Space has become the final frontier when dealing with many things on this planet rather than off. In our homes, space is often a premium, particularly that oh so valuable floor space that is always inviting something to occupy it. The good news is that they surround sound systems of today have gone a long way towards conquering the old dilemma of needing too much prime real estate in your living room, media room, or home theater. While floor speakers still offer a superior sound in many cases over the satellite speakers that have traditionally been on the market technology is evolving and the quality of these smaller systems is rapidly catching up to the quality of their bulkier predecessors.
It seems that retailers are growing savvy to a problem that is rapidly becoming a worldwide problem, especially in the age of modern technology. People have more stuff and yet we seem to have less space in which to put all that great stuff. For this reason, there has been a recent trend of making things smaller, slimmer, stream lined, and most importantly when it comes to surround sound systems, portable. The invention of wireless speakers for surround sound systems that can sit on shelves or be hung on the walls is one of the greatest advances we’ve seen in sound technology in the last few years.
Even better is the fact that competition is fierce in this particular market which actually works to keep prices lower than they would be if there weren’t so many companies competing for your business. If space is your biggest limitation when it comes to purchasing a surround sound system for your home, you no longer have to put off enjoying the theater quality sound you’ve desired for your movie viewing pleasure. You can now have the best of both worlds: sound and space, and live with the results. The quality of these smaller surround sound systems is quite good if you take the time to know what you are getting before you buy.
In addition to the great space saving ability of these smaller systems, you can also find some real bargains if you opt to purchase a ‘home theater in a box’ or surround sound systems as a set rather than individual components. I’ve always been one to shy away from the box sets from fear of inferior quality (which has been true in the past). I’m proud to say that I am now a convert as I have watched even my favorite brands (and quality that I trust) leap into the box system market. I have also noticed the much nicer price tag associated with purchasing systems rather than buying individual components and the savings are significant.
In other words, these systems are not only saving space but are also saving money. You can’t really argue with that kind of a deal when your limitations may have been limited to money and space in the past. If you happen to be worried about power you really shouldn’t. Quality is still important in your speakers, it will always be of monumental importance but you will not need nearly the amplification in a small room that a larger room or theater would require. This means that these smaller systems really are ideal for the space that you have.
When space is your limitation we live in a world where creating more space is next to impossible now and really will be impossible in the future as the amount of space we have is finite and the population continues to grow and take up more of that valuable space. Our best bet is to learn to maximize and utilize the space we have. Making speakers smaller, more easily portable (by being wireless), and allowing them to hang on walls or sit on shelves rather than occupying valuable floor space we are making the most of what we have and are still able to enjoy some of the good things in life we desire.
Nicholas Tan
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/surround-sound-space-saving-surround-sound-solutions-726717.html
The Home Theatre Projector has some handy features compared to the older technology of Giant Screen Plasma or rear projection systems. Cost alone is worth considering. A ‘Big Screen’, whether Plasma, LCD or Rear Projection can easily cost thousands of dollars, the larger, the higher cost. Even at 6 or 7 thousand dollars you may be restricted to 70 inch diagonal width.
A Home Theatre Projector System which projects images up to 120 inches is affordable at starting prices under $1500.
New generation of projectors are compact and light. New projector technologies such as LCD projectors or DLP projectors which utilize compact digital image chips which have brighter light output than CRT technologies. Now there’s no need to completely see your movie in total darkness. A dimly lit room will do just as fine.
Remember having to arrange a party at your house for ‘The Big Game’ if you owned a ‘Big Screen’. Now with a Projector, there’s no need to rush somewhere, or the same spot every week, you can move the party around sort of sharing the load. Think of having the ‘Super Bowl Party’ or other event at a venue that can be picked by the size of the group invited instead of the location of the ‘Big Screen’. You could even move to rented space if you expected a large enough showing.
Now imagine the same scenario with an online presentation, or Power Point Presentation. See, this is starting to show some possibilities.
You can setup on a table. It’s also light enough that it could be ceiling mounted without extra bracing as long as you mount to an upper floor joist or rafter.
Don’t tell anyone I said this, but this is also a possibility when you go on vacation, although if camping some may feel the ‘Big Screen’ is inappropriate. I know someone that might shoot me if I suggested camping with any form of TV.
A wide range of connectivity options is available. Imagine your PC display that large. Games become more engrossing or you can run your digital photos as the ultimate slide show.
