THE BASICS
Home Theatre In-A-Box - We will connect it for you, optimize components and teach you how to use it with ease...

Home Theater isn't new. It began back in the ‘20s and ‘3Os when Hollywood's elite built small screening rooms in their homes so they could view the films they had just produced, directed, or starred in, Even though they were luxurious, early “home theaters” were com­plex and intimidating. The moguls who enjoyed them kept technicians on staff to run the noisy and cantankerous projectors of the day. Technology has come a long way. Today, home theater systems are far more convenient, far more accessible, and far more reliable. And, thanks to the efforts of literally thousands of engineers, designers, and installers, they're far more capable, too.

A good home theater system will provide hours of enjoyment for you and your family as it literally immerses you in sights and sounds once reserved for the very finest first-run movie houses. A home theater system can also help create just the right environment to enjoy your favorite movies by adjusting lighting, closing drapes, even turning on the popcorn machine! For the music lover, a home theater system will also reproduce your favorite recordings with startling fidelity.

Sit down for a moment and think about what you really want. Is it a full-scale dedicated theater room with custom seating, lights that dim automatically when you press 'Play', curtains that sweep into place to block distracting sunlight, an extensive loudspeaker array, and the latest video projector?

Or is it a generic “home theater in a box” system that you can hook up in an hour or so. After all, that's better than a VCR connected to a TV isn't it?

If you're like most of us, you're probably aiming at something between these extremes. After all, a dedicated room is a luxury few of us have. And the compromised performance typical of most all-in-one systems simply isn't that exciting.

That leaves a component system — one composed of carefully chosen separate yet complementary pieces like a DVD player, amplifier, surround processor, etc. — as your best choice. With a component system, you can find the performance typical of the finest custom-installed theaters. And the operating con­venience that is supposed to be — but often isn't — the hall­mark of the all-in-one approach. In addition, separate com­ponents offer significant advantages in flexibility as well as an easier upgrade path when the time comes (as it eventually will) to improve your system even more.

Once you've reached this point, you need to think about where your new home theater is going to go. You have three things to consider: What the room will be used for besides your home theater, the acoustics of that room or how it will influence sound quality, and the sightlines from those preferred seats to the screen you're going to watch everything on.

WHAT YOU'LL SEE
  You'll probably be thinking about the TV screen. That's natural. But you need to think about the speakers and electronics too. After all, a great picture and mediocre sound isn't what you really want, is it? First, decide which type of TV will best answer your needs. Therre are several choices:

1.  A "direct view" TV: This is the convensional television we're all used to. Direct view sets usually produce a great picture. They're also relatively immune to other light sources. They'll give you the same picture quality in a dim or brightly lighted room. Size may be a consideration for you. The largest direct view TVs now have screens measuring 40" and may deliver the sheer visual impact you want.

2.  "Rear projector" sets: These one-piece, large screen sets offer the best compromise between large direct view sets and front projector systems. Their screen size (40" and up) is very attractive to many people and they are far less affected by bright lighting that are front projectors.

3.  "Front projector" sets: Many people consider these two piece (projector and separate screen) as the ultimate in dramatic picture quality. Their main advantage? They can project a BIG image - in some cases, more than 100" measured diagonally. Disadvantages? For best picture quality, they must be used in rooms with very dim ambient lighting. Fan noise (front projectors, particularly CRT-based units, tend to get warm!) may be intrusive. And remember to pay attention to the screen you chose, too. It will have a major impact on picture quality.

4.  "Flat screen" sets: These self-contained displays are the new "hot ticket" to home theater enjoyment. Some are up to 60" wide and are thin enough to hang on a wall, a major cosmetic advantage. Picture quality, while not up to the best direct view and front projector models, is still very good. The downside? Primarily cost - they are expensive but the prices are declining.

There are no hard and fast rules governing the relationship between room size and screen sizes Remember that bigger (screen size, that is) is not always better. The old guideline (for NTSC sources, of course) was that you should sit at a distance 10 times greater than the screen's height. For persons with “normal” eyesight, this was far enough away so that the scan lines were not visible.

However, “hi def” (high definition) video sources changed this. Hi def sources have more—and usually far narrower 7 scan lines than NTSC sources. This means you can sit closer to the screen and not see them. In addition, hi def's aspect ratio (16:9 as opposed to 4:3) makes screen width more important than height. With most hi def sources, you can sit lust 3 times the screen width away and enloy a fine picture.

For these reasons, we suggest that you consult your dealer or installer before making an arbitrary decision on the screen size you “should” have. As you can see, your best choice may be very different from what a quick measurement of available wall space might indicate.

There are other considerations you should be aware of in addition to resolution. Your dealer can walk you through the details but here are a few quick comments:

Interlaced and progressive scanning: There are two different ways a TV “draws” an image on a screen.

In the first, the TV draws two halves of a complete picture separately. The first half (called a “field”) consists of the odd numbered scanning lines. The second field consists of the even-numbered lines. The fields are drawn one after the other so quickly that our brain integrates these two fields into a single picture or “frame:' We call this an “inter­laced” image because we create it by interlacing odd and even lines to form one complete likeness. All NTSC-format and many DTV signals are interlaced.

A “progressive” image, on the other hand, is drawn all at once. There are no odd- and even-numbered “fields” to integrate, just a series of whole images continuously followed by other whole images. All computer monitors use progressive scanning. Some DTV signals are progressive also. Progressive scanning usually produces clearer pic­tures of fast moving events (a basketball game, for example, or the chase scene from an action movie) than interlaced scanning can. Many people prefer it for that reason.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR
If your display screen is the visual center of your home theater system, your favorite chair or sofa is the focus for what you'll hear. That's very important because it dictates how you need to place your loudspeakers so you can hear movie soundtracks as the directors and sound engineers intended you to. Fortunately, the same principles also apply to music so you can enjoy both films and an audio recording through the same speakers. Home theater system usually begin with a “5.1” speaker array. This simply means five full range speakers (Left, Center, and Right in front with Left Surround and Right Surround in back) and one limited-range subwoofer for bass reproduction only.

