Looks complicated doesn’t it? Nowadays home theater systems are getting cheaper and more affordable and I still can’t find a decent guide about installing, setting up and basics of these home theaters. Then I realized there are not a lot of good guides because there are hundreds of home theater variations and so I created this guide. This is a very basic guide for home theaters. It won’t deal with how DTS works or how HDMI works. I won’t bother with very technical details because technology changes but the basic fundamentals do not. This guide just tells you how to connect the devices, the two types of experience you get from a home theater and to understand what __ IN / __ OUT jacks are so that you can use the system without paying for the expensive installation cost.

A. Before setting up, try to read a little about these topics:

1. RCA Cables
2. HDTV
3. Component Cables
4. Digital Theater System
5. Surround Sound
6. TOS-LINK Cables
7. TRS Connector

A. Understanding the common setup for Home Theater Systems

Before starting the setup you need to understand that in a home theater there are only two things you can experience, the audio experience and the video experience each of which gets data from a source, and so by putting this in mind it will be easier for you to understand how to create basic setups and troubleshoot problems:
 

* Image of a Samsung HDTV connected to a personal computer running Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Video Experience Devices:
- Television / HD Televisions
- Projectors
- Computer Monitors
 

* Image of a Kenwood Amplifier

Audio Experience Devices:
- Amplifiers
- Speakers
- Subwoofers
 

* Image of a Xbox 360 and a Pioneer DVD Player

Possible Sources:
- DVD Players / Blu-ray Players / VCD Players
- Xbox 360
- PSP / PS3 / PS2
- Digital Camcorders
- Digital Cameras
- Personal Computers
- Cable TV
 

* Image of jacks behind an HDTV. I have highlighted the jacks on this picture as you can see in a an Experience device there will be usually more IN jacks.

How do these devices work together/communicate?
After knowing these, the next thing to understand would be to learn how these devices communicate with each other. These devices communicate using IN/OUT jacks. No matter how complex the jack may look like (RCA,TOSLINK,DVI,HDMI) or how many there are (RED,WHITE) they only can only do one action. IN jacks receive data/video/audio signals from other devices while OUT jacks send data/video/audio signals to another device. Like the principle of north and south poles of a magnet they need to bind together.
 
 
Now that you have read about the basics on the next page I will be showing some examples and jack scenarios on basic Audio and Video Experience connections for home theaters. Don’t like HTPC? I will also include a scenario wherein your PC will be used as a source. ^_^
 
On to Page 2!