The Home Theater Experience
You can set up a home theater system without having to spend a fortune.Helmut Kobler
If you're a true movie lover, there's no more lofty aspiration than to build a theater of your own, right in your living room. Of course, you'd probably love to design a theater that rivals your local multiplex--but that would only be possible if you were willing to part with thousands upon thousands of dollars. Luckily, you can still find a lot of pleasure in more affordable home theater setups, some starting for less than $2000.
Whatever your design entails, you'll need at least three components to build a home theater system: a TV or digital projector; a DVD player; and a home theater speaker system, which lets you hear movies the way they sound in big theaters.
Let's take a look at your options for each of these three components, as well as what's involved in actually setting them up to create the optimal home theater experience.
The TV
The first component you'll need for your home theater system will be a television set or digital projector, and a wide range of options is available. What's not optional, however, is a high definition-compatible set. This is the 21st century, friends, and any true home theater aficionado should choose an HD-compatible TV.
For starters, HD sets offer a much sharper picture when viewing DVD movies (a significant part of the home theater experience)--and of course, they present a fantastically good picture when tuned to an HD channel.
While standard TVs use 480 vertical scan lines to "draw" their images, HD sets offer either 720 progressive or 1080 interlaced scan lines. (Progressive scan is generally better for viewing fast-moving action.) The more lines a set uses, the more subtle details it can show in its picture.
(Beware, though: HD sets may not display standard-definition TV channels as clearly as conventional, non-HD sets can. Standard-definition broadcasts can often look a little less sharp on HD sets, due to the way HD TVs interpret the analog TV signal coming from cable or satellite TV tuners.)
Some HD sets also offer a wide-screen aspect ratio (16:9 versus the more squarish 4:3 ratio of standard TVs), which is much closer to what you're used to seeing in movie theaters. With these HD sets, you don't have to watch wide-screen movies with black, "letterbox" bars on the top and bottom of the screen--although to get a natural-looking picture, you will have to watch standard 4:3 broadcasts with black bars on the sides of the picture.
It's up to you whether you choose a wide-screen or standard display: Base your choice on whether you expect to view mostly wide-screen broadcasts and movies, and view both before making your purchase.
There is a dizzying array of HD sets and projectors to choose from, based on several different technologies that determine the screen size, the unit's price, and some other factors important to your home-theater experience. So here's a rundown of the different kinds of technologies you'll find in HD displays, and the tradeoffs of each. For a more thorough description of these technologies, see "A TV for Every Type." For more about HD, see the HDTV Answer Guide.
CRT TVs
These TVs use the same CRT (cathode ray tube) technology that TVs have used since the dawn of time (TV time, at least). Since they use a very well-established technology, they're pretty affordable--for instance, the 26-inch Samsung TX-P2675WH costs around $700, while the 30-inch Philips 30PW8402 goes for around $800. But the size of this type of TV is limited--even the biggest CRTs generally reach only 36 inches (40 inches in a few rare cases), which doesn't gives you the true, big-screen experience.
Plasma Sets
These are the creme de la creme of home theater TVs. They come in jumbo sizes--up to 60 inches diagonally, and bigger ones are on the way--and yet are only a few inches thick, so you can hang one on the wall like a high-tech masterpiece. What's more, an image displayed on a plasma screen--as with a CRT TV--can easily be seen from extremely wide viewing angles. Of course, all these perks come at a steep price--an entry-level plasma set, like the 32-inch Sony KE-32TS2, sells for about $2800, and bigger models like the Fujitsu P63XHA30WS, a 63-inch plasma, can cost over $20,000.
Also, while new technology mitigates the risk, plasma screens can suffer from image burn-in. That's where you'll see a faint but permanent mark left behind by an image that stays on screen for long periods of time, such as a static menu on a DVD you've forgotten to turn off, or the control panel for a video game.
