Home Theater

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Home theater buyers guide

What is Home theater(HT) anyway?
HT terminology
Components of HT
HT systems
Where to buy?
How to setup?
Enjoy your HT
Some links to HT resources
Send a questioniere

What is Home Theater(HT) anyway?

In literal terms it means enjoying Theater experience at home. When I say theater, there are many aspects. Visual, Audio and Ambience. I will not talk about ambience like Acoustically built hall, posh seats, proper lighting and Popcorn & Coke being served. Eventhough these form a major part of the overall enjoyment. I am not considering that you are going to build a seprate hall for your new DVD system. The best place for your HT is your living room. Install some lights of which the brightness can be controlled. Let the sofa be your favourite place on earth...

HT terminology

Term Description

Digital TV TV which displays the picture digitally (Just like your computer monitor). This requires digital transmission.

HDTV High Definition TV. This is one of the many standards of Digital TV

Flat screen TV These TV use flat panel displays like LCD (Liquid Crystal Display - found in laptop monitors) or plasma display instead of conventional CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes).

Wide screen format The aspect ratio (Width * Height) is 16*9 instead of conventional 4*3. Could you guess the relation between two? It's (4)²*(3)². This picture format gives more theaterical look.

RF signal This is the most primitive and crudest signal format. Here Audio/Video siganls are combined togeather.TV antenna conection is of this type.

Composite signal The Audio signals are seprate from Video. There will be 3 cables with RCA jack connectors. Normally they are color coded as Yellow (Video), White (Audio - Left & Mono) and Red (Audio - Right). This type of connection will be found on VCR, camcorder etc.

S-Video signal Here the Brightness and the color components of the Video signal are separated. This gives better picture quality than the composite one. The connector is round with 5 pins and looks like keyboard connector. If you are buying a new TV make sure that it's got a S-Video input.

Component Signal Here the signal separation is taken to it's exterame level. As the name implies the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) components of the video singal are separate. Most of the DVDs have this output format. But very few High end TV sport this type of signal input.

Mono The audio is recorded on a single track. It will be hard to find this kind of recordings except for Gramophone and AM radio transmission.

VCD The video is recorded in MPEG-1 format on a normal CD. One disc can hold upto 74 minutes of VHS quality video and stereo audio. This means there will be more than one CD for a movie. I see this format as a bridge between VHS tape and DVD and it will die soon. Most of the DVD players can play VCDs too.

LD Laser Disk - Huge 1 feet disks offering digital video. But guys it's dead and don't think about it any more.

DVD It stands for Digital Versatile Disc. Some say it as Digital Video Disc. But that's not true. Apart from Video it can hold any digital information. Depending on the type, it can hold anywhere from 4.4GB to 17.6GB of information(Single layer/Single sided -> Double layer/Double sided). All the DVD movies are recorded in MPEG-2 format. The disc is of same size as CD (i.e 5 inch).

Stereo Audio is recorded on 2 tracks (Left and Right). This is a big improvement over mono. Almost all of the audio signals are recorded in this format. CD's, Tapes, FM Radio etc.

Dolby Prologic (Dolby surround) This is a minimum requirement for HT. The 4 audio signals (Front Left, Front Right, Center and surround) are encoded on 2 tracks. So you need a decoder to convert it back to 4 signals. The recording can be found on most of the VHS movie tapes (look for "DOLBY SURROUND" mark), some classical CD's and many TV broadcasts. Coming to equipment side, buy a 4 Head Hi-Fi VCR to enjoy the surround sound. The best bet for a decoder is one built in Music system itself.

Dolby Digital (5.1 surround) It's the ultimate in HT experience. Here the 6 audio signals (Front Left, Front Right, Center, Rear Right, Rear Left and LFE) siganl recorded discreatly in digital format. This gives true sound spacialization. Center channell is used for Dailouges, LFE (Low Frequency Enhanced) for subwoofer and rear channels for the surround effect. Dolby Digital can only found in DVDs. But soon it will appear on Digital TV broad casts and DVD music disks.

DTS Stands for "Digital Theater System" and a compeating 5.1 format to DD. It seems the digital compression ratio is small and hence better sound quality. But some say there is very little difference. Most of the new DVD players can handle DTS signal too.

SDDS Sony Digital Dynamic Sound - This can be only heard in real theaters and we will keep it out of our discussion.

