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How to Set Up aHome TheaterSystem

C H A P T E R

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AS you plan your home theater layout, you’ll need to position your video display, speakers, and furniture carefullyto create the best possible viewing and listening experience. In general, you should center your seating area betweenthe side walls on which you mount your surround speakers. The distance from your viewing screen to the center ofyour seating area should be roughly twice the diagonal measure of a widescreen TV. So, for example, if you have a60'' diagonal television, you’d want to position your main seating about 120'', or 10', from the screen.

It’s important to eliminate any items that might come between you and the television screen, and between youand each of the speakers. You should minimize anything that might disrupt the direct transmission of sound waves, aswell as remove any objects that interfere with your line of sight to the TV screen.

You’ll also want to make sure your antenna, satellite dish, or cable line runs into the area where you’ll be posi-tioning your TV and other components. The last thing you want is to string an ugly piece of coax cable from one wallto another; it’s best to have your cable or satellite installer run the proper connections to the designated place withinyour wall (or under your floor, if you have a basement or crawl space) beforehand.

Also critical is the positioning of one or more power outlets directly behind your TV and component rack. Becauseyou probably have more components than you have power outlets, an extension power strip is a good idea—evenbetter is a power strip that includes a built-in surge suppressor. This way, your expensive equipment will be protectedin case of a power surge.

You should also make sure there’s a phone jack behind your system cabinet. Most folks don’t think about this, butseveral components—in particular, digital satellite receivers and hard disk DVRs—have to dial into their specific ser-vices on a daily basis. If you have more than one of these devices, you’ll probably have to purchase an adapter thatlets you plug two or three phones into a single jack, so you can get all your equipment jacked into the phone line.

If you’re planning a new installation, it is also important to run an Ethernet connection to your home theater com-ponents. Many components can connect to your home network to share audio and video files (and download infor-mation from the Internet), which makes an Ethernet connection essential—unless, that is, your components canconnect wirelessly, via Wi-Fi.

Probably the most challenging part of the setup process is connecting all the speakers. The front speakers are usu-ally easy enough, but running wires to surround speakers is never fun or easy. You may need to run speaker wireunder the carpet or feed it up through a basement or crawl space or down from the attic. When you get into feedingthe wire through the wall and out again, you’re into a lot of work—which is probably necessary, but a chore nonethe-less.

Finally, if all this positioning and cabling and calibrating makes you nervous, bite the bullet and call a profes-sional installer. They do this sort of thing for a living, have all the proper tools, and know all sorts of shortcuts andworkarounds that you’ll never stumble across. In addition, a professional installer can help you create a great-lookingsystem, especially if you like the look of built-in components and custom furniture. It’ll cost, but the results are worth it!

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How to Create the Perfect HomeTheater Room

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Enclosed spaces work best. Rooms withoutdefined walls (that is, rooms that lead seamlesslyinto other rooms) not only lack surfaces on whichto mount speakers, but also “leak” a tremendousamount of sound. In addition, the larger areayou try to fill with sound, the more amplifierpower you need; it’s easier to fill a smaller spacethan it is a larger one.

1

Try to avoid spaces that are perfectlysquare or that have one dimension exactlytwice another. These types of spaces canproduce unwanted resonances that canmuddy your system’s sound.

2

Avoid too many hard surfaces in the room. Hard surfaces reflect sound,and too many reflections make it difficult to sort out positioning within thehome theater sound field. This problem typically manifests itself in theform of unwanted echoes and reverberation. If you’re having problemswith reflected sound, throw up some more drapes or soft wall coverings.Even a few big pillows thrown in the corner can absorb some of thesereflections. You also might need to reposition any mirrors or large glass-front pictures hanging on your walls because these can be sources of iso-lated reflections.

3

Be conscious of extraneous noises in the room. You may beused to the noise made by the pump in your fish tank, but itcan detract from your enjoyment of watching a quiet movieor listening to a soft CD. Use your ears to isolate and elimi-nate unnecessary sources of sound.

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Beware of too much light in the room. Direct lightsources can reflect off the TV screen—or affect yourperipheral vision—and interfere with your viewing.Turn on all the lights in your room and then stareinto a blank screen; if you see any lights reflectedback at you, turn them off or move them. In addi-tion, closing the drapes and dimming the lights is agood idea before you watch a movie. The darkerthe room, the more your vision can focus on theactivity on the TV screen.

5

When watching in a darkenedroom, you need some slight contrastbetween the bright screen and thedark wall around it. Considerinstalling a small aquarium-type lightbehind your television, directedupwards, to provide a halo of softlight around the screen. If the light istoo bright, knock it down with a grayor colored filter.

7

You also don’t want any light sourcesbetween the viewers and the screen.These light sources can compete withthe television display and distract theviewer. You should also avoid anylarge objects between the listenersand the speakers, which can blockthe sound.

