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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| Just the (Techie) Facts, Ma'am | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Welcome to the World of Home Theater | |
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| The Zen of Home Theater | |
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| Appreciating the Art of the Home Theater | |
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| Fitting Home Theater's Many Faces into All Kinds of Spaces | |
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| Budgeting for Home Theater | |
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| Exploring equipment and prices | |
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| Buying on a budget | |
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| Getting Your Money's Worth | |
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| Defining Your Home-Theatered Home | |
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| The Basic Home Theater | |
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| The Complete Home Theater | |
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| Using Your Existing Gear | |
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| Choosing a Room | |
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| Organizing Your Gear | |
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| Setting up a central wiring panel | |
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| Setting up a hub | |
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| Zoning inside your home | |
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| Doing It Yourself versus Hiring the Pros | |
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| The ABCs of Home Theater Audio | |
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| Surrounding Yourself with Sound | |
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| Two-channel sound versus multichannel surround sound | |
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| Understanding surround sound lingo | |
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| Bass management | |
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| Dolby Galore | |
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| Dolby surround sound | |
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| Dolby Pro Logic turns 7 (point 1!) | |
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| Dolby Digital arrives on the scene | |
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| Dolby Digital Surround EX | |
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| DTS: Bring It On! | |
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| Understanding the Next Generation of Surround Sound | |
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| Dolby Digital Plus | |
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| Dolby TrueHD | |
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| DTS-HD | |
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| Other Key Audio Standards | |
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| I want my MP3 | |
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| PCM is perfect | |
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| Getting the Big (Video) Picture | |
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| Learning to Talk Videoese | |
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| Switching from Analog to Digital | |
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| Understanding the old standard: The analog signal | |
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| Anticipating the rise of digital TV | |
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| Looking toward the next generation of digital TV | |
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| What Are You Going to Watch?: Source Devices | |
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| Treating Your Ears to Music | |
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| Checking Out Your CD Player Options | |
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| Choosing a CD Player | |
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| The New Kids on the Block - SACD and DVD-A | |
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| Moving Computer Audio into Your Home Theater | |
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| Learning about digital audio file types | |
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| Getting your hands on MP3s | |
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| Old-School James - Turntables | |
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| Tuning In to Radio | |
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| Local radio | |
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| Satellite radio | |
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| Internet radio | |
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| Feeding Video into Your Theater | |
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| DVD Rules the Roost | |
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| Getting to know DVDs | |
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| Choosing a DVD player | |
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| Playing DVDs on an HDTV | |
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| Putting the HD in DVD | |
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| Betting on Blu-ray | |
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| Heading toward high def with HD-DVD | |
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| Figuring out where to go from here | |
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| VCRs Ain't (Quite) Dead Yet | |
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| PVRs Rock! | |
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| Homegrown Video Programming | |
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| Camcorders | |
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| Video surveillance | |
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| Feeding Your Home Theater from Outside Your Home | |
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| Digital Satellite Does It All | |
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| Signing up for digital satellite | |
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| Understanding the drawbacks | |
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| Getting the dish on the dish | |
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| Choosing a receiver | |
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| Cable Cornucopia | |
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| Antennas Make a Comeback | |
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| Moving everyone to ATSC and HDTV | |
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| Picking up ATSC with an antenna | |
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| Neat Network-based Services | |
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| Introducing the Home Theater PC | |
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| Meet the Home Theater PC | |
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| Sizing up a home theater PC | |
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| Building an HTPC | |
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| Getting an HTPC the Easy Way | |
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| Other HTPC Software Packages | |
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| Building a Windows HTPC | |
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| Putting a Mac in your home theater | |
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| Got Linux? | |
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| Gaming Galore | |
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| Integrating Cool Consoles into Your Home Theater | |
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| Playing with Sony's PlayStations | |
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| Xbox marks the spot | |
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| Not Rubik's Cube; it's GameCube | |
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| Playing games on-line | |
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| Consoles aren't just for games | |
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| Integrating PC-based Gaming into Your Home Theater | |
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| Upgrading to Windows XP Media Center | |
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| Building your own gaming PC | |
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| Adding Extra Game Controllers | |
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| Accessing Digital Content at Home and Over the Internet | |
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| Learning about Digital Content for Your Home Theater | |
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| Gauging Your Network Requirements | |
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| Figuring out the basics | |
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| Checking your in-home capabilities | |
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| Making Your Content Digital | |
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| Finding Sources of Content On-line | |
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| Audio content | |
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| Video content | |
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| Using an MCE PC to Access Content | |
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| Using a Media Server or Adapter to Access Content On-line | |
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| Media adapters and servers | |
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| Standalone media devices | |
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| Taking Your Video with You | |
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| Watching and Listening: Display and Control Devices | |
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| The Heart of a Home Theater: The A/V Receiver | |
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| Digging In to the A/V Receiver | |
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| Counting the inputs | |
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| Assessing your amplifier | |
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| Zoning out to the rest of the house | |
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| Having fun with DSPs and decoders | |
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| Dealing with bass | |
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| Interfacing with your receiver | |
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| Making the Separates Decision | |
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| Speaker of the House | |
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| Understanding How Speakers Work | |
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| Drivers | |
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| The pole position | |
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| Enclosed for your convenience | |
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| Inside, outside, upside down? | |
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| Active and passive speakers | |
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| Setting Up Surround Sound | |
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| Center speakers | |
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| Left and right speakers | |
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| Surround speakers | |
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| Subwoofers in the mix | |
