Many people wonder what the notion of a home theater actually is. It can certainly mean different things to different people – ranging from your basic large screen TV and set of stereo speakers to your complete system including front projector and screen with integrated sound etc. It is the latter set-up which is obviously the more expensive but is becoming more and more popular as homeowners seek the complete theatre experience in their own home.
Most of us love a night out at the pictures but if you could grab all the best bits from that experience and leave all the annoying aspects (don’t you just hate those teenagers who seem to think they can holler and shout and not give a stuff!) you would surely have the dream ticket. That is exactly what more and more are turning to when it comes to spending their hard earned cash.
If you are going to have a front projection system, you have to plan it properly from the start. It is no good spending a sizeable amount of money on an elaborate system and a couple of months down the line realising that the room in which you have installed it just doesn’t lend itself to the equipment you have had installed.
It is recommended that you set aside a room specially for the installation of your front projection home theater. Ideally it should be around 20′ by 15′ and obviously with suitable vertical height for the projector installation – minimum of 7′ should suffice. You need to make sure the room is appropriate for considerable sound – so perhaps timber framed stud walls would not be the most suitable, and also you need to be aware of the ambient light factor. Blackout curtains would help to ensure no interference with your top-quality visual experience.
It is also highly recommended that you budget for professional installation. Having the entire system fitted out by an expert with all different components integrated and fully tested and everything concealed and tidy, is a great move to make. It will save you untold hours of frustration, unless that is you are already adept in this field. Set aside around $1000 for the completion of this vital task.
In terms of cost for the entire system, you obviously need to do your own research and decide on which individual components you want to include in your overall system. For a good system which should serve the needs of most customers perfectly well you would be looking at the 10-20K price range. If you think of that total, spread over a certain amount of time on credit, it should be within reach of most individuals who are serious about providing an excellent system for the entire family to benefit from for years to come.
In short, it is imperative that you do careful research and planning both in terms of the space available within your home, and of course the best system available for a budget you can afford. If proper planning has been carried out, it will be a very enriching experience from the start.
By: Jonny Strong
Archive for August, 2009
Planning A Front Projection Home Theater System?
August 23rd, 2009Home Theater Design – Plan the Theater You’ve Always Wanted
August 23rd, 2009
So, you’ve been bitten by the home theater bug, eh? You want to design your own home theater but are unsure about how to do it? Here are some quick tips on how to design you very own home theater. First, there are some basic questions you must answer.
1)How much space are you working with, or, alternatively, if you are building a room from scratch, how many people would you like to seat in your home theater? If using an existing room, what shape is it. Is it a closed room or is it open to the rest of the home? Where is the door in relation to the rest of the room? Would you like true theater type seating or will you be using sofas and love seats?
2)Will it be a multi-use room or a dedicated theater? If you are using the room for multiple purposes, you will need to be more careful about hiding components to integrate the theater with the rest of the room. Layout will become extremely important so you can maximize the use of the available space.
3)What is your home theater budget?- If you are fairly new to the game, you may not have a good idea about a realistic budget, so do some research on material and equipment costs.
4)What kind of décor are you trying to achieve. Do you want an art deco theater straight out of the 1930’s? How about something a little more contemporary? Do you have a design theme in your home you are trying to match? Have you seen pictures of home theaters that you liked? Are you working with an interior designer in the rest of your home, or did you use the services of an interior designer to achieve the décor you have throughout your home?
5)What is your favorite type of program material? Do you watch mostly DVD movies or are going to be using your home theater mostly for watching sports? Will you watch a lot of regular or HDTV in your theater? Do you even have a good HDTV feed into your home theater? Would you really enjoy watching concert DVDs or music videos? If this theater will be used primarily for watching movies, what is your favorite type, or genre, of motion picture? Large production, action movies have a different set of demands on your home theater system than do romance films, for example.
6)Do you have existing audio / video equipment you’d like to incorporate into your new theater? Should you? Some of your existing gear may work great or maybe you need to replace a piece or two. Maybe you’re building everything from the beginning and need all new gear.
7)Are you going to be doing the installation yourself or contracting with a professional installer? What is your level of expertise in the building trades? Are you a fast learner?
8)Will this theater be used mostly by you, or will family and friends be using this room even when you’re not around? If many people will be using the theater, consider investing in a really good remote control, and some programming to make everything really easy to use. You’ll thank yourself later, and so will everyone else. It’s very nice when the remote control is so simple that you can watch whatever you want by pressing one intuitively labeled button or icon that makes everything happen. With touch screen remote controls, the screen will change depending to reflect the appropriate source or task, so you have only the buttons displayed that you need, not a confusing jumble of buttons to control every conceivable function of your theater.
9)What are your performance requirements? Do you have any?Is it important that your pant legs flap in the breeze created by your subwoofers (use at least two)? Would it be really nice to understand every, single word of dialog? How about the video? Are you extremely picky when it comes to picture quality? Are you a trained viewer that is familiar with what video anomalies look like? Do you want the largest possible video image?
10)Will your theater be integrated with your house music system if you now, or will, have one, or will it be completely stand alone?
If you can answer these questions, you have begun the design process for your home theater. It’s important to know the answers so that you can formulate your design targets. A well designed home theater will bring countless hours of enjoyment to you, your family and friends. The more information you have, the happier you’ll be with the finished product.
By: Steve Faber
