Home Cinema

Home Cinema (a.k.a. Home Theatre) is basically an entertainment system that reproduces movie-theatre quality video and audio at homes. The first home cinema systems were 8mm film projector equipment which was replaced by laser discs. In mid 1990's, a typical home cinema would have been a laser disc or VHS videocassette player fed to a large rear-projection television. In late 1990's, DVD players with Dolby Digital (5.1 channel audio) were introduced along with high definition televisions. Nowadays the term home cinema includes a wide range of systems. The display might be a 60" HDTV and for audio, several thousand watts of power fed into a 12" (or more) subwoofer with five or seven surround sound speakers. The price on these equipments can go as high as $100,000.

Basically a home cinema is composed of the following components:

1. Input Device: Any audio/video source that can include high quality formats such as blu-ray. Others include VHS player or video game systems. Some of the newer models include a home theatre PC that acts as a library for video and music content.
2. Processing Device: Input devices must be processed for complex surround sound output.
3. Audio Output: Normally systems come with two speakers but can have up to 10 speakers and an additional subwoofer.
4. Video Output: A large High Definition display that can be LCD, plasma, video projector, rear-projection television or a traditional CRT television.
5. Atmosphere: High-end home theatres have sound insulation to prevent noise from escaping the room and a specialized wall treatment to balance the sound within the room.