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| Understanding Your Display Options | |
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| Learning the Lingo | |
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| Screen size | |
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| Aspect ratio | |
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| Picture adjustability | |
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| Connections on the back | |
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| Connections on the front | |
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| Monitor versus television | |
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| Contrast ratio | |
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| Comb filter | |
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| Resolution | |
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| Interlaced and progressive scan | |
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| Scan frequency | |
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| Getting Equipped for HDTV | |
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| Choosing a TV | |
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| Comparing Display Technologies | |
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| Sticking with the Tried-and-True Tube | |
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| Thin Is In - Flat-panel TVs | |
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| Demystifying LCD | |
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| Staying on the cutting edge with plasma | |
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| Getting Into Projection TVs | |
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| Choosing between front and rear projection | |
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| Selecting a projection method | |
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| Catching on to the cathode ray | |
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| Projecting with LCDs | |
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| Deciding on a DLP | |
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| Looking at LCoS | |
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| Keeping other features in mind | |
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| Selecting your silver screen | |
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| Remote Controlling Your Home Theater | |
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| Sifting through Remote Control Options | |
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| Types of remotes | |
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| Remote control features | |
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| Going Universal | |
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| Programming on Your Remote | |
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| Putting It All Together | |
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| Home Theater Cable Basics | |
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| Working with Short Run Cables | |
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| Choosing quality cables | |
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| Joining the RCA mania | |
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| Connecting your speakers | |
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| Using digital audio interconnects | |
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| Using analog video connections | |
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| Employing digital video connections | |
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| Working with Long Run Cables | |
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| Going with RG6 | |
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| CAT-5e/CAT-6 cabling systems | |
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| Identifying Other Cable Odds and Ends | |
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| Wireless connections | |
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| RS-232 | |
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| USB | |
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| IR connections | |
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| Hooking Up Your A/V System | |
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| Planning the Room Layout | |
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| Getting the front speakers in place | |
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| Dealing with surrounds | |
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| Placing the subwoofer for optimal bass | |
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| Hiding Unsightly Cables | |
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| Attaching Components to the A/V Receiver | |
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| Hooking up your speakers | |
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| Connecting to the A/V receiver | |
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| Getting television signals | |
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| Adding your gaming console or Home Theater PC | |
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| Powering the Network | |
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| Plugging into a Whole-Home Entertainment Network | |
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| Introducing Whole-Home Entertainment | |
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| Connecting to a Whole-Home Audio System | |
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| Zoning out: Single-zone versus multizone systems | |
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| Using speaker wires to build an audio network | |
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| Controlling whole-home audio with IR | |
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| Plugging into CAT-5e | |
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| Going wireless | |
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| Sharing Video Components throughout the Home | |
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| Using your TV cables | |
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| CAT-5e and wireless systems | |
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| Interfacing with Your Telephone System | |
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| Connecting to Your Computer LAN | |
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| Letting Your Home Theater Be All It Can Be | |
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| Tweaking Your A/V System | |
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| Calibrating Your Video | |
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| Using a calibration disc | |
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| Using an optical comparator | |
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| Other tuning system options | |
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| Hiring a professional | |
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| Adjusting Your Audio System | |
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| Managing bass | |
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| Setting up surrounds | |
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| Dealing with old-fashioned stereo sources | |
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| Playing with custom surround modes | |
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| Customizing Your Home Theater Environment | |
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| Mounting Your (Expensive) Display (Carefully!) | |
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| Understanding your mounting options | |
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| What to look for in a mount | |
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| Tips for installing your mount | |
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| Soundproofing and Improving Acoustics | |
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| Dealing with Home Theater Lighting | |
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| X10, Insteon, Z-Wave, ZigBee, and more | |
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| The successors to X10 | |
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| Controlling Your Home Theater Environment Remotely | |
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| Closing the drapes and shades without leaving the couch | |
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| Turning up the heat from the comfort of your recliner | |
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| Getting Comfy | |
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| Moving Up to the High End | |
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| Introducing High-End Home Theater | |
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| Separating Your Amps | |
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| Moving into Integrated Systems | |
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| NHT Xd System | |
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| Meridian | |
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| Exploring High-End Video Systems | |
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| Improving resolution | |
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| Investigating top-of-the-line video processors | |
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| Using High-End Controls | |
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| Crestron | |
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| Control 4 | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten (or So) Accessories for Your Home Theater | |
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| Wireless Headphones | |
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| Power Conditioner | |
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| Shake It Up, Baby! (With Transducers) | |
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| Motion Simulators | |
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| Turn It Up! Turn It Down! Turn It Up Again! Argh! | |
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| Riding Your Bike on TV | |
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| Putting Your Face on the TV | |
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| Putting Fish in Your TV | |
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| Improving Your Game Console Connection | |
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| Turning Down the Lights Automatically | |
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| Stick This on Your DVD! | |
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| Disc-O! | |
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| Ten Great Sources for More Information | |
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| Home Theater Magazine | |
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| Ultimate AV | |
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| Stereophile | |
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| Sound & Vision | |
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| Electronic House | |
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| Crutchfield | |
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| CNET.com | |
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| Home Theater Forum | |
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| Home Theater Talk | |
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| AV Science | |
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| eBay | |
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| Other Sources | |
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| Index | |