For Display output you can use an actual projection screen or just a clean wall.
If you think about your normal existing Entertainment System, most of the hardware is in the front of the viewer. To have some of your equipment in a different location required cabling. Some surround installations run cables under the floor or carpet for speakers. You would think that possibly a projector would require something similar.
Nowadays though we have all in one home theatre with speakers and DVD player thrown in together in one unit. There are also wireless options, wireless projectors and wireless speaker systems. A wireless setup actually allows you to have most of the hardware in a completely different room from the ‘Viewing Enclosure’.
Some have even gone to the point of building an acoustically designed, sound proof viewing room with theatre seating and the whole deal. Modern Hardware allows for the ‘Theatre Experience’ without the noise and sticky floors. All of this depends on your budget of course. My budget stops short of the acoustically perfect viewing room. You are allowed to make your own choices.
C R Ellsworth
http://www.articlesbase.com/electronics-articles/a-home-theatre-projector-57136.html
A wireless speaker home theater system allows you the freedom to place your speakers anywhere in a room without having to figure out how to hide the speaker wires.
There are two types of wireless speaker home theater systems – add-on systems and integrated systems.
Add-On Wireless Home Theater System
If you already have a home theater system you can purchase an add-on system consisting of a transmitter, a receiver, and surround-sound speakers if you don’t already have them.
The transmitter is connected to the home theater amplifier and sends out the audio signal to a receiver. The receiver, which is connected to the rear speakers, picks up the signal from the transmitter and sends it to those speakers.
Most wireless home theater systems have front speakers and a subwoofer that are connected to the amplifier with audio cables, and rear speakers that are connected to the receiver to create surround-sound audio.
You can purchase a decent amplifier/receiver system for less than $100.
Integrated Wireless Home Theater System
If you’re in the market for a new wireless home theater system, you can purchase a complete system consisting of an amplifier with built-in transmitter, a front center speaker, two front side speakers, a subwoofer, and two rear surround-sound speakers. Some systems also include a DVD player.
Prices for an integrated wireless home theater system start at $175 and go up to $2,000.
Comparing Wireless Home Theater Systems
The best way to get the best price on a wireless home theater system is to try them out in person, then go comparison shopping online.
Start by taking a trip to your local discount or electronics store so you can try out the various wireless home theater system models. Test the controls and listen to the models in your price range until you find the one you like best.
After you find a system you like, go home, fire up your computer, and start comparison shopping online.
Comparing models and prices at an online comparison shopping site will save you countless hours of going store to store or surfing all the Internet stores. Here, in one place, you can find prices for everything under the sun from hundreds of online and offline stores.
The comparison shopping site I use will not only give you a price comparison on wireless home theater systems, it will also give you product specifications, reviews by audio experts, and consumer reviews by people who actually own the product so you’ll know how good the system is.
When you find the store with the lowest price, you can get consumer reviews of that store so you’ll know if it’s reputable and will give you good service.
Some stores even have a lowest-price guarantee so if you find a better price later you can get a rebate on the price difference from that store.
I’ve purchased a number of high-ticket items this way and have always gotten good service and a great price.
Visit the http://www.TheSatelliteTVGuide.com/home-theater-systems.htm to get more information, to compare prices, and to get consumer ratings for home theater systems.
The author, Brian Stevens, is the senior editor for TheSatelliteTVGuide.com and has written a number of articles on home theater systems.
ryan@thesatellitetvguide.com
http://www.articlesbase.com/electronics-articles/get-a-wireless-home-theater-system-at-the-best-price-possible-84313.html
One of the first mistakes new owners of surround sound systems make is playing around with the audio setup and not knowing what they are adjusting. This happens every time someone gets a new “toy”, it’s almost human nature, to tweak something, even if you do not know what you are doing. I did the same. This articles will explain how to setup your new surround sound audio settings. A quick note, before you make any adjustments, make sure to note what the original settings were on your system, so that you may be able to return to the manufactures default.
Welcome to your new surround sound system, it has lots of setting available to it, it may or may not have come with speakers and it has lots of interesting labels on it to tell you the formats it supports and you have no idea what it all means. Do not worry, you’ll get used to it soon enough.
Settings.
First a quick note: This article is going to be referring to generalizations, because different manufactures call their features by different names, so refer to your manual to find your manufactures equivalent to the feature described.
