Buying a home theater system? Read this book

Keeping up to date with home theater technology isn't easy, buyers need all the help they can get.

Mark Fleischmann covers LCD, OLED, plasma displays, LED backlighting, DLP projection, 3D TV, AV receivers, speakers, connectivity issues, and the never-ending blizzard of features in his recently revised book, "Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Audio and Video Systems" (268 pages, $19.95). It's chock full of useful information.

Do HDMI connections confound you? Fleischmann delves deep into the continuously evolving "standard," from the original 1.0 version all the way up to version 1.4. THX certification is another one of those barely understood terms used in reviews, the book gets you up to speed on what THX certification entails. All of the various Dolby and DTS surround schemes are explained. There's a wealth of information about VCRs; right, some people still watch video tapes! The chapters on home theater setup and troubleshooting are excellent.

The book covers a wide range of audio and video technologies starting with the basics and ramps up to a pretty serious level. The best of the book focuses on deciphering the lexicon of audio and video, making sense of the constantly changing technologies. "Practical Home Theater" is a terrific resource for first time buyers and experienced home theater mavens. I'm reviewing the 2010 edition, which is the ninth edition of the annually updated book.

While the book is updated every year, some sections feel a little out of date. For example Fleischmann's coverage of Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, and DualDisc give the impression the high-resolution audio format war is ongoing. It is not, and he fails to mention Blu-ray as the next generation high-resolution music format. The recent "Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972" Blu-ray box set is likely to be the first of a trend.

Mark Fleischmann and I worked together at Home Theater magazine (he's the audio editor) and he has written for numerous publications.

[stepyourgameup]

Better yet, head over to AVSForum.com and read everything you need to know there.

[jonderda]

AVS is a great resource, especially for a DIY guy and hobbyist, but a forum does not compare to a book. A book is edited and fact checked. A forum is full of trolls that give out misinformation and flame anything they don't personally like or understand.
Another good book about audio is "Get Better Sound" by Jim Smith. It is not for newbies but it is chock full of information that amateur enthusiasts and professionals will appreciate.

[pubmat]

Plus, it takes hours and hours to wade through the information and MISINFORMATION found in AVS and other forums, when you can simply and quickly reference all you need in a specific book.

[John72953]

Can't have much faith in a book that omits Blu-ray Audio as a possible replacement for SA-CD, DVD-Audio and DualDisc.

As far as the AVS forums are concerned, nothing to be learned there, other than perhaps learning how not to get slapped around from all the pretentious know-it-alls. AVS was a great idea, but it's gone to the dark side.