What is a Home Theater?

A home theater is an audio and visual entertainment system put together to enjoy movies, television shows and music in the comfort and convenience in your own home. A home theater is made up of both audio components and video components.

Video components

TV Set

The video components usually consist of a TV set and DVD players. Today, more and more people choose High Definition TV sets for the best in video quality, as well as the image aspect ratio that is the same as a cinema. All high definition TV sets have an image aspect ratio of 16:9. In addition, most HDTV's are able to play HD DVD's and progressive scan DVD's at either 780p or 1080p resolution. For ideal viewing, most home theaters include either LCD or Plasma TV's. These types of TV's come in HD format, offer excellent video quality, come in large size and are super thin. For instance, most people choose TV's that come in sizes over 30 inches for home theater set ups. Both LCD and plasma TV's are extremely thin, with the thickness being about 2 inches to about 6 inches.

DVD Player, HD DVD Player, DVR or VCR

Besides a big screen TV, practically all home theater set ups also include a way to watch high quality media. The most common devices used are either DVD players, HD DVD players, DVR's or VCR's. While HD DVD player such as Blu Ray and HD-DVD are new on the market, many people usually view movies from a standard DVD or programming from their DVR (digital video recorder) on their home theater set up. VCR's are still popular; since many people have built a large collection of their favorite movies and practically all VCR's can play on most home theater systems.

Audio Components

One of the reasons that home theaters are a great way to watch movies and other types of programming is because most home theater set ups have such good sound reproduction. In order to reproduce great sound in your home theater you will need three main components; a home theater receiver, home theater speakers and a subwoofer.

Home Theater Receiver

The home theater receiver is said to be the brains and power behind most home theater systems. A home theater receiver usually is the center for all components to be connected. For instance, most home theater receivers have powerful amplifiers that give power to stereo speakers, surround speakers and the subwoofer. In addition, home theater receivers also process digital signals from the video source to separate the audio into discrete channels for surround sound.

Most home theaters receivers usually come with the ability to digitally process sound into either Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital, DTS, THX Surround and DTS- ES.

Surround Sound Speakers

So now that you have your video component which includes your TV, DVD player and your home theater receiver which is the brains behind your system, now all you need is speakers to reproduce quality sound. Home theater speakers are usually called surround sound speakers and come in four different types, front speakers (includes front left and front right), center channel speakers, surround sound speakers (sometimes called rear channel speakers) and finally the subwoofer.

Front Left and Right Speakers

These speakers are the power house speakers of the system; they are also the main speakers for playing music or watching TV without home theater surround sound processing.

Center Channel Speaker

The center channel speaker sits usually underneath or above the TV set. This speaker is very important for dialogue on the TV screen. It anchors the dialogue to the area near your TV set. You wouldn't want to watch a person on TV talking and hear them from the side of you. The center channel speaker brings the sound to the location where it should be.

Surround Sound (Rear Channel Speakers)

Surround sound speakers are speakers that envelope you in the action. They add life to a movie soundtrack and bring your attention to the area behind you and around you. Most surround speakers are either placed behind the ears or on the side of the viewer, in the line of the sight of the ears.

Subwoofer

The subwoofer is extremely important because it adds depth to sound by adding deep bass and low frequencies. If you love to hear the rumble of an explosion or the tight, deep frequencies of percussion, you need a subwoofer to reproduce these extremely low frequencies.

Besides video components and audio components there are also home theater accessories that you should know about They include high tech remote controls to easily control all your components quickly and conveniently, special cables and wires for connecting all your high quality components and speakers to the receiver or TV and a power strip with a circuit breaker to make sure that an electrical surge or storm does not ruin your equipment. If you are looking to enjoy a true theater experience without trekking to the cinema, you can now put a home theater together in the quality and comfort of your own home.

Brad Waite is a home theater enginee with Integrity Home Theater.

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