Book Description
It might be the long lines at the theater, the $4.00 for a small bag of popcorn, or the cutting-edge technology that's now so readily available to the home market. Whatever the reason, the home theater market today is booming like the soundtrack to Star Wars! Want proof? A Google search for home theater reveals over three million results. Yikes!
It's simply undeniable: More and more people prefer watching their favorite movies, television shows, and videos from the comfort of their own sofas and couches. What's also undeniable is the inexperience of most people who choose to install or upgrade their home theaters.
Until now, the knowledge, technique, and experiences of those who've encountered similar conditions to yours could only be accessed through laborious web searches, stacks of magazines, and water cooler conversations. Home Theater Hacks from O'Reilly is the perfect remedy for this group.
A smart collection of insider tips and tricks, Home Theater Hacks covers home theater installation from start to finish, purchase to experience. Just imagine: no frustrating trial-and-error process and better yet, no expensive appointments with installation experts. Home Theater Hacks prevents both by imparting down-and-dirty technique not found anywhere else.
The book begins with a quick glossary of terms so you can speak the lingo when you go shopping, and then dives right into hush-hush, insider tricks. It's all covered where to find the right audio and video components, how to deal with speakers and wiring, understanding cable connectivity, mastering remote controls, how to fully grasp TiVo, and so much more. And to top it off, each of these insider tips is presented in a concise yet delightfully entertaining style. Bringing the Jurassic Park dinosaurs into your living room has never been so easy!
A seasoned veteran with numerous O'Reilly titles under his belt, author Brett McLaughlin leaves no stone unturned in helping you customize your home theater experience to your own personal environment.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Best Books on Home Theater.......2007-02-21
Saw this at my local bookstore and checked with Amazon.com and was happy to purchase it online for a substantial discount here. This book is great for anyone beginning to setup their own home theater and for those that really like to get into the meat of this hobby. The pages are easy to read with good, clear black and white photos spread throughout.
What this book offers are those uncommon tips and tricks that big name electronics stores don't want you to know about. This book alone will save me hundreds of dollars from all the information provided inside. It's doesn't have too much techno-babble but it won't feel like a crash course booklet leaving you wanting more. Intelligently laid out and highly recommended.
Good book, but some weaknesses.......2006-04-15
This is a good choice to learn about home theater, and the author has a number of great ideas to get you started. I recommend the book, but I was disappointed with several aspects. 1) It seemed to be aimed more to the high-end user; no information about home-theater-in-a-box or virtual surround sound was given. I can imagine the author's opinions on these subjects, but he should have at least addressed them. 2) Some information is rapidly becoming outdated, especially in the video processing and connectivity sections. This book should probably be updated once a year. 3) Too much unnecessary detail in some areas. For example, a large section on antenna construction should be shortened, since most people probably use either cable or satellite anyway. And while the long section on user service codes is good, most of it will be out of date by the time the book is published. 4) Too much emphasis on projection displays, and not enough detail on flat panels (e.g., mounting issues, care/maintenance issues). 5) I would like to see more information about wiring strategies: different ways to hide wiring, the status of wireless speakers, etc.
Excellent Home Theater Basics explained........2006-02-01
This book covers it all. Very well written and easy to understand. He covers everything from TV's to recievers, amps and speakers. A must for any home theater enthusiest.
A must read before working on your home theater.......2005-03-16
Home Theater Hacks is the perfect book for anyone in the planning, building, or improvement phase of their home theater. This book really covers everything that has to do with a home theater: from selecting the right components, to component configuration, to cabling, to making your theater look awesome. This book is a must read before you start your home theater.
The book begins with a very thorough and impressive discussion of how and where to buy home theater components. The author discusses receivers (both audio and video), DVD players, TVs (both HD and standard), as well as the ins and outs of buying online versus at a local store. This discussion naturally leads to a very large section on "configuration", which includes such things as how to install and configure a terrestrial television antenna, how to match your subwoofer to your room, and everything you ever wanted to know about cables. I particularly enjoyed the author's discussion of the modern myth of expensive cabling. He provides a very good explanation of what "good enough" means (you wouldn't put gold water pipes in your home, why spend $100 on a gold cable?).
As mentioned, this is a very interesting and useful book for anyone planning or currently working on a home theater. It dispelled a lot of myths I had heard in the past, and provides clear explanations as to why many of these myths are false. Additionally, I found that the book provided sound advice in the purchase and configuration of home theater components.
