Pat Hurley

Article / Updated 02-21-2017

USB is a serial bus standard that allows you to connect peripheral devices to a PC. In a home theater, USB can be found on the back of many computer-like source devices, such as MP3 servers and PVRs. Following are some details on USB connections and devices: Most printers, external modems, handheld computers, portable MP3 players, and other PC peripheral devices connect to PCs via USB. USB has pretty much replaced RS-232 in the PC world, with the exception of connections to automation and control systems, but it will probably eventually replace those as well. The most common use for USB in a home theater is with a Wi-Fi system. You can outfit source devices that can connect to the Internet with a USB Wi-Fi network adapter. This adapter enables you to connect back to the access point and out to the Internet. USB is also used for remote control connections for PCs. The remote control receiver for the PC connects to the PC via a USB cable. Multiple types of USB devices are out there. The latest and greatest variant of USB is USB 2.0 High-speed, which supports data transfers at speeds of up to 480 Mbits per second. The older and slower USB 1.1 standard doesn’t cut it for home theater use, because it can barely handle audio signals and just plain can’t do high-quality video. You can find a few A/V receivers (such as the RX-D201S by JVC) that have a USB connection that lets you connect to a nearby PC to feed digital audio signals (such as MP3 files) from the PC to the receiver without using a media adapter device.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Video displays use one of two scanning methods to draw the picture on the TV screen: interlaced and progressive. All HDTVs are progressive-scan displays — so even if the signal being sent to the HDTV is interlaced, the HDTV will convert it to progressive scan for display on the screen. Here's what you need to know when comparing the two scanning methods: Interlaced scan: Traditional TV systems (such as NTSC, the standard TV system in the United States) use an interlaced scan, where half the picture appears on the screen at a time. The other half of the picture follows an instant later (1/60th of a second, to be precise). The interlaced system relies on the fact that your eyes can’t detect this procedure in action — at least not explicitly. Progressive scan: In a progressive-scan system, the entire picture is painted at once, which greatly reduces the flickering that people notice when watching TV. Progressive scan is available throughout a range of TV types. You should look for a display with progressive scan if it fits into your budget, because the picture appears much smoother and more like a film. (You can get direct-view progressive-scan TVs for under $500 these days.)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Many home theater A/V receivers include multizone functionality, which lets your receiver control your home theater and provide music to multiple rooms. A multizone receiver is a good way to get started down the whole-home theater path. Multizone A/V receivers run the gamut from fairly simple to very sophisticated. Here are some comparisons between simple and more complex systems: Simple multizone receivers: These receivers have a pair of stereo audio outputs (not speaker connectors or amplifier channels, just outputs). These outputs enable you to run an audio cable to another room and connect to a separate amplifier and speakers in that room (or to a pair of active speakers that have a built-in amplifier). The key feature to look for here is that this second zone is truly a second zone. That is to say, the receiver lets you send a different audio source to the second room, not just the one you are playing in the home theater. Follow this typical setup for a simple, multizone audio network. More sophisticated multizone receivers: The more complex multizone receivers include extra built-in amplifiers (so you don’t need an amp in the extra room) and with extra zones (so you can send different audio sources to a third or fourth room). You may even find multizone A/V receivers that send out a composite video signal. With this signal, you can watch the video from a home theater video source elsewhere in the home.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Many cable companies now offer video-on-demand (VoD) as part of their digital cable services. With VoD service, you pay for individual movies and shows, and watch them on your cable-connected TV — similar to the concept of how pay-per-view (PPV) works. But the similarities between VoD and PPV end there, because: VoD movies aren’t run as scheduled broadcasts (like every hour on the hour PPV movies). Instead, VoD movies are stored on big computers (video servers) as MPEG-2 files. When you want to watch a VoD movie or other program, you select it on your onscreen guide and press Play on your remote. The movie gets streamed to your set-top box (just like movies you watch on the Internet, but at a much higher quality) and played back on your TV. You have complete control of the stream, so just like using a VCR or DVD player, you can Start, Stop, Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind — the works — all for the same cost as regular PPV. These functions are typically available on the remote control that is supplied by your cable provider. Contact your service provider if you have questions about this functionality. One other neat VoD service is called SVoD (subscription VoD), which allows you to subscribe to a certain channel or show, such as HBO, and get VoD access to all the episodes of a favorite show (such as The Sopranos). Another alternative for movie buffs is to join a service that does movie rentals online (and via the U.S. mail), such as Netflix. The price for this type of service varies depending on how many DVDs you want to check out at one time (such as only one-at-a-time, two-at-a-time, and so on).

