Some home theater buyers long for the crystal clear audio of 5.1 surround sound in a home turned cinema without spending all the time and effort of researching every individual part — and without spending a lot of money. Luckily, manufacturers have heard the cries of the overwhelmed home theater purchaser and have created the Home Theater in a Box (HTiB for short). We'll explain exactly what a HTiB is and who should buy one as we run down a buying guide for picking the perfect Home Theater in a Box.

Why go with an HTiB?

If there are so many components for a home theater, why would someone simply purchase them all together as a package?

Price

The biggest reason to purchase an all-in-one system instead of buying a system a la carte is price. Often times buyers can find complete systems for the price of a single component of a home theater. As you might have guessed, buyers will get what they pay for since some of the components won't be as high quality as they would on their own. That's not to say, however, that they're poorly made and the average home theater purchaser will notice a difference. Instead, manufacturers cut corners like skimping on inputs, and building cables directly into each component.

Compatibility

Rather than worry about whether you have all the right cables, HTiB purchasers can rely on simply buying one set of components and knowing that they'll all work together. The speakers will plug into the speaker spots, the DVD player is built-in, and there's no fussing with additional components to make everything work.

The tradeoff with HTiBs comes when users are trying to integrate multiple pieces of equipment together. While most HTiBs will include some form of inputs and outputs, often times the devices rely on built-in components rather than allowing users to mix and match. Understandably, built-in components can keep the cost down, but also lead to some frustration if parts fail or need to be upgraded.

Who should buy an HTiB?

I'd recommend HTiB systems to people who are looking to put together a home theater system as inexpensively as possible. Anyone who puts price as their prime consideration will be able to find a HTiB and be satisfied with its quality.

I'd also recommend HTiBs to people who haven't established their home theater setup before, and don't want to spend the time researching individual components. It's often more simple to compare entire systems against one another than it is to compare individual parts against each other.

Buyers who are either comfortable with putting a big dent in their wallet to get higher quality components, or people who have previous home theater components, can definitely forgo HTiBs. You don't have to be a home theater nut to appreciate the quality of a piecemeal system, but you do need to be someone who's more interested in gadgets and technology than the average consumer. If you understand the difference between 720p and 1080p, and can notice the difference in picture quality, you might find a HTiB a tad too limiting for your taste. However, if you looked at that sentence and didn't understand a word, a home-theater-in-a-box is a great way to get the most bang for your buck.

Shopping for an HTiB

We get that HTiB buyers might not need to know everything that we've talked about in such great depth, however if this guide feels limiting, be sure to head to those other guides as they'll help you learn more about buying an HTiB.

Components

HTiBs have a minimum of two components. A "brain" that acts as a receiver and amplifier, and speakers that connect to the brain. In our surround sound basics guide, we talked about specific wattages, channels, and all the basic details of buying a surround sound speaker system. We'll make it simple for you here: Go for a 5.1 channel surround sound system with around 400 watts of output for a medium sized room.

With the speakers and receiver out of the way, lets talk about other components that are often included in HTiB systems. The most frequent addition is a DVD player, though the quality of said players vary wildly. In a $400 HTiB system, expect to get basic DVD playback and perhaps progressive video output. Some of our other favorite HTiB systems offer integrated iPod docks, making audio playback pretty simplistic. The only downside tends to be control. Some HTiBs offer a menu to control the iPod, however the menus tend to be a tad wonky at this price range. Also, some HTiBs offer iPod video playback, but many won't actually convert the video to play the video back over HDMI or component connections, instead only playing back over composite connections. Trade-offs are a trademark of these home theaters.

Expect any components that come with an HTiB to only work with each specific HTiB. Often, components like subwoofers, DVD players or sometimes even speakers are connected with proprietary connectors, preventing them from being used on other systems.

Features to look for

Some of our favorite HTiBs make setting up the system a snap. One of our favorite features that's starting to crop up in more and more systems is wireless connectivity to the rear speakers. While not completely wireless, in that each speaker needs a connection to a power outlet, eliminating the need to run cables from the "brain" to the rear speakers is a big plus. It is possible to find a perfect HTiB system for $400 that includes wireless rear speakers.

Another feature to watch out for is number of inputs. While we've contended in past guides that five HDMI inputs might be the magic number for home theater nuts, HTiB buyers can scratch a few of those inputs off simply because some of their needs (mainly DVD playback) will be handled by the HTiB itself. We'd still say try to find the most inputs possible, but don't expect the variety of a standard A/V receiver in a HTiB.

Hopefully we've helped you pick the perfect package for your budget. HTiBs are a great way to jumpstart a home theater, but there are some tradeoffs. Have you purchased an HTiB that you're happy with? Have you had a bad experience with an HTiB? Be sure to sound off in the comments.

[Image: Jason Kaechler]