Basic of Home Theater

1. Harman International
Sales Primer
Graduating to HTiB – A guide to Home Theatre in a Box
Part I
Ravi Lakkundi
Product Manager, India
Harman International India (Pvt) Ltd
Published on: 04th Oct 2012

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Introduction
Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) is an all in one system for consumers to enjoy surround sound experience
of home cinema. HTiB are an integrated home theater package which bundles a combination of a
DVD/Blu-ray multichannel player and speakers.
The rise of home theaters started with an idea of providing end customers awesome cinema experience
in their homes without actually requiring the know-how of any system electronics, acoustics etc. In
contrast to the component based home theatres where the customers select each component of the
target home theater to be built, tunes the room acoustics. The component based systems are targeted
for audiophiles or for customers who want to graduate from HTiB system to the next level of component
based system.
Availability of Multichannel media content was also a key to increase in such home theater systems.
With Dolby/DTS technology on the rise and which are now ubiquitous, every movie was recorded on
multichannel tracks, 5.1/7.1 became a common comprehensible technology term for customers.
Customers were fascinated with the fact that they can have cinema like experience in their homes with
such media tracks, triggering them to buy easy installable systems for their homes.
The revolution in television further supported the need for HTiB systems, big boxes to flat panel
televisions. Unfortunately the sound in these flat-panel TV’s did not improve primarily because flat
screen TV housings can only contain very small speakers which are placed too close together to deliver
the sound experience. Meaning consumers are not enjoying their media content to the fullest of what
the media/media player is capable of.
This whitepaper is a guide to customers looking to graduate to have an HTiB from just having a sound-
dumb television. Customer’s whose voices echo saying “Their TV deserves a better sound”. The paper
highlights key features of HTiB systems and also provides some buying tips for customers, tips that focus
on price and key target features of an HTiB system.
Building blocks of an HTiB
Every home theater system in a box has two
fundamental building blocks. One Head
unit/Receiver Unit and one set of speakers.
Classification of such systems can be made
primarily on similar terms that of building blocks
- the supported content disc playback
CD/DVD/Blu-ray and/or Based on the
multichannel audio supported 2.1/5.1/7.1 etc.

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What to look for in Head Unit/Receiver Unit?
As the name signifies Receiver unit is an electronic system which receives the content/media to be
played back on speakers and the display system.
Want to know more? – A single Receiver unit box has in-turn two logical building blocks inside - a media
disc player and an amplifier.
The sources that a user might connect to such a receiver unit possibly include
• A digital set-top box
• An iPod/iPad
• A gaming system (Sony PS3 etc)
• A smart box (EvoTV/LimeBox/Apple TV/Roku/Vizio etc)
Yes, the receiver might act as a high end source-switcher which has additional audio/video enhancing
capabilities. With multiple sources to be used, customers need to be careful on the input capabilities of
such receivers. Popular and useful input type being HDMI. Optical and Digital Co-ax are also some input
types that are used for connections.
The audio power (The wattage, heard of 50W, 100W etc?) of such a receiver becomes a very important
factor. Power specs have lot of ambiguity as mentioned in the whitepaper “Demystifying Amplifier

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Specs”. Audio power recommendations are out of the scope of this document but one should go for the
best in terms of power/channel.
Multichannel receivers/HTiB systems are flavored as 2.1/5.1/7.1 etc systems. In the x.y format x signifies
the number of surround channels/satellite speakers and y signifies the number of subwoofer channels.
Ex: A 7.2 Channel Blu-ray receiver means: A home theater system capable of playing Blu-ray discs and
has a multichannel support of 7 channel surround, 2 Subwoofer. This particular system will have
• 1 Receiver
• 7 Satellite speakers
• 2 Subwoofers
All in one BOX !
5.1 and 7.1 systems are more popular as compared to 2.1. 2.1 systems primarily miss the rear satellite
speakers and center speaker. More about speakers in later section …….
Premium receivers are also network connected, meaning consumers can use Airplay/DLNA technology
to access media residing on their personal digital networked devices (Laptops, Smartphones etc) and
play media onto their HTiB system.
A short table lists some key Head/Receiver unit features based on a broad classification of HTiB system –
Entry, Mid and Premium segment (for ‘a’ particular market brand). With technology becoming more
accessible and cheap the below obviously is dynamic and ever changing, but below surely will serve as
the basic guide
Key Receiver Features Entry Mid Premium
DVD/Blu-ray Yes Yes Yes
5.1 2.1/3.1 Yes Yes, even greater
Video processing & 3D Support No Optional Yes
HDMI/Optical/other digital Inputs >3 >5 >5
Active Subwoofer/Wireless Speakers No Yes Yes
Network enabled/DLNA/Airplay No Optional Yes
A typical 7.2 system is shown here. W1 and W2
are two subwoofers. S1 to S7 are 7 speakers,
with S3 being center speaker.

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The HTiB Speaker System
To get a cinema surround experience its required that speakers surround the listener. The movie
sound/music played on the receiver unit is rendered/played in all the corresponding satellite speakers. If
the movie/music is recorded in stereo mode (for only 2 channels) it’s highly desirable that the receiver
unit converts the stereo sound to multichannel sound using some surround technology. In simple terms
converts 2.1 to 5.1/7.1.
2.1 receivers also can give an illusion of surround system by using some virtual surround technologies
embedded in receivers, but given a choice its always desired that customer chooses a multichannel 5.1
or above system.
Many premium receivers give in a microphone for tuning the position of the user – this is a onetime
tuning for a home. The user is expected to connect the given microphone to the receiver and place the
microphone in the preferred seating position. The receiver adjusts itself for that particular ‘sweet spot’
and user has an enhanced tuned sound experience.
A sweet spot is an area where all combined
sound waves come together and make one
experience sound in full depth. It allows listener
to hear sound as directional – sound coming
from behind, from above, from the front, or
wherever the movie director intended the sound
to come from.
HTiB systems have their packaged speakers tuned for that particular receiver unit. The speaker system is
matched for receiver power, speaker type etc. The end user has to simply connect the speakers with the
receiver unit. The wires are color coded and thus the system becomes hassle free for user to connect
such a speaker system.
A key feature of such a speaker system is subwoofer type. Subwoofers are special speaker which have
ability to play low frequencies, better known as ‘bass’. This is what gives the cinema experience the
necessary thump! Two types of subwoofers are used in such HTiB, based on entry, mid or premium
segment home theater systems. Active and Passive subwoofer
Active subwoofers are self powered meaning the subwoofers have an amplifier inside and Passive
subwoofers are powered by the receiver unit. In short the active subwoofers packs in more punch to
your movies than passive subwoofers, given a choice go for active subwoofers but they ofcourse come
at a higher price.

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Another feature to look for is wireless speaker system, a wireless subwoofer will not be too much to ask
in a mid/premium HTiB system. By wireless it means that customers only have a power cable connected
and the audio signal to the subwoofer is wireless.
Conclusion
HTiB systems are for customers who want to experience cinema surround experience in their homes.
HTiB systems are targeted for customers having little or no knowledge about system electronics;
customers can buy a system and set it in their homes without having any knowledge about audio/home
theaters. This whitepaper provides a basic high level explanation of such systems and usage of those.
Such HTiB are available in the market at a price point $300 to $800 depending on the target segment
(Entry/Mid/Premium).
References
For the ones who wish to read more here are some reference World Wide Web links
[1] www.harman.com
[2] www.jbl.com
[3] www.harmankardon.com
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_in_a_box