Comparison Philips CSS5235Y vs Philips CSS7235Y

Rated power of the subwoofer supplied with the home theater. See "Front" above for details on power rating; here we note that subwoofers often have a fairly high power, because. they are designed to cover low frequencies in all audio channels.

The total power rating of all home theater speakers, including subwoofers. The value of the rated power is described in detail in paragraph "Front" above.

Subwoofer with its own built-in power amplifier. The presence of such an amplifier allows you to "unload" the main amplifier of the cinema, which has a positive effect on the overall volume and sound quality of the speaker system. In addition, active subwoofers are often equipped with fine-tuning tools that allow you to achieve the desired sound quality without moving the subwoofer around the room.

Rated power delivered by the built-in home theater power amplifier per subwoofer (low frequency) channel. For more information about this characteristic, see "Front" above.

Non-video file formats supported by the home theater (see above).

— MP3/WMA. One of the most common music file formats. They are two separate types of digital audio, but in many practical aspects they are so similar that it is technically easy to provide simultaneous support for MP3 and WMA, and in most modern home theaters one is not separated from the other. They belong to formats that provide the so-called lossy compression (lossy) — the file size is small, but this is achieved by deteriorating the accuracy of sound transmission in certain sections of the track. However, these sections are chosen in such a way that the deterioration is almost inaudible, and at a high bitrate, the sound in MP3 or WMA is almost indistinguishable from FLAC (see below) and other lossless formats.

— Audio CD. An ordinary, familiar to everyone and ubiquitous music disc, usually containing about 15-20 tracks (up to 80 minutes of sound). Universal, supported by absolutely all devices capable of reading optical media, regardless of the year of their release. At the same time, the sound quality of Audio CD is so high that it is sufficient even for Hi-Fi level equipment. Due to this, and also due to the low cost, such media are still widely used, despite the emergence of more advanced options.

— Audio DVD. A format similar to Audio CD, but designed for DVD discs and designed specifically for the storage and high-quality reproduction of audio information. In this format,...you can record sound with a different number of channels, up to 5.1. It has not received wide popularity, although it enjoys a certain popularity — in particular, due to the higher sound quality than on Audio CDs (which are quite good in themselves).

— Super Audio CD. An improved version of a regular Audio CD that exceeds its sampling rate by 64 times, thereby providing a higher sound quality. SACD discs are not compatible with conventional CD drives (at best, it is possible to play the so-called "hybrid disc" as a normal Audio CD); therefore, to work with media of this type, it is worth choosing devices in which support for Super Audio CD is directly claimed.

— JPEG. The most common modern graphic file format is, in particular, the standard in digital photography. Therefore, if you intend to use your home theater to view photos, you should choose a model with JPEG support.

These are the most common additional formats. In addition to them, modern home theaters can support other types of files, for example:

— AAC. An audio format similar to MP3 and WMA, but primarily used by Apple technology.

— GIF. Graphic format primarily used for creating animated images.

— FLAC. An audio standard that provides lossless compression, one of the most popular lossless audio formats today. Provides higher fidelity sound transmission than MP3 and the like, but the file size is many times larger.

— A.P.E. Another lossless compression standard. The size of APE files is smaller than FLAC, but this requires quite a lot of processing power from the playback device. Therefore, support for this format is somewhat less common.

— txt. Text storage format. Working with such files can be useful, for example, to view the text of a song being played from a disc on a TV screen.

— SRT, SUB, ASS. Popular external subtitle formats. They differ in functional features: for example, SRT allows you to work only with unformatted text, while ASS supports various fonts, colours, effects, etc. However, the essence of such files is the same — the addition of video files with subtitles.

HDMI is a comprehensive digital interface designed to transmit HD content (including multi-channel audio) over a single cable. Today, it is actually the generally accepted standard for HD-compatible video equipment, and is also found in audio devices. In home theaters, such outputs are most often used to connect a TV, monitor, projector or other device for playing video (the audio signal goes through other interfaces to standard acoustics). However, there are other applications — for example, broadcasting sound to an external amplifier, through which regular speakers are connected. Accordingly, the presence of several HDMI outputs allows you to keep several signal receivers constantly connected and not fiddle with reconnecting cables. In the most advanced models, the number of such connectors can reach 8.

— S video. An analogue connector is most often used to receive a signal to a home theater from a computer or camcorder, although it can be used with any other signal source equipped with an appropriate output. The connection uses one cable and one connector, but the signal is transmitted through two separate wires, due to which S-Video outperforms the composite interface in terms of image quality and resistance to interference, although it is inferior to the component one (for more information about these interfaces, see "Outputs").

— USB input. A classic USB connector used to connect various peripherals. In home theaters, it is most often designed to connect external drives — "flash drives", hard drives — and play the files recorded on them. Also, such drives can be used to update the firmware. Anyway, this function greatly simplifies the exchange of information between the theater player and the computer.

— Coaxial. Input for digital audio transmission via RCA connector ("tulip") and the appropriate cable. However, a regular RCA cable is not suitable for such a connection; it is advisable to use a shielded one; this is the main difference between a coaxial interface and an analogue interface with the same connectors. Another difference is that all sound channels (there may be more than two) are transmitted via one connector. The coaxial interface formally belongs...to the S/P-DIF standard; from another variety — optical (see below) — it differs in two ways: on the one hand, lower resistance to interference, on the other, a less delicate and fragile cable.

— Linear. Input for analogue audio transmission, usually in stereo format. Through such an input, you can connect an external signal source to the home theater — for example, an MP3 player — and listen to music through the acoustics of the cinema. Despite the development of digital technologies, the line-in is still one of the most popular connection interfaces. It can use different types of connectors; the most popular options are 3.5 mm mini-jack or a pair of RCA jacks (one for each stereo channel).

— Optical. Digital input for high quality sound transmission, including multichannel. The optical connection is notable for its complete insensitivity to electrical interference. On the other hand, the TOSLINK cable used for such a connection is quite delicate and can break if sharply bent or crumble under strong pressure.

— LAN (RJ45). It's a network port. Allows you to connect your home theater to a local computer network and access content stored on computers on this network, and if you have the appropriate capabilities, also access the Internet (both for watching video and listening to audio online, and for service purposes, such as updating firmware). However a wired connection is less convenient than Wi-Fi (see "Multimedia"), due to the presence of the wire itself. On the other hand, it provides higher actual data transfer rates, and also allows you to “offload the air” — to remove part of the load from the Wi-Fi router, to which, in addition to the cinema, many other devices (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) can be connected. .).

— Under the microphone. Standard input for connecting an external microphone. The presence of such an input is mandatory for players with a karaoke function (see Karaoke).