Home Entertainment System: Definition and Components

Home Entertainment System: Definition and Components
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What is a Home Entertainment System?

There is no standard definition of a home entertainment system. However, it can best be described as a set of audio and video components that mimic the way theaters provide audio-visual entertainment right in the comfort of your own living room. Compared to a movie viewing experience on a regular TV screen, LCD TV or Plasma TV, a complete home entertainment system provides more sophisticated audio and video quality. For a superb audio experience, the sound quality coming from a home entertainment system is delivered through a separate surround system. For its video component, a home entertainment system provides clearer, crisper and more detailed image projection.

Simply put, a home entertainment system is any combination of audio and video components that gives you the same experience as watching a movie inside a theater.

Components of a Home Entertainment System

For a home entertainment system to be an effective system for delivering the same experience as watching a movie inside a theater, you need to have five major components. These are audio input, video input, processor, display and the atmosphere.

Home entertainment systems combine a great video projection and audio transmission system. For video projection, it could be as sophisticated as a high-end plasma TV or the cheaper LCD TV. Of course, since you are trying to recreate the same cinematic experience, a bigger display is required. This can take the form of either an LCD TV, video projector, Plasma TV, rear-projection TV or your plain old CRT TV. Preferred size of the display should be at least 27 inches.

A home entertainment system must also have a good audio output coming from at least four speakers. For a better experience, you can also add all the audio works, such as subwoofers and other audio enhancements.

You also need to have a good device processor that handles the audio input. This could be an AV receiver, a preamplifier or sound processor.

Equally as important are the video input devices, which can range from the high-end Blu-ray player or a cheaper yet good performing DVD player.

The last important component of a home entertainment system is of course the recreation of the theater atmosphere. This means the seating and organization of the area where your home entertainment system will be arranged which also includes good sound insulation and a wall that balances the sound in a room.