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How to Position the Television

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Position the main seating approximately 2 times the diagonal size of a wide-screen tele-vision. For example, if you have a 42'' wide-screen television, your seating area shouldbe about 84'' (7') from the screen. If you have a 55'' set, the seating area should beabout 110'' (a little over 9') from the screen.

1

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For a CRT rear-projection display, viewer seating should be located within a90° total angle from the center of the television screen. For a DLP or an LCDrear-projection display, viewer seating should be located within a 130° totalangle. For a plasma or an LCD flat-panel display, viewer seating should belocated within a 160° total angle. For a CRT direct-view display, viewer seat-ing should be located within a 170° total angle.

2

Consider all the possible viewing positionswithin the room. Viewers sitting too close tothe screen might notice annoying pixilationor screen door effects. Viewers sitting toofar off axis might see a darker picture withsome projection and flat-panel technolo-gies. Off-axis problems are minimized thefarther away the viewer is from the screen.

3

The video display should be positioned more or less at eye level. That might mean raising a low-sitting rear-projection set or getting a taller stand for a direct-view monitor.If your display is positioned too high or too low, you risk some off-axis effects (in the formof a darkened or distorted picture) in the horizontal direction. Use the same viewingangle guidelines as for vertical positioning.

4

DLP projectorLCD projector

CRT rear projectors

Plasma panelLCD panel

Direct-view CRT

Too high

Too low

Just right

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How to Position the Speakers

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The left and right front speakers shouldbe positioned immediately to the left andright of the television screen. Ideally,each speaker should be located between22° and 30° from the main listeningposition—even if this means movingthem away from the television screenslightly.

4

The subwoofer is nondirectional, so where you put it isunimportant in terms of positioning the sound field.Placing the subwoofer in a corner or under a stair-way, however, can add a little extra oomph to yoursystem’s low end and should be considered.

8

Position the center speaker either directly above or directlybelow the television screen. Above the screen is generallybetter because a below-the-screen position can result in thespeaker pointing at your knees rather than your ears. Try toposition the center speaker no more than 12'' above orbelow the midrange or tweeter of the left and right speakers.

3

Try to position all five front and surroundspeakers at or near the same height. Thisfacilitates the proper positioning of soundelements that move around the theatersound field.

1

The ideal height for all your speakersis ear level (sitting ear level, of course).If you can’t get them exactly at earlevel, strive for positioning no morethan 10° off the horizontal axis.

2

Alternative center position

Surroundleft

Center

Left frontRight front

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In a 5.1 or greater system, the surround speakers should bepositioned to the left and right sides of the main listeningarea—not to the rear. You can position these speakers either inline with or slightly behind the listener’s ears, between 90° and110° from the main listening position. Horizontally, both sur-round speakers should be positioned slightly above ear level—up to 2' above, if possible.

5

In a 6.1 system, the single rear speaker should bepositioned directly behind the viewer—180° from thefront of the listener.

6

In a 7.1 system, the two rear speakers should be posi-tioned behind the viewer. One speaker should beslightly to the left and the other slightly to the right,between 135° and 150°from the front of the listener.

7

The closer a speaker is placed to intersecting room surfaces—a corner, the wall and ceiling, or the walland floor—the stronger its bass output. This effect canresult in overpowering or muddy bass, so unless youdeliberately want a bass boost (with a subwoofer, per-haps), keep your speakers away from corners. For thesame reason, you should also leave at least 6'' betweenthe rear of any speaker and the adjoining wall.

9

Surroundright

Rear L & R (6.1 systems use a single speaker)

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How to Connect the Components

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Connect video outputs from the A/V receiver to your TV. If your receiver upconverts lower-quality formats, you may be able to con-nect a single cable. (If your receiver upconverts S-Video signals to component video, you make a component video connection with-out connecting an S-Video cable.) If your receiver doesn’t do this, you may need a cable for each type of connection from a sourcecomponent.

3

Connect the audio outputs from each source to oneof the audio inputs on the back of the audio/videoreceiver. Only connect one type of audio cable fromeach component; if multiple connections are offered,use the one that provides the best quality (typicallyoptical or coaxial digital).

2Connect the video outputs from eachsource (DVD player, cable/satellitebox, DVR, and so on) to one of thevideo inputs on the back of theaudio/video receiver. Only connectone type of video cable from eachcomponent; if multiple connections areoffered, use the one that provides thebest picture quality.

1

Greater picture qualityLesser picture quality

RCA Coaxial S-Video Component DVI HDMI

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If your television has multiple high-qualityvideo connections (component, DVI, orHDMI), you might want to connect your DVDplayer and any high-definition sourcedirectly, bypassing the A/V receiver for thevideo connection. A direct connection typi-cally offers slightly better picture quality thatmight be noticeable on HDTV material.

