After getting your home theater where you want with components, wiring, and setup comes the best part of home theater nirvana: no longer worrying about all that stuff and simply enjoying the fruits of your labors (that is, if your tweaking/upgrading bug has run its course).

Keeping your home theater in perfect working order is really not that much work, but there are a few things you can do. Also, this guide answers the questions of how long things generally last. That should allow you to know when to begin keeping an eye out for next big thing, or when you’ll need to think about replacing certain components.

Everything needs to be cleaned occasionally so cleaning according to the manufacturers instructions goes with saying for all home theater equipment.

Connections
The connections on the back of any piece of home theater equipment are the most vulnerable area for any piece of equipment. When connecting cables, don’t be overly forceful. With Digital Optical Cable connections, DVI, Firewire, and S-Video cable connections, be sure to align the connector shape/pattern correctly before plugging it in. Don’t jam any cables into any input as you can break not only the cable, but the equipment connection as well.

TVs
With all the different varieties of technologies available these days, one would think it would be hard to nail down any type of life expectancy. Simply put, TVs should last anywhere from 10-15 years if you spend the money and get a middle-of-the-road or the higher-end, best-in-class TVs in the varying price classes.

If you buy the cheapest TV with the biggest screen don’t expect the full 10-year life, although it is possible. Any TV that doesn’t last at least 10 years isn’t worth a damn. That said, when you do go TV shopping keep in mind that you may have the TV for ten years. A little extra money now can go a long way to making you not forced to upgrade in a shorter time period (Unless, of course, you want too).

CRT driven TVs offer the best picture quality, but also require a bit more “regular” calibration to keep it looking its best. For CRT projection TVs, recalibrate the convergence every 3-4 months. This most likely won’t require any major recalibration, but rather just fine-tuning.

For CRT and Plasma TVs, recalibrate the color, tint, brightness, and contrast every 6 months as these display technologies age with time and usage, and, therefore, the display characteristics changes accordingly.

LCD, DLP, or L-COS digitally driven TVs usually just need to be calibrated once and left alone. Although, you may want to just check the color, tint, brightness, and contrast once a year to be sure everything is correct, and everything is set to your display preferences. You will need to replace the light bulb on these digital displays every 2-3 years (times vary by manufacturer).

You could buy a spare light bulb, and store it in a safe location so your TV isn’t down for 3-5 days while you wait for a light bulb to be ordered and delivered. Just be sure you have a safe location as any light bulb can break if dropped, and being out $300-$500 dollars without actually using the light bulb just sucks.

DVD Players
These things can last 10-20 years easy, as long as you don’t get one of those cheap $40-$60 models. Even the $100 units made today may not last longer than 8-10 years due to the lesser build quality used to bring the price down. $250 units on higher will likely last longer, but sadly not offer much better picture quality than a $100 progressive-scan DVD player.

More expensive DVD players will offer a digital video output and better CD sound quality. There’s really not much maintenance needed for a DVD player as if anything goes wrong you’ll see it on the screen or hear it in your speakers.

Speakers
Aside from regular cleaning, not much is needed to keep speaker working great. If you connect your speakers using bare wire like most people do, once a year clip off the ends of the speaker cables and cut the sheath off the end to make a new bare wire connection. Over time, speaker cables corrode which can be detrimental to the sound quality of your speakers.

Recalibrate your speakers once a year or whenever you make a change to the room such as moving furniture, or even painting the walls. 

If something goes wrong with your speakers you’ll hear it. Instead of replacing your speakers altogether you can just replace the drivers. The only time you should need to replace your speakers entirely is if you move your home theater into a bigger room, and just driving your speakers to play at a good sound level causes them to break.

Replacing the drivers can save a lot of money and on the higher end speakers, this maintenance is expected as tossing out a $1,500-$20,000 pair of speakers is simply not practical.

Speakers with general maintenance, and the very occasional (if ever) cone replacement can last 20-30 years. If you shop carefully with this forward thinking in mind, you could buy speakers that last a lifetime.

Subwoofers
Subwoofers require relatively no maintenance. If there’s something wrong you’ll hear it. Like speakers, with mid-priced to high subs if something goes wrong it’s likely with the speaker driver, which can be replaced at a much cheaper cost than a full replacement. Subs can last 20-30 years just like speakers.

Receivers/Amplifiers
These solid-state home theater brain-boxes can last pretty long. The good news is that as long as they have Dolby Digital and DTS processing their usefulness could last for a lifetime as consumer willingness to upgrade to the 7 channel surround formats has been minimal at best. The standard audio processing for backward compatibility has been chosen as Dolby Digital with DTS almost always thrown in for good measure. It all comes down to build quality and connection care.

Like most everything, if you buy the cheapest stuff it won’t last as long, or sound as good. A good receiver can last 10, 20, and 30+ years if taken care of and not abused.

iPods
The iPod has found its way into our pop-culture, and its lure of an easily portable huge library of music has made its way into more than just a few home theaters and stereos. As consumers rely more and more on the iPod, the venerable music player from Apple isn’t going anywhere despite what the iPod’s supposed competition (actually lack thereof) has to say.

All but the cheapest iPod Shuffle is hard drive based which is really the weakest part of the music player. Hard drives are sensitive to movement and impacts such as being dropped. If an iPod is dropped hard, it’s hard drive has a higher probability of failing.

The hard drive can be replace by buying a replacement online at $120-$150 with online shops offering to do the install for around $200. For just a $100 more, you could get a brand new standard iPod. If you get a warranty through Apple for $60 you can be covered against many non-self-inflicted issues.

The rechargeable battery will also need replacement after a few years which can be done by yourself for around $40-$60 dollars or by Apple or other shops from $70-$100.

The iPod Shuffle has no hard drive so as long as the chips and battery work, you’re good to go.

The average lifespan of most iPods can be expected in the 3-5 year range until something needs to be fixed, or just outright replaced. Since the iPod is completely portable, it’s likely to see heavy wear and tear through usage.

Summary
Through normal maintenance, and minor setup care you can enjoy a home theater wherein much of your gear will last a decade or two. That’s some serious movie enjoyment and home entertainment hours. The best thing you can do up front is not by the cheapest solution and stick with brands that have reliable reputations and are known for build quality and performance.