BUILDING The Ultimate Home Theater

The Ultimate Home Theater begins with the selection of a television and incorporates other essential components including surround sound, DVD players, subwoofers, speaker placement and lighting.

When it comes to selecting a television for home theaters, the main focus of late has been the high-definition variety.

"High-definition televisions are really popular and are driving surround sound," said Vance Pflanz, owner of Pflanz Electronics, the area's leader in consumer electronics. "High-definition televisions are also where the most confusion is."

To take away the confusion that goes along with choosing a television for a home theater system, Pflanz offers the following facts about high-definition televisions.

High-definition televisions come in three different formats: rear projection, flat panel and front projection.

Rear projection televisions

Rear projection televisions are available with a pixel display of 1280 x 720 (921,600 pixels) or 1920 x 1080 (2,073,600 pixels). They also come in a variety of formats, the most common being Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Silicon X-tal (Crystal) Reflective Display (SXRD) and Digital Light Projector.

Liquid Crystal Display is an LCD panel illuminated by lamps.

SXRD is technology developed by Sony that has a 1920 x 1080 pixel display.

DLP technology, developed by Texas Instruments, is a revolutionary display solution that uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate light digitally. It is a highly reliable, all-digital display chip that delivers the best picture across a broad range of products, including large screen digital TVs, and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema (DLP Cinema-).

Rear projection televisions range from 15-20 inches deep, depending on the size, and have a 115-degree viewing angle.

"The advantage of rear projection televisions is that they are less costly to purchase, and you can get larger sizes of screens," Pflanz said.

Flat panel televisions

Flat panel televisions have a pixel display of 1366 x 768 (1,048,088 pixels) or 1920 by 1080 (2,073,600 pixels), and they come in two formats: LCD and Plasma. Plasma panels are two pieces of glass with electrodes filled with gas and sealed. The Plasma flat panel televisions are available with a pixel display of 1024 x 768 (786,432 pixels), or 1366 x 768 (1,049,088 pixels), or 1920 x 1080 (2,073,600 pixels). The Hitachi 42-inch TV has the highest resolution in the world with a pixel display of 1024 x 1080 (1,105,920 pixels).

LCD panel sizes range from 7 inches to 52 inches, while Plasma television panel sizes vary from 42 inches to 70 inches.

Flat panel televisions can be hung on a wall, they are 3 1/2 to 5 inches deep, and they have a viewing angle of about 175 degrees.

Front projection televisions

Front projection televisions are a two-piece system consisting of a front projector and a screen. With a projector and screen , the screen is usually mounted on the wall or ceiling mounted near a wall to let you use the full room depth for viewing.

Hung from the ceiling, front projectors are made to produce screen images ranging from 70 inches to 120 inches diagonally.

"Front projection televisions are used in home theaters when you want a screen that is larger than 73 inches," Pflanz said. "You can order a screen to fit a location, so you can go larger or smaller, depending on your space."

Front projection televisions are available with a pixel display of 1280 x 720 (921,600 pixels) or 1920 x 1080 (2,073,600 pixels).

When choosing any television, pixel displays are important because the more pixels you have the greater the density and the better the picture, he said.

Audio

The next important component of a home theater is the audio system.

"A great complement to any high-definition television is a surround sound system" said Pflanz.

Like high-definition televisions, surround sound systems come in a variety of formats: 5.1 Surround Sound, which works with three front speakers, two rear speakers and a subwoofer; 6.1 Surround Sound, which runs with three front speakers, three rear speakers and a subwoofer; and 7.1 Surround Sound, which includes three front speakers, two side speakers, two rear speakers and a subwoofer.

When television stations broadcast a high-definition signal, the standard sound will be in 5.1, he said. "Usually if you will be able to get a high-definition video source, you will also have 5.1 with it.

Another part of the audio system is the audio/video receiver. Most today have seven amplifiers to drive 7.1 Surround Sound speaker system and the capability to hook up a subwoofer to it, he said.

Consumers have a couple choices when purchasing a home audio system. They can buy a Home Theater In a Box (HTIB) or purchase all the components separately. With the HTIB, they get the audio/video receiver, the speakers, and the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player in a box. When they buy these components separately, they get better quality components, he said. "The advantage is that they last longer and the quality of sound is much better because the components will be matched together performance wise. We have the experience through the years to help people with that."

Audio systems are available in a wide variety of price ranges, he said.

A new type of audio technology is the Digital Sound Projector, a one-piece unit with 42 speakers and amplifiers for each speaker inside that project precisely focused beams of sound aimed for optimum surround sound effect.

No more multiple speakers, no more clutter, no more hiding wires.

"You can put it above or below the TV," he said. "You can even hang it on a bracket on a wall. It comes with a microphone that you can place where your seating would be. The Digital Sound Projector measures the length and width of a room and the height of the ceiling, and how far the unit is off the floor, so the listener perceives the sound to be coming from additional speakers placed throughout the room, when in fact there is only the Yamaha Digital Sound Projector."

Add a DVD player and subwoofer, and you have a complete home theater system.

DVD players

You can still buy a regular DVD player, he said, but the quality has gotten so much better with the newer Blu-ray players, which play high-definition Blu-Ray discs. Blu-ray is a consortium comprised of a number of manufacturers that support the format.

Blu-ray players have the capability of storing up to 200 gigabytes (GB) of memory or four layers of 50 GB. Because Blu-ray players are backwards compatible, they will play regular DVDs. In addition, they will take a standard DVD and scale it from 480 lines of resolution to 1,080 lines to make it look high definition. About 175 movie titles are available in Blu-ray format.

Another format in DVD players is HD DVD, or High Definition DVD, which plays high-definition DVDs. HD DVDs offer six times the resolution of regular DVDs and more audio capacity, up to 7.1 Surround Sound.

The advantage of Blu-ray over HD DVD is that it stores more information. Blu-Ray offers a 1,080p output as opposed to HD DVD, which has a 1080i output. The "p" stands for progressive, meaning you will see all 1080 lines of resolution at the same time. The "i" stands for interlace, which means you will see 540 lines interlaced with another 540 lines. A "p" picture offers better quality than an "i" picture, he said.

Coming soon: At the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 8-11, in Las Vegas, LG announced a DVD player that will play both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Subwoofers

When choosing the speakers for your home theater, don't forget the subwoofer.

"When they make a movie, they use lots of low base," he said. "All movies should be played through a subwoofer to reproduce sound."

Subwoofers come in different sizes, and Pflanz Electronics recommends subwoofers based on the size of the customer's room.

Speaker placement

Pflanz Electronics offers in-home consultations to see the home theater room and advise customers where speakers should be for optimum effect. He said speakers are now available that can be placed in the ceiling. Called Application speakers, they aim the tweeter at the listening area.

"Having the speakers in the ceiling is more aesthetically pleasing. Free-standing speakers will still sound better, but many people don't like them standing around," he said.

For people who want the sound of free-standing speakers, there's good news. Most speakers today are smaller. It used to be that speaker cabinets were 12-18 inches wide and did not require a subwoofer. Today, speakers can be very small because they just have the mid-range and tweeter, and use a separate subwoofer.

Lighting

Another essential element of a home theater is the lighting. Pflanz Electronics sells a graphic eye device by Lutron that will give you different scenes of lighting. To watch a movie, you can make the room totally dark or make it so that there's a little bit of light. Just touch the screen on the control system's remote control, and you can turn on all the equipment, dim the lights, and switch everything to the right input.

Pflanz Electronics is located at 415 Pavonia St. in Sioux City. For more information about their electronics products and services, call (712) 252-4507 or visit them online at http://www.pflanzzone.com.