Home Theatre Info

This is an ongoing series.  It will be upgraded as new subjects come up and will grow in size with time.

Sidebar: What is DLP?

So you wanna buy a DVD player?

Originally created: January 13, 2001.
Updated July 24, 2002.
Updated March 10, 2004.
Updated January 8, 2004.  I no longer have a subwoofer.  It was picking up too much radio frequency interference.

This is a DVD and home theater buyer's guide for the newcomer.  It's designed to allow an individual to get into the DVD world without going nuts trying to figure out how all of this stuff works.  And if you want to upgrade your system later on, you won't need to break the bank or trash what you bought today.

First quick piece of advice: DON'T BUY EVERYTHING AT ONCE!!!  Start with the DVD player and work your way up.  Getting into DVDs doesn't mean you have to buy every single home theater component on the first day.  More important, don't be conned into getting more than what you really need.  Too often the sales drones from on of those big stores will try and coax you into buying the next best thing just to increase their sales commission.

Which DVD player should I buy?

Want to know the secret to getting a great DVD player?  Get one with a great remote control.

Oh sure there's all this talk about component outputs, progressive scan, digital sound, Dolby Digital and DTS, especially in the advertising supplements of your local newspaper.  In reality, the vast majority of manufacturers offer most of these options as standard equipment even on their cheapest DVD players.  And the difference in picture and sound quality between the major brand names has become very marginal over the last few years.  Often, the gobbledygook that's written down in the advertising is designed to confuse you into buying one model over another.  So don't worry too hard about all these gadgets or technical terms,  Basically, just about every decent DVD player out there will have these basic connections on the back:

  • Digital audio output (usually black or orange jack, either optical or coaxial)

  • Left-right analog audio outputs (red and white jacks)

  • In descending order by picture quality: component (red-green-blue jacks), S-Video (weird black jack that looks like what you use for your keyboard and mouse on your computer) and composite video outputs (yellow jack).

Right now that's all you really need, and you can easily find this right now for *UNDER $100* Canadian!  The digital audio output isn't really necessary right now, but it will become important later on.  Just make sure the DVD player you buy has one.  At this time, you now have enough information required to connect the DVD player directly to your TV set and watch movies right away.  While you're comparing players, if you see six jacks marked something like "Left", "Center", "Right", "Rear Left", "Rear Right" and "Subwoofer", see if you can find a model without all those jacks.  Chances are you'll never need or use them during the lifetime of the player.  I'll explain this later.

And what about that remote control?  Find a DVD player where the remote's "Play", "Pause", "Stop", "Up", "Down", "Left", "Right" and "Enter" buttons can easily be reached with one thumb.  Most of the time, those are the only buttons you'll be using.  You'd be surprised at how many expensive DVD players out there have really crappy remotes to the point you need to purchase a universal remote just to get around the original manufacturer's shortcomings.

And what about this progressive-scan thing?  Unless your TV set already supports progressive scan or you plan to buy a new TV set that supports progressive scan, you won't have any need for this option at this time.  But since progressive scan capabilities are now being included even in the most basic DVD players, don't be afraid to buy one of these units right now.

So how do I connect this thing?

First of all, take the time to read the instruction manual.  Afterwards, find the part of the manual that shows you how to simply plug the DVD player directly to your TV set.  We'll start with that.  If the only video input on your TV is the kind that you use to screw in the cable, you'll need to get what's called an R.F. modulator from Radio Shack or even consider getting a new TV set.  But if you have at least a yellow jack along with a set of red and white jacks, then you're in business!

Check the back of your TV and look for these labels: "Component", "S-Video" and "Composite".  The labels may not be exact so check your TV's user's manual to know which connection is which.  You only need one set of jacks in order to see a picture on your TV.

  • If you have three RCA type video cables handy along with component or Colorstream jacks on both the TV and DVD player, use that.

  • If not, check if you have an S-Video jack on both pieces of equipment which looks like the same type of connector as you would find on your computer's mouse and keyboard ports.  If you got that, use it.