Independent speaker volume adjustment. This adjustment allows you to make fine tuning adjustments to each speaker independent from one another. Adjustments are normally made in decibels (db) with a positive or negative number to reduce or increase volume across one or more speakers. This feature gets abused by many new owners of surround sound systems, most people will crank up the surrounds so that they get the full surround experience. The rear surround speakers are where the special effects are played. What listeners are actually doing when they crank up the rear speakers is distorting how the surround is played. This is not how the movie is supposed to sound, directors already optimize how the surround is supposed to be played, they want their viewers to be amazed by the realism of the movie. When you crank up the rear speakers, you are taking the sound out of context.
How to adjust. This one is simple, keep all the volumes the same. If you have to make an adjustment of any kind because of speaker weakness, adjust it to 1 db (decibels) above the front speakers. Sometimes if you are having trouble following the dialog, then adjust the center speaker to 1 or 2 db’s (decibels) above normal. I personally keep all volumes at 0 adjustment db (no adjustment at all). This is most manufactures default, but not all, so check to see if they are adjusted to the same volume.
DRC. Dynamic Range Control. This adjustment allows your surround sound to adjust the volumes itself during extra loud or extra low volume scenes of a movie. It is a great feature that Dolby brought to audio. I just love this feature. When you are watching a movie late at night and do not want to disturb your neighbors, DRC is what you are looking for. This is how it works. When encoding the DVD, a sound engineer will program the audio track for a normalized audio range. If the movie exceeds this volume range, DRC kicks in and lowers the volume to the normalized range of the whole move. This means that an explosion will not vibrate your walls and that a whisper in the dialog will be able to be heard.
DRC is normally used for nighttime listening because of its volume controlling nature. If you do not want to wake your kids at night when watching a movie, then turn on DRC. If you want the full audio range of a movie during the day, then turn off DRC.
Speaker existence. Some surround sound systems have this feature which allow you to tell the player whether a speaker is installed or not. If one of your speakers is not installed or has blown out, the make sure to tell the surround sound that the speaker does not exist. Many systems will try to adjust for the lack of that speaker. If at all possible, install all of the speakers and replace any blown speakers.
Distance. Distance is a measure of how far away the speakers are from the listener sweet spot. Please view my article on speaker placement before you adjust this feature. Distance from the listener translates to speaker delay. Since you want the sounds to approach you in the manner that the director intended, it is best to adjust the speaker distance so that the sounds will arrive at the same time. The setting is simple, take a measuring tape and measure the distance in a straight show from the speaker to the listener. Do this measurement for all speakers and adjust your distance accordingly.
Sometimes the distance feature is measured just in delay times or the feature itself may be called delay and the settings may be cryptic or measured in ms (milliseconds). The rule of thumb for this is 1 ms delay for every 1 foot of distance. For example if you sat 15 feet away from a speaker, the adjust that delay to 15ms. Sound travels approximately 1 foot per millisecond.
Prologic vs. Prologic II vs Dolby Digital.
Prologic and Prologic II are Dolby features. Prologic II is an enhanced version of Prologic. In fact Prologic II has a setting to make it work like Prologic. Prologic and Prologic II both process 2 channel audio to turn it into a simulated surround sound. However it is a simulated surround sound or virtual surround sound. It is a great feature! Take a normal stereo cd or stereo movie and it will transform into a great audio experience, however it is not true surround sound. For that you need Dobly Digital, however Dolby Digital is not a converter, Prologic and Prologic II are. This of couse is the dumbed down version. The technical specifications are on Dolby site.
Here’s a quick chart.
MEDIA USES
DVD Movie (with a Dolby Digital soundtrack) Dolby Digital
DVD Movie (stereo soundtrack) Prologic and Prologic II
CD (Stereo or Mono) Prologic and Prologic II
Prologic and Prologic II Settings. Prologic and Prologic II takes a mono or stereo signal and phase shifts the signal to the rear speakers. In mono this means that all the speakers will play the same audio, in stereo, the front left and front right speakers are duplicated (matrixed) to the rear speakers using a mathematical formula. Then end result sounds great, but remember it is still not surround sound, just simulated surround.
A quick note: Prologic II is backwards compatable with Prologic, Meaning that all Prologic media will play on a Prologic II processor.
Prologic does not have settings, but Prologic II does.
Pro Logic – It offers users the robust surround processing of the original Pro Logic which has mono surround channels and a 7KHz surround filter
Virtual – Is usually used when Pro Logic II is connected to a virtual process for speaker use.