Educational.......2005-01-18
I am by no means a home theater nut, but I figured I could always use a few pointers on setting up my living room to improve my viewing experience. The nice thing about this book (and all "hacks" books, for that matter) is the broad spectrum of ideas and suggestions. As a lot of this stuff was new to me, I appreciated the amount of detail the author goes into for each hack.
I found the hacks on Calibration (#60 - #74) the most helpful for getting noticable improvements quickly. There are also plenty of other simple tips here and there (i.e. lighting, wiring, warm-up vs burn-in) to enhance my home theater. However, the book was a bit over my head at times -- therefore very educational. I'm going to have to install some bass shakers (Hack #40) into my couch as my first project. =)
Product Description
This basic book is for everyone who owns a TV and has found it confusingÂ… Real world cartoons help to simplify and illustrate plain English explanations of the basics of TVs, cable, satellite, HDTV and more. Simple to follow steps will give you confidence in buying new equipment then hooking it up when you get home. Discover how hooking up and using your TV is easier when you understand how a signal gets to your TV set. Learn why HDTV was created, how it is different from today's TV, and how it will effect you in the future, whether you buy it or not. Make friends with your equipment. Become familiar with the connections and cables that you use to connect the components together. Simple guidelines help you select the connections you want to use.
Customer Reviews:
Home Electronics Survival Guide.......2007-02-21
Helped a little, but did not give me enough info to hook up my LCD TV. I got it hooked up by a mixture of thinking a lot and trial and error.
The book does give a good basic discussion of modern TV systems. I forgot what I paid, but it's worth a few books just to get this discussion and the illustrations, but it won't get you to the Promised Land by itself!!
a good book for beginners........2007-01-10
It is a good book for beginners without electronic background.
At last - a comprehensive CE book written in plain English.......2005-12-03
Finally, a very useful book on consumer electronics written in plain English. This book covers it all - from understanding the technologies and confusing terms, to selecting the right components you need, to choosing a good salesperson, and how to connect it all together so it actually works. Even if you choose to have someone else put your system together, this book is a great resource to help guide you through all the TLAs (Three Letter Acronynms) that the industry loves to invent to confuse their customers. Get two copies of this book and give one as a gift to someone who is overwhelmed at all the confusion on the market.
Finally, A Practical Guide!.......2005-11-18
I've spent too many years having to mash my hair back down after giving myself one electrical shock after another trying to hook stuff together. Finally--there's a practical guide to the maze of what plugs in where and in what order, and this book is not only practical but a lot of fun, too. Most instruction manuals that come with home electronics might as well be written in Sanskrit or Klingon, and the TV manual never talks to the VCR manual or the DVR manual. This book connects everything by showing us how to connect everything. It's a welcome relief, and I no longer glow in the dark.
So handy to have around.......2005-11-09
I love this book! There are several things about it that I really like. First, it is full of wonderful cartoons by the author that make the book really fun. The thing I like most, though, is that it is full of photos of actual cables, plugs, backs of tvs, etc. so when I want to really understand something, I have a visual reference. Now I don't have to go to Radio Shack and call a cable a "thingy." The biggest problem is knowing what you want to know and this book solves that problem.
Book Description
Want a front-row seat at your own movie theater? If you are interested in re-creating the movie experience at home, then look no further! Filled with information on the hottest trends in consumer electronics, this book will help you choose video, system-integration, and acoustics equipment. It also offers basic installation information and news on the hottest electronics, including HDTV and DVD. This do-it-yourself guide will help you find out how easy it is to build a home theater in just one weekend.
Customer Reviews:
Waste of Money and a Weekend!.......2002-10-26
Try more like a month! This book overpromises and is written in too confusing a manner to follow. I would have gotten further just reading my electronics manual.
Easy to read........2002-02-14
This book is for the begginer. It may be overly simplistic for some people. I found I had to skim over a lot of material but it did answer those areas I was a little vague on. He is very wordy when it comes to how to connect components describing in detail every possible combination. Simple diagrams would have saved reading through a lot of pages. Over all the book delivered on what it promised but I still feel I need to look for something more advanced but for someone just starting this is a good book to start with.
Lousy title, Great book.......2001-07-05
I picked up this book knowing there was no way I could really build a home theater in one weekend. I'm not sure what the authors were thinking naming it this. However, just flipping through it there was such great material I kept wanting to read more. Anyway, the short of it is that it took me about a month to really research my home theater and do it right, but this book was an excellent guide along the way. The authors do a great job giving you advice on how to build a home theater which can scale. Something you can enjoy now, but upgrade later without replacing the entire system. I'm not sure if my wife likes that idea too much, but she realizes that my toys make me happy. However, to her credit, after I put this set together and put on Armageddon, she was completely blown away by the sound and visual effects. Best thing, the authors tell you how to hide the speakers/components if other parties don't like watching the awesome lights dance.
