Let me hook it up for you. Wired and ready to go. Hooking up the home theater system is not like what it used to be 20 to 25 years ago. One wire from the VCR over to the TV, select Channel 3 or 4 and you are done. Sit back and enjoy the movie … albeit … awful quality compared to today’s standards. Once upon a time, we thought VHS looked pretty good. And then it was Laserdisc … and DVD after that.
And that’s the problem with progress and the human condition. Once we are exposed to something better than what we know, we cannot easily unlearn that knowledge. Master Yoda was wrong here. We cannot unlearn what we have learned. When forced to take that step backward, we begin to simply tolerate things a lot more. For those that have been watching high definition material for a while, go back and take a look at DVD again and see all the compression artifacts and noise in the image. Are the quality of DVDs today worse than they were 8 years ago? Actually not. The films coming out today represent the pinnacle of DVD quality. It’s never been this good. The flaws were always there, but it took larger and higher quality TVs to expose that and we just got way more observant along the way as well.
“With great power, comes great responsibility.” Now I’m pulling dialog from Spiderman. The only way to take full advantage of the better pictures that our TVs can produce today is to make sure that the TV and all the equipment that you have feeding it has been set up correctly and efficiently. I haven’t seen any system that could not be improved upon in some manner and just getting a picture and sound out of the speakers doesn’t mean you are done.
While inefficiency may not affect the performance of the TV and the home theater, it will invariably end up costing you a lot more money than you really needed to spend. Why pay for five cables when only one is needed? When pay for 20 … 30 … and you can see how the costs start to increase. The stores are actually counting on you not knowing what you are doing. The margins on TVs have fallen so much that the stores will make up for that by getting people to buy those $100 cables and the more the better. $100 for that cable and a $15 one would have done just fine.
Typical Home Theater Set Up
What is illustrated above is a flow chart that shows what things are usually part of a home theater system. Hardly an exhaustive list as well. Use your imagination. The chart also shows how the various pieces of gear are connected to each other. It gets scary now because each device connecting to the next device adds the potential for things to be done wrong. A DVD player doesn’t just connect to the stereo receiver anymore. The DVD player itself also has a number of internal settings that have to be set up correctly to get the best performance out of the player.
The stereo receiver has to be set up correctly for that DVD player too and inputs have to be labeled so that you can get to that DVD player without delay or fumbling. Every device here has some level of set up required to make sure it is performing at its best. The most complicated device to set up properly here is the stereo receiver since it is the hub for any device that delivers audio or video.
For some, setting this stuff up is child’s play. The brain has to be “wired” a certain way for this otherwise it becomes frustrating and confusing. Turns out I’m one of those guys and I can make sense out of any system. Before I started to provide calibration services, hook up and set up was the service that I routinely provided. I was connected through department stores and some repair shops.
As part of any calibration service, wiring and hook up can also be requested. I can:
- Hook things up for the first time
- Sort though an existing wire jungle to fine tune the process
- Identify how best to use each device in the system
- Sometimes, people move into a home and inherit an existing set up. They don’t know how the system works or whether portions of the system are outdated or broken or something else.
- Provide additional cables and adapters at cost plus $1 . (I am not in this to sell you cables.)
The age old question always seems to apply. Do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you correctly. This gets even more important these days given that men are known for not reading the instruction manual when they attempt things.
Let’s break the hook up service down into pieces:
- Set up Cable Box / Satellite Box
- Connect Cable/Satellite to TV / Receiver / Processor for best quality
- Set up Blu-Ray/DVD player
- Connect player to TV / Receiver / Processor for best quality
- Set up Media player/Apple TV
- Connect Media player/Apple TV to TV / Receiver / Processor for best quality
- Set up Game System (Playstation/Xbox 360/Wii)
- Connect Game system to TV / Receiver / Processor for best quality
- Set up / Program Stereo Receiver for optimal performance
- Confirm Speaker wiring
- Set up Video Processor Box for optimal performance
Hook up / Wiring services are charged at a rate of $125/hr for the first hour and $75/hr after that. These services are only available for local clients within Alberta. Save $50 on the service when you add one of the other services that we also provide.
[important]Other Services to Consider:[/important]
Get the best possible pictures from your TV, period. Click here.
Simplify the system with one Remote Control. Click here.
Get the best sound from your music and movies. Click here.
It goes without saying that anyone promising the best TV performance without proper training and instrumentation should be taken with a grain of salt. There is a reason why I have $30K in hardware and software and training to do this part. Ask me about my THX Express Calibration service as well.
