Big-screen TVs, surround-sound audio systems, and integrated home offices are becoming the norm in many of today’s homes. The trend is accelerated by the growing acceptance of the “wired home” concept in which a home is prewired for consumer electronics and small office, home office (SOHO) devices. Some home builders, such as Village Homes, are currently integrating and prewiring their new house designs for voice, data, and surround-sound audio systems. Because this is ComputerUser, you will find more than just information about new electronic gadgets in this story. You will also find tips on what to look for when shopping for a big-screen television. And, there’s more. In these pages,we will introduce a product that allows you to capture television signals with your computer. This product is part of another burgeoning trend— convergence. Of all the trends affecting the consumer electronics and home media industry, none will have a greater impact on the average consumer, computer user, or SOHOer than convergence. This concept is based on a merging of traditional consumer electronics that allow you to add consumer electronics capabilities to your computer. You will also find several ideas here that you may not even have thought about, but that you can use to make your system more productive and just a little more fun.

The linchpin of any home entertainment system is the television set—but not just any television will do. If you want to watch the letterbox version of the special edition Star Wars trilogy, you need a big-screen television. Consumers are scooping up these TVs at an ever increasing pace. As onscreen quality has increased and prices have moderated, big-screen sales have enjoyed five years of strong growth. Big-screen sets—or projection TVs—are available in two forms. The most popular are the one-piece, rear-projection models that have screens ranging in size from 40 inches to 80 inches of diagonal measurement. Two-piece units duplicate the real theater experience by having a separate video projector and screen. This kind of (expensive) system can produce bright images of 100 inches or larger and are being installed in many home- theater environments.

Here are a few tips you should keep in mind when shopping for a big-screen TV. The most important feature of any projection TV is how evenly the projected light is spread across the front of the screen. The left and right edges of the onscreen image should be just as bright as the center. If not, being able to properly view from off to the side of the screen could be a problem.

As more and more high-resolution digital input devices (digital satellites and Digital Video Disc [DVD] players, for example) are connected to a system, the resolution of the image becomes the next most important consideration. Mies Van der Rohe’s statement that “less is more” does not apply to resolution requirements for big-screen television. More is always better. A good projection television should also reproduce the complete color spectrum from black to white. If your store of choice can run a “color bars” tape, you will be able to evaluate the strength of each color— especially red—along with the depth of the black and the pureness of the white. As the picture gets bigger, little problems that may not bother you on your old 19- inch portable get bigger too. To minimize these problems, choose a set that uses advanced low-noise video circuitry to eliminate visual glitches. Because you may be connecting many different input devices (VCRs, laser disc players, digital satellite system) along with an audio system to your big-screen TV, make sure there are enough input and output jacks to connect them. The TV should have an S-Video input. Some laser disc, DVD players players, and digital satellite dishes provide S-Video outputs. Using S-Video-In from such devices, instead of the standard video-in connection, will increase the quality of your picture. If you want to add a big-screen TV to your family room, take a look at Sony’s KP-53S35, 53-inch model with a suggested list price of $2,199.99. Sony bundles comb- filter circuitry with this TV, because the quality of the comb filter can affect the overall resolution, edge sharpness, and detail of a picture. The KP-53S35 has two tuners so you do not have to use a kludgy T-cable between your VCR and TV to get picture-in-picture capability. The KP-53S35 also has built-in matrix surround-sound capability. What if you are working late at your computer and want a CNN update on breaking news? If you want to add a TV to your computer, take a look at IXMICRO’s (formerly Integrated Micro Systems) Turbo TV. This PCI-based video capture card has an integrated 125-channel television tuner and is available for both Windows and Mac OS computers. Turbo TV lets you watch television— cable or off-antenna—in a scalable window at any desktop resolution and simultaneously run your favorite software. Using the bundled software, you can capture live video or still images from the television image. Hearing-impaired computer users should know that closed captioning is currently available only for the Windows version.

