The World Cup will be broadcast by SBS with high definition vision with stereo sound, and this needs to be delivered to your projector – either directly or via additional equipment – by a high definition set-top box and some kind of speakers.
The HD set-top box can connect over HDMI to deliver picture and sound, but as most home theatre projectors don’t have speakers, you won’t actually hear anything. For this, you’ll need to route World Cup commentary and team anthems to an outboard sound system.
The quick and dirty solution here is to use the projector’s audio out socket – if it has one – to attach a pair of multimedia speakers. Just don’t expect to feel like you’re in the arena with 80,000 other fans.
Epson’s EH-DM3 makes projection super-convenient: it integrates a DVD player, speakers with virtual sound and comes with an easy to set-up screen. The trade-off is resolution – at 540 pixels, it’s less than standard definition quality.
An AV receiver and multichannel sound system is the ideal solution. You’d connect the set-top box to the receiver, which would then pass the video out to your projector and the audio out to the five or so speakers. What’s more, the receiver can be set to create surround effects from the stereo broadcast and, with the speakers correctly positioned, make you feel like you’re in the stadium, if not quite on the field.
Front surround systems can deliver this kind of audio jiggery pokery as well, but be aware that they’re not quite as successful as the proper ‘separates’ setups.