Notice that we said ”...begin with a ‘5.1' speaker array." That's important. Some new surround sound formats like Dolby Digital EX sound best with two more full range speakers in the rear of your theater space. We'll get to them shortly. For now, let's stick with 5.1.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Your dealer can show you a number of options from large floor-standing speakers through smaller stand or shelf-mounted models to in-wall speak­ers. Although most larger freestanding speakers have sonic advantages when compared with small or in-wall designs, they ore more intrusive aesthetically. Regardless of which type you choose, however, listen carefully to several models before you decide. Speakers are very democratic and treat all audio signals exactly the same way, be they Sibelius quartets or Spielberg sci-fi flicks. You want a speaker that is as neutral and faithful to the original sound as pos­sible simply because you want to hear the source, not the speaker.

Your home theater speakers should all come from the same manufacturer if at all possible. That's your best assurance that each one will have approxi­mately the same tonal balance (sometimes called timbre — but pronounced tam'-bor) as the others. The benefit here is that you'll hear the same quality of sound regardless of which speaker is generating it.

WHERE TO PUT THEM
Although placing siz speakers in one room may seem difficult at first, it is surprisingly easy if you follow a few simple guidelines. First, your main Left and Right speakers (we'll call them Land ft from now on) should flank whatever TV screen you've chosen. If you plan to use your system primarily to watch movies, place them along the same wall as the display so that they'll form a 45° angle when viewed from your viewing/listening position. (Angles up to 600 may be necessary depending on room size, screen size, and distance from the screen to listening/viewing position. In fact, we recommend a 60° spread if you're going to be listening to a lot of music through your system.) Ideally, both speakers will be at equal distances from each side of the screen to assure good integration of image and sound (Diagrams 4-I and 4-2).

A subwoofer (usually called a “sub”) is a loudspeaker specifically designed to repro­duce only low bass sounds. One of the characteristics of bass information is that it is difficult to identify just where it comes from. That's why some people describe bass as “non-directional?' Although this isn't true in the strict sense, it's close enough to give us some choice when we're trying to place a sub in a home theater room.

Getting the most out of a sub demands a decent working knowledge of room acous­tics (how rooms influence the sound you hear). If you're like most of us, you have neither the time nor the inclination to master this rather arcane topic. The good news is that you ddn't have to! Your dealer already has .. and will be delighted to . impress you with a few “magic tricks” one of which is finding exactly the right spot for your sub so you can just settle back and enjoy the results.

Although you now know the basics of speaker placement for the typical “5. I” home theater system, there is a bit more to cover before we move on to the electronics.

You may have noticed that some home theaters are advertised as “6. l”and “7.1” systems. Unfortunately, there is no small amount of confusion about what constitutes each. The same system, in fact, can often be termed either “6. I” or “7. I" So don't worry about the details just yet. Just remember that these systems require more speakers than we've introduced you to already.

But don't panic!

Although some of these “6.1/7.1” systems use cutting-edge tech­nology to provoke “o-o-o-hs” and “a-a-a-ahs” from enthusiasts, we can say for certain that a well-executed “5.1” system is so impressive that many don't need — or don't have room enough for — any more speakers. However, if you've decided to put the very best home theater system in a particularly large room, you will want to consider a “6. 1/7, I” system.

That being said, here's what you need to know. Most “6.1/7.1” systems add speakers to the rear of the room (and slightly more complex electronics, of course) to provide a “Center Surround” channel that places some surround information directly behind us in addition to that already coming from the regular surround channels of a normal “5.1” system. This can improve the sense of envelopment we normally experience from just two surround channels. In addition, the Center Surround channel gives movie directors and sound engineers a better way to add very specific spatial information to the soundtrack when they need to do so.

Dolby Pro Logic: This “4.0” format was the 800 pound gorilla of the analog surround world. Dolby Pro Logic provides (with the properly encoded sources, of course) Lefr, Center, and Right front channels and a single surround channel. However, Pro Logic is a “matrix” format with a certain amount of channel-to-channel leakage. This flaw is not audible under most circumstances. Pro Logic is still used to decode the audio portions of many videotapes and NTSC television broadcasts.

Dolby Pro Logic II: Is a recently introduced and very sophisticated updating of Pro Logic's matrix approach to surround sound. It adds stereo surround capability so you can rightly call it a “5.0” format and it features greater channel separation, too. Pro Logic II includes two modes (Movie and Music) that make it very suitable for a number of surround applica­tions that can't use Dolby Digital or a similar “discrete” technology. Dolby Pro Logic II can dramatically improve the surround performance from videotape.

Dolby Digital: This is the original “5.1” format. It is “discrete” in that channel-to-channel separation is total, an important consideration when trying to locate the origin of specific portions of a movie soundtrack. Dolby Digital accounts for the vast majority of all multi-channel software avail­able today and is the industry's de Facto standard for digital surround sound.

DTS: This Dolby competitor initially promised superior sound because it used less digital compression to convey sound from the dubbing stage (where movie soundtracks are made) to your home. Recent comparisons have proven these claims difficult to defend, especially with DVD, which uses a more compressed version of the original DTS format.

THX: It's not a surround sound format at all even though at as often confused with one. THX is a set of standards and technologies designed to make a home theater sound more like a movie theater As such, it deals with audio signals only after they've already been decoded. While generally accepted as legitimate for movie soundtrack reproduction.THX has inspired some controversy in audiophile circles where it is said to compromise music reproduction.