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A home theater takes a sizable investment of money, thought and installation, especially if you have a high quality home theater. Therefore, it is a shame that so may people just assemble all the pieces in a room without giving any thought to what other things they should be doing to improve it. Unless you hire a professional adviser, you might not achieve the full potential of your home cinema system. However, it is not necessary to hire an adviser, if you just pay attention to a few common blunders made by a lot of home cinema owners

The lighting in any cinema is very important, as I am sure you already know. Why is it then that many people do not treat it as important in their own home cinema? You never see external light – sun light – in a professional movie theater and you should not want any in yours either. Hang heavy curtains over every window in the room and let them overlap the window with a good border.

Heavy curtains will not only keep external light out, but they will also dampen street sounds, something else you never hear in a real movie theater. If you have neighbours close by, it will also help to preclude them from being bothered by your loud films or music.

Do not try to save money by purchasing poor quality speakers. Do not mix and try to match speakers either, unless you are sure you know what you are doing. If you need five speakers and a sub-woofer, but can only afford three and the sub-woofer, buy speakers from a well-known brand that you know you can get hold of again.

Do not buy end of line speakers, as you will find upgrading difficult. The best approach for the novice is to get a 5.1 surround sound set of speakers. Then, if at some point in the future you want to upgrade, you can quite easily, either by buying more or exchanging the lot in one go. One thing is for certain, a lot of the magic of going to the theater these days lies in the surround sound and you need to reproduce it at home.

It is not rocket science to put a home theater together whether it comes in kit form or not. However, if you do not feel happy setting it up, you would be better off having it done for you. Clearly, it is up to you how you go about this, but you could ask a relative or friend or neighbour or hire someone from the shop where you bought it. My guess is though that any moderately experienced eighteen year old has already seen one set up before and can do it for you.

Your movie theater, if it came in a kit, will or should have detailed instructions for you to follow. Please read the handbook before you start plugging things into each other. Read the handbook and inspect the parts until you are well acquainted with the installation process and the recommended positioning of the equipment.

Make sure that the voltage is adjusted correctly before you plug it into the mains. Most equipment is made abroad for sale to many countries, so they often have some sort of selector for the voltage. Get it wrong and you could blow a part of the equipment, probably the amplifier, the DVD player or the screen. that could mean replacement of the module or poor reproduction of sound or picture.

It is not difficult to get the installation of your home theater right, but you do have to pay some attention to detail, if you want to get the best out of it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home theater speaker placement. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

If you do not buy your home theater in one box, as many people do, then you will have to select a screen at some stage or another. However, not only that, but you may be faced with choosing between a TV-cum-monitor unit and a drop down canvas screen.

It really all depends on the dimensions of the room you want to use as your home theater. If you are going to convert the box bedroom into a movie theater, then a 28 inch TV screen might be enough for you, but if you are going to use a long room and people might be quite a few yards from the screen, then a projector and drop-down screen would almost certainly be the right answer.

However, for most people, a normal TV screen would be sufficient. There are various types of television sets on the market at the moment, so we will take a look at them in turn later. Firstly, I would like to talk about the dimensions. It has been standard practice for hundreds of years to place a painting five times the diagonal of that painting from the viewer’s eyes. In other words, if a painting or a screen or a window, is two feet diagonally, then the best place to view it from is ten feet away.

This is a general rule, it is not written in stone. Personal preference and eyesight come into it too. Therefore, if you used a 28 inch television set, the optimum viewing distance would be about 12 feet away. So, 28 inches would be plenty for most spare bedrooms, but perhaps not for a converted attic or basement. This relationship between screen and room size is the most important to get correct, otherwise the rest is a waste of money.

It all boils down to: do you like to sit in the front of the movie house or at the back? [We are only discussing viewing the film here]. If you like to be dominated by a huge screen, then the proportions I gave you must be decreased, otherwise they should be about right. Test yourself: how far do you like to sit from your TV? Is it more or less than 5:1?

