Counting Potatoes

Demystifying Home Theatre Systems

An incident several days ago reminded me to sit down and write this post. See, I’m pretty sure that most of us already have or are probably contemplating buying a home theater system or at least a larger screen TV along with a couple of speakers - which is not surprising since we Pinoys prefer watching pirated films in the comfort of our living rooms rather than going out and paying for several tickets so that the whole family could come along. Lean times demand lean measures after all, he he, if you could call buying a three-hundred-thousand-peso home theater system an austerity measure! Well at least you get to save some money since you won't have to buy those ridiculously, astronomically high-priced popcorn meals or hotdog snacks available at SM cinemas (do they spice them with gold dust??)

Anyway, pirated DVDs aside, most people seem to have the false notion that all they can expect from their home theater system and large screen TVs are 1. Louder sound and 2. Bigger picture. If you are one of these people, then here’s a money- and energy-saving tip for you. SIT CLOSER TO YOUR TV. It’s going to make the TV appear larger and the sound louder PLUS you still get to save about a gazillion pesos. For those who actually want and expect a better viewing experience from their traditional CRT/stereo sound tube, read on.

A home theater system, after all, is named such because it should provide you with a truly immersive cinematic experience. Here are some basic facts and tips on how to maximize your Home theater system.

Choosing your TV

CRT, LCD or Plasma?

The very first thing that’s going to give you a headache when choosing a home theater system is choosing the TV type. Should you go for the bulky, heavy and thus un-cool traditional CRT TV? (WARNING: guys living in an all-girls house, refrain from buying a large CRT TV since you will be primarily responsible for moving it around when spring cleaning/home remodeling or when there is a typhoon). How about going for the sleek and thinner large screen LCD TV? Perhaps you should choose the super-thin and high-tech Plasma display TV?

To choose your TV, you should consider more than mere aesthetics. It is more important to consider the practical details associated with each type of TV. What are their maintenance costs, energy consumption and overall picture quality? Here’s a rundown on the advantages and disadvantages of each TV type.

CRT TV (cathode ray tube): As mentioned before, perhaps the major disadvantages of a large-screen CRT TV are its sheer size and weight. CRT TVs are also not available in supersizes above, if I remember correctly, 60 inches AND CRTs are rather sensitive to magnetic fields (which is why you sometimes see rainbows at the edges of the screen when the speakers are placed too close to the set). The advantages of CRT TV however are:

1. Easy and cheap to repair since most TV technicians are familiar with this type and the replacement parts are a lot cheaper.
2. Wider viewing angle so people viewing from the side will still see the picture clearly. LCD monitors are at a disadvantage here because the picture becomes hazy when you try to view it from the side.
3. Better picture resolution.

LCD TV: (liquid crystal display): Liquid crystal displays consume a lot less power than CRTs and Plasma TVs. Compared to the CRT, LCD TVs are a lot less bulky and a lot lighter, too. More importantly, LCD screens are compatible with your computer. Unlike CRT TVs that produce the picture through scan lines, LCDs produce the picture through pixels (which is the same way your computer monitor displays pictures on your computer screen).

However, there's a catch that most people fail to take into account when buying LCD TV sets. LCD TVs produce images by shining light through liquid crystals on the screen. This means that LCD TVs need a lamp to serve as a light source and, as with any other lamps, the LCD TV lamp needs to be replaced periodically - and THAT costs money. Moreover, with frequent use, dead pixels may start popping out on the screen, and since you can’t replace these pixels piece by piece, you will have to have the whole screen replaced - and THAT costs a lot of money.

PLASMA display TV: Plasma display TVs produce images by passing electricity through an array of rare gases (xenon or neon) that glow and produce light. Almost all of the components required to produce an image can be found on the screen itself; thus, plasma sets are super thin and super light and they can be mounted on the wall, hidden behind sleek wall panels, etc. Unlike LCD TVs, plasma TVs do not need an internal light source; thus, they can render deeper blacks and provide higher contrast.