  • The last type of connection is the yellow composite jack.  Use this only if you don't have either one of the other two types of connectors.  The difference in picture quality between component and S-Video can normally be seen only on reasonably high resolution displays.  But the difference in picture quality between S-Video and composite can be dramatic extreme even on a cheap TV

Whatever you do, don't plug the DVD player into your VCR.  DVDs have a protection scheme called "Macrovision" which will confuse the VCR's video circuits and screw up the image even when you're not recording anything.  You must connect the DVD player's video connections either directly to your TV set or through a home theater system if you have one.

Connecting the audio is quick and easy.  Just connect the cable with the red and white connectors to the red and white jack on both the DVD player and the TV.  Just make sure you plug the connectors in the Input jacks of your TV, and not the Output jacks otherwise you won't hear anything.  Also, connect the audio cable to the same input group as the video cables.  If you connect the video cable to "Input 1" and the audio cables to "Input 2", you'll either get no sound or no picture.

Now put in a disc, wait a few seconds and see what happens.

It seems to work, but why does everyone look so skinny?

Stop the DVD player and check the manual on how to change the TV type.  That'll be indicated as "4x3" and "16x9".  Select "4x3" and try again.  If there's also an indication about "Letterbox" and "Pan & Scan", just leave it on "Letterbox" for now.

Everyone's the proper shape, but the picture still doesn't look quite right.  What can I do?  Should I get a new TV?

You should only get a new TV if your existing set is very old or very small.  But if you already have a TV set that's at least 27" in size with an S-Video input on the back, you're fine for now.

You should buy or rent one of those calibration discs such as "Video Essentials" or "AVIA Guide to Home Theater".  Right now, TV sets are sold with the contrast and sharpness set way too high and the color all screwed up.  You might not have noticed this in the past because you expect your cable TV image to look like crap and never tried to fix it.  These calibration discs will help you adjust the TV set so that you'll get a much better picture than you could ever get on your own.  And yes, these adjustments will help improve the picture on your other video sources such as VCR, cable and satellite feeds.

The disc helped a lot, everything works and it looks great!  Now what's the deal with those black bars?  And what's this "anamorphic" thing I keep hearing about?

Check this link.  It will explain everything.  I no longer have the patience to discuss this subject.  And if you still prefer to have your TV screen filled with an image where almost half the original movie is missing from your sights, then that's your loss.  But if you understand what you've been missing all this time, you'll be watching a lot of old movies all over again!  Especially now that they're being restored and re-released in the theaters and on DVD!

This is fun!  Now how can I get better sound?

Start by connecting the audio cable from the DVD player into a stereo system's "CD" or "AUX" jacks instead of the TV.  Even a boom box will work.  Just make sure the left speaker is on the left side of the TV and the right speaker is on the right side of the TV otherwise the whole thing will sound a bit confusing.  By the way, you can also use the DVD player as a CD player if you wish.  Just pop in a CD and press "Play".

If your DVD player has "virtual surround" type settings, play around with those.  If it improves the sound in your room, then use them.  If not, then simply turn them off.  Don't worry about the cost of this gadget since it costs the manufacturers almost nothing to add it to every DVD player they make.

What about all this talk of "Dolby Digital", "DTS"?  How can I use those?

Now we're getting a bit into the heavy stuff!  I'll give you the basics along with a few shopping tips, but you'll be on your own afterwards.  Do take this one step at a time.

"Dolby Digital" and "DTS" are multi-channel sound formats.  Believe it or not, these two formats can actually hold between one and eight channels of information on a single digital signal.  Remember the digital audio output behind the DVD player?  That's where all that sound comes out!  Up to eight channels on one wire!  The room is surrounded with speakers!

Not all movies will have eight channels of information.  In fact, many old movies still play in mono.  Movies from the eighties are usually in two channel Dolby Surround.  Most modern movies are encoded with at least six channels of information.  What's important to know is that both Dolby Digital and DTS can support almost an infinite combination of configurations and adapt them to your existing speaker configuration.  And all you need to hear this technological miracle is a Dolby Digital/DTS capable home theater receiver and at least four bookshelf type speakers. Since the receiver will be responsible for decoding the original digital audio signal, you don't need one of those DVD player with integrated six channel Dolby Digital/DTS decoders and those six extra jacks in the back of the machine.  The receiver you'll be buying will already handle all of this stuff with a single cable connected between the DVD player and the receiver.  The integrated decoder and six extra jacks found on some DVD players were useful years ago when many receivers didn't come with built-in Dolby Digital decoders, but today every decent home theater receiver on the market already includes a built-in decoder.  So a multi-channel decoder built into the DVD player is now a complete waste of money.

