Home-Theater-in-a-Box Solutions
 Home Theater Wireless Systems

Integrated Home Theater Wireless Systems - often referred to as 'wireless HTIBs', give you the possibility to avoid unsightly speaker wires from the AV receiver to the rear speakers at the back of the room.  Unfortunately, choice is still very much limited; worst still, some systems come as 'wireless ready' rather than 'wireless'.

Discover more what your real options are in this home theater wireless systems review article.

The Home-Theater-in-a-Box Solution: Wired or Wireless?

HTIBs are turning out to be more popular than ever, yet these systems are often associated with a multitude of trailing cables across the room. Surely, this applies to any multi-channel surround sound irrespective of whether it is an HTIB or a discrete component-based system.

Yet the prospective HTIB owner is often less prepared than the enthusiast who opts for a discrete setup, to face the challenges associated with hiding speaker cables. In particular, this applies to cables crossing the room from front to the back to reach the rears.

For this reason, rear speakers often find themselves incorrectly placed along the fronts, or even discarded altogether. In either case, one would be losing on that immersive soundfield that proper speaker placement yields in a home theater sound system.

Of course, you could always opt for one of the single speaker surround systems. These make use of either virtual surround sound algorithms as the Polk Audio SurroundBar, or sound projection techniques as is the case with the Yamaha YSP-800, to produce an immersive soundstage.

But these often have a restricted listening zone and seldom deliver a convincing surround sound unless the room is perfectly rectangular.

Wouldn't therefore be nice if one could get real convincing surround sound without having to face the nightmare associated with running cables across the room to wire those rear speakers?

It is here that home theater wireless systems come into play; these can help reduce the cable clutter by unwiring the surrounds.

Integrated Home Theater Wireless Systems

If you are planning to buy a new home-theater-in-a-box solution as a replacement to your older system, or possibly as a new installation, then it is time to stop and think...

This is the right time to consider whether a home theater wireless system would represent a possible option to your needs.

It is true that as things stand today, home theater wireless systems almost always implies a wireless connection for the rear speakers only. All other channel speakers in a surround sound setup would still be wired. But even this in itself represents a big improvement over a full wired setup. Wireless speaker systems designed for use with rear surround channels may represent a cheaper alternative to in-wall wiring. This being especially so if you have to ask for professional assistance in this respect.

And if the wireless speakers option represents a convenient solution, then a fully integrated home theater wireless system with wireless rear-speakers is even better. Why?

An integrated wireless speaker solution will surely represent a cheaper and more convenient alternative than having to install a separate add-on unit in the form of a wireless speaker amplifier for your rear surround sound.

Integrated home theater wireless systems include a wireless setup for the rear surround channels. No wires crossing the room between the main AV receiver and the rear speakers. The only wired connections to your rear speakers are a power feed for the wireless receiver, and the speaker cables between the two rear speakers and the wireless receiver/amplifier unit at the back of the room. Some systems would even incorporate independent wireless receiver and integrated amplifier per rear speaker. While this brings about a higher price tag, yet it has the advantage of further reducing the cable clutter at the back of the room.

The main advantage of an integrated system is that these wireless-home-theater-in-a-box solutions would normally come with interesting control features for the rear channel that are well integrated within the overall system menu. In particular, integrated systems do a very good job in taking into account the additional delay on the rear channels introduced by the wireless setup, as well as the amplification level of the wireless receiver.

Do not be surprised however! Wireless sound solutions tend to deliver a slightly lower quality sound in comparison to a wired sound system; this is inevitable with any wireless setup due to the extra processing of the audio signal.

But do not let this fact hold you back from considering home theater wireless systems as a possible option for your needs. The quality of the surround sound itself is not that critical for the overall sound performance in a surround setup.

In addition, things have improved to the point that with some home theater wireless system, it would be hard to notice any appreciable difference in quality between a wired and a wireless setup.

Unfortunately, you do not have much of a choice when it comes to home theater wireless systems - in particular if what you are after is an affordable solution which still provides good performance.

Further more, some systems come as 'wireless-ready' rather than 'wireless'. 'Wireless' systems include all necessary hardware to setup a wireless connection between the main system and the rear speakers. On the other hand, 'wireless-ready' systems would require you to purchase a separate additional wireless module to remove those trailing cables to the rear speakers. Therefore, check carefully the system description to avoid some unpleasant surprise later.

Featured Home Theater Wireless Solutions

To help you in this selection process, we have prepared a short review featuring two recently released home theater wireless systems - one from Sony and the other from Panasonic. Both systems fall within the same price bracket and share a similar feature set.

