Have you ever been looking for a piece of Home Theater equipment and been blown away by acronyms or terms that mean everything to the salesman, but mean nothing to you? We all have. Choosing the right pieces for your home theater, whether upgrading an existing piece, or decking out a new media room altogether can be overwhelming. Here are a few buzz-words and terms that can help you understand just what is important in selecting the perfect fit for your new system.

Dynamic Compression is a term that you see on a lot of receivers, DVD players, and television sets. Dynamic compression lets the consumer change the relationship between the loudest parts of the movie or TV soundtrack and the quieter parts of the soundtrack. In other words, if noises such as explosions or other loud noises are too loud and the dialogue is too soft, you can change the dynamic compression setting so that the loud sounds will not be quite as loud and the dialogue is louder and clearer. This will make your overall sound experience more even. The dynamic compression feature is especially useful when you play a DVD or TV show at low volume.

Up scaling is when a DVD or TV show with a pixel count that is smaller than the TV set automatically matches the pixel count of a HDTV. Most HDTVs have a pixel count of 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080p). The 720p is 1,280 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 720 pixels down the screen vertically. In this configuration there are 720 horizontal lines on the screen.  1080p is 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vertically. In this configuration there are 1,080 horizontal lines, which are, in turn, displayed progressively.

HDTV is an acronym that most are familiar with, and it represents High Definition Television. HDTV is unique, as it can describe a viewing format or a piece of equipment capable of delivering HDTV content. A HDTV plasma television relates that the television is capable of showing programs that are broadcast or recorded and played back in HD format. Your local news programs, for most major markets are sent out digitally, in HDTV format as well. Both of these are instances in which HDTV is relevant.

Hopefully, these explanations will help clear up some of the confusion regarding home theater equipment or salesman speak!