Term	Description
Digital TV	TV which displays the picture digitally (Just like your computer monitor). This requires digital transmission.
HDTV	High Definition TV. This is one of the many standards of Digital TV
Flat screen TV	These TV use flat panel displays like LCD (Liquid Crystal Display - found in laptop monitors) or plasma display instead of conventional CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes).
Wide screen format	The aspect ratio (Width * Height) is 169 instead of conventional 43. Could you guess the relation between two? It's (4)²*(3)². This picture format gives more theaterical look.
RF signal	This is the most primitive and crudest signal format. Here Audio/Video siganls are combined togeather.TV antenna conection is of this type.
Composite signal	The Audio signals are seprate from Video. There will be 3 cables with RCA jack connectors. Normally they are color coded as Yellow (Video), White (Audio - Left & Mono) and Red (Audio - Right). This type of connection will be found on VCR, camcorder etc.
S-Video signal	Here the Brightness and the color components of the Video signal are separated. This gives better picture quality than the composite one. The connector is round with 5 pins and looks like keyboard connector. If you are buying a new TV make sure that it's got a S-Video input.
Component Signal	Here the signal separation is taken to it's exterame level. As the name implies the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) components of the video singal are separate. Most of the DVDs have this output format. But very few High end TV sport this type of signal input.
Mono	The audio is recorded on a single track. It will be hard to find this kind of recordings except for Gramophone and AM radio transmission.
VCD	The video is recorded in MPEG-1 format on a normal CD. One disc can hold upto 74 minutes of VHS quality video and stereo audio. This means there will be more than one CD for a movie. I see this format as a bridge between VHS tape and DVD and it will die soon. Most of the DVD players can play VCDs too.
LD	Laser Disk - Huge 1 feet disks offering digital video. But guys it's dead and don't think about it any more.
DVD	It stands for Digital Versatile Disc. Some say it as Digital Video Disc. But that's not true. Apart from Video it can hold any digital information. Depending on the type, it can hold anywhere from 4.4GB to 17.6GB of information(Single layer/Single sided -> Double layer/Double sided). All the DVD movies are recorded in MPEG-2 format. The disc is of same size as CD (i.e 5 inch).
Stereo	Audio is recorded on 2 tracks (Left and Right). This is a big improvement over mono. Almost all of the audio signals are recorded in this format. CD's, Tapes, FM Radio etc.
Dolby Prologic (Dolby surround)	This is a minimum requirement for HT. The 4 audio signals (Front Left, Front Right, Center and surround) are encoded on 2 tracks. So you need a decoder to convert it back to 4 signals. The recording can be found on most of the VHS movie tapes (look for "DOLBY SURROUND" mark), some classical CD's and many TV broadcasts. Coming to equipment side, buy a 4 Head Hi-Fi VCR to enjoy the surround sound. The best bet for a decoder is one built in Music system itself.
Dolby Digital (5.1 surround)	It's the ultimate in HT experience. Here the 6 audio signals (Front Left, Front Right, Center, Rear Right, Rear Left and LFE) siganl recorded discreatly in digital format. This gives true sound spacialization. Center channell is used for Dailouges, LFE (Low Frequency Enhanced) for subwoofer and rear channels for the surround effect. Dolby Digital can only found in DVDs. But soon it will appear on Digital TV broad casts and DVD music disks.
DTS	Stands for "Digital Theater System" and a compeating 5.1 format to DD. It seems the digital compression ratio is small and hence better sound quality. But some say there is very little difference. Most of the new DVD players can handle DTS signal too.
SDDS	Sony Digital Dynamic Sound - This can be only heard in real theaters and we will keep it out of our discussion.

Components of HT

Components Description

Source The source can be VHS movie tape with Dolby surround recording, Dolby surround TV transmission or DVD movie disk. The bare necessity is VHS tape and a Hi-Fi VCR. This will let you enjoy Dolby Prologic sound. But if you want to go to higher echleon DVD is the way to go. Most of the movies are available in DVD format for rental at BlockBuster etc.
When buying a DVD player look for one with 10-bit video DAC and 24-bit 96KHz audio DAC. Decesion to go for a DVD with built in decoder or not depends on what audio equipment you are plannig to buy. If you already have a Dolby Prologic AV receiever or Music system with 5.1 input, then you need a DVD player with built-in decoder.

Decoder The decoder can be at 3 places. The source (like DVD player), all by itself as a Surround sound processor and Amplifier or receiver. There are many players with Dolby Digital decoder, but I have seen only one with both DD and DTS decoder (Panasonic A320).

Components	Description
Source	The source can be VHS movie tape with Dolby surround recording, Dolby surround TV transmission or DVD movie disk. The bare necessity is VHS tape and a Hi-Fi VCR. This will let you enjoy Dolby Prologic sound. But if you want to go to higher echleon DVD is the way to go. Most of the movies are available in DVD format for rental at BlockBuster etc. When buying a DVD player look for one with 10-bit video DAC and 24-bit 96KHz audio DAC. Decesion to go for a DVD with built in decoder or not depends on what audio equipment you are plannig to buy. If you already have a Dolby Prologic AV receiever or Music system with 5.1 input, then you need a DVD player with built-in decoder.
Decoder	The decoder can be at 3 places. The source (like DVD player), all by itself as a Surround sound processor and Amplifier or receiver. There are many players with Dolby Digital decoder, but I have seen only one with both DD and DTS decoder (Panasonic A320).

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