Home Theater for Everyone: A Practical Guide to Today's Home Entertainment Systems

by Robert Harley

Book Overview

A home entertainment system is among the most expensive purchases a household will make. This book provides the information consumers need to choose, install, and use home entertainment equipment.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964084988
• ISBN13: 9780964084988
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Acapella Publishing
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.1" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely Awesome!

Bought this yesterday 7/20/2002. Updated for the latest technology (e.g. THX Ultra 2 - 7.1 discrete channels), this book is pretty much all you need to help you through the complex maze of today's home theater. Not only did it help me understand the technology for the front projection system I'm design for a dedicated home theater system in the basement, it helped me understand more about my current HT set up. For example, I *finally* was able to fix that persistent buzzing noise that appears intermittently for the past several years in my front and rear loudspeakers. I also learned (to my great horror!) that my DVD player wasn't set up correctly, so all these years I thought I was listening to Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound (unless I was watching a rare DTS movie), I was actually listening to it in Dolby Surround! My gosh, a few menu items to change on my DVD player and my system went from sounding pretty damn good to completely awesome!If there is anything missing from this book it's that I'd like to see a chapter on room design (e.g. room size, recommended projection screen size for viewing distance, more information on acoustic treatment, etc.) Otherwise, this is all you'll need for understanding all those home theater magazine reviews. Make sure you get the version that's been updated for 2002!

Absolutely Necessary for Anybody into A/V!

This book is the best book I have read on Home Theater. It has more information on Audio and Video than most in-depth books on either respective subject. It is well-written, easy to read, and the explanations are detailed, yet easy to understand. He could have left out a little of the THX bias, but it is understandable, everyone lets some personal bias slip a little now and again. Note-he does admit many manufacturers of the best equipment and best values on the market do not participate in the THX program for various reasons. This book cuts through almost all of the misinformation this industry is notorious for being saturated with. I highly recommend this book for any music lover, movie lover, or anybody else for that matter.P.S. Once you get started on this one, you might not be able to stop.

In depth technical view of Home Theaters

I was looking for a book to provide a technical look at home theaters. This book provided enough technical details to maintain my interest but not so much that it became work, a tough compromise to achieve in technical writing. Enjoyed the layout, describing everthing from the history of home theaters to the Thomas Holman Experiment.

Indispensable!

I would hate to try to buy Home Theater equipment without this book! If you don't know enough about all the equipment, buy this book. My only question is how up to date is it? Even in 2 or 3 years the technology horizon may have changed. But I don't believe it really has in this case. This review refers to the first edition.

A bit dated, but still excellent for HT enthusiasts/builders

This is a terrific book that explains the nuts and bolts of Home Theater equipment & terms in plain english. It was written just as DVD's were coming out and Dolby Digital was an emerging, but as yet, unestablished standards, but the author's views and forecasts of these products have been right on, so there's not any misinformation.He clearly favors high quality equipment over mass merchant stuff (e.g. Rotel over Pioneer), but doesn't provide specific opinions or guidance on individual brands or pieces. The author merely suggests what to look for in a quality AV equipment (e.g. binding posts for speaker connections on receivers rather than simple push clips), then suggests that you read reviews in his magazine, Fi. This review refers to the first edition.