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Filmmakers combine the visual and audible portions of a movie into a cohesive whole where all elements support and reinforce one another. Sounds 'move' with their sources; there are low-pitched rumblings when a wave crashes on the shore, the high-pitched sound of cutlery being used in a restaurant or a shell casing hitting the floor after a gun has been fired.

The sound track has 'presence' and is a palpable element of the movie experience engaging the participation of the viewer on a visceral level. A major breakthrough for many home theatre aficionados in sound reproduction was the development of the THX Sound System for movie theatres, developed as a complement to Dolby Digital Sound for motion pictures.

George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, wanted movie audiences to experience his films exactly as they looked and sounded in his post-production studio. Anything less, he felt denied the audience a chance to experience the film as he intended it to be. Tomlinson Holman, Lucasfilm's corporate technical director, developed the THX Sound System for cinemas ... a technology which is now firmly entrenched on the domestic scene where it's claimed Home THX technology brings an 'ideal sound environment' into your home.

Cinema sound plays a key role in the presentation of a movie. Though cinema images are actually two dimensional, the sound track produces a three dimensional quality. The stereophonic characteristics of our hearing creates a sense of depth in the movie and conveys that 'being there' sense of motion and speed.

When reproduced in a large theatre, the sound is balanced by theatre acoustics. The same sound track reproduced in a smaller room on a home sound system will seem unnaturally brilliant or even shrill. In addition, the sound from the surround speakers in a theatre has a different tonal character from the front speakers.

A separate center channel was needed to localise dialogue for viewers who sat off-center. The film industry also had come to accept stereo and surround sound as the same thing. So to ensure mono-compatibility a solution was required that would it two physical tracks carrying four channels of information onto films. The method developed has its roots in the matrix techniques first used in quadraphonic stereo. However, the playback channels are configured in the film stereo norm ( left, center, right and surround. The technology was extremely successful.

Home video recorders were first promoted as simple time-shifting devices and a new industry arose in their wake: cinema films transferred onto videotape for home viewing. Television manufacturers began to offer hi-fi TVs in response and 'TV' became 'Video' for most people. Discerning viewers who were accustomed to high quality sound from their stereo systems and in the cinema searched out the improved 'hi- fi' video cassette players that were coming onto the market. The home theatre ball had started rolling. In 1982 Dolby Surround was introduced to the video world.

Original Dolby Stereo four-channel sound-tracks were transferred intact to video cassettes or when broadcast on stereo TV and Dolby Surround processors made it possible to decode the surround channel at home. Dolby Pro Logic then made it possible to decode the center channel as well and to take advantage of the sophisticated steering circuitry developed for cinema playback.

Practically every household already has an A/V system. Modern television and video programs are useless without a sound track and every TV with an internal speaker, however bad sonically, is an A/V system in its own right. There are sonic improvements to be gained by putting decent TV sound through a proper hi-fi system.

Hook up the TV and VCR sound to these and you are away. This simple approach is logical for two basic reasons. One is that most people already have their main TV/VCR and hi-fi system in the same room. Both systems are rarely, if ever used at the same time; therefore once the prejudice of moving around the furniture is overcome, it makes total sense to put the TV screen midway between the speakers.

You then need only one set of seating positions, whether you are listening to music from a CD, to 'Life on Earth' on free-to-air TV or to 'Terminator Two' on video. The sound quality of most video software is now really good. Hi-fi VCRs and DVD players can offer sound quality that, at its best, is the same as compact disc (some would say the potential is there for it to be better). Indeed, major film companies have invested heavily to ensure you can enjoy superb quality sound in your own home, whenever you want, and for the most part they have succeeded.

Dolby Surround is not necessary for a basic home theatre system, but it's a great bonus, especially with modern movies. The extra hardware (a decoder, two extra amplifiers, speakers, etc), can be added to a proper basic system later as an upgrade. In fact, some people argue that your existing stereo hi-fi and A/V system should be upgraded to your total satisfaction before you begin adding surround equipment.

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