Movie – It can be called “Pro Logic II”. It has stereo surround channels and no surround filter, unlike Pro Logic which has a mono surround channels and a 7KHz surround filter. Movie mode is the standard required for all A/V systems.
Matrix – It’s the same as the Music mode except that the directional enhancement logic is turned off. It may be used to enhance mono signals by making them seem “larger”.
Music – Is recommended as the mode for sound music systems stereo CD’s (without video)
Prologic II Music Mode. Pro Logic II Music Mode Sound Effects are available when the player is in Music Mode. The settings found in it are:
Dimension – A simple control that alters the ratio of L+R to L-R for the two channel input signals. It allows the user to gradually adjust the soundtrack either towards the front or towards the rear. If a recording is too spacious or strong from the surrounds, it can be adjusted “forward” to get a better balance. Likewise, if a stereo recording sounds too mono, it can be adjusted toward the rear to get a more enveloping sound.
Panorama – Extends the front stereo image to include the surround speakers for a wraparound effect.
Center Width Control – With Pro Logic decoding, dominant center signals can come only from the center speaker. If no center speaker is present, the decoder splits the center signals equally to the left and right speakers to create a “phantom” center image. The Center Width control allows adjustments of the center image so it may be heard only from the center speaker; only from the left/right speakers as a phantom image; or from all three front speakers to varying degrees.
Other Audio Setting to deal with stereo signals found on Surround Sound Systems.
3 Stereo – produces three channels (front left, center, front right) of sound from a two channel analog signal. It is not a surround format and does not use the surround speakers.
Soundfield Effects – Digital Soundfield Effects recreates the effects of sounds reflected from walls or ceilings to obtain the sound presence of real environments, basically this enhances a stereo soundtrack to sound like you are in a particular environment.
- Stadium: recreates a large stadium using very long reflection times.
- Stage: recreates a stage environment, increasing sound from the front speakers.
- Hall: recreates a hall using lots of reflection. Suitable for orchestral music such as classical and opera.
- Disco: recreates the disco or club music effect.
- Live: suitable for all types of music.
About the dot numbers
2.0, 2.1, 3.0,4.0, 5.1,6.1,7.1 and probably many other numbers all really mean the same thing; number of speakers and number of sub-woofers, separated by a period. As you may guess 2.0 means a standard stereo and 2.1 is a stereo with a sub-woofer. 3.0 is a stereo and center channel 3.1 is stereo and center channel with a sub-woofer. 4.0 is a quadraphonic system, now obsolete, however still has a strong following. 5.1 is a standard surround sound system with a front left, front right, center, left surround, right surround and a sub-woofer. 6.1 and 7.1 are a new type of speaker setup that has the same speakers as a 5.1, however it adds a rear channel much like the center channel for the front speakers. 6.1 has one rear speakers and 7.1 has 2 rear speakers.
Natural SurroundScape Surround Sound Nature DVD’s
Andrew Dansby
http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/surround-sound-audio-setup-482538.html
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I think that having straight cable is preferred, at least in my opinion. You have less problems of frequency interference running to your surround speakers, don’t have to worry about battery, if it has that capability, or looking for a power supply outlet.
kef has a good model(UK only) , but speakers are not truly wireless, they most often need a power cord. Best bet is to go to the extra effort. Better sound will be the result
Hi, i have a daenyx lcd tv with a built in dvd player. I have my surround sound hooked up fine for the tv, however, when i play a dvd, the surround sound doesn’t work. Please help!
The TV your asking about was a low end TV sold in Canada a year or so ago. It had a serve problem and most ended up in repair shops. They were taken off the market shortly after. If your one of the lucky few that has one of these TV in working order??? Congratulation.
Next… Lets try getting some sound out of that TV when you play a DVD.
Most TV with built in DVD players well have a digital Optical output on the back. This output is there to allow you to send the digital surround (Dolby digital and or DTS) to your surround system.
Most surround system have some kind of input. Look up this info in you user’s manual.
Once you have this hooked up… Using your TV remote… Go into the Menu and find the setup for the DVD. Make sure you turn the digital output on and have it set to bitstreem and or Dolby digital. some even have a setting to turn on DTS audio.
Once this is done you need to find the input button on your surround sound system that allows you to use the digital signal. It might be DVD, Aux, or something similar
This should get you up and going.
hope this helped.