LCD TVs
At first glance, LCD TVs look a lot like plasma sets. Built with technology found in flat-screen computer monitors, LCDs are only a few inches thick, so you can hang them on a wall or elsewhere in a room without using up much space. Unfortunately, though, LCD sets don't offer the jumbo screen sizes that plasma TVs do--for instance, the biggest LCD sets these days are 40 inches, which is definitely on the scrawny side when you want to emphasize the "theater" part of your home theater.
What's more, prices for large LCD TVs, such as the 37-inch Sharp Aquos (about $4000), are higher than plasma TVs, inch for inch. Another thing to consider: LCD TVs have narrower fields of view than plasma TVs. While they look great when you are looking straight at them, image quality drops off noticeably if you are sitting off to the side. Check out PC World's reviews of several good LCD TVs. For more on LCD TVs and plasma screens, see "Flat-Panel TVs: Time to Go Skinny?" and "How to Buy a Flat-Screen TV."
Rear-Projection CRT TVs
These are your best bet for getting a big HD picture without breaking the bank. Deep inside the set is something akin to an old-fashioned CRT TV tube that projects images onto the back of the screen. It's not the sexiest technology, but that's why it's relatively affordable--for instance, a 47-inch Panasonic PT-47X54 costs about $1250, and a 65-inch JVC AV-65WP94 goes for $3000. The drawback is that images on a projection TV can be hard to see in a sunny or brightly lit room, or when you're watching from anywhere wider than a 45-degree angle to the screen. Finally, these sets are pretty big and heavy--the bigger screens look like giant monoliths in most rooms, jutting out as much as 2.5 feet from a wall, and they are too large to fit in many entertainment centers.
DLP and LCD Rear-Projection TVs
A newer kind of projection TV forgoes CRT tubes for LCD and digital light-processing technologies, which are identical to those used by data projectors. These projection sets still don't look great in bright daylight, but they have better viewing angles than CRT projectors (though not nearly as good as a plasma set's), and they have a thinner form factor. For instance, the 42-inch Sony Grand Wega LCD TV is only 18 inches thick. But expect all these improvements over CRT-based sets to add more than $1000 to your bill. For more information, read "How to Buy a Rear-Projection TV."
What About a Projector?
If you truly want that movie-theater experience, your best option isn't a TV set at all, but a digital HD projector. These projectors can typically be installed on your ceiling or some elevated spot behind the sofa, and they can project images onto a white screen or nearby blank wall. Images generated by a projector can get very big--for instance, 110 diagonal inches across--so they dwarf even the biggest HD plasma sets. Without a doubt, a projector is your best bet if you're looking for the ultimate big-screen experience (and you have the room to use it). At the same time, the drawbacks to a projector system can be sizeable too.
For starters, their images don't hold up very well in anything but a very dimly lit or dark room. Second, models can range in price from a couple of thousand dollars, such as the Panasonic PT-AE500U or the Sony Cineza VPL-HS10 LCD Projector, to above $10,000, such as the IVision HD projector. The fluctuation in price can be attributed to factors such as the projector's relative color fidelity and lamp brightness (the brighter the lamp, the easier the image is to see in rooms with some light).
Speaking of lamps, here's one "gotcha" to consider--a projector lamp (the big light bulb inside a projector) has a limited shelf life of anywhere from 1000 to 4000 hours, depending on the projector. As a lamp reaches its life expectancy, it will get dimmer and dimmer, and need replacing. Expect to pay anywhere from $300 to $700 for a new lamp.
In addition to the projector itself, you'll probably want a white movie screen to project onto, and these can cost as much as $1000. (Some screens are fixed, while others roll up and down electronically.) Finally, it's hard to integrate a projector into everyday living rooms, due to the size of the image you want to project. Projectors also require extensive cabling to attach to your DVD player. That's why many projectors often find their homes in rooms dedicated to movie viewing and nothing else.
Extra HD Equipment
DVD movies aside, if you want to watch TV on your high-definition set, you'll need an HD receiver that can receive TV signals. Some HD sets have receivers built into them, while others (HD monitors) don't. But receivers are easy to come by--if you order TV service through a cable or satellite TV provider (especially appealing now that many premium channels are broadcasting in HD), they'll provide you with a receiver. If you don't want to pay for extra TV services such as these, you can buy an HD receiver for your television, which lets it pick up network and public HD broadcasts.
