Home Theater :: Television Media Entertainment Technology Essays

Home Theater What is a home theater? There are three main components of a home theater system, which are a video display, a source, and sound systems. A basic home theater has a television (at least 27†), a good DVD player, and a surround sound system with at least 4 speakers. Today, we can benefit from recent breakthroughs in electronic such as progressive scan DVD players, flat panel TV and Dolby Digital surround sound. And also the packaged systems make assembling home theater easier than you can imagine. Video Display The video display is the most important component of your home theater. If the picture doesn't look good or isn't big enough, it will lower the impact of the movie considerably. The display is also probably the most expensive piece of a home theater, generally covering half of the total value of the system. There are so many types of displays but the ones to look at are traditional tube TVs for the lower end systems, rear projection TVs for mid range systems and front projection systems for high end system. There are several things you need to look to buy a TV: 1. Fit in the room Screen size is the most important factor in choosing a TV because you'll still want the most immense pictures you can get, which generally means you want to sit 1.5 times the screen's diagonal measurement away from a wide-screen HDTV. For example, a 42-inch HDTV should be placed at least 63 inches from the couch. You need to consider viewing distance too in order to get full performance of your television. 2.Size and display type Most sets up to 40 inches diagonally are direct view, meaning they use the common glass to display the image. Direct-view TVs remain the most popular thanks to their smaller sizes but also because they generally provide a brighter picture with a wider viewing angle than larger rear-projection TVs. The main advantage of a rear-projection set is size because they range between 40 and 82 inches diagonally. 3. Choosing Aspect Ratio If you watch mostly television, like news and sports, you are better off with conventional 4:3 aspect ratio, but if you watch mostly movies, you are better off with wide screen 16:9 aspect ratio. But, it always depends on what you watch and what you need the most. Wide-screen sets also let you stretch the image horizontally to eliminate the window-box bars or otherwise broaden or crop the picture to fill the wide screen.