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.
   

Television Buying Guide 4

Regular Television Programmes on an HDTV
You may be disappointed in your HDTV the first time you see a programme on it. That may be because you are watching a standard definition channel. Regular television programmes can look very bad on an HDTV compared to high definition programmes. An HDTV is larger and sharper and shows more of the flaws of standard definition broadcasting.

DVD Programmes on an HDTV
Regular DVD programmes look very high-quality and spectacular on an HDTV and most people are quite satisfied with them. Many DVD players and all Blu-ray players have a built-in upconversion unit that converts DVD programmes to high-definition. However, in most cases the difference would be subtle.

HDTV is Tomorrow
Buying an HDTV is a smart move, as you can be fairly sure that they will not become obsolete at least for a few years. Of course, new technologies emerge every now and then but nothing on the scale of shift from SDTV to HDTV is likely to happen for a long time. Almost every HDTV is equipped with an HDMI input that can accept copy-protected signals.

Television Buying Guide 2

Television Types
Televisions can be categorized into four different groups according to what type of signal they can accept and what picture quality they can show:

1. Analog
2. SDTV (Standard Definition Television)
   
3. EDTV (Enhanced Definition Television)
4. HDTV (High Definition Television)

Analog
This type of television can not display HDTV programmes. It can only show standard definition programmes found on regular television, cable, or satellite channels.

SDTV
This type of television (standard-definition) is basically an analog television plus a built-in ATSC tuner. Therefore, it can receive digital television broadcasts. It will display a picture from these broadcasts, but HDTV shows will not look nearly as detailed as they would on a true HDTV.

EDTV
This type of television (enhanced-definition) is usually a type of television that can display HDTV signals but doesn't have enough resolution to really do them justice. Most often it applies to plasma televisions and denotes 852×480 resolution.

HDTV
High-definition televisions, or HDTV, can display standard television, progressive-scan DVD, and HDTV signals. They are by far the most common type of digital television. Nearly every plasma, LCD, and rear-projection television is an HDTV.