6

Connect an RCA audio cablefrom the A/V receiver’s sub-woofer output to the matchinginput on your subwoofer.

5

Connect speaker wires fromthe A/V receiver’s speakeroutputs to each of your sur-round sound speakers.

4

Power PlayGiven that your system willinclude a half-dozen or morecomponents that all need theirown power, you’ll need to sup-plement the standard poweroutlet with a multiple-outletpower strip—preferably onethat also functions as a surgesuppressor. Look for a surgesuppressor with power, RF, andphone line connections becausepower surges can also comethrough your antenna, cable, orphone line!

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How to Connect the Speakers

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Use a quality speaker wire.The lower the gauge, thethicker the wire—and thickerwire is better. For example,10-gauge wire is thicker than12-gauge. The longer thespeaker run, the thicker thewire necessary.

1

Choose the type of speaker wire connection that is easiest for youand is supported by both your audio/video receiver and yourspeakers. Your choices typically include bare wire ends (whichwork with both screw connections and terminal posts), spade con-nectors (which also work with screws and posts), and bananaconnectors (which work only with matching banana jacks).

2

Speaker Wire Guide

14-gauge

12-gauge

10-gauge

Bare wire connects to springclip speaker terminals.

Spade connector works withscrews and posts.

Banana plugs work only withmatching banana jacks.

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Connect the positive (+) and negative(–) leads on your speaker wire thesame way at both ends (at thereceiver and at the speaker). Thisensures that your speakers are allhooked up in phase.

3 If you find that your speakers are outof phase—that is, if the cone from onespeaker is moving out while the coneon another speaker is moving in—youcan bring them back in phase byreversing the leads for one of thespeakers.

4

The subwoofer is not connected viaspeaker wire. This is because the sub-woofer contains its own built-in ampli-fier. The connection to the subwooferis made via a single RCA audiocable. Shielded cable is better forlonger runs.

5

Out ofphase

Single RCA cable

Power cable

In phase

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How to Calibrate the Picture

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Begin by placing all the controls on your televisionset into the manual or normal settings. You want toavoid the “showroom” or “demo” settings that typi-cally boost brightness and color to levels unaccept-able for living room use.

1

Turn the color or saturation control all the way down untilyou have a black-and-white picture.

2

Adjust the brightness and contrast controls untilyou see deep blacks without losing detail in theshadows. These two controls work in conjunc-tion with each other to adjust the white andblack levels of your picture.

3

Adjust the sharpness control to achieve sufficientdetail without introducing grain or video noise.

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Professional CalibrationFor more sophisticated picture calibration, obtain a copyof the DVD AVIA Guide to Home Theater. This disc con-tains dozens of tests and routines to help you fine-tuneyour picture calibration. You can also use a professionaltechnician to perform these same high-level adjustments.

Turn up the color or saturation control until the color level isnatural and vivid without being excessive or “blooming.”

5

Adjust the tint or hue control until skin tones look natural.6

To introduce a slight orange or reddish cast to white areas ofthe picture, adjust the color temperature control to the “warm”setting. To introduce a slight bluish cast to white areas of thepicture, adjust the color temperature control to the “cool” set-ting. Otherwise, leave this control in the neutral position.

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How to Calibrate the Sound

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On your audio/video receiver, turn off all digitalsignal processing (DSP) modes and go directly tothe speaker setup or configuration menu.

1

Unless you’re using large, floor-standing speakers, set the sizesetting for each of your speakers to Small. (You should use theLarge setting only if your speakers have large woofers.)

2

If necessary, turn on your receiver’s LFE or bass man-agement feature. (This is turned on by default on mostA/V receivers.) This can be as simple as selecting Yesfor the subwoofer in the speaker size menu.

3

Measure the distance from your main listening positionto each speaker, and then enter this distance for eachspeaker in the setup menu.

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In phase

Run your receiver’s sound level test, which plays a burstof pink noise through each channel, successively.Adjust the sound level for each speaker until they soundequal to you. (Note that many listeners typically run thecenter and surround speakers too loud; you want a bal-anced sound across all the speakers.)

5

While you’re running the soundlevel test, listen for the pitch of thepink noise from each speaker. Ifone channel sounds noticeablylower in pitch than the others, itmight be connected out of phase;check the polarity of that speaker’sconnections to correct this.

6

Professional CalibrationFor more sophisticated calibration, you’llneed a sound pressure level (SPL) meter andthe DVD AVIA Guide to Home Theater. Youcan use the SPL meter to precisely measurethe sound level from each of your speakersper the AVIA disc’s tests and then makeappropriate adjustments on your receiver.

Out ofphase

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