Setting up a home theater is a two-part project, with an easy half and a difficult half.
The easy half is video, the difficult half is audio.
Big-screen TVs, defined as 27 inches and above, have become increasingly popular in recent years as prices have dropped and people watch more movies at home. So buy the biggest one you can afford.
But the full “explosions-rattling-your-bones” theater experience requires far more than the tiny speakers built into most television sets. But home-theater audio systems involve so many choices that consumers get confused. What’s the difference between Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital-ready and Dolby Digital? Should I buy a separate receiver and speakers, or get an entire package in one big box? How do I position all this equipment to get the best sound?
Pioneer Electronics Inc., one of the early and most persistent advocates of home theater, has come out with a clever product that cuts through the complexity of home-theater audio: SimpleSolution HTV-1.
The $399 HTV-1, introduced in June, puts an entire Dolby Pro Logic surround-sound system in two pieces–a powered subwoofer that sits underneath or to one side of your TV, and a speaker bar that sits on top of the set.
The SimpleSolution requires no more than 10 minutes to plug together. It also takes up very little space, unlike full surround-sound systems, where you must make room for five or six speakers scattered around the room.
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The HTV-1 uses a technology Pioneer calls “Virtual Dolby” to deliver the same effect as a room full of speakers–the sensation that action in a movie or TV show is occurring all around you, not just inside the screen.
I didn’t quite get the complete “you are there” impact from the HTV-1, but the sound quality was awesome for such a small rig. The slender speaker bar also did an excellent job of audio separation, so that I could clearly hear sounds such as footsteps moving from the left to right.
The HTV-1 is unobtrusive, as well as small. The 8-pound speaker bar, which Pioneer calls a “control center,” is 24 inches long by 4 inches high by 7 inches deep and has a dull black finish matching most TV sets. The subwoofer weighs a hefty 30 pounds, but is a cube measuring only 14 inches on each side.
To set up the HTV-1, you plug the subwoofer into an AC outlet, then run a power cable and a sound cable from the subwoofer to the speaker bar. You finish up by running a cable from your audio source–such as a TV, videocassette recorder, cable box, satellite box or DVD player–into the speaker bar. A remote control is included that runs the HTV-1 and can be programmed to operate many other types of audio-video equipment.
Furthering the HTV-1’s unobtrusive nature is a dimmer control that darkens the speaker bar’s display screen and an “auto on-off” feature that shuts down the HTV-1 when there is no audio signal after five minutes, then turns it on when a signal is detected.
In September, Pioneer plans to ship a souped-up model called the HTV-2, providing 40 watts of output power per speaker channel instead of the HTV-1’s 30 watts. The HTV-2’s subwoofer will be slightly heavier, at 35 pounds, and the model comes with a “learning” remote that can be programmed to work with any remote-controlled device.