Setting Up A Home Theater System
July 31, 2010 – 12:15 pmSetting up a home theater system is a great way to amplify your enjoyment of movies and music alike. But planning the ideal system should be done carefully, so that you choose the right components that will let you play all the media formats you want in high quality.
Home theater systems come in several flavors. ‘Home Theater In A Box’ systems allow you to basically unpack the box in your lounge, connect a few cords and get straight into the action. The benefit of these systems is obviously simplicity, and this type of system usually costs much less than putting together a system from scratch.
On the other end of the scale, you could put together a system using individual components, each hand picked for optimum quality and compatibility. This is the approach taken by serious enthusiasts who don’t want to compromise on quality, but the price can be orders of magnitude higher.
In between, is the approach of picking just a few components that are decent quality, but not too extravagant. This is a good option for anyone after a system with a decent lifespan, that won’t break the bank. The main component chosen for this type of setup is an all in one receiver. Receivers accept multiple inputs, encode and decode audiovisual signals in a range of formats, and output separate channels of video and amplified surround sound audio. All in one receivers have this functionality but have built in input options like a TV tuner, DVD player and USB port, as well as the capability to add more input devices later – a useful feature if you want to upgrade in a year or two when the next big thing in media playback is released.
Once the input/output device is chosen, a TV or projector and speakers is next on the list. If you have a smaller space, wireless TV speakers are on way of avoiding some of the cabling required to set up a full 5.1 surround sound system.
The benefit of this system is that it is easy to set up. You have input and signal processing in one unit, which simply connects to your TV and speakers – leaving you free to enjoy your new system in next to no time!
The Home Theater Setup Guide is your one stop online resource for home theater advice.