The DVD Player
Once you've chosen a TV or projector, your next move in setting up a home theater system is selecting a DVD player. All DVD players strive for superior image quality, and some advertise unique technologies that add a little oomph. For instance, a player like the Denon DVD-1200 sport a Faroudja chip, which gives DVD video a more film-like frame rate and sharper imagery. Other players, such as V Inc.'s Bravo D2 and Samsung's DVD-HD841, feature technology that scales a standard-definition DVD's picture up to the higher resolutions offered by HD sets and projectors (all commercial DVDs today are encoded at the lower resolution of standard-definition TVs).
But honestly, more often then not, the differences between one player and another are not readily apparent in everyday movie watching. In fact, the difference is much less dramatic than what you would notice when watching a standard-definition TV broadcast versus one in high definition. It's possible that a trained eye may spot small improvements delivered by high-end DVD players. But most movie fans are more likely to get caught up in a movie's story instead of noting slight picture nuances delivered by one DVD player compared with the next.
Choose Progressive Scan
That said, the one technology you do want to see in any home theater DVD player is progressive scan. While progressive scan can't make images look any better on an older, analog CRT TV set, it can create a sharper picture on digital HD sets. It does this by eliminating the interlaced scan lines that make up standard video. You may be able to see these lines if you look closely at a standard TV tube's screen, where the image seems to be split by thin, dark horizontal lines. Progressive-scan DVD players eliminate these lines in your movies, giving you a cleaner picture.
One more thing to consider before buying a DVD player: Some inexpensive home theater speaker systems actually include DVD players built into their receivers. We'll talk about these sound systems later, but if you're on a real budget, you might consider one of these cost-saving options.
Choosing the Connection
Once you've chosen your TV or projector and DVD player, it's time to set them up to create your home theater. TVs and projectors connect to DVD players in essentially the same way.
Most DVD players offer a variety of different connector ports--by names such as composite, component, S-Video, and sometimes DVI. You only need to choose one connector port to attach to your TV or projector for video--for instance, the S-Video port, the component port, or the DVI port. DVD players offer you all these port options because the manufacturers are not sure what kind of TV you'll have (it could be a 10-year-old model, after all), so the players cover their bases by giving you every possible option.
Not all connectors are created equally. If your DVD player and TV or projector have a DVI connector, you should use that. DVI keeps the DVD's video signal in an all-digital format as it moves to your TV or projector, instead of converting it into analog and arguably losing a little image quality along the way. If you lack DVI, use your DVD player's component connectors to connect it to your TV or projector. If those connectors aren't available, use S-Video. As a last resort, you can rely on the composite connection, although it will not provide as good a picture.
Keep in mind that each connector requires a corresponding kind of cable (you can't use an S-Video cable to connect to a DVI port), so you'll have to make sure you have the appropriate cables for the job. You can buy any kind of cable from most consumer electronics stores, and prices vary, depending on the quality of cable. High-quality cables can cost some money: For example, the highest-quality component cables will cost $100 or more.
The Hookup
To make a connection, just attach one end of the cable to any corresponding connector ports labeled "video out" on the DVD player, and connect the other end to the corresponding port labeled "video in" on your TV or projector (so the video signal goes out of your DVD player, and into your TV). Put a movie in your DVD player, and with your TV turned on, use the remote control's TV/video button to switch through its different video inputs until you see your movie on screen (if your remote doesn't have this button, check the manual for an equivalent button).
Home Theater Sound
The last component you'll need for a home theater setup is a multi-speaker sound system, which is what delivers jaw-dropping, theater-quality sound to your living room (and often to your neighbor's living room, if you live in an apartment building!). With surround sound, you'll not only hear explosions and other loud audio effects, you'll feel them in your bones. Plus, you'll experience directional audio--for instance, if someone is yelling off screen, you'll hear that audio from a speaker behind you, so you'll feel immersed in the movie's environment.
