Comparison Yamaha MovieSet 381 vs Yamaha MovieSet 7390

Rated output of one front channel of a home theater system. This paragraph indicates the power of the complete front speaker, however, it can also be used to determine the characteristics of the built-in amplifier — its rated power on a particular channel (not necessarily the front one), usually, slightly exceeds the power of the corresponding speaker.

Rated power in this case is the highest average (root mean square, RMS) sound power that the speaker is capable of delivering for an unlimited time, working without failures and overloads. Individual signal jumps can be stronger, but the power of acoustics is determined precisely by RMS.

The higher this indicator(regardless of whether we are talking about front or some other speakers) — the louder the speakers, the better they are suitable for large rooms. At the same time, in a small room, too high power may be unnecessary, because. operating the speaker at full volume will cause discomfort — despite the fact that powerful acoustics also have the appropriate dimensions, weight and price. More detailed recommendations on the optimal power of the speaker components, depending on the characteristics of the situation, can be found in special sources.

The total power rating of all home theater speakers, including subwoofers. The value of the rated power is described in detail in paragraph "Front" above.

The range of audio frequencies reproduced by a home theater speaker system. The wider the range — the richer the sound, the less likely it is that the acoustics will “cut off” part of the low or high frequencies. When evaluating this indicator, one should proceed from the fact that the range perceived by the average human ear is from 16 Hz to 20 kHz. However, modern home cinemas for the most part cover this range completely or almost completely.

The sensitivity value determines the volume of the speaker system when an external signal of a certain power is applied to it. With the same signal strength and resistance (impedance), more sensitive acoustics provide greater volume.

The range of audio frequencies that the built-in home theater amplifier can produce. This indicator is similar to the speaker range described above: the wider it is, the more part of the sound is covered by the device, the less high and low frequencies are outside the operating range. At the same time, it is worth noting that the frequency range of the amplifier, usually, corresponds to the capabilities of the complete speakers. Therefore, usually, you have to pay attention to this parameter only when connecting "non-native" acoustics: it is desirable that its range is not narrower than that of the amplifier, otherwise the latter will not be able to realize all its capabilities.

The ability to play home theater "three-dimensional" video and photo, that is, an image that, in addition to height and width, has a visible third dimension — depth. The illusion of depth is created by the difference between the images seen by the left and right eyes. Both pictures are displayed on one screen, and the role of a filter that allows each eye to see its own part of the image is usually performed by special glasses. Note that for normal 3D playback, such an image must be supported not only by the cinema player, but also by the screen or other device where the image is displayed (TV, monitor, projector, etc.). At the same time, home theaters, usually, are not equipped with 3D glasses — such glasses are either included in the delivery package of the mentioned playback device, or they must be purchased separately.

Video formats supported by the home theater.

— DVD/VCD. In this case, not only the file format is implied, but also certain types of media — Video DVD and Video CD (VCD). The first variety is widely known from licensed DVDs on which various films, series, etc. are released; the quality of such video does not reach HD, but it still turns out to be quite high. VCD is a standard for recording video on CDs, similar to Video DVD, but earlier; due to the small capacity of the CD, such video has a low resolution and does not differ in quality, therefore the standard itself is rarely used. However, home theaters usually provide the ability to work with both formats, which is why they are combined into one item.

— MPEG4. A standard used for compressing digital audio and video. It is generally accepted, supported by most modern devices, from players to smartphones. It is used not only for recording movies, but also for video telephony.

— H.264. Digital video compression standard. Allows you to achieve good quality with higher compression compared to previous standards. It is sometimes also referred to as MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC. Supported by many modern devices.

— AVCHD. The standard, developed primarily for recording HD video on discs and memory cards, is mainly used in camcorders. It provides a high level of compression with minimal loss of quality, but is relatively "young", due to which devices with AVCHD support are quite rare.

— MKV...(Matroska). Open and unlicensed multimedia container format (sound + video). It provides numerous additional features, and according to the developers, it is a "project designed for the future" and has great potential for further expansion of functionality. Thanks to this, MKV, a relatively recent standard, is gaining more and more popularity (including as an HD video format), and is supported by an increasing number of devices.

