Home Theater Receiver |
and thus change the audio source accordingly - all without touching anything but the receiver.
Of course, the main purpose behind the audio / video receiver circuit to drive audio to external speakers as surround sound or stereo speakers.
Most receivers have a plethora of inputs, up to 8 speakers and a subwoofer (more commonly, 5.1, or five speakers and a subwoofer), multiple video inputs, and even HDMI. You can connect your Xbox, Plasma and DVD player into the receiver and use a remote to switch between different video sources (games, TV, DVD-Video) and get your surround sound speakers pumping. Start with the inputs and outputs. If you do not understand something, read the How-To which most of them will be explained in detail.
Remember that the receiver is at the heart of the theater, whole house, so this How-To Guides really the basics of connecting a perfect home theater.
So what the hell is all this "stuff" on the back of your receiver?
I'll go near anything you find on the back of your receiver. The one I based this guide off of is a Harman Kardon AVR-247, I'll start from the top left of the unit and work my way to the right, then I start to the left of the next row and so on.
The first three inputs are for antennas. An FM antenna cable slide on the first shot, and two speaker wires would plug into the slots remaining AM. Of course, you do not need to connect your antenna, but if you want AM / FM reception through your speakers, you'll want to go ahead and do it. These are standard connections, so if you lose one of your antennas, just go buy another for a few dollars.
You've probably heard of composite video. It is a very basic video connection used by most of the components (TV, DVD, VCR, especially). Their common and inexpensive. As such, its very low quality.
Home Theater Receivers |
Uses a composite video RCA cable (yellow) and two RCA audio cables (red and white stereo). The problem is that a composite video cable combines luminance and chrominance in the same cable, reducing the quality of the image. You waste a lot of sharpness and color begins to decrease from the original source. It is useful when you need additional input or a device that has composite video plugs. Otherwise, use something else, like component video. Similar sounds, very different.
S-Video is next to the line after composite. It uses a different type of connector (five feet in a circle) and gives you a slightly better video quality. It is also a video cable only, so you'll need to connect the audio separately. In this case, you will probably spend a couple of red and white RCA cables to the inputs of your audio.
Next up: a lot of composite audio inputs. These entries left and right channel RCA cables, usually red and white. They have the appearance of the yellow composite video cable, and even could be used