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Most A/V receivers use IR systems for their remote controls. Because IR can't penetrate walls, you need a wired system that can carry IR signals from remote locations in a whole-home entertainment network back to your home theater. You need this wired system as a way to control remote devices when you're watching (or listening to) them in a different part of the house. If the phone rings, for example, you want to be able to turn down the music or pause the movie. You can set up an infrared system in your home theater in four ways: IR cabling: Many home networking vendors sell cables designed for carrying IR signals from remote locations back to the home theater. CAT-5e cabling: If you’re using CAT-5e cabling for audio and video distribution, you’ll find that these systems have a built-in capability to carry IR signals for remote controls. If you’re not using one of these systems, but have put CAT-5e cabling in your walls when building your home, you can use extra (unused) CAT-5e cables in place of the IR cabling. RG6 coaxial cabling: Using special devices called IR injectors, you can carry IR signals over the RG6 coax that you use for distributing cable or broadcast antenna TV signals. You can’t use an IR injector on the RG6 cables used to connect a DSS dish to DSS receivers. Proprietary systems: If you opt to install a high-end automation system, such as those from Crestron Electronics, you need to use special proprietary cables from the manufacturer. For example, Crestron uses its own special cable called CrestNet.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The amount of power needed for your home-theater receiver depends, in part, on the speakers you choose. Given a certain amount of power, different speakers have different sensitivities, a measure of how loud they are. The standard measure for speakers' sensitivity is how many decibels the speakers produce with 1 watt of power at 1 meter’s distance from the speaker. A more sensitive speaker requires less amplification to reach the same volume level. Keep the following factors in mind when deciding how much receiver power you need: Consider the size of your home theater and how loudly you plan on playing your movies and music. If you want to create permanent hearing loss or have a room the size of the Taj Mahal, you might need a receiver that can pump out 150 watts per channel. If you have relatively sensitive speakers and a moderately sized home theater, and you don’t plan on testing the thickness of your window glass with really loud music, a receiver with 70 watts per channel (or less) might do the trick. In general, receivers with about 100 watts per channel (accurately measured) are more than powerful enough in just about any home theater. Amplifiers (whether separate or in a receiver) make their power by using transistors. In the old days, amplifiers used vacuum tubes — and some really expensive high-end amps still use tubes because some audio enthusiasts prefer their sound. Inexpensive receivers use an IC (integrated circuit), which provides the power-generating transistors for several audio channels on a single chip. Better receivers have discrete amplifier output transistors — separate transistors for each channel. Typically, you get more power and better sound from a discrete design.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Hooking up speakers is prettyeasy after you've carefully positioned the speakers in your surround-sound home theater. To hook up speakers, you just connect the speaker wires to the appropriate outlets on the A/V receiver. Before you plug and play, though, there are a few points to remember. Keep your speakers in phase. Each speaker wire consists of two conductors, a positive and a negative. If you connect these out of phase (that is, the positive on the receiver to the negative on the speaker, and vice versa), you’ll hear a definite effect on your sound. Specifically, your speakers can’t create the appropriate soundstage, so sounds that are supposed to clearly come from the right or the left won’t. (By the way, right in this context means to the listener’s right when facing the display or the front of the room.) Most speaker cables are color-coded red and black to make this job easier (or you may have a white stripe on the jacket of one of the conductors in the speaker wire). Make sure you have a tight connection. For the best sound quality and for a connection that won’t stop working over time, make sure your speaker connections are solid. You may prefer banana plugs or spade lugs on five-way binding posts because you can get these connectors nice and tight. A bare wire can be just fine however, and many smaller surround speakers don’t have enough physical space to fit larger connectors. Make a good connection the first time, and you won’t need to touch it again for years. Don’t forget to connect the subwoofer. Most subwoofers are active speakers (they have their own built-in amplifiers), so you don’t use speaker wires to connect them. You need a long analog audio interconnect cable, which runs between the Subwoofer Out or LFE output on the back of your receiver and the input on the subwoofer itself. Make sure you get a cable that’s long enough to let you move the subwoofer around because you may need to reposition your subwoofer as you discover how it interacts with your home theater’s room.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Much of surround-sound terminology boils down into numbers such as 2.0, 5.1, and 7.1. These surround-sound numbers sometimes refer to the playback system’s speaker configuration and sometimes to the audio signal format being delivered. The first number represents the number of speakers or main audio channels involved, and the 1 or 0 after the decimal point indicates whether the system has a subwoofer or supports a low-frequency effects channel. Systems that end in 1 have a subwoofer or an effects channel. 2.0: Normal stereo — the kind with a left and a right channel (or a left and a right speaker). 5.1: This is the primary format for creating and delivering surround sound. It's widely used in movie theaters, digital television, DVD-video and audio, and even the latest game consoles. Source signals have the five main channels and one LFE (low-frequency effects) bass channel. Playback systems usually have five main speakers and one subwoofer. A 5.1-channel surround-sound speaker configuration (five speakers and one subwoofer). 