Home Theater System Basic Components
There are all kinds of electronic toys and gadgets that you can add to a home theater system, but there are a few pieces that make up the core. The center piece and focal point of any home entertainment system is the video display, or television. A receiver or amplifier and a speaker system, including a subwoofer, is the next element of importance, the key to providing the soul and sound of the theatre. Finally, the system will require a source or player to provide the picture and sound. Cable or satellite TV is standard in most homes but DVD and other players are also added to expand the usefulness of a home theater.
The Video Display
There are several different options when you look for the video display for your home theater system. The less expensive option is the rear projection television. For quite some time, television technology has been based on the cathode ray tube (CRT). In a rear projection TV, there are three tubes, each representing one of the primary colors. This colors mix and, with the proper circuitry and good screen, these TVs can show the images in a very high resolution.
The next option is the liquid crystal display (LCD) television. An LCD TV can be found as both a rear projection and as a flat screen. LCD rear projection TVs are much more compact than their CRT cousins and use less power. Flat panel LCD video displays are, as the name says, flat.
The third most common option is the plasma screen. In this technology, different gases are trapped between two panes of glass and an electronic signal can modify them to allow them to display a picture. Again, these television sets are flat and can produce excellent resolution.
When you are ready to pick out the video display that is best for you, you are going to want to do a bit more research to decide which television is right for you and your budget. Make sure to measure the area you want to put the TV so it fits when you bring it home. Most often today, all of these TVs are high definition (HD) ready and can operate on a digital signal. They are also going to be of the wide screen variety. This allows you to watch movies and other shows as they were meant to appear in the theater, as opposed to being cut down to fit a square display.
Receivers, Speakers and the Subwoofer
As important as the video display is to your home theater system, the sound system is also going to make a huge difference in your viewing enjoyment. The first part of the system is the receiver. This component takes the audio signal, and often the video signal, and distributes it to the proper part of your system. They are usually capable of receiving the signal from several different sources, like your cable or satellite, a movie player and even gaming devices. They also have several presets that can modify the sound so it seems that like you are sitting in the middle of a live event for sports, a hall for concerts and regular surround sound so you seem to be sitting in a movie theater. You can find receivers that are a simple or complex as you like.
In most cases the receiver is also going to have an amplifier (or amp for short) inside the same box. This amp is what increases the signal strength before it is sent to the speakers. You are going to need five speakers for a surround sound system. There is a center channel, a right front, right rear, left front and left rear. These different speakers, when properly positioned, make the sound come from the appropriate direction. You can find speakers that can be set right into the walls, but they aren’t movable. If you want to be able to rearrange them in a large room, speakers that stand on the floor or sit on shelves may be your best bet. They come in a variety of sizes. In a 5.1 surround sound system, the ‘.1’ is the subwoofer. This speaker adds depth to the bass and can be found as either active (powered) or passive.
Movie Player
Your basic DVD player is a very good signal source. The signal contains the video as well as your 5.1 surround sound. However, the technology has changed and improved, as technologies will. The two new movie formats are HD DVD and Blu-ray. There are a lot of movies currently available in both formats, but there is one very important thing to consider. In February of 2008, Toshiba, the originators of HD DVD, stated that they were going to stop making players for this kind of movie but will keep spare parts for these players for eight years, and Warner Brothers stated that they would stop releasing movies in this format by June of 2008. It seems that Bluray is the new technology of choice.
~Ben Anton, 2008
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