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How to Choose and Buy a DVD Home Cinema

Here are some tips and hints on what to look for when buying a DVD Home Cinema System:

Buying Options

There are two main types of system that you can choose when buying a DVD Home Cinema System:

• DVD Home Cinema Kits: These home cinema kits consist of five speakers, a subwoofer, and a DVD player with a built-in AV receiver. There are also kits on the market that have a DVD recorder instead of a DVD player, so make sure you know what you require from your system before buying.
• Separates Home Cinema System: All the pieces for a home cinema system are also available separately, allowing you to build your ultimate home cinema set-up. For example, if you already have a DVD player with built-in Dolby and DTS decoders, you can purchase speakers so that you can enjoy your DVDs in surround sound.

Sound Quality of a Home Cinema DVD System

There are several main types of surround sound format available at the moment:

• Dolby Pro-Logic: This works on the principle of compressing four channels into the space normally used for two. As well as the standard left and right, there is a centre channel (dialogue channel), and a mono sound to the rear for sound effects. The system provides improved ambience and movement across a stereo soundtrack. It is still the most widely used format due to its compatibility with analogue TV and VCRs.
• Dolby Digital (AC-3): This system delivers six channels: front left, front right, centre, rear right, rear left and the Low Frequency Effects channel. Because of this separation, sounds that move around the sound field are more distinct and localised. Clarity and dynamics are improved too. Highly recommended for DVDs and laser discs.
• DTS (Digital Theatre System): This system is not as widespread as Dolby but is considered by some to be better. The DTS format is known as ‘Extended Surround Sound’ as it has a rear centre channel in addition to the others. It is also backwards compatible.
• THX: A set of standards devised by Lucasfilm so that the home and cinema viewer will hear what the editors hear when cutting and mixing the film soundtrack.

For the best in surround sound reproduction, a multi-channel DVD-Audio Player or a multi-channel SACD-DVD Player is recommended. These are music-based formats that require special decoding and enable you to get outstanding audio performance out of ordinary DVDs and CDs:

• DVD-Audio: Gives super high fidelity 24-bit sound, available in stereo and multi-channel formats. This signal is analogue due to the inability of current analogue to digital converters to take the high resolution signal.
• SACD: Stands for Super Audio CD and has been developed by Sony to potentially replace the Compact Disc. The SACD has a frequency response that is almost five times greater than that of a standard CD. It offers a dynamic range of 120dB, as opposed to a standard CD’s 96dB. All SACDs are configured for a mixture of Surround Sound and Stereo.

Ease of Use

Some of the questions you need to ask when buying a DVD Home Cinema System are:

• Is it easy to set-up and use?
• Is the front panel clearly labelled and simple?
• Is the set-up and on screen configuration easy to understand?
• Does the DVD player navigate disc menus and features well?
• Is it easy to set up the speakers?
• Is the instruction manual written in plain English with any technical jargon clearly explained?

Audio Connections

Digital outputs are provided by all DVD Players, which will provide for Dolby 5.1, DTS and 2-channel stereo sound. Some AV receivers have both digital and coaxial digital outputs. Remember that if you are using a DVD-Audio or SACD DVD Player you will require six channels worth of analogue-audio connections to your AV receiver as opposed to a digital connector.

Guarantee

Most DVD Home Cinema Systems come with a manufacturer’s guarantee. Check to see that you are happy with the length of the guarantee. If you aren’t, make sure that you can extend it before you buy the product.

Further Information

You can find out about some of the most popular brands and models of DVD Home Cinema System on the market in our Brands and Top Models sections.

For details of some of the top online suppliers, including details of their delivery times and postage and packaging costs, visit our Where to Buy section.

You can learn more about other types of DVD player available in our Types section.

To find out about some of the different accessories that you can buy to go with your new DVD player, visit our Accessories section.