Home Theater basics
Home theatre is one of the latest concepts that have revolutionized home entertainment options available in the market. It has been a general perception for a long time that movies, when watched in a theater, provide the ultimate viewing and listening experience. In a movie theatre, the picture is portrayed on a huge screen and the arrangement of a number of speakers placed all around the viewers in the theatre provides sound effects that resemble the living world. These elements actually get you engrossed in the world of great action and fantasy.
Home theatre, more in a way, resembles a movie theatre and uses high quality video and audio equipment to provide theatrical experience. It is a lot different from the older home entertainment option that uses stereo audio outputs. Home theatre, is a term, often synonymous with surround sound system, the technique used in movie theatres. For large and more detailed picture, a home theater setup may use larger direct view TV sets (CRT) or ultra modern LCD or plasma TVs or projection TVs or even a video projector.
 Courtesy: Mitsubishi Home Theater |
When you go for a home theater, you will find various combinations of audio and video components that make up a home theater setup. However, the basic elements of a standard home theater are as follows:
- A Television set with larger screen size or a video projector
- A home theater-in-a-box that comes with video & audio input device (usually DVD player), surround sound decoder and a collection of speakers.
- If you prefer assembled home theater system, you will need to buy the components like AV inputs (DVD or Blu-ray disc player), A/V Receiver, amplifiers and external speakers and assemble them.
It could be a bit confusing, when it comes to make a choice between a home theater-in-a-box and an assembled home theater system. If you just want a simpler, basic home theater system for your home, a home theater-in-a-box is a great option. It is easy to use and also very cost effective. It has all elements of essential home theater system built into one unit so it is easy to setup without any hassle.
However, assembled home theater system or custom home theater setup is definitely for high end users and for movie lovers who demand a lot on visual and audio experience. It is really expensive option as it is made up of individual components like high end DVD player or a blu-ray disc player, pre-amplifier that controls each sound channel with a separate amplifier and specially designed speakers to suit the acoustics of halls etc.
It is not just the budget that should be considered when you make a decision on buying a suitable home theatre for your needs. The room size, its ambient conditions, acoustics conditions and its capacity to accommodate different speakers in right locations can also make a huge difference. Recently, many people spend a lot of money to set up specially designed rooms that have perfect acoustic features, cabinets to place the speakers and specially designed furniture for comfortable viewing etc.
