Home theatre systems have come a long way from the days of placing two huge speakers on either side of your television and listening to records while watching Saturday Night Fever on your VCR and television. These days there are as many ways to design a home theatre system as there are customers to buy them.
“The basics of the home entertainment system haven’t changed much in the last 15 years or so. What have changed are people’s tastes and priorities,” explains Adam Bowden of Bose Home Theatre. “Fifteen to 20 years ago a home entertainment system meant music. People would spend hours in stores and bring in a variety of music and listen to the various speakers before selecting a unit to buy. Today a home entertainment system is a visual experience focused on movies, and people make decisions based on aesthetics, under the assumption (and rightly so) that the sound will be exceptional. They will purchase a home theatre system that is visually appealing and assume that the sound will be appealing as well.”
“Prices are falling on flat panel televisions and the quality is going up so more people are incorporating bigger flat panels and surround sound into their home theatre system design,” says Joe Strang, President of Show Case Home Theatres in Alberta. “The other big thing is the all-in-one touch pad controls.”
The price of a home theatre system depends on how seriously you take your entertainment needs. According to Strang, you can buy a “big box” system for $5,000. But to really get the whole experience, he recommends having a custom system installed.
“You have to start with speakers, remote control, and flat panel all installed and you can do that for about $9, 000,” he says.
But if money’s no object then there’s no end of fun to be had. “We’ve done media rooms that are $500,000 for one room. For that you get projectors that have better than movie theatre quality, sound so good that when someone’s whispering on screen it feels like they’re whispering in your ear.”
Some homeowners go for the total theatre experience and have custom theatre seating installed in their media rooms, with one-touch remote controls in the arm of each chair, massage units and heated seats.
“We’ve even put motion in the seats so that when there’s motion in the movie you feel it in your seat,” he says. “And I don’t mean it just vibrates…it actually moves.”
Other options for your home theatre system include custom draperies, acoustic paint, and sound-proofing. This may seem like overkill but Strang says that most homes over $700,000 now come with a media room or dedicated home theatre room.
“I find that we usually install home theatre systems that are about 10 per cent of the value of the home, not just in the home theatre room but throughout the house, multi-room sound, lighting, automation and such. So for a $1.5 million home, you’re looking at $150,000 worth of home entertainment equipment.”
By: Amy Bostock
Lights, Camera, Action – Building the Perfect Home Theatre System
March 8th, 2010 by admin No comments »Unconventional Technology Makes Home Theater Even Better
March 6th, 2010 by admin No comments »
When people shop around for HDTV equipment, all too often they fall prey to the idea that they need certain types of HDTV sets, while in reality there are a lot of different options that most people consider. Part of this is caused by media hype of certain types of products, but a lot of it is caused by simple ignorance of the existence of any alternatives.
The case of flat panel HDTV screens is an excellent example of this. Flat panel TV sets are the stereotypical HDTV display technology and are extremely stylish because of the fact that they can be hung on walls like pictures or simply set on a table for an extremely clean look. The major technologies that flat panel screens employ are LCD technology and plasma display technology. One of the reasons for the popularity of flat screen TV technology is that the displays that use it are so versatile. Flat screen HDTV sets can provide a much larger screen in smaller rooms than cathode ray tube or projection screen technologies could simply because they aren’t nearly as deep.
While flat panel HDTV sets are undeniably popular and stylish, they’re far from the only alternative when it comes to choices for a screen in a home theater system. For example, DLP projection screen HDTV sets can provide a better picture under a greater variety of conditions and at a lower price than most flat panel HDTV sets. That’s because digital light processing and produce brighter pictures than plasma screens with deeper blacks and faster response times than LCD screens. Of course the obvious disadvantage is the space that any projection screen TV needs in order to produce an image.
DLP technology also provides another interesting option for HDTV displays in the form of projectors. With DLP projectors, the DLP chip and the light source are contained in one unit which projects the image onto a screen across the room. While such a system needs a minimum amount of distance for the light to travel in order to project a decent size image, it will also make a much more effective use of space than a single unit DLP projection screen TV set.
Another advantage of a DLP projector is that- while this type of HDTV display tends to be more expensive than others- it also offers the best value in terms of the screen size that it can produce for the money. It’s not unusual for a relatively moderately priced projector to be able to display a picture that’s seven feet across. And the higher end projectors can produce a picture that’s a full fifteen feet across! DLP projectors are also good for displaying the graphics from video games and computers as well as HDTV.
When it comes to the set top boxes that will make up a home theater system, it’s also a good idea to think outside of the box. For example, instead of getting a separate DVD player, DVR, and receiver; you could get a media center computer that combines all three of those devices. Media center computers can also access the Internet and download video and music, as well as be used to play a variety of computer games. Plus, many media center computers can record video from the TV signal and then burn it onto DVD’s that can be played in other devices. When you picture that kind of versatility combined with a DLP projector, you could have a very unconventional but functional home theater system.
By: Nicole M Evans