It’s no surprise that the “A” in the term “AV” is first. Good audio can enhance the quality of any movie, computer game, or sound system. Surround sound was invented for movie theaters to give them an edge on home viewing, but it didn’t take long for VHS tapes and videodiscs to provide encoded surround sound. Research by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA) shows that at the end of last year, 15 percent of U.S. households had an AV receiver, 9 percent were using a subwoofer, and 7 percent had a center-channel speaker. CEMA estimates that the emergence of DVD, with its standard Dolby digital sound, will increase sales of multichannel electronics. The heart of your surround sound system is an AV receiver. Most receivers now feature Dolby Pro Logic decoding that uses electronic steering circuits to direct the sound to the proper channel for greater separation. The dolby digital system provides six separate channels: left front, right front, center, left rear, right rear, and a low frequency subwoofer for effects. Let’s straighten out any confusion about Dolby digital and LucasFilms’ THX sound systems. In a movie theater, Dolby equipment is installed in the projection booth to read the soundtrack from the film, decode it, and process it. LucasFilms’ THX division develops technologies and sets standards for theaters’ amplification and loudspeaker systems, and for auditorium acoustics. This separation of capture versus output function works similarly in a home theater environment. If you would like to add surround sound to your home entertainment system the Denon AVR-502 five-channel power amplifier is a good product to start with. It delivers a total of 255 watts in five channels. Not only does it use the standard three surround modes (Normal, Wide, and Phantom), it also supports two new modes—Concert Hall and Live. The AVR-502’s Personal Memory Plus function allows you to store the surround mode, balance for center and surround speakers, and control the delay time for further customization. The amplifier features input/output terminals for every AV system and has a reasonable $355 street price.

Nowadays, many computers are delivered with pretty good sound cards, but not always with external speakers. My experience with speakers that are built into a monitor is that even inexpensive external speakers will improve the audio output of your computer. Where once there were only a few speaker choices, there are now products that span the spectrum from cheapie to audiophile. To help you make a purchase decision, here’s a checklist of the major features your computer’s speakers should have:

• Magnetic shielding—Without shielding, speaker magnets can cause interference when placed next to your monitor. Shielded speakers also prevent damage to data on your hard disk or removable storage media.

• Amplification—Get amplified speakers. They cost more, but there is a vast difference in performance. Windows 95 has improved the audio output from some sound boards, but powered speakers have less distortion and they make games and multimedia sound better. Some speakers are battery powered but batteries will not last long, and an inexpensive AC power supply will quickly pay for itself.

• More power!—Powered speakers’ output varies from one watt per channel to 20 watts, but because most users sit close to their computers, three to five watts per channel is more than enough power.

• Frequency response—Just as in home audio, the frequency response of your PC’s speakers is important. An ideal response range is 40 Hz to 20 KHz, and mid- to high-end speakers usually fall into the 70 Hz to 20 KHz range. If you anticipate working in the musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) environment, consider speakers with greater dynamic range and separate woofers or subwoofers to handle the music’s bass or low-end frequencies. This kind of speaker system is more expensive, but the sound quality can be impressive. • Controls—A good speaker system will have a master volume control and adjustable tone controls to let you tweak the bass and treble frequencies to match the acoustics of your computer room.

Make sure you listen to the speakers before taking them home. Most computer showrooms have less-than-optimum acoustics, so bring your own music CD and listen to several systems before picking the one that sounds best to you.

If you want to add multichannel sound to your computer, one of the best buys I have found is Labtec, Inc.’s LCS-2612 speaker system. The package includes remote speakers with three-inch drivers that can attach to your monitor and a subwoofer with a 5.25 inch driver that fits on the desktop or floor. The LCS-2612 system has a frequency response of 40 Hz to 20 KHz and includes Spatializer technology to provide 3-D surround sound. Spatializer technology makes sound richer, more realistic, and multidirectional. Output of the powered speakers is 8 watts for the satellite speakers and 12 watts for the subwoofer. Every component of the system is magnetically shielded so that it will not cause interference with your system, and you will not lose data. The LCS-2612 speaker system has a $129.99 street price.

When the music CD was introduced in 1983, it rescued the home audio market from a period of stagnation. The compact disc survives because it is convenient, can hold more music than the traditional vinyl LP, and can be played over and over without wear or damage. With the Fostex CR-200 CD-R recorder, musicians—professional and amateur—can create compact discs from any audio source including cassettes, minidiscs, and hard disks. The Fostex CR200 includes three digital synchro recording modes that allow it to be synchronously started from a master DAT player. Two manual recording modes are also included. The drive has a digital fader function that allows crossfades during recording, and it has an infrared remote control. Do you already own a CD-R drive and want to make beautiful music? Sonic Foundry’s CD Architect lets computer users import audio from musical CDs, record from DAT, or digitize through any Windows-compatible sound card. Sound editing features include a wide range of effects and sound-processing tools. A flexible, multifile play list previews your new CDs in real time. Up to 99 tracks with 99 subindexes per track can be included on each disc. CD-Architect burns discs using the disc-at-once method that allows pause time between tracks. It can even run music tracks together. Before making your new music CD, the software lets you verify Red Book standard and perform a “test burn” to monitor the recording source and check for underrun, which can result in a Frisbee instead of a music disc.