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Home Theater: The Basics
Most consumers are used to using stereo equipment to listen to music but many people are not used to home theater
systems that give you many more options when listening to soundtracks. In fact, home theater is not really compli-
cated and this little guide should give you an understanding of basics.
The main reasons why it seems so difficult is that there are three different factors involved in home theater and each
will contribute to what kind of sound you get.
These factors are:
1) The equipment you are using for you home theater set up. Particularly important is the number of speakers you
are using. We call this your speaker configuration. The default settings should be fine in most cases.
2) The 'source' material you are using. This is the actual product (like a DVD) or broadcast (like cable TV) you are
listening to/watching. We call this the source.
3) The last factor is the listening mode you choose on the VSX-C550 receiver. These are explained below and in
subsequent chapters but most likely the default setting will be fine.
Let's start with the home theater set up you have in your home.
Your Home System
The heart of your system is the VSX-C550 receiver and it is very flexible in getting you theater-like surround sound.
You can use this receiver with anywhere from two to five speakers (front left, front right, center, surround left and
right) and a subwoofer to get home theater surround sound. However we recommend you use five speakers. If you
only have two speakers choose the Listening mode that offers surround sound for your home setup. Also, a DVD
player is essential for home theater and you can also hook up satellite or cable TV tuner to this receiver and get a
more home theater like sound from those programs.
The Source Material
DVDs have become the basic source material for home theater because they offer excellent sound and picture quality,
allow users to choose the movies they want, and are easy to store, etc. You can also enjoy home theater with other
sources, such as digital satellite TV, cable TV and VHS videotapes. The important part here is all these sources have
soundtracks recorded on them with various kinds of technology (this is called the sound encoding). Home theater
sources are recorded (encoded) with multiple sound channels, that is discrete parts of the overall sound. CDs (which
are stereo sources) work the same way but they only have two sound channels, the left channel and the right channel.
These two channels carry different parts of the soundtrack and mix together when you hear it to make an enjoyable,
stereo sound. The same idea applies to home theater sources except home theater sources are recorded with
multichannels, that is, more than two channels. For example, Dolby Pro Logic encoding has four channels (front left,
front right, center and a single channel for both surround speakers), Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital and DTS
encoding usually have six channels (front left, front right, center, surround left and right and a channel that powers
the subwoofer). Since the subwoofer channel is only for bass sounds this multichannel set up has been named 5.1
channel sound. These multiple channels are what create a surround sound effect and give you a similar experience of
that of a movie theater. It is important you consult the manual that came with your DVD player as well to make sure
the player is outputting a surround soundtrack and all the other settings are appropriate for home theater.
The Listening Modes
This receiver has many different listening modes and they are designed to cover all the speaker configurations and
types of sources you might be using. In general, if you follow the recommend advice and have five speakers hooked
up in most cases the AUTO listening mode is the easiest way to get realistic home theater sound. This is the default
setting so you don't have to do anything. Other possibilities (like listening to a stereo CD with all five speakers or,
conversely taking a stereo source and it getting multichannel home theater-like sound) are explained in Listening
modes (page 33).
These are the three basic factors that contribute to your home theater sound. The easiest thing is to hook up five
speakers and simply play your DVDs with AUTO mode. This will give you realistic and enjoyable home theater
sound.
Quick Start Guide