Home theaters were made for high definition: the clarity of sound and image creates an environment very close to viewing a movie in the theater. Home theater systems can always be a little intimidating, however, especially with the number of components involved. Furthermore, you want your home theater to be in high definition, not standard definition: a distinction that can be easy to miss with all the different possible cable connections. Here's a quick guide to setting up a home theater system in high definition.
Instructions
1. Make sure your TV is HD capable. Some of manufacturers make distracting claims, such as "HD Ready" or "HD Compatible," which isn't the same as actually being HD. Look for two specific elements to tell you that it is HD: the screen resolution (which should be 720p, 1080i or 1080p) and the existence of one or more rectangular cable outlets labeled "HDMI." That stands for "high definition multimedia interface," the cables you want to use to set up an HD theater system.
2. Check the back of your home theater receiver for a similar set of HDMI outlets. Then check your DVD player or Blu-Ray player for the same thing. The Blu-Ray player will certainly have them. The DVD player will have them if it is an "up-convert" model. (If it isn't, don't panic; you can still hook it up, it just won't be HD.)
3. Connect the DVD or Blu-Ray player to the home theater receiver using a set of HDMI cables. Note which input jack the cables go into on the receiver. You need to access it whenever you want to watch a DVD or Blu-Ray player.
4. Attach the speakers to the receiver using digital audio cables or the cables provided in the home theater system. The speaker outlets should be in the back of the receiver and clearly labeled so that you don't lose track of which speaker goes where. (Most HD home theater systems have 5 or 6 individual speakers: left front, right front, left rear, right rear, the subwoofer and possibly a center front speaker as well.)
5. Connect any additional HD components, such as a DVR, to the remaining HDMI outlets in the back of the receiver. Leave at least one HDMI outlet open: if you see one labeled "Out" or "Out to TV," don't hook another component up to that.
6. Connect any remaining non-HD components, such as a VCR or a non-upconvert DVD player to the receiver using RCA cables. The cables should connect to the "Out" cable jacks in the component and the "In" cable jacks in the receiver. Note which component goes into which jack on the back of the receiver.
7. Connect the "Out to TV" HDMI outlet on the back of the receiver to the HDMI outlet on the back of the TV.
8. Turn on the TV and set it to receive signals from the HDMI outlet connected to the home theater receiver (there's typically a function on the menu choices, accessible by pushing the "Menu" or "TV/Video" button on the remote).
9. Turn on the home theater receiver and set it to the component you'd like to use (Blu-Ray player, or DVR, for example.) There's usually a series of buttons on the front of the receiver allowing you to access specific components. You may then view your HD programming as normal.
Tags: home theater, Blu-Ray player, back receiver, HDMI outlet, high definition, home theater receiver, theater receiver