Home Theater Setup - Bring the Cinemas to Your Home

Installing a home theater setup seems a simple exercise. And it is, if you know some of the basics and what pitfalls to avoid. One important thing to remember in setting up a home theater system is to ensure a digital connection between your DVD players and receivers. Likewise, make it a point to have the correct bass management setup or proper level calibration.

To get the most of your home theater setup, you should use the proper wiring from speaker to receiver. The polarity from each speaker to the receiver must be consistent [i.e. red = (+); black = (-)]. The designated speaker terminals which are located at the back of the receiver should be connected to the appropriate speaker. In other words, the front left speaker input in the receiver should be connected to the front left speaker. The right cables should also be used to connect to your receiver to sources (i.e.

Pay special attention to volume controls which should be at its minimum setting when the home theater setup is being powered for the first time. Bear in mind that the 10-point incremental volume scale (0 is mute and 10 is full volume) don't operate in most modern AV receivers. A more precise scale is employed where the lower volume is indicated by a larger negative number. In this scale, 0dB would be very loud at or near maximum volume. You will get increasingly louder sound with each clockwise rotation and increasingly lower with counterclockwise rotation.