Get the big picture: 45 inches measured diagonally. Pilot a fighter, ride a roller coaster, gallop across the open plains. With a big-screen projection television you experience video rather than merely watching it. Theater has finally come home.
Marketing mavens abuse the term ”home theater” to boost TV and audio peripheral sales. Advertisements and salespeople promise that a 27-inch TV and a couple of extra speakers recreate the experience of being in a movie theater. Sure, a good TV and better sound enhance your home viewing, but that doesn`t make it a theater experience. Prove it to yourself by going out to the movies and then visiting a store or friend with an ersatz home theater system. Now assemble a 45-inch projection TV, a laserdisc player, a powerful Dolby Pro Logic surround-sound receiver or amplifier, and the six necessary speakers. Sit back, press play on the remote control and experience real home theater. We suggest popping real popcorn, because the microwave stuff won`t suit the quality of this theater experience.
Pioneer makes all the essential components of a home theater system. It specializes in the two most critical parts, the projection TV and laserdisc player. Few rear-screen projection TVs come close in picture quality to Pioneer`s new models.
Originally projection TV (PTV) meant front-projection TV. This cumbersome arrangement works like a movie projector. It requires plenty of space to project an image across the room onto a special screen, and plenty of money. Except for Sharp`s liquid crystal projectors, most front-projection TVs start at $5,000 and top out at more than triple that.
About a dozen years ago, engineers learned how to bend and bounce the projected image inside an enclosure to appear on an integral screen. This rear-screen projection system offered the advantage of being a one-piece, permanently adjusted TV. It also was huge, often deeper than three feet. The dim picture required a darkened room, and the screen design forced viewing dead on. Viewers off-axis saw a faded picture.
Pioneer`s newest model, the $2,800 45-inch SD-P4562 displays a bright, clear picture no matter where you sit, even in a well-lit room. Pioneer compressed it to less than two feet deep. The SD-P4562 is almost the baby of the Pioneer line, joined by models with 50- and 55-inch screens. These PTVs include stereo speakers in the cabinet, which can be converted to the center channel in a Pro Logic surround-sound system. A few manufacturers also make 60-inch rear projection models.
The SD-P4562 barely made it through the front door. If you choose a larger model, you may have to build your house around it. Experienced dealers know how to disassemble larger sets to squeeze through most doorways. Once in the living room this 45-inch screen set fit nicely. In its black wood cabinet it looks no more obtrusive than a conventional 32-inch TV, though it stands four feet tall.
Adjusting the TV takes about 15 minutes. Installing the complete surround-sound system takes from an hour for a casual installation to several hours for a tidy arrangement with hidden wiring. The SD-P4562 simplifies the do-it-yourself picture adjustment called convergence. It includes all the deluxe latest features such as picture-in-picture, on-screen displays, channel scan, and menus.
The SD-P4562 incorporates a good quality TV tuner, but you really don`t buy this set to watch ordinary broadcast TV and cable. Watching ”Seinfeld”
on this set is like shooting down flies with Patriot missiles. Connect the SD- P4562 to a satellite dish, super VHS VCR (with S-VHS software) and/or laserdisc player to reveal its glorious picture. Since most people lack satellite dishes, and S-VHS tapes (other than those you make on your own camcorder) are as scarce as trees in the Sahara, laserdiscs are the prime choice.
Laserdiscs provide more than 400 lines of resolution (compared with 240 lines for regular VHS), along with low picture noise, and digital CD-quality stereo sound. Laserdiscs satisfy the artistic intent of movie directors. You can choose ”widescreen” version discs that retain the original aspect ratio (shape) of the movie as it was meant to be shown. Transfers of movies to tapes and standard laserdiscs either crop the picture or use a technique of actively following the action known as pan-and-scan. Both compromise the artistic integrity of the picture.
Viewing widescreen laserdiscs on ordinary size TV screens causes visual claustrophobia. The wide picture looks tiny with black bands filling the top and bottom of the TV screen. However, on the large screen of a PTV, widescreen video satisfies the eyes. You experience the same sensation and involvement as in a movie theater. Better still, you see the movie the way the director envisioned it. This is equally true for widescreen spectaculars like ”Dances With Wolves,” and conventional films such as ”The Graduate.” Mike Nichols` blocking, one of the pleasures of watching ”The Graduate,” is lost in the normal TV perspective, but retained in the widescreen version.
The illusion sweeps you away so entirely you forget the deficiency of our TV system. Sure, high definition television (HTDV) will be better, when it ever arrives. Pioneer is already designing HDTV projection systems, but don`t count on buying one before 1995. Why wait for the theater experience?
Pioneer supplied its CLD-D701 laserdisc player with the PTV. This $1,200 player ideally suits the home theater. It automatically plays both sides of the disc, and switches sides in half the time of earlier models. You can eliminate the random still frame formerly frozen on the screen during interval between sides. A blank screen is far less distracting. You can also blank the amber and red fluorescent front panel display to eliminate its distraction while viewing. Digital time-bass correction assures a stable picture free of jitters. A digital memory allows you to scan the disc at high and low speeds without distracting noise bars distorting the picture. The same circuitry cleanly freezes the picture on any disc. A jog/shuttle control on both the front panel and remote control gives you fast and precise control of picture search, scan and freeze functions.
The CLD-D701 is a combi player, meaning it plays any size of video disc, and audio CDs. It uses the latest audio circuitry for very good CD sound. If $1,200 busts your budget, flip the disc yourself and save money. Pioneer combi laserdisc players start at about $400.
A good six-channel Dolby Pro Logic surround-sound receiver or amplifier ices the cake, completing the theater illusion. Pioneer included its VSX-D701S receiver with the system. Unlike many surround-sound receivers, the VSX-D701S produces sufficient power for the center and rear channels. This $785 receiver pumps 65 watts to each of the three front channels and 45 watts to each of the two rear channels.
We consistently recommend that the rear channels receive at least half the power of the front channels. When not viewing videos, the digital signal processing circuitry in the receiver uses the surround channels to create acoustic environments, such as club, church, concert hall or stadium.
The VSX-D701S switches video as well as audio signals, and shows its status with an on-screen display. The biggest flaw of this receiver is its extreme complexity from its plethora of features. There seem to be as many controls on the front panel as traffic signals in Evanston.
Pioneer suggests its S-V401 package of six speakers to surround you with sound. Five mini-speakers about the size of a loaf of bread, and a modestly sized subwoofer serve admirably. You can hide the subwoofer almost anywhere, and the mini speakers have optional high-style stands. Pioneer calls the speakers HTX for home theater experience. The full array costs $880, but you can buy HTX systems with fewer speakers for less. The full HTX sounds surprisingly big, easily sustaining high volumes necessary for George Lucas films.
You might need a home equity loan to cover the $5,765 price of this system. Before signing on the dotted line, consider the less luxurious laserdisc player and receiver. Then remember many dealers sell systems such as this at a substantial discount.
We`ve concentrated on this Pioneer system because its quality and integration represent the epitome of home theater. Sony makes some superb PTVs, and Mitsubishi competes head-on with integrated home theater systems. Pioneer pays attention to little details, such as illuminated buttons on the remote control.
While true home theater systems may bust a few budgets, once you experience home theater no ordinary TV will every satisfy you. You`ll also resent spending $7 to see a movie at a theater. The trick to affording home theater is inviting everyone you know over to watch movies, and opening a concession stand.
