The Ultimate Home Theatre - the Hardware you Need
By Julie Hawrishok
If there's one room in your home that needs to be top-of-the-line, it's your home theatre. Today's systems are about much more than just a big-screen television, though those are still quite important. Your home theatre should engage nearly all of your senses in complete overload. Feast your eyes upon a High Definition TV, feel the deep bass rumble your suede seat and listen to the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows careen from your speakers. Forget about those outdated "Home Theatre in a Box" scams; to do this properly, you need to invest in each component separately. RICH GUY has sorted through the products and compiled a handy overview of the best of the best for you. Embrace your latent couch potato and start your set-up!
Televisions
Your television will obviously become the focal point of your home theatre. You want to ensure that the image quality is good and that no one will be forced to squint while watching TV. Sometimes bigger is better. However, with high quality TVs, a few inches might not make much of a difference. Why can't everything in life be like that? RICH GUY took a look at three TVs to see how they measured up.
1. BIG: Sony Bravia (XBR KDL-V40XBR1)
The Bravia, Sony's seventh-generation flat panel LCD TV demands respect. Built with the popular and powerful WEGA engine system, this newest television delivers a high-quality picture from any video source. However, right now, 40" is the biggest you can get.
Featured highlights:
Sony's Digital Reality Creation Palette allows viewers to customize the level of detail and smoothness to create a customized picture that is optimized for signal quality, viewing conditions and personal preference.
Full HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner for over-the-air HD reception
16:9 aspect ratio with a PC input means the TV is as versatile as you are
Price:
Set it up today for about $4,499.99.1. BIGGER: HP Pavilion Plasma (PL4200N)
HP makes televisions? They sure do. With a history rooted in photo imaging, it's not surprising to see this company's feature-rich TV create vibrant colors via the plasma technology. RICH GUY took a look at the 42".
Featured highlights:
Integrated Digital HDTV/Analog tuner-get HD shows from cable and off-air sources. Ultra-long lifespan - up to 60,000 hours. Vivid and high-detail picture with over 8.58 billion colors.
The extras: plenty of connectivity inputs, integrated digital photo viewer, CableCARD and HDMI port
Price: Yours for about $3,499.99
2. BIGGEST: Panasonic Plasma (TH-50PX500U)
Fifty inches of plasma with a 16:9 aspect ratio ... Will you ever have to go to a commercial theatre again? Maybe not if you add this new eighth-generation plasma panel to your wall.
Featured highlights:
Integrated picture-in-picture, a VGA-style PC input, a front-panel A/V input and SD memory card slot make this television a threat to other technology
Over 8.58 billion colors and 2,048 shades of gradation mean that your picture will be realistic with excellent black levels
HD ready, CableCARD and 3D color management add to the viewing experience
Price: Pick one up for about $5,999.99.
Speakers
While you might not ever replicate the "Deep Note" of THX trailers, you can at least come close. Sound is of great importance for your home theatre. Just think about bass: firm, tight, round, voluptuous and accurate. It's hard to say no to that. You definitely don't want to scrimp on your sound set-up; this is a time when you actually want to feel vibrations. Take a look at the following and see what strikes a chord.
3. LOUD: Polk Audio RM6900 Speaker System
This system comes ready for 5.1-play but separate satellites are available for 6.1 or 7.1-channel set-ups. Polk's been redesigning their merchandise and the result is this sleek-looking speaker set-up.
Highlighted specs:
Satellites feature PowerPort Bass Vents hidden under the grilles to extend and strengthen their lower-midrange performance for a seamless blend with the subwoofer output. 12-inch, 100-watt powered thin-profile subwoofer. Tweeters are 1 - 3/4" Silk/Polymer Composite Dome.
Price: Approximately $1,499.95
4. LOUDER: Bose Acoustimass 16
Bose's flagship 6.1-channel speaker system could quite possibly actually blow your socks off. Created to minimize any sound distortion, Bose has also made this system stylish: pick from three colors to match your décor perfectly.
Highlighted specs:
2.5 inch tweeter and 100 watts of subwoofer power. Innovative Acoustimass module uses proprietary Bose technology to move low tones into the room on a column of air. While only six inches tall, the Direct/Reflecting cube speaker arrays can recreate almost any sound without distortion.
Price: Find this system at about $1,799.99
5. LOUDEST Infinity Modulus II
Infinity's Modulus II series is intended for movie and music use; the reproduction of sound from digital sources reinforces this notion. Infinity engineers worked hard to create and patent special Ceramic Metal Matrix Diaphragm (CMMD) transducer material to perfect the sound - and the look.
Highlighted specs:
Simple design with 5.1-channel set up; four 2-way satellites, each with a 4.00" midrange and 0.75" tweeter; a 2-way center channel with dual 4.00" midranges; a 0.75" tweeter; and a 12", 300-watt powered subwoofer.
Infinity's Room Adaptive Bass Optimization System delivers a pure and neutral sound that shouldn't distort, regardless of the sound level
Compact and efficient satellites can be wall- mounted or used standing upright.
Price: This system retails for about $1,999.99
Media Centers
The guts of a home theatre have evolved over the years. In the primitive days, VCRs and Laserdiscs (remember those?) were popular in basement rec-rooms. Finally DVD players emerged and game consoles which acted as DVD players soon took permanent residence in living rooms across the world. Now, a new standard is here: Media Centre PCs. It's no longer considered too geeky to have a Media Center PC in your home theatre - in fact, it's pretty much expected. Check out the Media Center PCs that we looked at and find one that works for you.
6. BIG AND FAST: HP z555
It's black, brushed aluminum so right away this HP machine gets points for 'slickness.' But once you hook this up (easily, through any number of possible connections,) you'll see why this is all the rage.
Featured highlights:
Completely custom TV with three high-performance TV tuners (two standard-definition, one ATSC over-the-air high-definition) and a personal video recorder (PVR) let you pause, replay and record from cable, digital cable, digital satellite, or over-the-air TV.
250 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, 3 GHz, Pentium 4 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card and a DVD±RW dual layer drive make this machine all you need in your home theatre.
Built-in 802.11b and 802.11g wireless plus a TV tuner input means you might never have to leave your house again.
Packaged with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Operating System
Price: Pick one up today for about $2,699.99.
7. BIGGER AND FASTER: Sony Vaio RC110G
Sony's Media Center PC comes with enough power for all your demanding home theatre needs. The tower design supports higher specifications and maximizes cooling efficiency.
Featured highlights:
The Intel Pentium D processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive means this PC will run quickly, smoothly and with the ability to store almost as much recorded TV or other data as you want
Includes a ATI RADEON X300 graphics card for serious gamers
Packaged with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Operating System as well as other software including Adobe products, Roxio products and Microsoft Works
Price: About $1,799.99.
8. BIGGEST AND FASTEST: S1Digital Media Center Platinum HDTV Edition
S1Digital has stepped up to the plate to create one of the fastest media center PCs around. Built to fit nicely into a home theatre, this system gives you everything you need to complete your at-home system.
Featured highlights:
A Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz processor makes this center lightning fast. The 320 GB hard drive gives you ample space to record on-air HD TV programs.
Download movies, listen to Internet radio, get ready for the XBOX 360 readiness, up-convert DVDs all from the same box ... whatever you want to do, just do it.
Packaged with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Operating System
Price: Check it out for about $2,499.00.