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How I Picked My Home Theater in a Box

// January 26th, 2011 // gear

In this edition, we get deep with HTIBs. What, another acronym you say? Yup. This blog is full of ‘em. Stick with The ‘Pimp. I got ya covered.

HTIB is a cute acronym for “home theater in a box,” and it’s a trend in packaging gear that has accelerated over the last decade. An HTIB packages a home theater receiver, speakers and (usually) a DVD/BluRay player. As you can guess, there are pros and cons to this approach, but I think the net of this trend is great for do-it-yourselfers. As usual, the story starts with a tech geezer yarn from days of yore. Walk with me now…

Back in the day, people would buy all their components separately. If you listen to the purists, they’d say, “Yeeesss. ‘Tis the only way to ensure the best quality experience!” Baloney. It made sense if you had the hearing of a concert pianist, but since most of us have tin ears, it makes no sense whatsoever to overspend on top-of-the line gear.

Case in point. I have this friend. Let’s call him Tim. Tim would brag about his XXX receiver, and YYY speakers, and ZZZ DVD player. I’d sit at his place, and I swear, I could not feel the overwhelming experience of the ridiculous dollars he spent on his system. I could, however, note the distinct smell of sucker. And I think that is the point.

While it “might” have been somewhat warranted to spend some serious coin a decade ago, technology has improved a lot. Just like you don’t have to spend thousands on a great computer, you don’t have to invest a mint to get great A/V performance for your home theater. Hence, the drive to create integrated systems, packaged for value.

Enter the HTIB.

Now, the naysayers will tell you that HTIBs are a compromise in quality. Great receiver, crappy speakers. Great speakers, not enough inputs. Sure, that’s true in some cases, but not all. If you know what you are looking for, you can find a great system that won’t break the bank.

But, WWTDPD?

Yes, what would The Digital Pimp do? When I was looking for my CribMac 1.0 system in 2004, I priced a few systems at my local big-box retailers, read a lot of reviews, got a lay of the land. I knew I wanted a system that would give me more inputs, plus a pass through for emerging digital components.

I knew I didn’t want Sony (sorry, but had two of their receivers that were baloney), but brand wasn’t important. After some checking, I landed on a nice Onkyo HT-S870. A 6.1 system with a very nice subwoofer, which was important for the big open space I had. It woke the dead, and my neighbor’s cat as well.

But the system had a few limitations that were corrected by the time I went shopping for CribMac 2.0. The biggest one is the tricky connections between the A/V receiver, components, and the projector.

With the older unit, I had a mix of analog and digital components, and this meant that the receiver would have to output both analog and digital signals to the projector. This required wiring S-Video, Component, and DVI to the projector. Then for any component I wanted to use, inputs had to be switched on both the receiver and the projector. A real pain and easy to get out of sync even with a Harmony Remote.

Luckily this problem has been solved in the current generation of receivers. That lead me back to Onkyo, since I had a great experience with my first system. I settled on the Onkyo HT-SP908 HTIB.

The analog/digital connection problem has been solved with a feature called “analog up-conversion,” and it’s a really spiffy way to reduce the complexity. The receiver takes analog outputs from gear like my Wii, converts them to digital, and sends them out of the receiver over HDMI. No muss, no fuss. Why is this important? Well, would you rather run one HDMI cable to your projector, or a whole cable bundle that clogs your conduit (you do have a conduit running to your projector, right? More on that later.)

As for those audiophiles who claim that a $700 HTIB system can’t give you clean sound and great picture quality, I beg to differ. Many great reviews and buyers guides online, and lots of satisfied people tell me I made a great choice. After listening to this system for a couple years now, I am tickled pink. And the cool thing is that HTIBs have dropped in price a lot since I bought mine, as low as $400 for even better gear.

We’ll cover what gear mates with this lovely beast later. For now, add your voice to the sound of the crowd! The Pimp loves to hear your comments.

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