Tuner Town USA: Hints and Help
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Home theaters have become a standard component in home furnishings. Granted, when everything is turned off, the set up isn’t all that attractive; but when turned on? Yeah, everything is very nice. The thing that really enhances your picture is sound though. Sound will make the train on your nice flat screen not only look like it’s rumbling through your living room but adds a dimension to things by reinforcing the image.
The best way to approach getting the most out of your movie and television watching experience is to look at your tuner. You don’t have one? Don’t worry; I’m going to help you make an informed choice. For those of you who do, I’m going to help you get the most out of what you have.
Before we even begin to look at a tuner it is important that you think about what it is you are hooking up to your TV. Most cable boxes, DVD players, satellite receivers etc can be ran through a tuner. And this is a lovely thing. Still, grab a piece of paper and see about making a list of what kinds of outputs each of these devices have. Keep the list Poindexter; we’re going to need it.
With any sort of luck most of your devices will have HDMI outputs. This is great and I will explain why later. If a couple of these have the old style RCA or component cable, that’s okay, we’ll make that work as well. Once we have taken stock of the outputs of these devices we can start discussing what might work best for you.
A tuner with one HDMI input and one HDMI output is still a beautiful thing. With the installation of an HDMI hub, all of your devices with a HDMI cable can be ran into the hub. This means many cables in and only one out to your tuner. With automatic switching this also means you don’t have to worry about adjusting the input to your tuner or TV.
If you have a slew, or even a couple of RCA or component cables, don’t fret. You can plug these into your tuner and still use the HDMI output to your TV. You might end up having to change the input setting on your tuner, but really that’s not a problem and you can still leave you TV on the “HDMI In” setting.
You might want to look at a combo unit as well. If you have a DVD player, maybe a tuner with Blu-Ray would be right for you. This beats having to buy a whole new collection of movies or separate Blu-ray player. Opting for this saves you money and space, two things that are at a premium.
Following these tips will keep you from leaving one of your devices unhooked or saving you a trip to the store for something else. Overall though you will most likely find that most tuners will have enough inputs for all of your devices. It just is a nice thing to make sure.
