Thursday, April 18, 2013

What do I need to buy for surround sound system?

Q. I want to add decent surround sound to my HDtv. But I have no idea what equipment I need. What are the basic components I should get? Thanks!

A. There are two sets of surround sound system for home use. One called a home theater in a box, which includes everything you need either in the dvd or blu ray. Home theater in a box is not flexible for adding or upgrading down the road. Also if one item breaks down the whole system goes down. The other solution is the receiver and speaker set up, which is a better choice. You can upgrade any item down the road. The system will either be in the 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound set up. Keep in mind that the only 7.1 source is the blu ray disc movies and not all are in 7.1. Here is a system you should look at. The Onkyo HT-S6200 for around $600, it is a 7.1 receiver and a 7.1 speaker set up. Add the Panasonic BD-60 or the Sony PS3 (both are the best entry level blu ray disc player) and you have a nice system. Go online to Home Theater Magazine and read the reviews on H.T.in B. or receivers that might interest you. It has been my main source for the last 30 years. Hope this will help you out.


What is the best projector I can get for price?
Q. I need a projector for watching HDTV, DVDs and playing PS2 and Wii, what is the best projector I can get for doing this.
My price range is between £500 - £750 inc VAT

Also what types of spec should I be looking for when choosing a projector for the above use?

A. It's the Mitsubishi HD1000U. It's true 720p HD projector with HDMI and Component inputs, 2500:1 contrast ratio and 1500 lumens. It costs 900 USD, so I don't how many pounds that is.

Here where you get it.

http://www.projectorpeople.com/projectors/projdtls.asp?itemid=21278&itmname=Mitsubishi+HD1000U

And here's a review of it. It won the Editors choice award.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/mitsubishi_hd1000u.htm

I bought one about 4 months ago as my first projector and it's amazing. It's definetly the way to go for a first time buyer like myself.

The specs you should look for are

Contrast Ratio: It's the ratio of light to dark and the higher the better...anything above 2000:1 is good

lumens. This is tricky, because it's not just the higher the better. The HD1000U has 1500 lumens, but when watching you're average movie, it only puts out about 600. That's because movies are inherently dark and you have to watch them in almost total darkness to begin with. This brings up a big issue....the room you want the projector in has to be almost total darkness to really let the picture shine. If you have a lot a windows, forget about watching anything on it during the day.

Also, make sure you get a Home Theater projector, not a business projector. Do the research to get the projector you want. The website projectorcentral.com has a lot of articles and reviews about all kinds of projectors. Go over that website a lot and you'll be set.


What is the maximum refresh rate of satellite broadcasting?
Q. I heard it's lower then 600 hz. If this is true, what's the point of buying a tv that advertises 600hz?

A. Haha, yeah it seems odd, doesn't it? What it is though is an apples and oranges thing...maybe apples, oranges and lemons.
The 600hz doesn't refer to the content, it's about what the screen displays (even that is too simple an explanation, see below). So to answer your question first, things shot on film and animation are usually 24 frames per second. Traditional video is about 30 (NTSC regions) or 25 (PAL regions). The hdtv standard goes up to 60 or 50 fps.

The refresh rate on the screen is how many unique images it can show per second. In this case, it's 60 fields. But Plasma tv pixels don't just come on and stay on (as lcd pixels do), they flash. So when plasma manufacturers advertise 600hz, they're saying each field is flashed 10 times. It's called a "sub-field" rate.

So the real feature is that each field is flashed so fast that you won't perceive flicker. Movie theatres do the same thing. If they just showed 24 fps, it would flicker terribly so they show each frame 2 or 3 times (24fps x 3 = 72hz).
I don't know how many sub-field flashes you need to eliminate perceived flicker but 600 is likely a lot more than you need (so if we start seeing 1200hz, I'm going to roll my eyes :) )
Manufacturers probably started advertising sub-field rates to make it sound better than 120hz lcd when they're not really describing the same thing.

Here's an article that explains sub-field rates in more detail:
http://hometheater.about.com/od/televisionbasics/qt/What_A_Plasma_TV_Sub-Field_Drive_Is.htm





Powered by Yahoo! Answers

No comments:

Post a Comment