Related Links

Featured Links





Recommended Products



 

 
Featured Articles

Dish Network Company History
Dish Network Company History By Kate Ivy and Gary DavisDish Network Satellite TV.ws(Webmasters - you may freely use this article in your newsletter or website, providingyou re-print the article exactly as it appears, including the Byline, Bio and links ...

Hdtv
As many of you already know, one of the highest quality television sets on the market today is an HDTV set. This stands for high definition television. I know that many of us have heard of this product, but how many people really know what it means? With ...

Why You Should Buy A Plasma Television
The plasma television has many advantages and benefits for you and your entertainment needs and wants. The plasma tv gives you incredible picture quality, it has a sleek design, and it is HDTV compatible. Plasmas provide sharper images and more vibrant ...


Google
Buying a Home Theater Receiver
 

The first thing to think about is whether you want a receiver at all or would you be better off buying a separate decoder, amplifier, and tuner?

Despite being a more expensive route - not to mention the extra space needed - separates do have some advantages. You can pick and choose your own combination of components, can upgrade each component individually and won't lose all the functions if one piece develops a fault. On top of that, having each electronic component in a separate box does improve sound quality when compared with having them all on one circuit board.

However, the separates route is more expensive, more complicated and needs more space than buying a receiver. And for most people its uneccessary. Today's receivers do a very good job in all of their functions.

So what should should you look out for when buying a receiver? The first thing is to make sure that it has ll the inputs you need for the equipment you need to connect to it. Sounds obvious, but its very easy to overlook. As a mimimum it should have digital audio inputs (optical and co-axial) for Dolby Digital and/or DTS. It should also have analogue audio inputs for CD player, set-top box and possibly DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD player (the last two currently don't have digital outputs in order to make it less easy to pirate CDs).

You


should also consider whether you want to route all your video sources such as TV, DVD player, and games console through your receiver. Doing so means you can switch between sources from one controller, very easily. But if you want to do this you'll need to make sure the receiver you're interested in has enough video inputs. These could be S-Video or component inputs are best, or if you're in Europe, Scart. You should also make sure the video output from the receiver is of high quality, so again, it should be S-Video, component or Scart.

If you can test a receiver before you buy, its worth comparing the quality of a video signal from a DVD player when its connected directly to a display and comparing it with when its connected via the receiver. There shouldn't be any noticeable difference in quality.

The power rating of the amplifier is also important. The bigger the room you have for your home theater, the more power you'll need. And makes sure that the power rating is quoted in Watts per channel - the last thing you want is to get home with your 100Watt receiver and discover that its power is split between eight speakers in you 7.1 set-up. It's impossible to specify how powerful your amplifier should be, but if your home theater is in a reasonable-sized room, as opposed to an aircraft hanger, 100Watts per channel should be fine.

Finally, don't forget the remote control. It's the key interface between you and the reciever and you'll spend a lot of time using it. So make sure it's comfortable and straightforward to use. The last thing you want is to have to spend ages wading through on-screen menus to get what you want.

About the Author
Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner

News



Should I upgrade my CRT HDTV? (Morrison's Mailbag)
CNET (blog)
All but the most obscure channels are now available in 16x9 HDTV. Does your cable provider not offer them? If they do, and you're not paying for the HD channels from your cable/satellite provider, you should be. That's a waste of your HDTV.

and more »

HDTV Magazine

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #517: What is OLED and why do we care?
HDTV Magazine
by The HT Guys on February 9, 2012 One of the big hits at CES this year were the Samsung and LG OLED displays. Sure we've seen OLED TVs in the past, but they were 55” screens this year, and they looked great. But why all the hype?

and more »

2012 HDTV pricing leaks out for Panasonic, Sony, Sharp and Samsung
Engadget
By Richard Lawler posted Feb 9th 2012 10:58PM The madness of CES 2012 is long over and now that we've seen all of the new HDTVs, it's time to find out when they're actually going on sale, and for how much. HDGuru has just dug up advertised pricing for ...

and more »

Wired (blog)

'Apple HDTV' imagined in Best Buy survey: 42-inch model for $1499
The Verge
... that virtually every consumer-facing company does on a regular basis — but one thing stood out this time around: the very first product in this survey that Best Buy asks about is the oft-rumored Apple iTV, identified here as the "Apple HDTV.
Apple HDTV to cost $1499?CNET
Best Buy Explains Its Leaked Apple HDTV SurveyWired (blog)
42-Inch "Apple HDTV" Detailed in Best Buy Customer SurveyGizmodo
PC Magazine -Digitaltrends.com -Spacelab
all 247 news articles »

Is it Okay to Use an HDTV as a Computer Monitor?
Lifehacker
I've been debating between buying a new computer monitor or an HDTV to use with my PC. Since large monitors (say about 27 inches) are close to the prices of a decent sized HDTV (say 32 inches or smaller) which would you go with?

and more »