And the Oscar goes to...Home Theatres
Imagine shouting the family to a night at the movies – without the ticket costs, parking hassles and queues.
It’s no surprise that home theatres are becoming so popular – there’s an endless choice of new movies and old favourites on DVD, the show starts when you’re ready and you know everyone in the audience. In our technology-savvy society, home-entertainment equipment is easy to access and reasonably affordable, so it’s simple to create the whole cinema experience at home.
At the heart of the theatre is an entertainment system that combines video and audio – pictures and sound – for watching movies, television and music videos, and even for playing games. A basic system might comprise a TV – the bigger the better – a VCR or DVD, or both, and an audio-visual processor/receiver. A minimum of five speakers is usual, with one in the centre at the front and others either side at the front and back, as well as a subwoofer to handle the bass. Go one better with surround speakers at the sides and even above for spectacular overhead sound effects.
Setting up
With a working knowledge of the equipment, it’s possible to connect it yourself. The operation manuals have wiring diagrams, but keep in mind that there are various ways of putting most of the elements together, and some are better than others.
Since it’s likely to be quite a large investment, it’s probably better to call in the experts. Most reputable stores can organise connection of new systems. It comes at a cost, of course but otherwise there’s the chance of only getting 70 per cent of the performance out of a system simply by not spending the final few dollars.
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