There are essentially three types of view screens and they are: plasma, rear projection and front projection screens. The first is the modern flat screen TV, the second the conventional TV and the third a system with a projector.

Plasma Televisions

These televisions provide the best quality, particularly for watching movies that are formatted for wide screen viewing. They have a much larger viewing area than traditional televisions and they also come in a wide variety of sizes in order to adapt to many varieties of home theater needs. The biggest problem with these beauties is the price, but that is dropping every month too.

Rear Projection Televisions

This is the standard cathode ray tube TV that we have all been watching since were born. Their major problem is that they are lumpy, but that was not a problem for decades, so if it suits your room, do not let it be a problem to you now,

Front Projectors

This is what you see at the movies or on old Cine 8mm – the drop-down projection screen. But, do not write it off. It still produces high-quality images and for larger rooms, it is really the only screen for your home theater.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

Shoppers in this new millennium are much more knowledgeable about electronic goods than people were at any time earlier. The older generation of today grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s when everyone in the West had a television set and a stereo. Previous generations were not so fortunate for financial and technological reasons. Therefore, most shoppers nowadays have no compunctions about going shopping for complex electronic equipment like a home theater.

It is in the shoppers’ best interest to research and comprehend about the components that go into making up a good home theater. It is not particularly exacting and many if not all of the components involved have been around for at least a few years now. Consider what goes into a home theater:

a screen – can be a television screen, a canvas screen for a projector or a modern plasma or LCD screen. Stop thinking about the modern varieties of screen, they are still basically TV screens and they have been around for 80 years or so. Same with a projector.

a player – a DVD player is just an improved CD player and they have been out for 20-30 years. You have probably had one for most of that time. (You can add another dimension to your home theater here by swapping an Xbox for the DVD player, but games machines are not new).

speakers – they are nothing new either. Speakers have been about as long as the television set.

So you see, there is nothing in that kit which you should feel awkward about buying. Fair enough, you will be buying state of the art examples of what I listed above, but they are fundamentally the same. You attach them all together with their special plugs and wires and then plug them into the mains. Switch on and it will work.

So the next issue is: do you buy a package or do you buy the elements and build your own home theater? The answer to that question really depends on your level of competency. A package is easy and may work out less expensive too, but will it have the flexibility that you want? If you have a standard sized and standard shaped room, then I am convinced that you will be able to buy a package that will suit you. If you think that the speakers are sub-requirement, you could always sell them on and upgrade after a while.

if you want to be sure of getting precisely what you want, I think that most people will have to buy the elements separately: that is screen, player and speakers.

The size of the screen depends on the size of the room and how close you are sitting to it: a distance of between three times and five times the diagonal of the screen is about correct. However, some people like to be dominated by the screen and others do not want to wear their glasses, so it is up to individual choice.

The DVD player is a matter of individual preference too. They are all much of a muchness, but some people favour Sanyo while others favour Philips. If you want gaming capability too, use an Xbox instead of an regular DVD player.

Most rooms will require at least a 5.1 surround sound speaker set. These should be acquired as one package to make certain that they are all compatible. That is five normal speakers and a sub-woofer.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

If you want to get a home theater system, there are a few essential principles that you should keep in mind. However, no matter how much advice you are given, if your level of know-how is insufficient to understand it, it is useless. Therefore, you have to be honest with yourself and admit to yourself how much you know.

Fortunately for most of us, the Baby Boomers are the most electronically wise older generation ever, because many of today’s older generation grew up in the 70’s when everyone had a TV and a stereo.

Music and sound quality is important to Baby Boomers. However, if you were one of those who was not interested in electronics, a home theater kit is probably for you. On the other hand, if you feel competent to take on the task, you will be better served by a system that you compile yourself.

This is not to say that kits are not much good, it is just that there are several variables that must be taken into account before purchasing a home theater system.