— VC-1. Format developed by Microsoft; some consider it a worthy alternative to H.264. Provides high quality with high compression.

In addition to those described above, modern home theater systems may support other video file formats.

Non-video file formats supported by the home theater (see above).

— MP3/WMA. One of the most common music file formats. They are two separate types of digital audio, but in many practical aspects they are so similar that it is technically easy to provide simultaneous support for MP3 and WMA, and in most modern home theaters one is not separated from the other. They belong to formats that provide the so-called lossy compression (lossy) — the file size is small, but this is achieved by deteriorating the accuracy of sound transmission in certain sections of the track. However, these sections are chosen in such a way that the deterioration is almost inaudible, and at a high bitrate, the sound in MP3 or WMA is almost indistinguishable from FLAC (see below) and other lossless formats.

— Audio CD. An ordinary, familiar to everyone and ubiquitous music disc, usually containing about 15-20 tracks (up to 80 minutes of sound). Universal, supported by absolutely all devices capable of reading optical media, regardless of the year of their release. At the same time, the sound quality of Audio CD is so high that it is sufficient even for Hi-Fi level equipment. Due to this, and also due to the low cost, such media are still widely used, despite the emergence of more advanced options.

— Audio DVD. A format similar to Audio CD, but designed for DVD discs and designed specifically for the storage and high-quality reproduction of audio information. In this format,...you can record sound with a different number of channels, up to 5.1. It has not received wide popularity, although it enjoys a certain popularity — in particular, due to the higher sound quality than on Audio CDs (which are quite good in themselves).

— Super Audio CD. An improved version of a regular Audio CD that exceeds its sampling rate by 64 times, thereby providing a higher sound quality. SACD discs are not compatible with conventional CD drives (at best, it is possible to play the so-called "hybrid disc" as a normal Audio CD); therefore, to work with media of this type, it is worth choosing devices in which support for Super Audio CD is directly claimed.

— JPEG. The most common modern graphic file format is, in particular, the standard in digital photography. Therefore, if you intend to use your home theater to view photos, you should choose a model with JPEG support.

These are the most common additional formats. In addition to them, modern home theaters can support other types of files, for example:

— AAC. An audio format similar to MP3 and WMA, but primarily used by Apple technology.

— GIF. Graphic format primarily used for creating animated images.

— FLAC. An audio standard that provides lossless compression, one of the most popular lossless audio formats today. Provides higher fidelity sound transmission than MP3 and the like, but the file size is many times larger.

— A.P.E. Another lossless compression standard. The size of APE files is smaller than FLAC, but this requires quite a lot of processing power from the playback device. Therefore, support for this format is somewhat less common.

— txt. Text storage format. Working with such files can be useful, for example, to view the text of a song being played from a disc on a TV screen.

— SRT, SUB, ASS. Popular external subtitle formats. They differ in functional features: for example, SRT allows you to work only with unformatted text, while ASS supports various fonts, colours, effects, etc. However, the essence of such files is the same — the addition of video files with subtitles.

A decoder can be broadly described as a standard in which digital audio (often multi-channel) is recorded. For normal playback of such sound, it is necessary that the corresponding decoder is supported by the device. Dolby Digital and DTS were the first signs of multi-channel decoding, gradually improving and introducing new features. The final stage for 2020 is Dolby Atmos and DTS X decoders.

Dolby Atmos. A decoder that does not use a rigid distribution of sound across channels, but the processing of audio objects, due to which it can be used with almost any number of channels on a reproducing system — the sound will be divided between channels so that each audio object is heard as close as possible to its proper place. When using Dolby Atmos, in-ceiling speakers (or speakers facing the ceiling) are highly desirable. However, in extreme cases, you can do without them.

— DTS X. An analogue of the Dolby Atmos described above, when the sound is distributed not through individual channels, but through audio objects. The digital signal contains information about where (according to the director's intention) the object audible to the user should be and how it should move, and the processor of the reproducing device processes this information and determines exactly how the sound should be distributed over the available channels in order to achieve the required localization. Thanks to this, DTS X i...s not tied to a specific number of audio channels — there can be as many as you like, the system will automatically divide the sound into them, achieving the desired sound. Also note that this decoder allows you to separately adjust the volume of dialogues.