The AVIA Guide to Home Theater is like an encyclopedia of home theater. You will probably never obtain the best performance out of your HT system without this DVD.

If you were trying to decide whether to purchase "Video Essentials"(VE) or the "AVIA Guide to Home Theater"(AG), I would not be of much help since I have never seen the VE DVD. From my understanding, the AG does not have everything that the VE has, nor does the VE have everything that the AG has. I did find that the AG had everything that I wanted and more.

It is quite difficult to do a thorough review of the AG DVD because of how many features and functions are on this DVD. They have really taken full advantage of the DVD format.

The AG DVD is divided into 7 Chapters
Chapter 1 - How to use AVIA
Chapter 2 - Home Theater Components
Chapter 3 - Sound Advice
Chapter 4 - Home Theater Environment
Chapter 5 - Making the Right Connection
Chapter 6 - Using a Sound Level Meter
Chapter 7 - Audio and Video Calibrations

As you can see, this DVD is suitable for beginners to advanced HT enthusiasts. From my experience, it will take you more than one evening to fine tune your HT system with this DVD. One item that they recommend that you purchase is a Radio Shack Sound Level Meter. They recommend the cheaper analog version over the digital version, which I fully agree with even though I had purchased the digital version. (I should have purchased this DVD before buying the meter). In fact, if you purchase this DVD, you will probably wish that you had this before spending all the big bucks on you HT system.

It would take too much time to go through all the features that are on this DVD, but I would like to make a few comments as to some of the better features on this DVD.

AUDIO Setup
The makers of this DVD state that the test tones on the DVD are much more useful than the test tones on your surround receiver because you are hearing or measuring what is being decoded by your equipment when it is playing movies.

What I found really useful were the following test tones.
1. In-phase and out-of-phase speaker checks, both between the surround speakers and also the subwoofer.
2. A warble frequency sweep to check your subwoofer settings. This will tell you whether the level and the crossover points at set optimally. If they are, you will not be able to tell when the sound is coming out of your main speakers or out of your subwoofer.
3. A test tone that goes all the way around your surround sound field to verify the speakers are set up optimally.
4. Test tones for both 5 channel and 6 channel audio, but no DTS test tones.

Just to give you some idea of how much information is on this DVD, there are 16 test tones just for checking your subwoofer alone.

One final word, if you think that after running all these tests, the audio will be perfect on your system, think again. This set-up will give you a reference point to start from. You have to know how to listen and experiment with your equipment to get the most out of them.

VIDEO CALIBRATION
There are more video patterns than an average user can take advantage of. Many of the patterns on this DVD require that you have more professional skills and testing equipment to take advantage of them. However, this does not mean that an average user cannot achieve a better picture. How much improvement will depend on the TV you have and how the video controls function. This DVD is capable of calibrating a video monitor to NTSC (Nation Television Systems Committee) standards, but most TV sets do not have the controls that a video monitor has. I own an old Sony XBR TV (pre S-video) and was able to improve the image quality using this DVD.

Here are my observations.
1. AVIA provides you three color filters - blue, green and red. They explain the uses of these filters on the DVD.
2. The inclusion of moving bands on the video displays greatly simplifies and standardizes the adjustments.
3. Without using any expensive instruments, you can adjust color, tint, contrast, brightness and sharpness.

Again, just to give you some idea as to how much information in on this DVD, just for grayscale and levels, there are 38 video patterns.

In conclusion, this DVD is a valuable tool in achieving the best performance out of your HT equipment. You won't be able to do a complete set-up in one night, but the time and effort invested will pay off.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older