A couple of points.  First, you may want to avoid purchasing one of those "Home Theater In A Box" type packages or those ridiculously tiny cube or round speakers if you possibly can.  Their performance and connectability are nowhere near the level of a decent home theater receiver and a set of decent, inexpensive bookshelf style speakers.  The only time I could recommend one of these small systems is if you find a complete package for $500-$700 and it's going to be used in a small bedroom or dorm room.  As soon as you hear a real home theater set-up elsewhere, you'll deeply regret your purchase.  Second, you can leave out the center speaker, the subwoofer and the two extra rear speakers from your system for now, but you should seriously consider getting at least the center speaker and subwoofer in the near future.  What's important right now is that you have at least one speaker placed at approximately every corner of the room.

If you already have decent speakers for your stereo and you can still find them in the stores, you can use those existing speakers in your new set-up and add the matching center and surround speakers from the same manufacturer if they're available.  Try to avoid mixing in speakers from different manufacturers or totally different speaker designs from the same manufacturer.  Mixing electronic equipment from different manufacturers is perfectly acceptable and is actually preferable in order to get the best combination of equipment.  But when it comes to those four or five speakers around the room, you're better off sticking with a closely matched set of speakers from a single manufacturer otherwise the sound may come out radically different between the old and new speakers.  The subwoofer itself doesn't follow the same rules as the main speakers; it actually qualifies as a separate component.  So don't worry about who makes that big box unless it's made so cheaply that it sounds terrible.

What about brand names?  This is where it can become a bit confusing.  You'll be hearing a lot of names you've never heard before especially from specialty stores.  But don't panic.  Many of these manufacturers offer excellent products at reasonable prices, often better than the popular well-known "brand" names from the big warehouse stores.  For the receivers, look for names such as Pioneer, Sony, Denon, Kenwood, Rotel, Yamaha and Onkyo for starters.  My particular receiver is an Onkyo TX-DS656 which I bought years ago and which still serves me very well even if it doesn't support the DTS sound format.  Today, almost all companies manufacture excellent Dolby Digital/DTS capable receivers suitable for every budget.  Even their basic models offer decent performance, but do go for the next model up the line.  These "one-up" models are usually more satisfying to the ear, deliver more power, offer better connection options, and only cost a bit more money than the bare-bones "introductory" models.  Most decent receivers now sell at around the $800 price range and should support both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 right out of the box.

At this stage of the game, look for bookshelf speakers from manufacturers such as PSB, Paradigm, DynAudio, JBL, NHT, B&W, Polk and so on.  My particular set-up consists of four PSB Alpha bookshelf speakers and a PSB 100C center speaker.  I've had them for years and they still impress everyone who hears my system even though they're considered very basic (eventually I'll replace them).  Results from other companies will be similar or better depending on the makes, models and the price you're willing to pay.  But you must audition these speakers before buying them preferably in a room very similar to where your system will eventually be set up.  Pay particular attention to the room size and the type of floorboard or carpeting that you have.  If the store's room doesn't match the approximate size, layout and construction of your own room, the speakers won't sound the same once you get them home.  This is how I found out my PSB bookshelf speakers were perfectly suited for my fully-carpeted living room, and the Paradigm speakers were perfect in my mother's apartment and her hardwood floors.  I switched the speakers around and the quality of the sound from both of them dropped dramatically.

By the way, many companies such as PSB and Paradigm have full speaker packages costing about $1,000 for four high quality bookshelf speakers, a center channel speaker and a small powered subwoofer.  Their packages are presented mainly as a suggestion, so don't be afraid to add or remove components as needed.  You can consider getting bigger, better and more expensive speakers from the companies mentioned above, but I suggest you start out small so that you can get a flavour on what a home theater is suppose to sound like.  Later on you can move the old components in other rooms or sell them used at reasonable resale prices.  By that time, not only will you know exactly what you want in your home theater, you might even jump into "separates" and get those extra speakers for the sides, the front, the rear, the ceiling, the floor...  You might even invest in a front projection system and a ten foot wide screen!  But that's for later.  Right now, enjoy a basic home-theater set-up which will probably beat out whatever you neighbors already have in their homes.

