Created originally as a studio reference monitoring tool, the Home THX Ultra System combines Lucasfilm Ltd. entertainment expertise with world class product design by leading consumer electronics manufacturers. The result: the ultimate Home Theatre experience.

THX Select is more suited to the size and listening distances of most living rooms. It accurately reflects the demands of modern program material, based on a fresh examination of the requirements of multichannel digital audio.

Dolby Pro-Logic adds hardware elements in the decoding chip that emphasize important directional cues in a movie soundtrack. This process, although not important in musical recordings is very effective for film soundtracks and adds more accuracy to effects such as explosions, planes flying overhead, etc. There is greater separation between channels. In addition, Dolby Pro-Logic extracts a dedicated Center Channel that more accurately centers the dialog (this necessitates a center channel speaker for full effect) in a movie soundtrack.

Dolby Digital adds both accuracy and flexibility by adding stereo rear surround channels that enable sounds to emanate in more directions, as well as a dedicated Subwoofer Channel to provide more emphasis for low frequency effects. Dolby Digital is often referred to as a 5.1 channel system, because of the added Subwoofer channel. Also, unlike Dolby Pro-logic which, requires a rear channel of only minimal power and limited frequency response, Dolby Digital encoding/decoding requires the same power output and frequency range as the main channels. Dolby Digital encoding on DVDs, Laserdiscs, and Satellite programming is very common and has solidified this format in the marketplace. Since Dolby Digital involves its own encoding process, you need to have a Dolby Digital receiver or amplifier to accurately decode the signal.

Digital Theater Systems (DTS) has also adapted its surround sound process for home use. It is a 5.1 system just like Dolby Digital, but since DTS uses less compression in encoding process, many feel that DTS has a better result on the listening end. In addition, while Dolby Digital is mainly intended for the Movie Soundtrack experience, DTS is being used in the mixing and reproduction of Musical performances. Many CD-only players now come equipped with DTS outputs that allow a DTS-equipped amplifier or receiver to decode the DTS signals imprinted on "select" DTS-encoded music CD's.

A better solution is S-video. Almost all players have s-video output. S-video looks much better than composite video, and only slightly inferior to component video. Hook an s-video cable from the player to the display (or to an A/V receiver that can switch s-video). The round, 4-pin connectors may be labeled Y/C, s-video, or S-VHS.

Component video is the best solution: Most DVD players have interlaced (some also have progressive scan) component YUV (Y'Pb'Pr') video output in the form of 3 RCA-jack connectors. Connectors may be labeled YUV, color difference, YPbPr, or Y/B-Y/R-Y, and may be colored green/blue/red. (Some players incorrectly label the output YCbCr.) Some DVD players and HDTV receivers also have RGB component video output via a 15-pin video plug (similar to a monitor on your PC).

The U.S. Congress has mandated a change from the current NTSC (analog) television broadcasting standard to DTV (digital) broadcasting. The Federal Communications Commission has established a schedule for the introduction of DTV. Most Americans are scheduled to have access to DTV by 1999 and everyone in this country is scheduled to have DTV access by the year 2002. At the end of the transition period -- which is now scheduled for December 31, 2006 -- broadcasters will be required to surrender their analog channels to the federal government. This will be the end of standard NTSC broadcasts.