An Introduction to Home Theater Systems

The influx of modern technology has greatly changed the lifestyle of people all around the globe.  It has not only affected great fields like science and medicine but has reached even the homes of the common day men.  With this, it is expected that the viewing and hearing pleasures of people also evolved with the change of time.

Today, it is no longer a matter of hovering around a small television set the pictures of which could hardly be seen from across the room.  It is no longer even just sitting on a sofa and watching your favorite show from a big-screened television.  Today, there is more to television than just the TV set.  There is more to watching your favorite videos than just putting on that tape into the VHS.  There is now more to everything in home viewing and it encompasses not only sight but also sound.

Many homes now have combinations of television, stereo and speakers that are much advanced than what were available 20 or even 10 years ago.  They are so sophisticated that these combination systems have earned a name for themselves and that is home theater systems.

A home theater system actually brings you to a new dimension of home entertainment as it recreates right in your own home's entertainment room, an experience that will make you think that you are right inside a movie cinema. A home theater system that is considered as the best in its field imitates the sounds and the sights that you usually get from the cinema so precisely.  This makes the viewer get the feeling that he is right in the middle of the movie that he is watching.  The scent of flowers flashed on the TV screen would seem so palpable that one would think that he or she could actually smell it.  The sound of gunshots would seem so real that one would get the feeling of being afraid to get shot.  This is the great experience of the home theater system.

There are components that are basic to a home theater system.  These are the video, the receiver, the speakers and the source.

The video or the video picture, which us common people know as the screen, is actually considered as the core of the home theater system.  As this is the case, it is also considered a very important component of the system, so much so that many would opt for the format that is named the high-definition widescreen.  It is seen to be as way better than the more traditional television sets.  Its pictures have a high definition that lend to its clarity and vividness that is not found in old TV sets.  The widescreen format of the television actually copies the exact shape found in movie cinemas making the pictures appear more real and lifelike.  In getting this type of screen, the consideration would have to be on the size of your entertainment room.  The bigger the room, the larger the video screen that is called for.  To get the best viewing experience at home, the 35-inch screen size is most minimum that buyers should go for.

The next component of the home theater system is the receiver.  This is the audio equipment piece that processes the sound of home theaters.  Each speaker that is individually set up in your home gets a precise sound signal that is converted by the receiver and efficiently split up into channels that go into the speakers.  The sound coming from one speaker is called monaural while that sound coming from two speakers is the stereo.  If you want to make the people listening to the sound coming out of your home theater system feel that they might be at the sound's center then you could set up that surround sound by installing five speakers instead of the standard two. This system of putting up a sound that seems to surround the whole room is known as the 5-channel or a recording that is at 5.1.  There are surround sounds that are made more advanced through the installation of more speakers or what is called as the 6.1 and the 7.1 recordings.  For a home theater system to let out the best sound, you would have to buy at a minimum, a receiver with five channels.

After the receiver comes the speakers as the sound coming from the former is actually reproduced by the latter.  A home theater that has five channels will essentially have five surround speakers plus a subwoofer.  The subwoofer's role in the system is the lowest tone production that gives out the bass sound that is ground shaking.  The speaker that receives the center channel sound signal from the receiver is the one that carries a greater part of the voice audio.  Because of this, it is usually placed next to the video screen.  To give depth and realism to the sound, the other four speakers are placed in a room's corners.

Of course, the last but definitely not the least of the components for a home theater system is the source.  This is the device that gives out the picture and sound.  The television feed—whether it be satellite, antenna or cable, the DVD or the DVR machine—is the main source for the home theater.  These sources should be all digital, as it is the format that is preferred for a high definition television.  Most VHS machines could not give out the same quality of picture and sound that is needed for the HDTV.