Home theatre shopping made easy

MANILA, Philippines - Let’s say you want to have a home theater system for your living room (or bedroom) but don’t know where to start. You only need to have three things in mind: Video, Audio, and Sources.

Let’s start with video. There are many kinds of televisions out there. There’s the traditional CRT which uses a fat, old vacuum tube; the newer LCD and Plasma TVs which are flat or slim in form and can output high-definition (720p HD) or full high-def (1080p Full HD) video; and LED TVs which output the same high-def or full high-def video with a brighter screen using less energy.

We recommend getting at least an LCD with component and HDMI video inputs. Component cables deliver high definition video from DVD players and an HDMI cable is perfect for delivering full high-definition video and audio, at the same time, from a Blu-ray player or gaming console.

Next, we tackle audio. For some, sound from the TV is already enough. But it won’t be a home theatre system without a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver. The receiver is responsible for taking the signals from your other electronic devices, whether it be your TV, a DVD player, Blu-ray player, gaming console, or music player and outputs it to either a 5.1 (five speakers — two in the front, two in the back and one subwoofer) or 7.1 (seven speakers — two up front, two on the sides, three in the back, and one subwoofer) channels of sound.

Most of your DVDs and BluRays already have different high definition sound formats encoded on the discs, taking advantage of all those speakers to create a soundscape that immerses you fully in the movie viewing experience. The thing to watch out for is the receiver’s ability to “decode” the different digital sound formats available. There’s DTS for “Digital Theatre Sound”, DD5.1 (or 7.1) for “Dolby Digital”, DTS-HDMA, Dolby TrueHD, and so forth.

It is also vital that your receiver is able to accept HDMI or optical cable inputs that many sources make use of.

And finally, sources. Technically, a TV is a source — system and not use the television speakers. But what if you want to watch a DVD or Blu-Ray, play a game or listen to some music? That’s when you get the different players and consoles for your multimedia entertainment.

Most people still have DVD players. But a Blu-ray player can play DVDs as well as BD (Blu-ray) discs. Bear in mind that a few players still stick to the archaic “region-locking” system that doesn’t allow you to play DVDs from, say, America, on your Asian bought DVD player. For quick reference, the Philippines plays Region 3 or “R3” DVDs. America is a Region 1 (R1) country. But, when it comes to Blu-ray players, America and the Philippines share the same region code which is “A”. So, it’s very, very important for you to ask the salesperson which region DVD and Blu-ray discs a certain player can play.

Make sure that these players have the necessary output connections to fully take advantage of your TV and receivers at home. Also check that they are able to output the different sound formats that we listed above in the “audio” paragraph.

Remember, when it comes to home electronics, especially a home theater system, a blind-buy is never recommended. Do your diligent research. Or at the very least, have someone you trust and capable of navigating through all the tech jargon make the decisions for you.