One of the disadvantages of having a Plasma TV set stems from its greatest advantage, its size. Break the screen and you can say goodbye to your hundred-thousand-peso investment. Another disadvantage of plasma TVs is its tendency to “burn in” images. Leave a static image on the screen for too long and your expensive, high-tech TV may just become a high-tech painting mounted on your wall (don’t worry, though, as new technologies are incorporated into plasma TV sets to make sure that this does not happen). Lastly, if you plan to use a Plasma TV for your Baguio rest house or some other high-altitude vacation spot, you may hear a buzz from its speakers. This is because the gases on the screen expand as the altitude increases, thereby causing your Plasma TV to misbehave.

Choosing your Sound

Five speakers and one sub-woofer usually come with a large-screen TV. To people who are comfortable with and used to a pair of stereo speakers, the three extra speakers and the sub-woofer are usually a paradox. Let me tell you what they're for.

The sub-woofer’s purpose is the most easily deciphered because the “booming” sound comes from it. What do you do with the other three speakers though? Are they spares? Do they make any special sounds? Are they for display purposes? (After all, six speakers do look far way cooler than just two).

Nine out of ten, we carefully arrange these speakers in such a way that:

1. They are all huddled in a group with the sub-woofer looking like a “papa” or "alpha" speaker; and
2. The speaker corner looks like a shrine.

THIS IS JUST PLAIN WRONG! Those speakers are not like pictures you can group together or religious figurines that you must keep together in a sacred corner! Each and every one of those speakers have its own little part in producing the “surround sound” experience that is written on the box and the brochure. Like the members of an orchestra, each speaker has a part to play in order to make your viewing experience a lot more realistic.

Let me explain:

Two-speaker systems produce what we call stereo sound. Two speakers mean two different sound outputs. This is why the sound transfers from one speaker to another when we watch movie scenes with car chases in it. Speaker one goes zzzzZZZZZZooommmm….. then the sound transfers to speaker two zzzzzZZZZZooommmm…. This also happens to gunshot sounds in movies.. one speaker goes “ratatatat!” while the other emits the sound of bullets bouncing off a wall. In Pinoy movies, this sounds like “ tuughhu tughuuu zzhyuuunnngggg!!” then Bong Revilla dives for the floor, he he he.

Now imagine 6 speakers, each with its own distinct sound output.

The 2 Front Speakers play the role of the traditional stereo speakers. One should be placed on each side of the TV.

The Center Speaker outputs the dialog sounds from just below the TV (so that it will seem like the actors are speaking right in front of you).

The 2 Rear Speakers, well, they have to be placed behind the Sofa or the couch. Remember Jurassic park where the tyrannosaur creeps up behind the main character? Well, in a properly set-up surround sound system, it should sound like the dinosaur is right behind your couch. When the rear speakers are behind you, and a helicopter is shown on TV, the sound of the approaching helicopter should first come from the back then - as the sound transfers from the rear speakers to the front ones - travel to the front.

As for the Sub-woofer, well, since this produces the lower frequency sounds, you could also place it right below your TV or, better yet, your couch (so it can give you a Playstation-game-console sort of vibration whenever you are watching a movie). By the way, the sub-woofer outputs only about 1/10^th of the frequency range of the standard speaker. Thus, it stands for the 0.1 in a 5.1 surround-sound system.

Remember though that, as with any other system, garbage in means garbage out. Don’t go expecting a truly immersive and realistic movie experience (picture-wise and sound-wise) if you’re using pirated DVDs. Pirated DVDs (especially first releases) are usually encoded in mono sound and analog video format. Watching pirated films on your state-of-the-art, cutting edge and super expensive Home Theater System is just like playing Solitaire on a dual-core-GPU computer.

If you’re using original DVDs or pirated DVDs with digital video and audio formats, well and good, but don’t go tooting your horn just yet. You still have things to check out before pushing that Play button.

Choosing Your Inputs and Outputs

Check the back panel of your TV, do you see those different colored input and output jacks? Now check the back panel of your DVD player. Do you see different colored input and output jacks there as well? Remember the toys we used to play with when we were kids? The one that goes something like “slip that square box through that square-shaped hole"? Well, the same principles are at work here, which is why I’m surprised that most people don’t seem to know the first thing about connecting the TV and the DVD player. (Maybe there should be a Sesame Street type of show for older people about this subject.)

Anyway, here are the basics on cables and connections:

As above indicated: red goes to red, yellow goes to yellow, etc, etc. Just match the colors to the right jacks grouped together in a row and you’re bound to get it right. In the same way, a circle goes to another circle, a square goes to a square; if it doesn’t fit, DON’T force it.