Average customer rating:
- Not all inclusive
- It's History and Not Up To Date
- two words: outdated and elementary
- Very Basic - Disappointing
|
Build Your Own Home Theater (Second Edition)
Robert Wolenik , and
John Adams
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ASIN: 0750673303 |
Book Description
Written to provide information on all price ranges of equipment to everyone from the beginner to the experienced home theater owner, Build Your Own Home Theater has been completely updated for today's audience. This new edition contains valuable consumer information on the latest digital home theater components and technology, including digital surround sound receivers, DVD players, digital television & HDTV, digital satellites (DBS), digital camcorders, and digital hard-drive video recorders. It also features easy-to-understand explanations of surround sound technology and set upsincluding Dolbyâ Digital, THX Surround EXTM, and DTS-ESTM.
If you are interested in audio, video, and home theater technologies, this book will give you the information you need to choose the right components, hook the pieces together, and create a fabulous theater experience right in your own living room. When the first edition of Build Your Own Home Theater was published, decent home theater systems were primarily only affordable for wealthier consumers. Now, several years later, the technology is accessible to millions of homes as products such as wide-screen televisions, digital surround sound audio, DVD Video and Audio Players, and digital satellite systems have become commonplace. Though most people don't have actual home theater set-ups in their living rooms, more and more consumers are trying to combine components they already own with new high-tech components to create an affordable home theater experience. Complete with important home theater Web site addresses and resources, Build Your Own Home Theater, Second Edition is a comprehensive, current, and well-researched text. Beginners to advanced home theater consumers, Videophiles, technicians, engineers, and electronics hobbyists from all walks of life will especially find it invaluable.
*"Dolby" and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks and "Surround Sound EX" is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories.
THX and Lucasfilm are © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights are reserved. Used under authorization. DTS and DTS-ES are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.
Covers all of the hot digital technologies and how to tie them together into one amazing home theater experience for budgets from $1,500 to $15,000.
New edition includes cutting edge technology from Digital Surround Sound to High Definition and Digital Television, DVD, Video Hard-Drives, Digital Satellites, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
Not all inclusive.......2002-02-22
This book is all about the systems and equipment, how they work or not together. It does not go into decor of said equipment. No themes or anything like that, just the tecnical mumbo jumbo. It seems to focus on higher end equipment as well and does not give each manufacturer of stereo/audio equipment equal reviews or ratings. Some are just brushed over, barely mentioned. It is a good starter book, but definetly does not cover all aspects of a home theater design.
It's History and Not Up To Date.......2001-12-28
The book is well written and the material covered logically organized. However, advances in technology makes this more of a history text than the current "how-to" book that I was looking for. You would never buy this book in a store because you would flip through a few pages and find out that Wolenik talks about DVD in the "future tense". I would buy an updated version -- even for a rank beginner this one is not worth much. OK pictures!
two words: outdated and elementary.......1999-02-17
This book is very basic and is well outdated by at least 3-4 years. no mention of dvd or dts!! according to the author thx is the breaking revolution??? I purchased the book in hopes of finding a few tips on the design and building of an actual home theater ($15,000 - $25,000). what i got was a boring explanation of dolby pro logic and stereo sound. if you are designing a $1500 system with a $300 dolby surround sound receiver this is the book for you!!!!
if not keep looking!!!!!!!!!!!
Very Basic - Disappointing.......1998-09-26
Disappointed that there was only 1-2 pages on Front projector Theaters and 1-2 pages on rear projection theaters.
Book Description
Having an incredible movie-watching experience in the comfort of your home doesn't have to cost as much as you might think. "Home Theater Solutions" will show you how to build a fully-equipped home entertainment system on a budget. You'll learn how to identify and shop for needed equipment as well as how to hook up and calibrate your new system. You'll also acquire some money-saving tips and tweaks to maximize the home theater sound.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Los Angeles Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on March 13, 2006. The length of the article is 1170 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Wired up: House Gadget is more than just a technology installation company.(House Gadget innovates and develops home theater equipment)
Author: Hilary Potkewitz
Publication:
Los Angeles Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 13, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 28
Issue: 11
Page: 14(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
One of the most common problems amateur painters face is not knowing what to paint. This highly illustrated guide shows artists how to recognize a good subject.
Average customer rating:
|
WHAT SHALL I PAINT?
HAZEL SOAN
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8TZ18 |
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