What Should I Consider When Buying a Receiver for my Home Theater?

A receiver is the main hub of a home theater system. All components in the system are cabled to the receiver, which serves as a controller. Making a poor choice about which receiver to get can compromise enjoyment of your home theater system. The most important factor in connecting theater components today is using the newest interfaces available. High-definition televisions (HDTVs) use an interface called High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). HDMI combines digital audio and video together. If your HDTV does not have the HDMI interface, your receiver will be ready when you upgrade the HDTV in the future. Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) and compact disc (CD) players, computer graphics cards, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors and portable electronic devices like digicams and cell phones are all migrating to a new audiovisual standard called Unified Digital Interface (UDI). UDI is compatible with the HDMI used on HDTVs. With UDI input and output ports on your receiver, you will ...  more

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