| Video Noise October 2002
Budgeting a Home-Theater System for All-Around
Performance
Good home-theater systems are usually expensive
investments. They deserve some thought and consideration so that your system delivers all
that is possible within your budget. There are many ways to assemble a home-theater
system, but a balanced approach will help you focus the budget on all the important
elements of the system. Too many systems are out of balance: A huge, expensive TV matched
up with chintzy electronics and speakers is one common example.
One of the big electronic chain stores recently advertised
a "complete home-theater system" with a large plasma display. For $12,999 you
got the big plasma display and a $500 RCA Home-Theater in a Box (HTIB).
Now pardon the bluntness, but this is just about as stupid
a home-theater system as you could possibly consider. The audio equipment is as important
or more important in the home-theater equation as the display device. Your home theater is
never going to provide a great cinematic experience if you cheap out on the audio.
Setting the equipment budget for a basic system without
"extras"
Today, I don't think it's advisable
to buy anything but an HDTV-compatible display device. Right now, HD displays cost a bit
more than a good NTSC unit of the past. That complicates the old "balanced
system" budget of 1/3 for video display, 1/3 for speakers, and 1/3 for electronics.
That simple budget neglects to allocate funds for important accessories like cables,
racks, and power conditioning. Today, I would recommend first setting a conservative
home-theater budget, then add 20% to the budget to make it a "stretch" budget.
From this budget allocate 38% to the monitor, 23% to speakers (five plus a subwoofer), 22%
to electronics, and 17% for accessories. So, if your "stretch" budget is $3000,
that means you will spend $1140 on the monitor, $690 on the speakers, $660 on the
electronics, and $510 on the accessories. As HD monitor prices come down to equal pre-HD
monitor prices, you will be able to adjust the budget allocations to 28% for the monitor,
28% for speakers, 27% for electronics, and 17% for accessories.
Eventually, HD video displays will be no more
expensive than good NTSC used to be. When we get to that point, you won’t have to
pump up the video-display budget so much. One thing about this budget: it’s just for
the basics. There are many options you may want to consider that will add significant cost
to the home-theater system.
Why set the budget this way?
1. Having a huge TV with a $500 HTIB for sound is like
putting a Dodge Viper body on a 1963 Plymouth Valiant chassis that has a stock slant-six
motor and a three-speed manual shifter on the column. You won’t fool anybody with
that mistake. It’s the sound that immerses you in what’s happening on the
screen. Don’t underestimate the importance of good sound for your home-theater
system.
2. It takes five capable speakers and a subwoofer to
deliver the potential of home-theater sound. You’ll be paying for six cabinets, six
crossovers, and 11 to 16 drivers in the speakers themselves. That’s a lot of
"stuff" to squeeze into a sub-$1000 set of speakers and still have them be quality
products. You’ll get considerable sonic returns for your dollar well up into the
multiple thousands of dollars for a full home-theater speaker system before the returns
start diminishing as cost increases.
3. Scrimping on the electronics is almost always a big
mistake. The amplifiers in receivers costing less than $500 and in HTIB systems are far
from high-fidelity devices. In fact, they barely deliver what is needed. You will find it
much easier to damage speakers from playing them too loudly with an inexpensive receiver
than you will with something more suitable, which will be more powerful and more
expensive. If you think you personally won’t notice the difference between something
simple and a more powerful setup -- I promise that you will notice the difference,
and that difference is worth the extra allocation.
Adding hardware options
D-VHS/D-Theater is the latest in HD sources. D-VHS tape
recorders will play and record high-definition or standard-definition programming in
digital format on VHS tapes. D-Theater pre-recorded movies are becoming available for $35
to $45 per movie. Resolution of the D-VHS/D-Theater system is actually a little better
than broadcast HDTV. D-VHS machines are pricey -- still in the $1000 to $2000 range -- and
they still lack integral HD tuners for automatic off-the-air recording.
The limitations and capabilities of each machine regarding
what you can record and play back are imperative to understand in advance. There are
compatibility issues, unfortunately. Some machines may not be compatible with some display
devices. The DVI and FireWire digital-interface issues are problematic for D-VHS machines.
Nobody yet knows which digital interface will be the standard so there’s no way to
know for sure which digital interface you want on your D-VHS machine. The best you can do
now is to select whatever D-VHS machine is compatible with your existing HD source
(broadcast tuner, satellite tuner, cable TV box).
DVD recorders are getting good enough and flexible enough
to be considered. They can’t do high-definition recording or playback like the
D-VHS/D-Theater system. However, they do offer fast random access and fairly good
compatibility with play-only DVD players, especially newer models. Compatibility issues
here revolve around three slightly different formats. DVD-RAM is not as universally
compatible as the other formats. DVD-R and DVD-RW or DVD+R and DVD+RW formats all play on
most play-only DVD players, especially newer models. The absence or presence of a digital
interface is not as much of an issue with DVD recorders since they only output
high-quality standard-definition video, not HDTV. The DVD-R and DVD-RW systems do have one
annoying quirk: they can record only in 30-second blocks of time. If you hit stop at 30
minutes and 3 seconds, they will continue to record for 27 more seconds. DVD+R and DVD+RW
systems stop immediately when you press "stop."
PVRs are a new category of video component that records
digital video and audio on an internal hard disk. These devices are a revelation for TV
watchers. I won’t go into all the wonders they can perform for you here. Check www.tivo.com and www.replaytv.com for all the functions
these remarkable devices can perform to make TV viewing a whole different experience. They
are available as stand-alone boxes, as an extra cost feature in cable TV set-top boxes, or
as an extra cost feature in digital-satellite set-top boxes.
Additional speakers are worth considering if you have
adequate space behind the listener. Most new A/V receivers and surround processors have
THX Surround EX, Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES (Matrix and Discrete), and DTS:Neo6. All of
these surround systems make use of speakers placed behind the listener. For this to work
well, you need at least six feet of open space behind the listener so you can place the
center surround speakers in a location where they will sound good. Medium-to-small rooms
probably don’t have the space to make adding a center surround speaker or two
worthwhile. DTS:Neo6 will make 6.1 sound from stereo sources like TV and CDs. If you have
DTS:Neo6, and the space, the center surround channels can be fairly worthwhile additions.
That’s all the budget advice I can give you for now.
Plug in your numbers and the answers will be very useful for keeping you focused on how
much to spend on each home-theater system component.
...Doug Blackburn
db@hometheatersound.com |
