Jesse Howe from Signals AV places equipment in the lift during a home entertainment upgrade in Venice, Calif.

What is a home entertainment system?

Will all gear work with HDTV?

What is aspect ratio?

When is the best time to upgrade?

How do you receive HDTV?

What's the most common mistake people make when upgrading?

Do universal remotes really work?

What is a home entertainment system?


A large screen TV, something that's 40 inches or larger and displays HDTV.

A surround sound system with plenty of watts.
Will all gear work with HDTV?


TV is evolving from analog to purely digital signal transmission. After 2006 all TV networks will broadcast digitally.

Old school analog TV has 200,000 dots of visual information, or pixels.

High definition has a maximum of two million pixels. That's 10 times greater than analog! FINE LIVING and CNET.com editors recommend the following HDTVs.
What is aspect ratio?


Traditionally, viewers watch TV in a four-by-three aspect ratio, which is square.

The new aspect ratio is 16-by-nine; 16 units of width by nine units of height. The 16 x 9 ratio corresponds to the way the human eyes see so the TV viewer gets a larger panoramic perspective.
When is the best time to upgrade?


If you're an early adopter and excited about technology and money is no object, now is the time to buy. If not, consider investing in a home theater in a box.
How do you receive HDTV?


Using a local aerial, a good old-fashioned roof antenna, you can get all the local broadcast and network feeds through high definition.
What's the most common mistake people make when upgrading?


Not doing their research. You can get really good deals if you look around.
Do universal remotes really work?


There are some really good universal remote controls and some bad ones.

The Harmony remote controls allow you to program your remote by selecting relevant features from a website.