Reviewed Wireless Home-Theater-in-a-Box Systems:

Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX267W  Home Theater System with Wireless Speaker Kit

The Sony DAV-HDX267W is surely one of the most affordable yet feature rich home theater wireless systems available from one of the top manufacturers in the field of home electronics. It is characterized by a simple setup, high quality 5 CD/DVD changer, HDMI connectivity, wall mountable satellites and wireless rear speakers.

Available at amazon for under $350

In reality, this Sony wireless home-theater-in-a-box system supports a host of advanced features for the price.

Main system features include:

	BRAVIA™ Theater Sync technology allows you to control selected BRAVIA televisions and Sony HDMI audio and video components with a single remote.
	HDMI™ Output with 1080i Upscaling of 480p DVD Media for the best video performance. On the negative side though, there are no video inputs what-so-ever on this Sony home theater wireless system. Acceptable at this price bracket but keep in mind that you will have to use your TV to switch to other video sources.
	DIAT™ Wireless Speakers use infrared audio transmission technology to enable you to place the rear speakers anywhere in the room without trailing any cables in between. Note however that IR means that you need line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver for the wireless link to work. A direct wired connection for the rear speakers is also possible on this Sony HTiB.
	A Digital Media Port (DMP) that gives you the possibility to integrate a wide variety of digital music players - a PC client device, Bluetooth receiver, audio docking station, iPod, etc. - with your home theater system.
	Digital Cinema Auto Calibration helps you enjoy the best sound by automatically calibrating the system for your preferred speaker placement, distance and delay. All it takes is to hold the supplied microphone at your listening position and the system does the rest; this auto-calibration process is pretty accurate.

The Sony DAV-HDX267W is rated at 1000W total power, delivering 143 watts for each of the front three satellite channels, 285 watts to the subwoofer, and 143 watts per rear speaker when wired direct with the main system. Instead, the wireless surround channel amplifier supplies 60 watts to each surround speaker. Furthermore, this Sony receiver decodes all standard Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround modes from DVDs.

The bottom line: The Sony DAV-HDX267W is an affordable feature rich home theater wireless system worth considering, despite that it lacks video inputs and treble/bass volume controls.

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Panasonic SC-PT953  1100 Watt Home Theater Wireless System

The Panasonic SC-PT953 home theater wireless system incorporates a 5-disc DVD changer, a 1100W power amplifier, HDMI connection with upscaling of 480p content to 1080i, and equally important, wireless connectivity for the rear speakers. It is capable of delivering similar performance to other wireless home theater in-a-box solutions within the same price bracket.

Selling online for $550

In particular, from a feature list perspective, this Panasonic wireless home-theater-in-a-box solution is similar to the slightly cheaper Sony DAV-HDX267W featured on this page.

There are a few significant differences though in favor of the Panasonic:

	The Panasonic home theater wireless system comes with a slightly higher overall audio power rating of 1100W.
	Instead of an IR link for the rear surround speakers as used on the Sony, the SC-PT953 uses a 2.4GHz RF wireless link, thus making line of sight between transmitter and receiver unnecessary.
	Use of two full towers for the main right and left front speakers instead of the bookshelf-type speakers on the Sony.
	When combined with the optional SH-FX85 wireless kit, the Panasonic home theater wireless system may be used as part of a multi-room wireless audio setup. This add-on unit delivers up to 90W per channel, and has a host of interesting features.	Panasonic SH-FX85 Wireless add-on unit for multi-room wireless audio
	It supports wireless audio for up to three additional rooms and comes with a convenient music port for MP3 players. And wireless setup is as simple as switching it. In addition, the remote speaker unit is no ordinary wireless speaker unit; its functionality is full integrated with that of the main unit. Further more, it gives you the possibility to control some features of the main home theater system - including wirelessly playing, stopping, or skipping music being played by the home theater system - from multiple rooms.
	Overall, this Panasonic wireless HTiB gives the user more control over the end result - in particular with respect to the system audio.

The bottom line: The Panasonic SC-PT953 is designed with ease of use in mind and comes with a number of features specifically designed to help deliver improved picture and sound.

HD picture quality is ensured thanks to the use of Panasonic proprietary 'HD Enhancer' - producing well-defined crisp clear pictures when upscaling 480p content to 1080i. This helps do away with the overall reduced picture definition and thick edges normally associated with cheap upscaling DVDs.

In a similar manner, this Panasonic home theater wireless system delivers rich sound thanks to an overall wide dynamic range and its 1100 watts of power. The SC-PT953 'Super Surround' feature renders a more immersive soundstage while the subwoofer four-step level control gives the user more control than that possible with similarly priced wireless HTiBs.

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Related Reviews at Practical-Home-Theater-Guide:

Add-on Wireless Speaker Modules for Surround and Multi-Room Audio

Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Wireless Rear speaker Kit

Wireless Digital Media Players

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