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The Cambridge SoundWorks Home Theater Primer

Twenty-five years ago, George Lucas introduced us to the incredible power of surround sound with Star Wars, the first movie with a Dolby Surround® soundtrack. Today, thanks to the work of audio and video engineers, you can enjoy all the spine-tingling sounds and awe-inspiring images of the movies in the comfort of your own living room.

It's called home theater, and it's a great time to get on the bandwagon. Prices for surround sound equipment have fallen dramatically. And two new technologies - Dolby Digital® 5.1 Surround (also known as AC-3™) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) players - have dramatically improved surround sound performance for home theaters.

What do I need to create a basic home theater system?

At Cambridge SoundWorks, we define basic home theater as the combination of a good picture with good sound. To get a good picture, you'll need a television with a high-resolution screen, video inputs, and a screen that measures at least 27" diagonally. To get good sound, you can simply connect your television to your current stereo. That's enough for a basic stereo home theater system. But most people who invest in home theater opt to go beyond the basics. Such a system includes a truly large TV (32" and larger), and the cornerstone of such a system, a surround receiver, to deliver true surround sound.

How do I get surround sound?

You'll need a receiver equipped with Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital sound (also known as AC-3) is divided into six discrete channels: left and right front, center, left and right surround and low a frequency subwoofer channel. Dolby Digital produces startlingly realistic theater audio, from crisp dialog to thrilling sound effects and lifelike ambient sound from DVDs. At the moment, only DVDs have the storage capacity needed for Dolby Digital. A new generation of satellite dish systems also offers Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Receivers with built in Dolby Digital decoders have all you need to produce digital sound. "Dolby Digital ready" receivers feature inputs for connecting to an external Dolby Digital decoder. Some DVD players feature a built-in Dolby Digital decoder - but it will only decode DVDs, not signals from other sources. If you want to use a Dolby Digital 5.1 satellite system, for example, the digital decoder in your DVD player won't help you. You'll need a receiver with a Dolby Digital decoder built in.

To play Dolby Digital surround, you'll want to add a powered subwoofer to the five speakers required for a surround sound. The powered subwoofer provides super-deep bass to add terrific impact, realism, and excitement to the movie viewing experience.

Today, virtually all DVDs are encoded with Dolby Digital sound. And some of the new satellite dish systems also offer Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Regular videotapes are not Dolby Digital encoded, nor are broadcast or cable television. But in the future, TV broadcasts, and even your local cable company may provide Dolby Digital sound.

What is the difference between Dolby Digital and DTS?

DTS®, or Digital Theater Systems, is another six-channel solution for home theater. It differs from Dolby Digital in two ways. DTS boasts higher fidelity, offering 20-bit audio as opposed to Dolby Digital's 16-bit audio. And all music and movies encoded in DTS are in six-channel sound. Not all Dolby Digital sound is recorded in six channels.

DTS has its disadvantages as well. Very few DVDs are available in DTS format. To run DTS, you'll need a DVD player that's equipped to channel a signal through DTS digital outputs. And you'll need a receiver with a built-in DTS decoder.

Should I get a DVD player?

In the 1980s, the CD revolutionized the way we listen to music. Now the DVD (digital versatile disc) is creating a revolution of its own. The DVD offers ultra-high quality video with 6-track stereo sound. Thousands of movies are presently available on DVD, and the number is growing daily.

DVD players are available in component models that connect to your receiver. They can also be installed as an internal drive in a personal computers, then connected by outputs to your television.