That’s entertainment

Home entertainment ads can be overwhelming. Instead of just reading about a nice 28-inch color television, there are pages describing the five-speaker digital sound system connected to a 42-inch plasma television with wireless CD that can store as much as 200 hours of music, all accompanied by an easy-to-use universal remote that provides one-touch access to the entire family of electronic devices.

But be careful. Once word gets out about your home-entertainment system, it could lead to family, friends and in-laws visiting more often; and, depending on your family, friends and in-laws, that could pose a problem.

“Home-entertainment systems got under way about 10 years ago when Dolby Pro Logic surround sound became widely available,” said Tim Alessi, director of product development for LG Consumer Electronics. “There are basically three essential elements that define a system: sight, source and sound. The source started as VHS, but is now mainly DVD or a high-definition DVD or Blu-ray player. You need something to process sound which means an audio processing system to fully achieve the benefit of the Dolby Digital surround sound encoded on the newer DVDs or Blu-ray discs. And for sight or display, let’s use that 42-inch plasma high-definition screen.”

And to think I still have rabbit ears on my television upstairs.

“The purpose of all these products is to entertain people,” Alessi said. “The content, whether it’s a movie, nightly sitcom or sporting event, is for entertainment purposes. Add a big screen with a proper sound system and the entire experience becomes quite immersive.”

While a 42-inch screen sounds good, surveys show most homes have a 27- to 32-inch TV that is usually found in the living room, bedroom or family room. However, the ideal location for an entertainment system is where noise and light can be controlled and there is always a clear view of the screen. Many homeowners have turned a spare room into a home theater going so far as to install acoustical treatments.

And that is when Chuck Abbott at Abbott’s Technology Design Group in Las Vegas gets involved. For the past 25 years, Abbott has been designing and installing home theaters working directly with homeowners, architects and interior designers.

“We cater to all kinds of budgets,” he said. “People basically just want to watch TV and listen to music. I’ve installed 70-inch and 200-inch screens in rooms where customers are spending several hundred thousand dollars or more. It becomes a priority for them. Besides, with all the technology available these days, why go out to a movie. Even a modest home theater is more relaxing than going out.”

Abbott said one of the newer pieces of technology is a movie server.

“We have clients who have thousands of DVDs scattered all over the house,” he explained. “We load those movies into the server and the customer has easy access to all of them and can review the entire movie library on a computer. Then it’s just click and play. We also do it with music by consolidating CDs.”

Abbott said flat-screen TVs are popular, but consumers need to keep in mind that the 200-pound television just doesn’t hook on the wall with a nail. The wall has to be opened up, braced, mounted and then all the power and cables have to be connected.

“It’s very labor intensive and sometimes the work costs more than the television,” he said.

Alessi said that do-it-yourselfers don’t have to be electronic geniuses to install a home-theater system.

“For instance,” he said, “LG offers a home-theater unit that uses one component that combines an audio-visual receiver with Dolby Digital surround sound, a single or five-disc DVD/CD player and an AM/FM receiver all built into one system connected to the TV. It can be functional with as few as two or three connections. And as people become more comfortable with technology and adopt the technology, the prices of these items decrease over time.”