5.1-channel-ready: Such an audio system has six discrete inputs to accept a 5.1 signal from a signal source such as a 5.1-channel DVD player. It does not necessarily mean that these products can decode signals to a 5.1-channel output. The best way to ferret out true 5.1 systems is by reading reviews of the devices before you buy. 6.1: 6.1-channel systems have an additional surround channel called the back surround channel. This drives a speaker (or preferably two) situated right behind the viewers, in essence providing the same smooth flow in the back sound field that the center speaker enables in the front speaker group. Dozens of DVDs are encoded with extra back surround information for this back surround speaker, and these DVDs also play perfectly well on regular 5.1 systems. 7.1: Not to be outdone, some have taken the 5.1 or 6.1 channel encoding on a DVD and used some computer horsepower to create two independent back surround speakers for even more surround sound, making it 7.1. Note that 7.1 isn't a true discrete surround-sound format (no DVDs on the market have 7.1 channels of sound); instead, it refers to the manufacturers’ own systems used to derive two back surround channels from existing stereo (2.0), 5.1-, or even the 6.1-channel sources just mentioned. 8.1 and beyond: You’ll probably hear about even higher designations — 8.1, 9.1, 10.2, and so on. These are in the realm of the home theaterphile, and if you’re evaluating such gear, a home theater consultant is probably standing next to you, so just follow his or her recommendations. The newest systems (such as Dolby Digital Plus) can theoretically support systems up to 13.1. Wow!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Rather than two-channel sound, a home theater boasts multichannel surround sound. Two-channel sound gives a left and a right speaker effect, while multichannel surround sound adds a front center speaker between the front left and right speakers — plus two surround speakers for the sides of the room. Newer versions of surround sound add even more rear speakers and side surround speakers to enhance your surround-sound field. A subwoofer is part of almost all home theater setups, but a subwoofer is more a part of the bass management of the collective speakers than part of the surround-sound system itself. To understand the impact of the concept of surround sound on your home theater, you need to understand a bit about encoding and decoding sound: When the master mixers at the movie studios create the audio track to go with the movie, they encode the music in very specific ways. They designate which channel (you can read speaker into that if you like) the specific sound goes through. In addition, each different channel is designed to provide spatial sound effects — meaning that the channels can work together to make sounds come from different locations relative to you, the listener. The goal is to decode those signals onto the correct channels to replicate the studio’s intent. So, let’s say that a squadron of jets in a scene from Top Gun is doing a fly-by of the carrier command bridge. If you were in the command bridge, you'd hear the jets come in from the left, sweep across in front of you, and then disappear to the right and the rear as they turn off to the starboard side of the ship. If you're sitting in a well-tuned home theater, you should hear no differently. And as the bridge shakes, your subwoofers provide you with the vibrations to make you feel as if you’re actually there. The encoders have to designate on the movie or TV program soundtrack the specific sounds that, at specific times, are to be sent to specific channels in your system. The speakers connected to those channels are given those signals by your surround-sound-equipped A/V receiver, which properly decodes those tracks from the DVD or other video source. A home theater audio system needs to have it all correct from beginning to end. In a two-channel system (also known as stereo), you might hear some of that sound effect, in that it might get the left and right parts right. A two-channel system can’t help with the front to back movement, however, and that’s the critical part of a surround-sound system — it surrounds you!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can maximize the surround sound experience in a home theater by positioning the surround sound speakers properly. The speakers in a home theater system include the center channel speaker, the left and right front speakers, the surround channel speakers, and the subwoofer. Here's what a surround sound setup looks like. Center speakers Some people say the center speaker is optional, because the left and right speakers can handle the sound that comes from the center speaker. However, the center speaker anchors your onscreen dialogue and serves as a seamless connection between your left and right speakers. As that boat zooms by from left to right, you don’t want to have a gap in the middle of your sound field. Make sure any speakers that will be close to a cathode ray tube (direct-view) video display are video shielded — especially the center speaker. If not, the speakers will cause video distortion on your screen. Left and right speakers The left and right speakers provide more lateral, but still highly localized and directed, sound. If possible, the left and right speakers in a surround sound system should be full-range speakers. For the best results, try to position the left and right front speakers so that the tweeters are at ear level. Surround speakers The surround speakers (whether you have two, three, four, or more side and back speakers) add a third dimension to your audio programming — bringing a front and back dimension to the left and right dimension provided by the front speakers. Subwoofers Most subwoofers have floor-based enclosures with active speaker systems (that is, with built-in amplifiers) for driving the low bass frequency ranges. Your biggest decision comes in bass management. You have a couple of options: The subwoofer can complement your full-range front speakers, providing an even fuller bass signal. The subwoofer can handle all the bass, giving your front speakers the ability to focus on the mid- and high-range frequencies. Most home theater experts will advise you to move all bass to the subwoofer. This results in more power and attention to the mid- and high-frequency drivers and less strain on the amplifier and speaker systems. This setup also gives you a more dynamic range, because the bass can go lower than most full-range speaker woofers can themselves (hence the term subwoofer).