Anything else?

That's pretty much it for now.  You now have some basic information on how to buy a DVD player and how to shop for a basic home theater system without excessive information overload.  Start with the DVD player and slowly work your way up to a full home theater system.  My own system took five years to assemble and it's still growing.

Just to give you an idea on how big DVD and home theater are becoming these days, if you're a college student who lives in a dorm and simply doesn't have the room for a full-blown home theater set-up, you can now buy a boom box that includes a built-in DVD player and all the required surround speakers!  The set-up and sound quality is comparable to one of those "Home Theater In A Box" packages, but the price is still reasonable (again about $500-$700 Canadian excluding the TV) and you can carry it anywhere with you and plug it into just about any TV set.  Just make sure you have enough decent speaker cables handy.

Enjoy!

 

Television Basics

May 15, 2000

You may not realize it but the TV you bought hasn't been adjusted with you in mind.  It has been adjusted for the benefit of the dealer in order to help them sell the TV to you.  And you didn't even know it!  But it's not your fault!  You expected the sales staff at the store to know the products they were selling.  Unfortunately their knowledge of TVs is usually limited to the marketing gimmicks required to woo the sucker-er-customer into buying the product.

As a result what you've been watching all along is all wrong.  And your current settings may actually be damaging the picture tube.

So how can you fix this?  If you have a DVD player, you can use what's called a "calibration disc", a DVD containing special test patterns and the instructions to use them.  But for those without DVD players, what can be done?  Can a TV be reasonably adjusted without these test patterns?  They can if you know what to look for.  It is not as hard as it seems.  And even if you're not perfect, you'll still be closer to what you should be seeing.

Step 1: Turn off the useless gimmicks

Before we begin, let's start by turning off all the extra accessories that have been added to your TV to make your viewing pleasure an illusion.  The two most common items to turn off are color correction and the Scan Velocity Module or SVM.  Other items that must be adjusted include Sony's Trinitone setting and Toshiba's Flesh Tone setting.

The Color Correction (or miss-correction) can be called Auto-Color, Flesh Tone, Color Enhancement...  Just turn the bloody thing off!  What the gadget does is increase the level of red in the picture.  Yellows turn orange, bright purple gets noisy, reds just reach out and choke you.  While you're at it, if you have a Sony TV, change the Trinitone setting to NTSC STD.  This will actually turn off the Trinitone feature.

Now what does the picture look like?  Eeeewww!!!  Not too hot!  In fact, it looks BLUE!  Then again, it may have always looked blue.

There's a reason for this.  Have you ever seen those laundry detergents boxes that advertise "whiter" whites?  And have you noticed those boxes contain blue crystals?  Those blue crystals are actually blue dye!  You've been dying your clothes blue all this time!  This is because our perception of white is not as perfect as it may seem.  Tinting a white shirt slightly blue makes the shirt look brighter than if the shirt was tinted slightly red.  And what stands out the most on a showroom floor is a bright TV.  Since a blue tint makes the TV image seem brighter than it really is, the TV will stand out much more than a TV not tinted blue.  In the end, every TV manufacturer was tinting their TVs blue.  What we now have is an ocean of blue TVs.

How do you fix this?  In many cases it can't be fixed but there are exceptions.  On the Sony TVs, change the picture setting to "Movie" mode.  On Toshiba TVs, change the settings to "Theater" mode which at the same time will change the Color Temperature setting to "Warm".  For other TVs, change the setting to a position that resembles what appears to be the flattest, dimmest under enhanced picture you can get.  Now the picture doesn't look as blue as it used to.  And congratulations, you probably also turned off the other useless gadget, the Scan Velocity Module!

Hunh?  What?  Let me clarify.  Remember that TV manufacturers make their pictures brighter by making them blue?  That's not all they were doing.  Another way to make the picture look brighter is by changing the speed of that small electron beam going across the TV screen.  I'll assume you all know how a picture is generated on your TV screen; it has been told so many times.  Normally you'd assume that beam would go across the screen at the same speed all the time.  But TV manufacturers discovered that by slowing down the beam on the bright parts of the image, you can make that scene even brighter!  There's just one problem with this method.  If you slow down the beam in certain parts of the image, you must speed it up again elsewhere to compensate the travel difference.  The dark scenes are sacrificed!

