Let’s all go to the lobby

Life

1 April 2005

DVD drives, advanced graphics and sound cards may have brought movies to the desktop PC but the experience is still a world away from real home cinema. Let’s face it, sitting at your 17-in PC monitor surrounded by a half a dozen tiny speakers is not going to have the local cinema owner worrying about falling attendance. But if watching the latest DVD films on your desktop has given you a taste for big screen action in the comfort of your own living room, then it’s time to investigate a dedicated home entertainment system.

Marrying a widescreen TV with a DVD player, AV amplifier and six, seven or even eight speakers will bring movies to life. From the hardcore monsterfest of Blade II to the chuckles of Monsters Inc, a well chosen and well set-up home entertainment system can involve you in a film like the director intended—and often more so than your local multiplex cinema.

Better still, a good home entertainment system is not just for playing DVD movies. All DVD-based systems will play normal stereo CD music and a large percentage of TV programmes are now broadcast in widescreen with Dolby ProLogic surround sound. This includes many of the most popular soaps, which may help persuade more sceptical family members that a room full of electronics and a large dent in the credit card is a worthwhile investment.

Dedicated DVD

While your PC DVD ROM drive will play movie discs, the chances are it doesn’t do it with any amount of finesse. Dedicated DVD players on the other hand are designed specifically to produce the best sound and picture and offer user-friendly features accessible from the sofa.

Choosing a DVD player can be a complex task as prices range from under €150 to the bank manager unfriendly side of €7,500. Thankfully, the difference is largely one of ultimate quality rather than features. Look for models that can playback CD R and RW discs if you burn your own CDs and some models will also play MP3 files burnt onto CD.

Although most DVD players have a host of fancy features, don’t be too swayed by the gadgets and gizmos. Almost every player on the market has features like zoom, freeze frame, and several fast forward/rewind options along with the ability to swap language and viewing angles if the discs allow—fun to play with but not half as much fun as top quality picture and sound.

While all DVD players have an optical digital output to connect the audio signal to your AV amplifier, models that have twin scart sockets will be useful if you also intend to have a set-top-box in your home entertainment system. For the ultimate in picture quality look for models that have component video connections, although you will need a similarly equipped TV or projector.

Unlike a DVD ROM drive, domestic DVD players are also regionally encoded. This prevents UK models (region 2) from playing DVDs imported from the US (region 1). However, simple mods can be done to most players to remove this regional coding so look out for DVD players labelled “multi-region”.

Big screen entertainment

Size is important. Well, in home entertainment at least. The larger the viewing screen the more of your peripheral vision will be taken up by the picture and the more emotionally involved you will become in the film. This is why IMAX-style cinemas with screens that wrap around the audience are so effective in fooling the senses.

While 270degree screens are not possible in the home, a 28-in widescreen TV is a good place to start. Super slim LCD models are currently moving into this screen size with absolutely spectacular picture quality. Unfortunately the trade off is that they cost as much as a 32-in normal TV. You pays your money and takes your choice.

For larger rooms the minimum screen size should be a 32-in model and many top manufacturers now make traditional TVs up to 36-in. These look great but weigh a tonne and take up a lot of space.

Like DVD players, fancy features and on-board surround sound are pretty much irrelevant in a proper home entertainment system. However, models with picture enhancing features like 100hz, progressive scan and motion adaptive picture processing, such as Philip’s excellent Pixel Plus TVs, are well worth a look.

If domestic harmony will stretch to 40-in plus screens, a rear projection model or better still a plasma display is the answer. Rear projection TVs offers a lot of inches for your buck (er… euro) but compared to traditional tube TVs the picture quality is generally softer and colours more muted. With superb looking 40 and 42-in plasma panels dropping in price (some now less than €4,000), a slimline plasma TV is the ultimate in home entertainment chic.

If you are intending to make your home entertainment system a real cinema in the home, a projector is the only answer. LCD and DLP (digital light processing) projectors get more affordable by the year, and coupled with a proper drop-down screen, can give excellent images up to a staggering four metres across.

