Smart Home Theater-Smart Receiver Buyer's Guide

by Terry Borst
Summer/Fall 2002

The beating heart of a home theater system is its audio/video (A/V) receiver. And, if your idea of a receiver is a glorified switchbox directing traffic between an AM/FM tuner and an audio cassette deck, ask yourself when you last bought a music tape. Today's receivers do a lot more.

But which one to get? This Smart TV & Sound buyer's guide lists many of the state-of-the-art home theater receivers now available. Here, we'll provide a look at some of the features and benefits of a smart receiver, and how you can significantly enhance your family's complete entertainment experience.

Let's start with the basics. Many manufacturers include basic receivers in their home theater television sets. However, the smart receivers we're talking about are stand-alone components. There are several advantages to buying a separate A/V receiver:

Larger number and bigger variety of input and output ports

More state-of-the-art features

Greater ease in integrating components from various manufacturers

If you think about it, this is similar to any situation where you get a stock component as part of a larger purchase. When you buy an SUV, the CD player included will be OK but not state-of-the-art. When you buy a computer, the display card is adequate but not superior.

Connections, Connections, Connections
The first job of a smart receiver is to connect all the different entertainment components you want to control from one location. The list of potential connections gets longer every day. Obviously, we'd begin with a television, a DVD player, and a CD/cassette tape player. Chances are that even with DVD, we'd still like to use a VCR, as well as an AM/FM tuner (though some A/V receivers also include a built-in AM/FM stereo tuner).

But this is just the beginning. What about a game console, or a PC? What about a PVR (personal video recorder) like a TiVo, or other digital set-top box that our satellite or cable company might provide? What about a portable MP3 or MD audio player?

Our list doesn't stop there. We should be able to view digital video on our television screen (either still or full-motion). We should be able to connect a laptop computer and use the TV screen (perhaps to project a PowerPoint presentation or a digital photo we've received by e-mail). It'd be great if we could output the PowerPoint presentation or the digital video from the screen to a VHS tape. And we should be able to direct sound from a game console, audio component, DVD or television broadcast to a subwoofer and speakers.

In other words, we'd like to be able to connect as many analog and digital devices as possible. Not all A/V receivers will cover every one of the connections mentioned above, but when you're evaluating brands and models, first find out how many audio and video input and output ports the receiver has. Then, can it handle all the devices you might like to connect to it? In addition, does it have a sufficient variety of connection types? For example: can it output to either composite video or S-video, and can it accept USB audio input?

Be sure to look ahead; you might not have a portable MP3 player or digital camera now, but sooner or later you're going to add components to your home theater. Your system needs to be able to grow with you.

Your A/V receiver needs to be more than a cabling connection box, of course. It needs to give you easy control over all these devices. Some receivers offer two remote controls: one for the overall system, another restricted to audio. Some receivers provide an all-in-one remote.

A standard feature of many remotes is programmability, but programming a remote with all those little buttons can be a lot of work. Naturally, we'd like to program the remote on-screen and nearly any smart receiver will make this possible.

Virtually every smart receiver will provide on-screen display for overall option settings and input controls. They will also include surround sound capability and Dolby Digital and DTS decoders, all of which will ensure the processing of any audio source.

If you'd really like to make this a receiver for your entire home, look for dual-room, dual-source capability. The advantage to this is that you could enjoy truly rich, full sound from your primary system rather than listen to a cheap boombox stashed on a shelf.

Pop it in and Kick Back
Various manufacturers provide their own technologies to help with integrating diverse electronic components. Sony, for example, features an S-Link control system on its receivers and other components, enabling the components to talk to each other on a sophisticated level. For example, imagine popping a tape into your VCR, and having the TV, VCR and receiver automatically power up, adjust their input settings (volume, color control, etc.), and cue the tape to begin playing. This leaves more time for fluffing up the couch pillows, and means you don't have to go fiddling with the remote.

If all of your components included the S-Link, it would mean your DVD and MP3 player could behave the same way. Your home theater would become purely one-touch and media-driven. Put in the DVD or Memory Stick or CD, and let the system do the rest.

The S-Link's potential applications are nearly limitless. University students have connected S-Link devices to their computers, enabling control of their home theater components from both a local computer and remotely, via the Internet.

JVC provides its CompuLink services to better integrate components. Like Sony's S-Link, CompuLink provides one-touch media control and even text. CompuLink transmits media-embedded textual data for display on your receiver and television. This means you can get extensive track information on CDs (musicians, songwriters, etc.), and additional data, links or references encoded on DVDs or inside MP3 music files.

The FireWire Future
But the most exciting turn smart receivers are taking is towards FireWire and HAVi (Home Audio Video interoperability) for non-proprietary connection and control. Mitsubishi, RCA, Toshiba, Sony, Sharp and Panasonic are all rolling out FireWire/HAVi receivers, televisions, and more.

As part of this movement, Mitsubishi has introduced its NetCommand technology to better integrate digital/HAVi components with older analog components. NetCommand provides an icon-based on-screen interface to help control everything connected through the receiver. Add a new component to your home theater system (even if Mitsubishi doesn't make it), and the smart receiver should automatically display control codes and options for the newcomer to the party, making setup easier than ever.

In theory, HAVi-enabled receivers can direct the video from a front porch security camera to your television, mute the sound when the phone rings, automatically reset component clocks after a power outage, and be controllable from a wireless PDA. And if you forgot to program your VCR for the evening, you could connect via the Internet and set up the recording.

If these possibilities sound intriguing, you may want to look for FireWire/HAVi and other such technologies in your smart receiver. These non-proprietary standards are likely to make your smart receiver more expandable and upgradeable in the years ahead.

Smart receivers will justify their price just in the time saved and frustration avoided in connecting and configuring A/V devices. But their new capabilities will make your home theater system even more useful and valuable not to mention, more fun!