So what does this do to the picture?  Imagine a chess board being displayed on the screen with all it's black and white squares.  Normally all the squares should be the same size just like a real chess board. But with the SVM circuit turned on, you notice the white squares are smaller than the black squares! And the white squares look awfully bright! Now imagine for a moment what happens when you watch an image on TV that contains a combination of bright and dark elements.  The picture is being distorted to something that doesn't look anything like the original picture.

Now on the Sony and Toshiba TVs, changing the settings as described earlier already turns off the Scan Velocity Modulation or SVM.  On other TVs, the SVM may be labeled as such and could probably be turned off.  Some TVs may not even have the SVM built-in.  Other TVs have it and it can't be turned off no matter what.  Do the best you can.

All right!  What do we have now?  Well, uh...  Can't say it looks better but can't say it looks worse.  The picture may seem to look a bit greyish.

Before we proceed to the next section, turn the Sharpness (or Detail) and color controls all the way down. We need to have them off for a while.  You should now have an out of focus black & white picture.

Step 2: Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness

Of all the controls you see on a TV, these two are the most backwards controls available.  Even I got them backwards for so many years until this mix-up was corrected a few years ago.  So what do they do?  The contrast is actually what makes the picture really bright.  Turn down the contrast and the whole picture starts to dim.  Turn it up and you can feel yourself getting a tan.  Now the brightness is in reality how bright the picture gets in the dark scenes only.  Turn it down and you'll notice the picture will get darker everywhere except in the bright parts.  Raise the brightness and all the black areas start to turn grey on you and the grey areas start to turn white.

Before doing any adjustments, start by lowering the room lights and getting rid of the sunlight.  You shouldn't be watching TV in a brightly lit room since picture tubes can't compete with all that ambient light.  This doesn't mean you have to turn off every light in the room.  Just turn off enough lighting so that the room is reasonably dim.  Now does the picture look way too bright?  It does?  Good!  Locate a bright TV channel and turn down the contrast until the image is at a comfortable level.  Don't be surprised if you start seeing more detail in the bright parts of the picture.  Once you find a comfortable level, leave it there.

Now for the brightness.  Locate a channel with nighttime scenes.  Lower the brightness until everything dark starts to look totally black.  Now raise the brightness until only the darkest of the dark scenes just starts to turn grey on you.  Lower the brightness again until only the black scenes look black again and everything else looks slightly grey.

Looks better?  Maybe not.  After all, you're used to seeing an overly bright distorted picture all this time.  Please be patient.

Now find one of those text-based channels containing black writing on a white background.  Raise the sharpness until you start seeing an extra edge on the right side of the black writing.  Now turn the sharpness down until the extra edge disappears.  That's it!

Step 3: Color and Tint

Normally these adjustments are done with the help of test patterns and a blue color filter.  But since we don't have any of those, we'll have to do it the hard way.

First, locate a channel with nice colorful images such as one of those travel channels located in exotic tropical islands.  You know the channel.  It's the one the cable company imposes on you even if you never actually watch it.  And you're still paying for it.

Raise the color (or saturation) control until the colors look nice without the image looking like a cartoon. Once that's done, look for a channel with "white" people in it and adjust the tint (or hue) control until the skin looks pink and not red or green.  If you can find a channel with redheads, adjust the color again until the redheads look normal and not overly red.

You may need to try different channels and repeat the color and tint adjustments until everything looks about average.  Cable TV is notorious for being incredibly unstable from one channel to another.  You may have to locate a channel that looks about "average" on which you can make the adjustments.

Now what do we have?  Hmmm... It's different.  It might look better.  But you're not sure.  That's okay.  Try the new settings for a week until you start to get used to them.  After a while you might even want to "tweak" the set a bit just to see what happens.  Now that you know how the controls work, you'll know what to do to get the desired results and not blindly "play with the knobs."

Coming up: How to improve what you already have with the help of a calibration DVD.  And just what are all those test patterns anyways?