Whatever display device you choose, make sure it has enough scart sockets or s-video inputs for all your input sources, and a component video input if you have a high end DVD player to drive it.

Just watt you need

If you are going to get cinema realistic volume levels of surround sound in the home, you need a good AV amplifier with some serious wattage. All modern AV amplifiers and receivers (those with built-in radio tuners) will decode the surround sound formats you need and have at least five channels of amplification. The decision on which AV amp to buy then comes down to sound quality and features.

Initially decide whether you can stand the extra speakers and cabling required for a 7.1 channel system. It is not absolutely essential for good home entertainment but, if you are a perfectionist, look for an amp with seven channels of amplification and “EX” decoding. Of course, if you find a 7.1 channel amplifier you can always add the extra speakers at a later date.

Power figures for amplifiers are always a point of some debate as there are several methods of measuring power output, each giving different results. Most major manufacturers now stick to measuring power output at full audio range (20Hz to 20KHz) driving a standard 8ohm impedance speaker. However, craftier makers might use a test tone or lower impedance speaker to improve their figures on paper. If in doubt—ask to see the technical specs in the manual.

Good connectivity and ease-of-use are also vital ingredients of an AV amp that you may use everyday. Make sure there are enough inputs to cater for all your potential sources and that there is a multi-channel input. This suite of connections is a must-have to future proof your system and caters for new surround sound sources such as DVD-Audio and SACD multi-channel.

While shopping for an AV amp online would seem the obvious choice to many, there really is no substitute for getting to a specialist dealer. The variety of sound “styles” of AV amplifiers ranges from light, airy and detailed to down right heavy and aggressive, with many models favouring certain genres of film. Take your favourite DVDs down to your local retailer and try before you buy—they will be more than happy to help.

Surrounded by sound

There are a number of factors to consider when buying a surround sound speaker package but bitter experience has shown that the most important is domestic harmony. There is no point in ordering seven floor standing speakers the size of pay-phone boxes if another member of the household is likely to become apoplectic when you have to bin the sofa to get them in the living room.

A basic surround sound set up consists of a traditional stereo pair of speakers placed either side of the TV, a magnetically shielded centre channel speaker just below or just above the screen and a pair of surround sound speakers at the rear. New 7.1 channel formats use another pair of speakers at very back of the room, but these are by no means essential.

When choosing speakers, a good place to start is by listening to a main stereo pair, particularly if your home entertainment system will be used for both music and movies. Once you have picked the main speakers, the rest is easy. The trick with multi-channel sound is making sure all of your speakers have a similar sound, so simply buy the manufacturer’s matching centre and surround sound speakers.

If you have plenty of space and sympathetic co-habitees, larger speakers will generally produces a richer more dynamic sound with a higher maximum volume. Smaller speakers, often called satellites, and the new flat-panel NXT-type speakers cannot reproduce low bass frequencies so you are going to need a sub-woofer to make sure all-action explosions don’t sound like damp squibs.

Sub-woofers combine a large bass-driver and an amplifier in the same cabinet, creating an active speaker that only produces low frequency sounds. As the human ear is pretty weak at working out the direction of low bass sounds (ever tried pin pointing where thunder is coming from?) it doesn’t matter where you place the sub in the room. So you can achieve excellent surround sound with five small speakers and a sub-woofer tucked down beside the sofa.

Contacts:

Philips: +353(0)1-764 0000 • www.philips.com/pcstuff

Sony: +353 (0)1-413 1700 • www.sonycentres.ie

Brown Thomas: +353 (0)1-605 6666

HM Entertainment: +353 (0)1-661 3950

Richer Sounds: +353 (0)1-671 9666 • www.richersounds.ie

Currys: +353 (0)91-536 700 (Galway) • +353 (0)1-802 5757 (Dublin)

Pioneer: +353 (0)1-662 3600

Bang & Olufsen: +353 (0)1-260 2404

ESB: +353 (0)1-820 5644

JVC: +353 (0)1-409 4920

Panasonic: +353 (0)1-413 5300

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