Optimizing Your Avatar DVD Viewing - Home Theater Surround Sound Do's and Don'ts

Discover the most useful home theater surround sound tips and helpful hints for getting the best AVATAR DVD viewing (or any other epic movie of your choice) experience. This surround sound guide will help you maximize your home theater setup and includes tips on calibrating your surround sound as well as changing Blu-Ray and DVD settings.

Guest post by Ty Wingfoot

So you’ve got your hands on that hot new copy of the AVATAR DVD on Blu-Ray. You’re getting ready to sit down with a large bowl of popcorn, an over-sized soft drink, and the most comfortable couch you can find. However, you might be missing a pivotal part of the equation to making this the movie night of the century. That’s right! We’re talking about optimizing your sound system to get that IMAX-level sound you’re looking for from your sound system. Here are three can't miss tips to improving your sound quality before you pop in your AVATAR DVD.

1. Calibrate Your Sound System

More important than any of the other things you do, calibrating your sound system will make all the difference in the world. A well-calibrated low-end system can (to the untrained non-audiophile) sound incredibly close to a mid-range system, and the same can be applied for an upper-end mid-range sound system. Just like video calibration, the sound calibration settings on your surround sound receiver need to be properly balanced mainly to account for the kind of room that you’re in, but also to factor in distance from the speakers, where the speakers are located, and so on and so forth.

Modern receivers usually come with a microphone or a device you plug in to auto-calibrate your sound system for optimal listening conditions. For instance, upgrading an old-school receiver for a new Onkyo TX-SR607, the new receiver wanted three different microphone positions so that it could calibrate the sound appropriately for all sides of the room and make sure that everyone in the room would get the exact same sound experience. This is the ideal scenario – you and your friends enjoying exactly the same movie experience, the same fantastic movie experience.

2. Adjust Your Blu-ray Settings

With your receiver’s audio settings properly calibrated, it’s time to move on to the Blu-ray player and ensure that it too is adequately set up for your listening conditions. Most players today do a good job of being hands-off, meaning that you only let it detect your system and you’re good to go. However, even the most modern player makes a mistake now and then, so check the player settings to ensure you’re on digital audio that isn’t being down-mixed from full 5.1 (or 7.1) down to 2.1.

3. Check for Upgrades

Speakers, receivers, subwoofers, they’re all technology – and while these pieces of equipment have led to a home theater renaissance in the past 10 years or so, they’re still subjected to one fatal flaw. They get out-dated. If you want 7.1 sound to listen to AVATAR in the closest approximation to an IMAX-like experience, then you’ll have to make sure that your speakers are compatible with this setup and that you have enough speakers to make it happen.

It may sound crazy, but AVATAR would be a good reason to give your surround sound system a good overhaul. After all, gamers upgrade their graphics cards when new games don’t run, people upgrade their TVs to get HD channels out of their existing services, so why not follow the crowd? Modern speaker systems can be relatively inexpensive in the lower-mid range and have great sound.

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Better popcorn, better surround sound… What's your favorite tip for the best home movie experience?