Sound or acoustics depends on the dimensions of the room where the home theater system is installed, most of us realize that, but because we are unlikely to want to remodel the room to suit the theater, we have to choose a speaker system to fit the room.

Likewise with the screen. Bigger is not always better. There is a ratio that can be used to help you work out the size of the screen you should be thinking about, but even this proportion depends on individual predilection.

The formula says that you should sit 9-15 feet away from a 36 inch screen, but you might have poor eyesight and prefer to have a 48 inch screen. This is where kit fall down.

In general, home theater kits go well with regular shaped, smallish rooms. By that, I mean 12 – 20 feet in length and combinations thereof. Then, depending on the room again, you will have to consider the sound system. Stereo is not up to the task, if you want to reproduce the sound of a full size movie theater. In order to do that, you will need surround sound with at least three speakers and probably five or more.

All in all, you will get the best system for your home movie theater if you buy the components separately, especially if you have an odd or oblong shaped room or certain personal preferences. However, a standard package delivers a quick and easy, passable solution for many modern, ’standard’ sized rooms.

One last bit of advice though, if you do buy a kit, make sure it is one that you can upgrade, particularly in the sound section. A TV screen is just a matter of a connection and they are all the same, but if your home theater package comes with three or five speakers, maybe you will want to add a few more one day. You may also want to think about adding games functionality to your system too.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

Many people like to relax after a hard day at work by going to the movie theater. However, if you go straight from work, you are likely to get trapped in a traffic jam and you will not have had the chance to freshen up. On the other hand, if you go home first to have a shower and get changed, sometimes you can not be bothered to go out again. That is how it works with me in any case.

So, would it not be lovely to be able to reproduce that authentic movie going experience in your own home? Not only can getting to the cinema be a nuisance, you can be hassled once you get there too. People talking through the film or giggling right behind you, someone with his feet up on the back of the seat next to you, cell phones ringing, babies crying… It is enough to put you off. And it is not even as if it is a cheap event anymore.

If you fall into this group, home theater was made for you. It is not essential to have a spare room in which to set up your home theater, you could just as easily use the living room. The size of the screen is critical, but that is a function of the size of your room or, more accurately put, a function of how far away from the screen you will sit.

If you need a very large screen, you could go for a projector, although for most people a 36 – 60 inch screen should be adequate. Then speakers. You must have surround sound or you will miss out on a lot of the authenticity of a true movie theater experience. Again, the number of speakers depends on the size of the room. A 5.1 configuration will do for most rooms. That means quadraphonic sound, plus one extra speaker under the screen and a sub-woofer.

If you like to play games, then you could replace the standard DVD player with an Xbox for a truly awesome experience. Those are the basics of a medium to excellent home theater with possible games capability, but there are other things you can do as well.

A set of heavy curtains is a good idea. They will not only stop light coming in, but the will muffle sound getting out Seating is a necessity and I would add a few occasional tables too for drinks and snacks. If the room is not near the kitchen, a small fridge would be handy as well.

The seating provisions are important too. Some people just put a few couches in the room and that works well enough. Others prefer a few armchairs. If it is to be used primarily by kids, half a dozen bean bags is all they need to have fun. However, if you or you and your spouse want to make the experience really something else, why not get a couple of recliners or even better still electric massage chairs? You could be sitting there watching a film with a drink and some snacks on a near-by table while having all your troubles and stress from work being gently massaged away.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the Home Theater Chair. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

After you have finished planning the layout of your home theater, the next step is to decide on the accessories. Things like floor covering, lighting, decoration, drapes, and fixtures, like a small fridge, some small tables and seating. If you are planning your home cinema just for yourself, then maybe you can afford to really splash out on a really top end home cinema chair.

After a hard day’s work or exercise, your muscles can become taut, especially in your neck and shoulders. The best way of relieving this is some destressing exercise like yoga or a massage, but most people do not want to take up yoga postures after work, so they would opt for a massage.