The most popular and affordable surround sound setups use Dolby 5.1 audio technology. The "5" stands for the number of speakers in the setup, and the ".1" refers to the presence of a subwoofer or speaker-like device that produces low-frequency audio--typically the deep bass sounds that you can often feel in your chest, like the rumbling engines of a starship in the latest Star Wars installment. Finally, the system's speakers and subwoofer are accompanied by an audio receiver, which is like the brain of the audio system. When you play a movie, your DVD player passes the DVD's audio signal to the speaker system's audio receiver, and the receiver decides how to split all the audio information to the various speakers.
Choosing the Components
One of the most surprising things about surround-sound setups is how expensive they can be. You might figure that after shelling out potentially thousands of dollars for an HD-compatible TV set, a handful of speakers couldn't be too cost-prohibitive. But surround-sound systems based on professional-tier speakers can easily cost thousands of dollars themselves.
A better option may be an all-in-one package that contains all the needed elements in one box, ready to go. These can be found in all sorts of price ranges. You can pay more than a couple of thousand dollars for the likes of Bose Lifestyle models, or in the neighborhood of $1000 for something like the Onkyo Envision LSV955, but there are also entry-level packages that start as low as $300, such as the JVC TH-M55 or the Panasonic SC-HT700. In addition, many all-in-one systems, both high- and low-priced, include a DVD player built into the audio receiver, so you can kill two birds with one stone by purchasing one of these models. For more suggestions, read PC World's reviews of several all-in-one setups, and check out "How to Buy a Home Theater System."
Two factors distinguish entry-level systems from more costly options: For starters, there's the receiver's wattage output, which dictates how loud your system can play (realistically, most surround-sound systems are likely to be loud enough for most ears). More important is speaker quality--that is, the speaker's ability to reproduce subtle sounds that enhance your movie-viewing experience. Of course, this is half the fun of home theater sound, and while entry-level systems can deliver sufficient volume and directional audio, they won't give you the sound sophistication found in a theater. As usual, finding the happy middle ground between price and performance will be up to you. For more details, check out "How to Buy an Integrated Home Theater Audio System."
Setting Up Surround Sound
The most important step in setting up a surround-sound system is speaker placement. Each speaker does a specific job and should be positioned in a particular spot in your "theater" relative to where you'll be sitting (for most of us, that would be smack in the middle of the sofa). You should, of course, consult your particular system's manual, but here's a general example of how to position each speaker of a 5.1 home theater system:
Place each of these speakers as best as you can--if existing furniture won't let you put a speaker in the ideal spot, you can make small adjustments, but keep in mind that moving speakers even a few inches can subtly change the audio experience. If your room's layout is really hard to shoehorn multiple speakers into, consider getting a home theater sound system that can automatically calibrate each speaker to the custom layout you've created. (Through the magic of technology, the system can gauge the volume of each speaker, compensating for odd positioning).
Also, keep in mind that some rooms are better suited for surround sound than others--for instance, big rooms with bare hardwood floors can create unwanted echoes, whereas rooms with carpeting, rugs, drapes, or lots of plush furniture are well-suited for audio.
Putting It All Together
Once you have your speakers positioned, you'll need to connect all your audio components together. You can typically do this with the speaker wire that shipped with your sound system--just plug one end of a wire into a speaker, and the other end of the wire into its corresponding jack or port on the surround-sound receiver, and repeat this process for each speaker. If the stereo wire included with your speakers is too short for your room's layout, you can easily buy more at a consumer electronics store. Keep in mind that, as with other types of cables, higher-quality connectors can improve your experience--and increase your cost.
Finally, you'll need to plug your sound receiver into your DVD player (if the two devices are separate) using a digital fiber-optic cable, linking the player's audio out connector to the receiver's audio in connector. Older DVD players and cheaper home theater sound systems may not have a fiber-optic connection--if so, use the standard RCA left and right stereo jacks and cables.
Now you can power up your sound system, put in a DVD, sit back, and enjoy the show!