Input This, Part 1

Did you enlist your nephew to hook up your home entertainment system? Do you live in fear that your VCR or your DVD player might break, and you will be forced to try to figure out how to hook up a new one? Do you buy a new home entertainment component only to have it sit in its box while you get over the setup gumption trap? Is that what's bothering you, cousin?

If it isn't, then skip this and the next T.I.N., because I want to offer advice and comfort to the troubled.

The first thing you should know is that you aren't alone. Otherwise, 12:00 wouldn't have blinked on so many VCR's for so many years, and nephews wouldn?t be so busy. The second thing to know is that if you take it one step at a time, you can do it.

"But I didn't used to need my nephew to hook things up!" you might say. "How is this considered progress?" Indeed, we used to simply connect the antenna wire (video and audio source) to the TV. For music, we listened to a table top radio, or a record player. TV's, table top radios, and record players are all-in-one devices, which makes them simple.

This way of doing things is still possible. Manufacturers have struggled to put more capability into stand-alone devices. For example, they equipped some TV's with video tape players or CD/DVD players. 'Boom boxes' can be purchased that will play almost any conceivable sound source, including MP3 digital audio from your computer.

So... why should anyone take the dive into component technology, with all its complexity?

It's all about the audio. If you don't care about getting a feeling of being in the concert hall or jazz club when you're listening to music, or hearing the low notes of a string bass or the punch of a drum, or hearing the jets fly overhead and feeling the spatial ambiance of the scene when you're watching a movie, then you should just keep it simple, and many people do. If you do care about these things, then you have to consider the limitations of these all-in-one devices:

• They have awful speakers. They are awful because they have to be small to fit in a small space, and because
• the sound amplifier is small, to avoid over-heating the surrounding components tightly packed around it. The low range of the sound spectrum requires more amplifier power and larger speakers to be reproduced.
• Even if such a device claims to be have stereo sound, the speakers are too close together to get a believable stereo effect, let alone the surround sound of a movie theater.

Modern home sound systems and home theater systems use the same amplifier and speakers for all sound sources. Buy a good amplifier and good speakers, and everything you listen to sounds good. That's the source of the appeal. It's also the source of the complexity, because everything has to be hooked together.

Adding to this complexity, we have lots of new audio and video sources to play with. In roughly historical progression, we have audio tape, cable TV, satellite TV, video tape, CD's, DVD's, DVR's (Digital Video Recorders, e.g., TiVo,) and satellite radio. When you decide to upgrade, you need to make a decision about which of these sources you want to be able to watch or listen to. Listen to speakers at the store, and pick the ones that sound good to you playing these sources, and that fit your budget.

The next step is the key to staying on the good side of your nephew: Purchase an A/V receiver that has enough power for your speakers (the manual that came with your speakers should prominently feature this information,) and that provides suitable connections for all of your sources. While you shouldn't rely on a salesperson to tell you which speakers sound the best, how much money you want to spend, or whether you really should purchase that service contract, they can tell you which receivers are suitable for your speakers, for your TV, and for the list of sources you wish to play.

Think of the A/V receiver as the Grand Central Station of your home entertainment system, switching incoming trains to different outgoing tracks. Every audio and video source goes through it, on its way to your speakers or TV screen. The incoming trains are the antennas, CATV or satellite TV cables, and players of tape and disk media. The receiver adds AM/FM radio to the list. The outgoing tracks are the speakers and TV screen. There are also 'side tracks' for these sources to get recorded, so recording devices get hooked up to it, too. With all of your sources hooked to the receiver, you control what you watch and hear by controlling the receiver.

One complication is TV channel selection: Changing channels used to be the sole province of the TV tuner, but a number of different devices can provide this function now. If you have conventional cable TV with premium channels, or digital cable, or satellite TV, you probably have a set-top box with its own remote control for switching channels. Think of this as a decoding or de-scrambling step that happens before the signal reaches the receiver.

We still have to talk about all those wires, and where they go, and we'll do that in the next column. We'll also discuss the problem that arises from the fact that virtually every one of these components -- the audio and video sources, the receiver, the recorders, and the TV -- has its own remote control. Once everything is hooked up, the real power rests with those who master all those remotes, right? Not necessarily!

Power to the people.

T.I.N.

NEXT WEEK: Cables, connections, remote controls, and making best use of your nephew.