In the not too distant past, stereo receivers were only used for connecting components of your home stereo system and switching between them, but times have changed drastically in the home entertainment field in just the last few years. Today a stereo receiver, or digital receiver as they are sometimes called, is expected to also handle video inputs from any number of devices and be able to route that as well to the TV set. In addition, today’s receivers must have the capability to decode surround sound and support up to at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer. That’s a lot to ask, and also a lot to connect up, so let’s discuss how to connect your digital receiver to your home theater setup.

If you buy an all-in-one home theater system package, you probably won’t have much problem setting things up because it’s all usually laid out for you in the instructions and the components should all match very well. But if you are putting together your own home theater package made up of different components then you need to plan ahead and buy the right equipment to get the job done.

As far as the receiver is concerned, be sure that you buy one that has the number of connections that you will need to handle all of your system components. For video, almost all receivers give you a connection for a DVD player, a VCR, and a cable or satellite box, but do you also plan to connect up a digital camcorder, a video game system, or digital video recorder? If so, you will need enough inputs for all these pieces of equipment too. And you can expect to pay more for that many extra connections, but if that is what you need, the cost is worth it.

Now you need to be sure that the connection types are what you want too. Almost all video equipment can be connected through a standard composite connection cable, but if you want to improve the video quality you will use an S-video connection instead. Having a good mix of input connections between the two can be a good idea as most camcorder video will not have to be of the highest quality anyway.

On the audio front, many digital receivers are coming with surround sound decoders built into the unit and that is usually the simplest solution. Just make sure that the digital connection for sound from your system components matches the input connection on the receiver. Usually it is either an optical or coaxial connection. Just be sure that whichever it is, they match on both ends.

Then be sure that you have enough speaker connections to drive your speaker setup. If you like to use the newer 6.1 or 7.1 surround sound system format you will need enough speaker connections on your receiver to power all those separate speakers.

Once you have the right equipment with the right connections, actually installing the receiver is a matter of staying organized as you go. It may be a good idea to label each cable set on both ends to remind you what goes where. And be sure to keep the polarity straight when you install the speakers too. Each speaker has a “+” and “-” terminal, so make sure that you match them up correctly with the corresponding terminal on the receiver or your sound quality will suffer.

Following a few well planned guidelines and being as organized as possible can help you to not only buy the right digital receiver equipment for your home theater setup, but also install it correctly as well.

There has been a revolution taking place in the home entertainment and electronics field in the past decade that will change how we view and listen to entertainment forever. Not long ago, you watched TV and listened to stereo music separately. But increasingly audio and video sources have become combined and now we have a multitude of audio/video devices that we can choose to enjoy including dvd players, camcorders, video games, HDTV, and more. And with this audio/video consolidation the home stereo receiver has had to keep up with the times.

Today we have a wide selection of receivers to choose from. Of course, you can still get the most basic stereo receiver that accepts sound inputs and powers only two speakers at a time. In fact, you can get some very high quality equipment in this area very inexpensively now. In fact, you can build a very cheap and basic home theater setup by using the stereo receiver to process sound from a DVD player, VCR, and your TV.

If you get a receiver that has support for Dolby Pro Logic, Pro Logic II, and Pro Logic IIx, you can even get simulated surround sound from your home theater system if you have four or more speakers. Of course, the pro Logic formats are not digital, they are for analog sound inputs but it can help improve your sound quite a bit if you still use analog components.

For most modern uses though, you will need a receiver that can handle both digital audio and video inputs and then routes the signals to the correct component like your TV and speaker setup. On the video side look for receivers that have enough video inputs to support all the video devices that you plan to use, and also be sure that the connection types match up between the video devices you have and the receiver inputs. On the audio side, if you plan on using the digital surround sound capability that much of today’s entertainment is going to, your receiver should be able to decode both Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound and then support at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer to distribute each channel’s sound to the appropriate speaker.

You will want to have plenty of power to accomplish all of this and so for a typical home theater setup you will need about 50 watts of power for an average room, 75 watts per channel for a larger room, and for very large rooms 100 watts per channel or more will be needed to truly get the sound you want.

The top stereo receiver manufacturers are Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, and Yamaha. If you browse their current offerings you will find that most of these companies make high quality products that will work well. The biggest question is what your needs are instead. Once you understand what your needs will be, you can then choose the best stereo receiver from any of those brands to fill those needs very well.

It’s not hard to see why DVD players have taken the video world by storm. All you have to do is watch a movie on DVD and then watch that same movie on VHS tape instead. The difference can be startling. So just as CDs took over the audio world, DVDs are dominant in the video world, and DVD players are a staple of the home entertainment center, and certainly of a home theater setup too.

So what should you know when you shop for DVD players? Well, as with everything a lot depends on your budget but here are some of the features to look for when you buy a DVD player:

* In the electronics world, cable connections are very important and it’s no different with DVD players. Almost all DVD players come with a standard composite-video cable to connect the player to the TV, and this kind of cable can produce a decent picture. But it’s also very limiting because the black and white, and color video signals are all sent together through this cable and it’s easy for the colors to bleed over into other colors and lose detail and sharpness. If your DVD p[layer comes with a S-video cable this can dramatically improve the video as this cable can separate out the black and white from the color signals resulting in greater clarity. Finally if you get a DVD player that can use a component-video cable that can be the best yet because it also splits the color signal too, allowing even greater color range and detail.

* It’s good to have an aspect control feature on a DVD player too. Many DVD movies are coming now in different formats to fit whatever TV you have. The aspect control lets you take advantage of this and tune the movie to the specific ratio that best fits the size of your television screen.

* Some DVD players have multi-angle capability built in and that can be useful at times too. It doesn’t work with all DVDs, but with those that are compatible, it’s pretty cool. It actually allows you to adjust the picture angle so that you can view the action from different perspectives.

* Having surround sound decoding built into your DVD players can be very useful too, especially if you have a Dolby Digital receiver and at least six speakers to achieve the 5.1 surround sound effect. If your receiver does not have the Dolby 5.1 decoder built into it then you need to have it decoded by the DVD player before it is sent to the receiver. Once at the receiver the signal is amplified and distributed to the appropriate speakers in the room.
If you wish to use the more recent 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound systems you will need to have the decoder for that on your DVD player too, and either 7 or 8 speakers to match.

These are some of the features that can be most useful when you are playing DVDs, so look for them the next time you want to buy a DVD player.