TV inputs and outputs: Almost all of the jacks you see at the back of your TV are inputs, which mean that if you connect anything to the TV, the signal is transferred from the external device (e.g. your DVD player) to the TV. Of course, if you will notice, the jacks are grouped together in sections like Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, and so on and so forth. Make sure to remember which section you connected the external component to because, in order to see the picture on the screen, you will have to tune your TV to the appropriate input selection (Video 1, Video 2, etc) by pressing the Input button on the remote.

Most TVs also have video and audio output sections located at the back panel. What are these for? Well, you can use the Audio-out (var/fixed) jacks to output the sound from whatever you are watching in your TV to an external sound system like your home theater system (the 5 speakers and the sub-woofer discussed earlier). This way, you can set up your system so that you will hear Kris Aquino’s screeching voice not through the built-in speakers of your TV but through the 6 speakers that comprise your home theater system (get 6 times the headache by watching Kris Aquino's Deal or No Deal through a home theater system). Anything connected to your TV will also be able to output their sound to these speakers. Of course, to do this, you must also tell your DVD player/home theater system where to get its sound by pressing the function button on the remote until you see your TV appear on the unit’s LCD screen.

Here’s a typical TV set-up. Connect your DVD player to one video input on your TV. Connect your Playstation to another video input. If you have a Magic Sing, connect that to another video input. Got a security camera? Connect that to another video input as well. In short, anything that you will use as a video input source for your TV, connect to a video input jack on your TV.

DVD player --------------------à: :-------------à Recording Device

Gaming Console --------------à: :

Magic sing ---------------------à: TV :

Computer ----------------------à: :

Security Camera --------------à: : ------------à Sound System

Aside from Audio-out (var/fixed), some TVs also have video-audio-out jacks. Here you can connect your TV to an external recording device like a VCR or a VCD/DVD recorder unit. By connecting a device to these output jacks, you are basically making sure that what you see and hear on your TV can be “seen” and “heard” by your recording device.

DVD player/Home Theater System Inputs and Outputs

If your DVD player comes packaged with a set of speakers, then it’s a DVD player/Home Theater System. This means that aside from the usual video and audio outputs at the back panel, you will also see some inputs for external components as well as other devices that may use the connected speakers to output their sound.

Outputs: There are probably going to be several types of video and audio outputs at the back panel. Remember though, you do not have to fill up these jacks with cables. YOU MUST ONLY CHOOSE ONE depending on which is best for your TV.

Here are the usual choices for video and audio outputs found in DVD players (arranged from lowest to highest according to video/audio quality produced):

Coaxial Cable: The coaxial cable is what you probably use for your cable TV subscription. It carries both the video and audio signal and produces the regular video and sound quality you see on your TV. Among the cables, this is the most antiquated and thus produces the lowest quality.

Composite Cables: (Yellow, Red and White), this is probably the most common output as well as video/audio cable used of all. The yellow cable carries the video signal while the red and white cable carries the right and left audio signal, respectively, to output stereo sound. These cables carry analog signals only and so will have low fidelity in carrying video and audio signals. In short, the video and audio output will only be standard and not that good.

S-video Cable: The S-video is a cable that caries video signals only. It separates the video feed into two distinct feeds and thus is able to output a better picture than the composite cable.

Component Cables: (Para-Red, Para-Blue and Para-Green), this type of cable is used SOLELY for the transmission of video signals. Because the video signal is transmitted through 3 separate cables, the resulting image on the TV screen will be markedly better than a composite-cable image.

DVI/HDMI cables: DVI and HDMI cables can carry uncompressed digital video signals. HDMI cables, in particular, can carry uncompressed digital audio signals as well. This means that you will get unsurpassed video quality and resolution as well as digital surround sound. This output jack is only available in selected models though.

Digital Optical and Digital Coaxial Cable: The digital optical and digital coaxial cables are used to transmit digital audio to an external component. This means that you will be able to transmit audio signals in (5.1 – 7.1) Dolby or DTS format without any loss in sound quality.

To maximize your home theater experience as well as the value of your money, a simple rule of thumb is to choose the highest quality cable that is applicable for your system. After that, you can sit back, relax and enjoy your hard-earned surround sound, digital quality movie.:)

	Demystifying Home Theatre Systems