Are You Ready
For A Home Theater? by Kathy Scott
Few shoppers can pass by the big-screen television
display at their local electronics store without
stepping back and imagining one in their own home.
Package that television together with four speakers,
a subwoofer for bass projection, and a DVD/CD/MP3
player and you’ve constructed your own home theater
system.
While the prospect of building your own home theater
may seem like an overwhelming task, look no further
than your local retailer. A Home Theater In a
Box (HTIB) is offered by nearly every electronics
manufacturer, and you don’t have to be a tech
genius to put it together. For as little as a
few hundred dollars and stretching well into the
thousands, HTIBs are available for every pocketbook
and come easy to install with most connection
cables provided. Every package is different, and
some may not include audio equipment like a DVD/CD/MP3
player. Make sure your new HTIB has enough auxiliary
inputs to connect additional audio/video devices
if needed.
If you’re also in the market for a new television,
you’ll notice it’s no longer as simple as choosing
the size. Today, shoppers need a dictionary to
navigate through all the anagrams associated with
televisions – DTV, SDTV, EDTV and HDTV. Know the
lingo ahead of time in order to decide what product
is best for you.
What’s an HDTV? In the high tech world
of television, everything comes down to picture
resolution and format. By the end of 2006, digital
signals are supposed to replace analog transmissions
sent by broadcasters per an FCC mandate that will
help to free up scarce and vital bandwidth.
Most homes today have analog televisions, which
resolve an analog signal by reading 480 horizontal
lines of information. Standard Definition Television
(SDTV), a form of DTV, works the same way but
reads 480 horizontal lines of digital information.
The signals are processed by the television using
a technique called interlacing that updates half
of the picture every 60th of a second. This type
of resolution is noted as 480i.
EDTV or Enhanced Definition Television, another
type of DTV, resolves images with somewhat more
sophistication using a process called progressive
scanning. This technique actually scans an entire
image and updates it every 60th of a second providing
a smoother picture with less flicker than those
associated with interlacing. Progressive scanning,
using 480 horizontal lines of information, is
depicted as 480p.
High Definition TV (HDTV) is slightly more complicated,
because it refers not only to the way a picture
is resolved, but also the format in which it is
viewed. It is considered a premium among home
theater enthusiasts because HDTV programming is
often transmitted together with Dolby digital
surround sound. This helps to mimic the sensation
of being in a real movie theater. HDTV resolves
a picture using both interlacing and progressive
scanning technology, but it processes more lines
of information than SDTV and EDTV. HDTV can resolve
720 and 1080 horizontal lines of information making
the television resolution practically seamless,
processing as 720p, 1080i and 1080p respectively.
Unlike other programming, HDTV uses a wide screen
format similar to the wide span of a theater screen.
Referred to as the aspect ratio, the typical television
program has an aspect ratio (the ratio between
the width of the picture and the height of the
picture) of 4 by 3. The aspect ratio of HDTV is
16 by 9. This may sound like the perfect choice
for a home theater system, but most television
programming still uses the 4 by 3 aspect ratio.
Wide screens do have ways of stretching or cropping
the smaller aspect ratio to fit the screen, but
it can distort the image.
If you plan on using your home theater strictly
to view movies, DVDs, sports and other HDTV programming,
HDTV is a great choice. On the other hand, if
you are more interested in crisp, clear television
programming look no further than a digital television
with enhanced options like SDTV and EDTV. Whichever
you choose, you can count on DTV to provide lucid,
spectacular viewing for years to come.
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