This is the last part of my ramblings about setting up a home cinema system. Today, I’ll talk about the necessity of subscribing to Satellite TV.

The local TV channels are state-owned and state-controlled in Mauritius. Therefore either (1) they are crap due to lack of creativity and/or guts or (2) they are politically-biased. You choose…

Basically, I don’t watch DVD all the time (I only watch a film, say, 1-2 times a week because of the kids. So, I personally need Satellite TV as I can’t stand the local channels. I can also add that the picture quality and the sound is better than average (but very far from what you have on a DVD).

In Mauritius, there are three competitors in this field, CanalSat, Parabole Maurice (of TPS fame) and DSTV.

I don’t know much about DSTV but I’ve been a subscriber of CanalSat and Parabole Maurice for more than one year now. I’ve just decided to cancel my subscription to CanalSat for two reasons (1) I can’t afford 2 satellite subscriptions and (2) I like Parabole Maurice more because of its dedicated English football channels.

I have many sport channels (among which Supersport 3, Eurosport, TPS Foot and TPS Star Direct) where all English football matches are shown.

I also have specific channels for cinema (in stereo only), entertainment, education, kids and news.

I pay Rs. 1334 monthly for Parabole Maurice. It’s expensive, I know…

Today, I’ll briefly talk about my Philips DVD-727K DVD Player.

A good DVD player is essential if you want to have a nice (and realistic enough) home cinema. The Philips I have is cheap (I bought mine at Rs. 3000) and can read many many types of media (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW). This is very important for me as I use the player to:

• listen to Audio CD which I have bought over the years,
• listen to Audio CD-R/RW that I’ve burnt from tracks purchased online,
• watch DVD that I rent most of the time from Flamingo in Quatre-Bornes,
• watch DVD-R and DVD+R that I’ve authored myself from video shots of Kyan, Anya and Christina.

I don’t care about MP3 (even though the player plays this format properly) or DivX (even though my brother has loads and loads of movies in this format).

Now, as far as connectivity is concerned, nothing could be more simple. I have only two cables (three if you count AC power) coming out of the DVD player. One composite video cable and one coaxial digital audio cable both going directly to the corresponding inputs of my home cinema amplifier.

Take care not to fiddle too much with the settings (i.e. picture “enhancements” or whatever). A DVD is good enough ; you don’t need to “enhance” it! Just don’t forget to calibrate your TV properly.

And I am perfectly satisfied :-)

I’ve already talked about my home cinema amplifier and my set of speakers. Today I’ll spend some time discussing about the use of a normal TV set (instead of some expensive projector and/or plasma display) in a home cinema.

My feeling is that good audio is crucial if you want to have a real home cinema experience. In a way, it’s more important to have good audio than to have good video. The reason being that, according to me, our brain can more easily compensate for missing information in the video than in the audio. A glitch in a video transmission (say some missing frames or some MPEG artifact) is largely unnoticeable whereas a glitch in audio (a click or white noise) is immediately perceived.

Personally I use an ordinary (i.e. non-widescreen) 29″ Samsung CRT TV set (model CS-761BGV if you really want to know) which has a relatively flat screen. I bought it second-hand from my uncle at Rs 8500 about one year ago. Unfortunately, the TV does not have a S-Video input and therefore I rely on a composite video signal!!!.

Let me tell you that I’m pretty much satisfied with the image quality. Of course, the TV has been callibrated using the same THX Optimizer software used for audio callibration.

Take your time and set the contrast, brightness and colour correctly. Most TV sets have abysimal standard settings more likely to make your eyes bleed than to render pictures accurately.

As I watch widescreen movies most of the time, it would have been better to have a widescreen (i.e. 16/9) TV. Actually, my Samsung TV has a 16/9 mode (normally used when watching an anamorphic DVD) but I do not often use it because (1) there is a distracting white line at the top of the screen when using this mode and (2) from a distance it’s difficult to see any difference between an anamorphic and a non-anamorphic image. So why bother?

I’ll perhaps buy a LCD or plasma display in the future. But I am not too in a hurry. My lowly 29″ CRT TV is perfectly adequate for the time being :-)

As promised, today I’ll write about the speakers that I have. Please read part one of this article before proceeding.

I bought a set of Pioneer home cinema speakers at Rs 5000 when Le Continent did a massive sale two years ago:

• 2 x H-210V tall bookshelf front speakers
• 1 x S-CR30 center speaker
• 2 x small but adequate rear speakers

As you see, I do not have a subwoofer but, to be frank, I’m satisfied with the level of bass of the H-210V. As far as connections are concerned, the speakers are linked to my amplifier using normal electric copper wires. I do not use any fancy cable.

The speakers must be properly positionned:

As read in Home Cinema Choice, “the front pair should be placed on either side of the TV, about 6ft apart, and towed in to the centre slightly. [...] speakers can be placed to each side at the rear [...] above head height [...]. The centre channel should be close to the screen.”

The next step is to callibrate the speakers. The easiest way to do that is to buy (or rent or borrow or steal) a THX certified DVD and to run the THX Optimizer.

Choose the Audio tests and follow the directions very precisely. Pay particular attention to the phase of the speakers. Take your time.

To be honest, I like the sound of the Pioneers speakers a lot when watching movies. But, for some reason, they sound crap (there is a definite problem with high frequencies) when listening to CD. As a consequence, I use a pair of Sony SS-H10 speakers for such purposes. The sound quality is much better.

This pair of speakers come from my old Sony FH-B500 mini-hifi system which is now dead and burried. I bought it in 1992 when I started university in Reunion Island.

Remember: Placement and Callibration are fundamental!

Tomorrow I’ll talk of my Samsung 29″ TV.