September 15th, 2009
By: Lauren
Most of us would love to have a dedicated home theater room. A place to call our own when we want to hunker down for the night with a bowl of popcorn, a nice plush leather seat and this week’s latest blockbuster. However, for some of us that’s just not possible – we have to use our home theater space for other purposes when we’re not in movie-mode.
If you’ve found that your house is short on space, or you just want to convert your home theater/family room into a more versatile area, read on. Being economical with your space doesn’t mean that you have to give up any of that great audio or video you’d expect from a dedicated home theater, nor does it mean that you have to give up the stylish elements like a custom frame from HD Envy. It just means you’re going to have to get a little creative.
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Tags: audio/video, Design, Home Theater
Posted in Audio and Speakers, Home Theater, Intel, Interior Design, Video Technology | No Comments »
September 8th, 2009
By: Lauren
You want the best image quality possible when you collapse into your leather home theater seating after a long day of work. And that means that you will probably want to upscale your DVDs – that is, improve their visuals to match your flat screen TV’s Full HD capabilities. Although a DVD will never look as crisp as a Blu-Ray disc, you can reduce the noise and improve the visuals by using the internal upscaler in your Blu-Ray player or your HDTV.
Many consumers purchase the top-of-the-line Blu-Ray player, only to realize that their HDTV does just as much, or more, when it comes to DVD upscaling. In order for you to watch your DVDs at their peak, you need to understand what upscaling is, and then go through the differences between an upscaler in a flat screen TV and a Blu-Ray player.
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Tags: audio/video, Home Theater
Posted in Home Theater, Intel, Video Technology | No Comments »
September 7th, 2009
By: Lauren
Everyone wants to hear true-to-life sound when they’re enjoying the latest blockbuster, but how can you tell what sound format will give you ear-splitting, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing audio? Along with the advent of HD video came a whole host of HD audio to match. Blu-Ray discs and players offer special audio formats like surround sound and THX-certified sound. If you find yourself scratching your head when trying to decipher the difference between sound formats, read on.
There are some basic differences between all of the sound formats available for home theaters. Some require, for the best sound, multiple speakers. Others require at least five or seven, which make them surround sound. The two main audio companies that produce the majority of the sound formats for today’s movie DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems. They are very similar, with two main differences: DTS audio is usually compressed at a lower rate than Dolby, meaning that it will sound clearer once it is uncompressed, but Dolby is more popular and more widely used across the board for both DVDs and Blu-Rays. And within each of these labels is a whole array of different sound formats designed for different experiences.
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Tags: audio/video, Home Theater, Speakers
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