Audio Video Equipment

When you're shopping for audio and video equipment, there are a few factors that should influence your decision making. Even though there are a wide variety of potential applications for various audio and video products, if you pay attention to several basic guidelines you can be sure you're choosing the right products for the job.

Currently, one of the most significant factors for video products involves its display format. Traditional, televisions have used cathode ray tube (CRT) imaging in order to create video images on a screen. This process involves firing light through glass tubes in order to illuminate specific pixels on a viewing area, thereby creating an image. Although this format had long been the sole means of video imaging, it is now being overshadowed by digital broadcasting technology. High definition television (HDTV) is a video format capable of providing far greater image quality and detail than CRT. The technology used in HDTV video is much more compact than the bulky tubes and components required by CRT, allowing HDTV units to have a much sleeker, lightweight construction.

New Audio Video Equipment

Many programs are now broadcast in high definition, although the traditional National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) remains the industry standard. However, this is set to change very soon. The FCC has announced that HDTV will become the new broadcast standard in 2006. CRT televisions will still be able to receive HDTV broadcasts, but it will require an additional receiver and adapter. Even when using an adapter, a CRT model won't be able to display high definition image quality. If you don't want your new television to be obsolete in less than a year, you might want to consider making an HDTV ready model your next choice.

There are even more audio formats to sort out than video standards. If you're buying audio and video equipment to use together for a home theater, you should always confirm compatibility between the devices. For example, some televisions are equipped to process one or more audio formats, such as Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, THX, or Dolby Digital Surround. Your audio equipment, whether a stereo, add-on speakers, or a multi-speaker surround sound unit with a woofer, should be designed to process the same types formats in order to insure the highest quality sound.