, consider a DVD recorder, so you can make your own DVD discs. And if you're really new-school, so new school you're ultra cool, then you definitely want to go with a hard disk recorder the ultimate in digital video recording. A hard disk recorder sometimes called a digital video recorder (DVR) or personal video recorder (PVR) is simply a little computer with its own hard disk. The video signal comes into the DVR and is recorded, digitally, onto the hard disk. When you play back the recording, you're reading the stored file off the hard disk. It's actually nothing too fancy, if you're used to computers; in the world of consumer electronics, however, this is really gee-whiz stuff. What makes DVRs so appealing is the accompanying electronic program guide (EPG) and control over live TV. After all, a DVR doesn't do much more than what a VCR does (except with much better picture quality, of course), so why is everyone all of a sudden raving about being able to record their favorite television programs? Trust me on this one it's all about the EPG, which makes it way easier to schedule a recording than it was in the VCR era. With a VCR you had to look up the start time of the show, program the VCR's timer, insert a tape, and hope for the best. This was a bit of a stretch for the average non-techie consumer, who couldn't even figure out how to make the VCR's digital clock stop flashing 12:00. It was too much bother, so they didn't use the VCR to record at all. (And remember, the R in VCR stood for recorder!) Instead, the VCR became a rather bulky and expensive movie playback machine. Well, now the DVD player has become the default movie playback machine, and the recording function is finally being filled by the hard disk recorder and the electronic program guide. With an EPG all you have to do is scroll through the upcoming listings, highlight a selection, and press a button on the remote control. Voila, the recording is scheduled, no tricky programming required. Even better, some EPGs let you search for programs by various criteria, or even schedule a whole season's worth of recordings at a single go. The most notable EPG is TiVo, which costs you $12.95 a month to use, and is only available with specific TiVo-compatible units. Other DVRs offer other EPGs, such as the one offered by TV Guide, most of which are free. I still prefer the versatility and functionality of TiVo, but I also understand that zero dollars a month is a lot more attractive to most folks than $12.95 per month especially when the basic hard disk recording functions are the same, regardless of which EPG is used. Anyway, DVRs are all the rage, and can be found in a lot of different devices. You have the traditional freestanding DVR, as offered by TiVo and others; the combination DVR/DVD recorder, as offered by Panasonic and Sony; the combination DVR/cable box, offered by most cable companies today; the combination DVR/satellite receiver, offered by both DIRECTV and Dish Network; the DVR functionality of a Media Center PC; and the latest approach, the DVR built into a television set, as currently offered on a few Mitsubishi HDTV models. Whichever route you take, make sure you like the EPG and that you have a big enough hard disk for all the programs you want to record. Don't settle for the basic 40GB models, which will only hold about 12 hours of programming in high-resolution mode (or about 40 hours in lower-resolution mode); I recommend at least an 80GB model, larger if you're a pack rat or record a lot of HDTV programming. Put a PC in Your Living RoomToday's state-of-the-art home theater systems incorporate a lot of functions that seemingly require separate devices. If you want to record and play back television programming, you need a hard disk recorder; if you want to play prerecorded movies, you need a DVD player; if you want to house and listen to a large CD collection, you need one or more CD megachangers. Wouldn't it be great if you could replace all these different gadgets with one single device?` Well, you can, if you don't mind putting a PC in your living room. A properly equipped PC can do everything all these separate components can. It has a CD/DVD drive to play back and burn audio CDs and DVD movies; a TV tuner to play back television programming; and a hard disk to record and store audio and video files. One device, multiple functions. Kind of cool. While you could place a normal desktop PC in your home theater system, this isn't an ideal solution, for a number of reasons. First, a desktop PC simply doesn't look like your other audio and video components; the tall desktop design won't fit in a typical audio/video rack. And most desktop PCs are fairly noisy, thanks to those internal cooling fans, and you don't want all that annoying background noise when you're listening to your favorite music or movies. What you need is a personal computer customized for living room use. This home theater PC sometimes called a Media Center PC should come in a case that mimics the form factor of traditional audio/video components, and it should be as quiet as possible, via the use of some sort of silent cooling system. Of course, the Media Center PC should also have the storage and computing capacity to do everything you need it to do which means a built-in television tuner to receive TV broadcasts, a big hard disk to store all that programming, and a built-in CD/DVD drive to play back your CDs and DVDS. And it would be nice if all this were integrated with a remote control and onscreen interface that let you see and operate your system from across a large living room. Fortunately, you don't have to look too far to find a device that fits these parameters. Today there are several manufacturers making affordable Media Center PCs for home use, at a variety of price levels. The best models are about 17'' wide and a few inches tall, just like all your other audio/video components. Look for models with some sort of silent cooling system, one or more TV tuners (dual tuners let you record two programs at once, or watch one while you're recording another), and a really big hard disk. Personally, I think 200GB is the minimum if you're using the unit as a DVR; even more hard disk space is necessary if you plan on using the PC to store your entire CD collection in digital format. Share Your Music with a Digital Media ServerA viable alternative to Media Center PC is a so-called digital media server. This is a device that lets you play digital audio files on your home audio system. You rip your favorite CDs to hard disk, and the media server accesses the hard disk to play individual songs and playlists. It's a great space-saver (you don't need to keep all your physical CDs in view anymore) as well as a way to get instant access to every song in your collection including all the MP3 and WMA files you've downloaded from the Internet. (And if a digital media server sounds a lot like a Media Center PC without the video stuff, you're absolutely right.) If you have most of your digital music stored on your desktop PC, consider a digital media hub instead. This is a device that doesn't have a built-in hard disk or CD drive; instead, it connects to your home network, accesses the digital audio files stored on your computer's hard disk, and then streams the music through your home audio system. This type of hub is typically a small and relatively low-cost device that connects directly to your home audio system; it plugs in to your home network via either wired or wireless connection. When you're shopping for a digital media server or hub, take these points into consideration:
One final question. Do you really want a digital media server or hub, or would you be better off with a more full-feature (but also more complicated and more expensive) Media Center PC? Decisions, decisions… Lots of Gadgets, One RemoteWith all these different gadgets in your home theater systems, you're bound to end up with a coffee table full of remotes. There's the one for the TV, one for the A/V receiver, one for the DVD player, one for the digital video recorder, one for the Media Center PC, one for the cable box or satellite dish, and on and on and on. How do you deal with all those remotes? Well, the easiest way to deal with remote control clutter is to do a little consolidation. The key is to combine all your operating functions into a single universal remote control unit. Most universal remotes have codes for the most popular audio/video components preprogrammed; other codes can be "learned" from the old remote. Once you have it programmed, the new remote can control four or more components, just by pressing the right buttons. The best universal remotes feature some sort of LCD touch screen display. Typically, this display varies depending on which component you're trying to operate. Press the button for TV, and the touch screen changes to display the television controls. Press the button for DVD, and the screen displays the DVD's controls. And so on. Even better are those remotes that let you program their functionality via your PC. It's really quite easy (and very cool) to design your own custom remote control layout on your PC, using the remote's supplied software, and then download that layout to your remote via a USB or serial connection. Some remotes, like Philips' Pronto line, even let you add your own custom graphics; go online to find all sorts of custom screens and logos to use. Of course, ultra-programmability is useless if you can't figure out how to use the darned thing. So, don't be seduced by too many whiz-bang features; make sure that the remote is simple enough for everyone in your household to use, without consulting an instruction manual every time they want to change channels. |