What is a Home Theater?

A Home Cinema  is a sound system composed of an amplifier (or a DVD player) / Blu-ray acting as an amplifier), so-called satellite speakers and a subwoofer. When we talk about 2.1 system, it means that we have two satellite speakers and a subwoofer. In the case of a 5.1, there are five speakers and a subwoofer, and so on. The more channels, the better the immersion, since the sound arrives from different locations.

2.1 home theater system sets, such as the Thomson THC382  home theater , offer a high quality stereo sound, supported by bass which gives more power to the sound effects of movies, but the 5.1 home theater system should be preferred, if it is possible to install it at home. In a 5.1 home theater system, we place a speaker in front of the television, then one on each side and finally two positioned at the back of the place where the spectator is seated, so that the sound surrounds him/her and therefore the sound effects come from where they are originating in the movie. In the case of Thomson THC385 home theater system, the rear speakers take the form of a column, which makes it easy to position them upright, but this is not always the case, sometimes the Home Cinema systems offer five identical satellite speakers.

The amplifier or the video disc player ( to which the different speakers have to be connected) is connected to the TV set , either via an HDMI cable or via an optical cable, sometimes with both. So you have to make sure that the TV supports this possibility: this is the case for the vast majority of models sold commercially today. Most even have an HDMI Arc port, which has the particularity of automatically turning on the home theater at the same time as the TV, and thereby switching the sound directly to the speakers.

Installing a Home Cinema system, is a skill in itself

Acquiring a Home Cinema system  is good, but if it is not properly installed, the experience may be not up to your expectations. Before you even buy the Home theater set of your dreams, Please consider how to set it up. The problem that can quickly make things more complicate is the need to run cables through a living room where they are difficult to conceal. If this concern almost does not exist for the front speakers placed near the television set, it can become a real issue for those rear speakers to be placed behind the sofa. So, if the latter is placed just in the middle of a room, you may have to pass the speaker cables under a carpet positioned under the coffee table, or route them through a cable runway installed above a plinth along the wall ...

Even if aesthetics should be taken into account, you must also take care not to trip over stray cables! In addition to being potentially dangerous, it could deteriorate the whole set up. There are many models of cable raceways to avoid this kind of problem, but the ideal is to anticipate it. Finally, be aware that there are Home Theater models for which the rear speakers communicate wirelessly with the amplifier. If this avoids having two wires running in your living room, it still requires plugging each of the rear speakers into an AC outlet, which again requires some anticipation.

Our advice:

First of all, make a drawing of your installation by putting the TV and the sofa in the center of the set up, and make wiring tests simulated in the form of sketches. This should help you see more clearly the result, before you actually start your implementation.

During installation, you must adjust the sound level of each satellitespeaker depending on the layout of your room and also the distance from the listener's ears. Some home theaters guide you to do it, or even do it automatically.

Immersive sound for all programs?

A home theater system  is fully used when watching a DVD, Blu-ray or even a program on Netflix, for example, whose audio track has been specifically encoded in a multichannel audio format. We can notably mention Dolby Digital, specific to 5.1, and DTS which follows a similar logic. However, it is obviously possible to enjoy immersive sound even when the program is not specifically designed for that. For example, when you watch your favorite entertainment shows, the sound also goes through the five satellite speakers. It is likely that your home theater amplifier offers 5.1 virtualization modes of a stereo soundtrack only.

Do not hesitate to check the instruction manual and to make various tests, to obtain the optimal result.

One thing is certain: once your Home Theater system is installed and adjusted to your tastes, you will certainly not be able to do without it, as the delivered enveloping sound will forever change the way of watching TV.

Please don’t say that You have not been warned!