Building a Basic Home Theater System

The minimum requirements for an acceptable home theater system today include a fairly large television or video display, capable of reproducing HDTV signals with a 16:9 aspect ratio; a multiple-speaker surround sound system, driven by an audio/video receiver; and a variety of high-quality video and audio sources, including (but not limited to) a digital cable or satellite connection, a DVD player, a hard disk digital video recorder, and a source for high definition television signals.

Which components you choose affects how much your total system will cost, of course. While it's possible to build a bare-bones home theater system for less than $1,000, it's more likely that you'll have to move into the $2,500-$5,000 range to attain acceptable performance -- and it's not unheard of for high-end systems to cost $25,000 or more. As with anything else in life, you get what you pay for -- and if you want state-of-the-art home theater performance, you'll have to shell out some big bucks.

Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics.