What does a home theater receiver do?

Question

it costs a ton of money so it must be important, but I'm not quite sure.

I have a 1080p HDTV, and a 5.1 speaker set up, but will a HTRer be worthwhile?

Answer 1

Just look up the info on Wikipedia my friend!

Answer 2

A home theater reciever is basically a processor+preamp+controller+decoder.

It will take input and sort them into settings.....

So if your tv has only one hd input....and say you have a terrestrial reciever, bluray player, ps3, an hd dvd player, a dvr\tivo and a directv box....then you can plug all those into that reciever, you can plug the speakers into the reciever and it will basically switch video inputs, and switch audio input....

It may apply a pre-amp to the signals.

It may do dolby decoding into the speakers or it may pass out a spdif to an external processor....

Its basically an audio\video switch that may some extra features....

Answer 3

AVRs aren't THAT expensive. A receiver is the heart of any home theater. Pretty much every audio/video signal passes through it and you also need a receiver to power your speakers and drive your subwoofer. I just got an Onkyo TX-SR606 and it's a great receiver. It's a 7.1ch receiver and has 4 HDMI inputs, 2 component inputs, and more composite and S-video connections than you could ever want, and upscales all analog inputs to 1080i(not P) It retails for $600 but I got it for $400 off Amazon. Just shop smart and it will be easy to afford purchasing a quality receiver. But if you want a true home theater experience, you NEED an a/v receiver.

Answer 4

A home theater receiver serves as the central area for all of your connections...in other words, your tv, 5.1 speaker system, dvd player or whatever else you may have would all be hooked up to the receiver. not a bad investment  

Answer 5

In the simplest terms a home theater receiver manages the audio and video of you system.  It will send the video to the tv, and output and amplifies the sound to the speakers.  It decodes the audio from the dvd to give you the best possible surround sound experience.  It also serves as the central hub for all of your components.  It decreases what I like to call "cable salad" by allowing your television to be hooked up with one cable to all of you components(dvd player, cable box, game system).

On a side note- Why did that guy even bother to type, "look it up on wikipedia"?  What a cop out.  Thumbs down on him.