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Home Theater Systems

Ready for the ultimate home movie into your own hands. Home theater systems can be quite expensive, depending on how intense you want to get, so it's always wise to price out all the components ahead of time before committing to a course of action. More inexpensive options are available and can provide startling media quality for all but the most extremely technical mediaphiles. A home theater system is made up of three elements: * Input devices such as amplifiers * Output Devices such as televisions Here we'll tackle each element separately, to make sure you understand and purchase everything you need.

Input Devices

Input devices are the most straightforward part of this situation. What we're talking about here is what kind of media do you intend to view? ! * DVD Players ** A DVD player is still a must, Blu-Ray is starting to take the market over but a lot of media is still available in DVD format only *Radio Tuner ** Most DVD players will play your CDs anyway ** Satellite or Digital Radio is a good option also * Cable/Satellite TV Tuner ** The most popular brands are: ***Verizon FIOS TV ***Dish Network ***DirecTV ** Not all brands are available in all areas, Verizon FIOS especially is limited to areas where FIOS service is available ** Cable TV is available through local providers in your area * Game Systems ** Three major game systems are on the market today *** Microsoft Xbox360 *** Sony Playstation 3 *** Nintendo Wii ** All three have internet connectivity for live play and downloadable content to onboard hard drives * Home Theater PC ** Essentially a media-center type PC provided with an AV out via a graphics card ** Excellent for viewing downloadable files and watching your favorite TV shows on Hulu.com ** The best setup is to bypass the PCs monitor entirely, using the PC solely as an input device, and view content on your television * VHS Players (VCRs) ** Very old tape cassette format movie-viewing option ** VHS as a format has been discontinued in production for about a decade ** More appropriate for those with personal collections of VHS tape, such as older home movies * Many input devices are available packaged together, such as Blu-Ray/DVD players, etc. ** Consider how much space you have and whether a packaged option would be more convenient for you

Processing Devices

Processing devices accept signals from your input devices and interpret them for your output devices to read. Essentially we are referring to sound processing here. Surround sound will require a surround sound decoder, as an example. *Amplifiers ** Amplifiers essentially normalize signals received from input devices to line level; that's techno-babble for they regulate the volume of the sound, usually by making it loud enough for output ** Preamps are sometimes necessary, but usually only in very high end systems or commercial applications ** Many amplifiers have preamps built in * Surround Sound Decoder ** Surround sound is an essential element of home theater ** A brief overview, two surround sound formats are in use today: *** Cinematic 5.1 surround sound *** Sony proprietary 7.1 surround sound ** The first number, the 5 or the 7, refers to the number of speaker output channels the technology supports *** The result on the user level is that 5.1 sound will require five speakers strategically positioned around the viewing area, and 7.1 sound will require seven speakers ** The .1 refers to the LFE channel, a channel used exclusively to output very low frequency sounds to a subwoofer or compatible speakers *** The .1 is not a dedicated subwoofer channel, so no subwoofer is strictly necessary for surround sound *** However it is advisable to have a subwoofer for best sound quality * LCD Televisions *** DLP Televisions *** Plasma Televisions *** Projection Televisions ** HDTV is becoming standard, so you'll want to opt for an HDTV capable television ** A screen is another option * Sound Output ** Speakers, of course, are necessary to surround sound ** Speakers and subwoofers are usually rated according to their power output measured in Watts (W). The more watts a speaker is rated for, the louder and more nuanced its sound can be. ** You will need at minimum five speakers for five locations when using 5.1 surround sound: *** Center *** Left *** Right *** Back Left *** Back Right ** 7.1 surround sound will incorporate 2 more speakers at the extreme left and right, for a total of 7 ** A subwoofer, while not mandatory, is a crucial element for achieving excellent sound quality

Top Sellers

Here are some of the top selling packaged allone home theater systems on the market today:

Related Guides

Here are some other wikis related to home theater systems * Home Theater * Home Audio and Theater Speakers * Home Audio and Theater Speakers Surround * Home Theater Systems * HDTV By User:LPNalini @timeAndDate(1271183146)