Home Theater is taking a portion of your house say a spare room or basement and making into a personalized movie theater for your personal entertainment. Depending on your budget and personal expectations a home theater room can cost anywhere from ten thousand to over one hundred thousand dollars. Did you say WOW yet?

The basic parts of a surround sound system are A) a source of video ex. Plasma, LCD, or projector. B) A source for surround sound audio. C) A DVD player. D) A speaker System of at least five speakers and a sub-woofer. These are the bare bones essentials of a surround sound system.

Well, simply put no receiver no sound. The surround sound receiver is the brains for your surround sound system. The receiver contains all the surround sound processors, playback formats and most of all; your wiring needs to be connected to it

The main surround sound formats are A) Dolby Digital. B) Dolby Pro Logic C) DTS D) THX. These are the four main choices However; there are different surround sound choices of each, depending on what type of movie or how the movie was originally recorded.

A direct view tube TV is also known as a CRT. These TVs are quickly being faded out because in making them compatible for HDTV widescreen they are extremely heavy, and a burden to the end user.

Rear projection television was probably the first step taken to home theater. It was the first big screen available. Over the years they have been keeping up with technology and competing with the plasma and LCD. They have exceptional picture quality, however; the cumbersome size makes them hard to compete with the others in today’s market.

This is what is most commonly used in home theater rooms. It is a projector and requires the correct screen for best viewing. They are primarily using LCD or DLP technologies. In some cases projectors are used as rear projection as well in home theaters. This does require a special screen assembly utilizing mirrors to get the picture to the screen. You will see in a home theater projectors menu the option to reverse the image as well as turn it upside down. Turning it upside down is required when ceiling mounting your home theater projector

The screen in your home theater room shall be based on a few different factors such as room lighting, the ANSI lumens of the projector, and which technology you are using. Screens come in different shades from a gray to bright white. They are rated by gain and how bright your home theater projector is affects which gain your screen should be.

HDTV can be decoded in your house by three different ways. The first is the one we all want to hear, and that does require a HDTV Ready television, and that’s free. On HDTV ready televisions you will also find a digital audio out to connect this directly to your surround sound receiver. You will need a HDTV antenna and (depending on how far you live from the broadcast transmission) a signal booster. Second is from your cable access provider, again even if you have basic cable. Third is satellite television. All of the above are capable of giving you the best reception, although; cable and satellite offer more HDTV programming.

First let’s explain DVDs. DVDs are an optical storage based on CD. It is faster than a CD and capable of holding a capacity of 4.7GB. A DVD player or DVD ROM is required to read the information on these discs. A DVD player is somewhat the same as a CD player. It uses a laser to read the stored information. It decodes compressed video files known as MPEG2 and transforms them to composite video. It consists of a tracking device which allows the laser to follow the circular track, a laser and lens system and of course a drive motor.

The difference between these two types of DVD is incredible. Above I gave an explanation of a DVD. Now multiply the holding capacity by 6 and that is the capacity of Blu-Ray. The laser uses a blue laser (Blu-Ray) which is a smaller bandwidth and enables tighter storage, enabling more information on the disc. This allows for the high def DVD and gaming to be accomplished. No sense in explaining HD –DVD it is already history.

DVRs are nothing more than hard drives incorporated into cable/sat boxes to act as the good old VCR. They allow you to record approx 300hrs of programming. They will record your favorite shows daily a lot easier than the VCR ever did. The only downfall it is temporary. If you want to save these recordings you will need a DVD recorder to transfer the information to disc.

Music servers are another type of digital play back devices. Home theater rooms serve more than one purpose. Many people, especially audiophiles like to be able to sit back and enjoy their favorite music. You know dim light, a night sky, and Pink Floyd. What else could be missing? A music server will store hundreds of hours of music in its hard drive. They will allow you to categorize them, establish your own libraries, and mood music.

The difference between the two is quite simple. If you watch any HDTV in your home theater room or on your surround sound system, you will notice that some of the shows are displayed in a 4:3 screen (black bars on the sides) format. That is because it is not in true HDTV. You probably have seen on your TV Screen on some Shows .This is presented in HDTV. These shows have been filmed in high def. The shows that do not note that are being re-recorded digitally so it can broadcast on high def channels. These are what’s called DTV. So until the world goes 100% HDTV we have to deal with the black bars occasionally.

Aspect ratios are the screen dimensions that have been and are being used today. There are three aspect ratios in use currently. They Are 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1. The 4:3 is the standard that is used on the older movies and regular broadcast television. Although you may think it is becoming obsolete don’t judge to quickly. This is what original television used to show movies, because that was how they were shown in the theaters. They Generated many of you favorite shows using 4:3, so when you want to watch these videos, you should still watch them the way the director intended for you to see them. Watching these shows in other formats would dis-credit the new technology as the picture would be distorted. 4:3 means four units wide 3 units high. The 16:9 aspect ratio is the standard for HDTV. You may not have noticed but when you are at the movies it is and has been for some time wide screen. So naturally we want to bring the same into your own home theater. Just like the old TVs we want you to see just as the director intended. Most of you who already are using wide screen have noticed that when you watch a DVD you still get those vertical black lines at the top and bottom of your TV. That is because the DVD uses an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which results in an even wider picture. You think these guys might go have a cup of coffee and straighten things out. My resolve to this is see how the film was recorded and watch it in that aspect ratio, you will enjoy it the way you are supposed to .

