Home Audio & Video Systems

Home audio and video setups are as individual as the people who own them. At its most basic, a home theater includes a TV, some speakers and an audio/video source. Find out about the newest home theater components, and how they work together to give you a superior entertainment experience.

Learn More / Page 3

Yes, portable analog TVs still work, but you may need to get a digital-to-analog converter box. Learn whether portable TVs still work from this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

DLP is an imaging technology used for television and projectors. Learn what a DLP TV is in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

You can definitely use your PC as a video recorder, with a few pointers. Learn whether you can record TV on your PC in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

Advertisement

You need a new box for your speaker driver and you'd like to build it yourself. Learn about how to build a speaker box in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

You'd like a digital TV antenna, and would like to try building it yourself. Learn about how to build a digital TV antenna in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

Cowboys Stadium features the biggest high-definition television in the world. No matter where you sit, you should have a great view of the action. Fans love it, but why does it make opposing teams so angry?

By Jonathan Strickland

The record player changed society as it made music portable and more accessible to people. How has it evolved from its original design to produce music from a disc of grooved vinyl?

By Meredith Bower

Advertisement

As sports franchises try to attract more fans, teams spend millions upgrading their old stadiums and building new ones. The centerpiece in most? A really, really big HDTV.

By Nathan Chandler

The biggest changes in high-definition televisions over the past few years are related to screen size, thickness and price. Can we cram more pixels into our TV displays?

By Jonathan Strickland

For a technology so widely adopted as high-definition television, you'd think that its realities would be pretty well known. Nonetheless, a number of myths still persist about HDTV.

You paid a lot of money for your new HDTV, so you probably want it to look its best, right? But do you have to have a professional calibrate your new set or can you do it yourself?

By Jonathan Strickland

Advertisement

Flat-panel TVs are thinner than the behemoths that used to sit in our living rooms. But glass is glass -- is there really any difference in how fragile these new TVs are?

By Ed Grabianowski

A high-definition television is a pretty common sight these days, but it wasn't that long ago when seeing one was a real curiosity. When did the first HDTV make the scene?

By Jonathan Strickland

In general, you don't need to have a professional install your new HDTV set, but it still might be worth your while. What might make installation worth the added expense?

By Jonathan Strickland

LCD HDTVs are often criticized because they have difficulty showing a true black color. This is because LCDs use scanning backlights. What do they do?

By Jonathan Strickland

Advertisement

When you think of watching a movie in 3-D, you may think of those goofy glasses with multicolor lenses. But that's the old way to do 3-D. Now, you might not need glasses at all.

By Jonathan Strickland

Apple TV has been around since 2006, but it's fallen out of favor with Apple fans as the company turned its attention toward music lovers. Now, Apple TVs are flying off the shelves as users discover their compatibility with HDTV.

By Nathan Chandler

TVs have come a long way since the early days. Tune in to see how televisions have evolved from the clunky sets of the 1940s to today’s streamlined, Internet-accessing units.

Home theater systems look great in ads, but where are all the wires? If you want that look in your home, you'll have to fish all the wires through the wall, or you can use FlatWire.

By Jonathan Strickland

Advertisement

You're probably familiar with high fidelity, or hi-fi audio, but what about high definition? What's the difference? And which, if either, is better?

By Jonathan Strickland

If bigger is better, then ultra-high definition TV will be the best way to watch television in the not-too-distant future. This larger-than-life technology will immerse viewers in a world of realistic quality.

By Jessika Toothman

On Feb. 17, 2009, TV sets in the United States will need a converter to watch local stations. Is your television ready for the switch?

By Chris Pollette

Switched digital video is one solution to the increasing demand for bandwidth. How does it affect your video on demand, and phone and Internet connections?

By Jonathan Strickland

Advertisement

Satellite HD offers crisp, clear visual displays and immersive 3-D sound. How is it different from cable and satellite TV?

By Jonathan Strickland

HDMI is more than a port on the back of a TV (and the often expensive cable that fits inside). It's a set of rules for allowing high-definition electronic devices to communicate.

By Tracy V. Wilson & Marie Look