This is all well and good, but then you would have to shower, get changed and drive down there and sometimes you just can not be bothered. You could phone a massage parlour and have them send someone round! That sounds great, but no, you are not going to do that either.

So, why not go for the next best thing. Get yourself an electric massage chair for your home theater? You could kill two birds with one stone. You could spend an hour and a half watching a film, while getting all those aches and pains gently worked away.

A massage chair will never completely replace a masseur or masseuse, but many regular massage parlour goers say that it is a good second best. The point is though, that you can have a gentle massage every day of the week, which some people say is preferable to one intense massage once a week. You masseur or masseuse right there in your own home cinema willing to work for pennies a massage any time of the day or night and while you are at the movies too! Imagine of it!

Using an electric massage chair as your home cinema chair (or one of them) is a fantastic idea. While your mind is being taken off your daily troubles and worries, so your body is being relieved of the tensions that have built up there too. You can recline in your home cinema chair and have the head rest massage your neck, while the back rest massages your lumber region, soothing away those aches and pains in a gentle, but efficient manner.

The great majority of these electric massage chairs come with a remote control, so it is very easy to switch cycles on and off or repeat them at will. Some are programmable too, so that you could build up your own massage sequence, once you get used to what your new home cinema massage chair can do.

Imagine having it start at your neck and calves at the same time with the two massage points slowly converging on the small of your back. Or beginning at the small of your back and then radiating up and down your body at the same time. You would need two masseurs to do that and all while you are sitting in your home cinema chair watching a movie.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the Home Theater Chair. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

Do you love going to the movie theater and get lost in the realism that their superior sound systems create? If you do, then I bet you are also one of those people who dislikes going there, only to have a potentially wonderful evening ruined by irresponsible people talking through the movie or letting their cell phones ring.

I used to be fond of the movie theater, but that was in the time when people respected the rights of others to listen to a movie in silence. There were no crying babies, ringing mobile phones or noisy youths in cinemas and if they got in they were soon kicked out if there was any row.

Nowadays, cinema managers seem to take the easy route of letting these people spoil it for others. As a result, more and more quiet people are staying at home and the cinemas are becoming even noisier. If you are one of the stay-at-homes, but miss the cinema, why not recreate one in your home?

Build yourself a home cinema with surround sound. You will never regret installing surround sound in your home, because you will be able to play your favourite films, the TV and your music through it. The distinction between surround sound and stereo or even quadraphonics is breath-taking.

Different people have different requirements, aspirations, finances and even hearing ability, so it is tricky to recommend a system to a mass audience, but there are strategies for going about the purchase of your own home theater system. A lot of people buy a kit home theater. This is fine, if funds are limited, but you will want to upgrade the screen and the speakers before very long. If you just want to put a home theater in a small spare bedroom and do it quickly and easily, then this approach is for you.

If, however, you want a bit more, then you might prefer to get a bigger screen and make do with the speakers that came with the kit. These can easily be renewed later. If you want to get everything part by part, you will need a screen, speakers and DVD player. If you want to play games too, replace the DVD player with an Xbox.

But back to the speakers, whether you are upgrading or putting your own system together, the tactics I suggest hold true. Write down the dimensions of your room or better still do a little plan of it to scale. Take this around the shops and malls and try to listen to a few installations in a room similar to your own. This could be difficult, but you might be fortunate.

Work out whether you need a 3.1; 4.1; 5.1; 6.1 or even 7.1 set of compatible surround sound speakers. Basically, it all depends on the size of your room, but the shop assistant will be able to show and advise you. As a guideline, a 5.1 surround sound set will be sufficient for most rooms. The figures stand for normal speakers and sub-woofers: ie 5.1 means five normal speakers and one sub-woofer.

The placement of the speakers depends on the size and shape of the room and on your personal taste, but the standard layout would be: one speaker the far left and far right of the screen and one beneath it with two more speakers slightly separated from each other at the back of the audience. The sub-woofer can go at the front or the back.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.