This is a big question. Everyone seem to freeze when it comes to the decision LCD or Plasma. This is a choice for the end user, but; maybe I can help clear it up. The first hint I’ll give you is Sony has stopped making the p word.. Advantage Plasma- Better Contrast Ratio, Better to reveal deep blacks, more color depth, better motion tracking and available in larger sizes. Disadvantage Plasma- more susceptible to image burn, generate more heat (consumes more power), shorter life span and heavier in weight. Advantage LCD- No burn in, cooler running, less screen reflection, better performance at high altitudes, and best picture in a bright room. Disadvantage LCD- Viewing angle (I’ll probably remove this on my next post), Fast motion hard to handle, suffer pixel burnout. With pixel burnout you will get black dots on the screen, not very noticeable at first . There is no fix just replacement.

First let’s define the P&I. The P stands for progressive scan. Progressive Scan shows every frame for 1/30th of a second, which means 30 frames a second are being sent through your display. The result is a clean picture capable of showing fast motion nice and clean. The I stands for interlaced. Interlaced is Transmitted in lines .These lines however; are not shown simultaneously, they are displayed for 1/60th of a second every other line. You still get the same 30 frames per second and for watching movies you see a beautiful picture, but for fast moving action like hockey, a puck traveling 100mph has a stagger effect. This is known as a stepping effect. Sports channel do not broadcast in 1080i because of this. Both 720p and 1080i are used in wide screen technology and mostly you cannot tell the difference. The 720 means there are 720 lines of resolution and 1080 means 1080 lines of resolution. The greater the number the tighter and cleaner the picture. Keep in mind both are used in 16:9 widescreen. 1080p came along with Blu –Ray. It is used with the HDMI cable and is capable of handling true digital information. 1080p is not used on any HDTV broadcast and it seems there are no immediate plans in the near future. However; do not let that deter you from purchasing a display with this format. You will need it for your Blu-Ray and high def gaming systems.

If your current television has an ATSC tuner, you will not be affected by the change. You already have the digital tuner. If you have an older television with a NTSC tuner you will have options. Your electronic and super stores are already selling converter boxes and the cable and sat. companies are providing them. The gov’t is currently offering discounts for people who cannot afford to make the change.

There are a few different choices for wiring your HDTV. If you are just looking to view your local programming and have a ATSC tuner you need to do nothing. Your tuner is picking up the news signals from either your antenna or cable provider. If you did not know this check the menu on your Television and make sure you did a digital channel search. You will find that the channel number is different. Lets say you normally watch NBC on channel 8, well on the high def frequency it will be channel 8.1. they are usually one channel up from your current viewing location. If you receive basic cable and have a HDTV with a ATSC tuner check above channel 99, you will find the HDTV channels in the upper hundreds. Brighthouse, our local cable provider, broadcast HDTV in the 600 channels. If you are looking to hook your HDTV to your surround sound system or incorporate into your home theater, you have a couple of options. The first thing you will want to have is a HDTV box from your cable /sat. provider. On the back of the box the are several connections, don’t be afraid you will not need all of them. I will briefly explain what they are and what they do. First is the composite connections they are the red, white and yellow connection, this is really old school and we probably won’t use them. Second we have S-video. We won’t use this either unless you have an older surround sound receiver. This will take a digital signal convert it analog and at delivery to your HDTV source will be converted back to digital this is video only. Third is the component video connection this is the red, green, and blue connection. This is a good way to connect your HDTV box to your video display. It is three coaxial cables also known as Pr Y Pb meaning Pr is red color Y is black and white, and Pb is blue color. Green is not needed as it can be generated by this combination. Although; it is analog and converts the signal from digital to analog and back to digital it is the best at streaming direct color. It is also good for extensive wire runs. Component video is the best of the above group. Now we have the cream of the crop HDMI meaning High Definition Media Interface. HDMI is a true digital transmission no conversions, which means no signal loss. The Blu-Ray requires HDMI for it to perform its job correctly. 1080p needs HDMI. Most of the new surround sound receivers have video up conversion which means it will convert your composite, S-video and component video to HDMI. The HDMI cable is a 19 pin connector that looks somewhat bigger than a USB plug. Another sweet thing about HDMI is it not only delivers video, but digital audio as well. There are some downfalls to HDMI though, it does not do well sending signals longer than 30 feet. And some of the HDTV’s had problems with the HDCP handshake. HDCP stand for High bandwidth Digital Content Protection. It encrypts The transmission of Digital content between the HDTV display and the digital source such as a cable box or Blu-Ray. It is not to prevent recording or copying of digital content, but to protect the integrity of the content during transmission. This was a problem, but current changes made have corrected the issues. HDMI is by far the way to go. Last is the digital audio usually a black or orange connection, and also optical the little red light. These are used to ensure you surround sound receiver is getting the best audio format available.

These are the different types of surround sound available. Dolby was the first surround sound manufactured. It was Dolby pro logic the rear speakers both produced the same sounds (mono). Then came pro logic 2 AND the rear channels were now separated. DTS Digital Theater Sound. It was originated for movie theaters. If you read the back of your DVD’s you will see audio formats and if DTS is one of the choices select it you will notice the difference. THX was introduced by George Lucas (Lucas Films). It is a proprietary set up and requires specific speakers and receivers. They also offer certifications for installers.

Home theater in a box is pretty much a basic simplified surround sound system less the video display. They usually have a combo receiver /DVD player. Inferior wire and low grade speakers they retail rather cheaply although; some of the well known home theater electronics manufacturers do package a pretty good system. Cost anywhere from $ 500.00 to $5000.00

There are two different way to install High end Systems. Lets say this first one as in an intermediate level surround sound system. these usually have a plasma or led flat panel for a video source and a top line surround sound receiver, and some good quality speakers. These types of systems can start at about $5,000.00and on up to $10,000.00+. the second being complete high end would consist of a home theater projector , a good size HDTV screen, A surround sound processor, amplifiers to drive each surround channel, and some high end speakers. These along with all the toys spoken about earlier are what makes the perfect home theater. cost when complete? Priceless