Home cinema systems equipment has reached record levels of stylishness and complexity. With the advanced audio-visual technology nearly everyone can afford a stylish home entertainment environment that can rival your local movie theater. However with all the technology avaliable today choosing home cinema systems equipment can be overwhelming to say the least. The scope of home cinema systems equipment is huge ranging from custom designed and built theatres that cost thousands of dollars to a simple DIY setup that will knock you back three hundred dollars or so. Most home cinema / theatre setups dont require extensive room remodeling or expensive custom installations however a little thought into the equipment you buy will go a long way. So what home cinema systems equipment do you need.
Media source.
This is the start of your Custom Home Cinema System so remember that the quality here will determine most everything else, so buy the best you can afford. There are still plenty of VHS tapes around so a combo DVD/VCR is not a bad option, it also enables you to burn cds from VCR tapes if the machine has a copy function. Buying or replacing a DVD player involves plenty of options. The latest models offer high quality audio and video giving crisp clear images. Features avaliable are recordable and rewritable CD's, they can handle your MP3 mix discs, WMA functions or "windows media audio" and SACD or "super audio cds". Another DVD player option is Video Upconversion which will convert DVD video to a resolution that more matches a High Definition Tv (HDTV) if you have one. You may also wish to consider a multi disc player if you intend playing a lot of music cds.
Preamp-Amplifier / AV Recievers
The next essential piece of home cinema systems equipment is the sound system. This can be implemented using either an AV receiver or Preamplifier/Amplifier combination.
An AV Receiver usually combines the functions of a Pre amplifier, multi channel amplifier and a AM/FM radio tuner, and fo the average home cinema a good AV reciever is fine. In high end applications pre amplifier and multi channel amplifier are avaliable as separate components Such a setup provides more flexibility in switching out and/or upgrading the separate components of the system as well as isolating any interference that is caused by having all these functions combined in a singal Box.
Speakers
Speakers are the most costly part of home cinema systems equipment and will account for 30% or so. Try to get speakers with a higher power rating than your reciever or amplifier, high amplifier power almost never destroys speakers rather its the lack of amplifier power that causes damage. You can quite safely use 100 watt speakers with a 400 watt amplifier or reciever. The secret here is to drive the speakers with sufficient power to avoid distortion.
To get full enjoyment from your home cinema you will want at least the dolby 5.1 surround sound six channel speaker set up comprising of;
A subwoofer for low frequencies. As its hard for us to determine where low frequency sound comes from these can be hidden away almost anywhere.
The 2 center channel speakers handle midfrequency sound such as speech.
The 4 satellite speakers - Lh & Rh front, Lh & Rh rear. These higher frequency speakers enable us to determine the direction of sound so placing them well out from the center speaker greatly enhances the effect of positional sound. These speakers dont need to be large to be effective, and with an understanding of how 6 speaker systems work its easy to see why they are so much more effective than the monster speakers we used in the past.
Television / Projector & Screen
Home cinema systems equipment starts with a fantastic television screen. Screen size is no longer the only choice you have to make. You now have the option of standard tube televisions, flat-screens, home cinema plasma screens, rear-projection televisions, in addition to the high-end front projector systems .
Television-type video display vs a video projector.
The main factor you have to take into consideration is whether you intend to watch a lot of television programs vs DVD movies. Ideally, video projection is really best for viewing DVD movies. Standard tv and sattelite do not look as good on large screen video projection as a large screen television. Video projectors have a very limited bulb life, if you were to watch tv on your projector every night you would have to replace the light source bulb about once a year at 200-400 dollars a pop. If you limit your veiwing to around 10 hours a week your bulb will last about 2 years.