the audience is you . . .
What is Home Theater?
The basic home theater:
-Large-ish TV or video display
-Two powered speakers
-Comfy chair, of course
-DVD player
The advanced home theater:
- Media Centre PC
- Large TV or video projector
- Six speakers and a subwoofer for surround sound
- Surround sound receiver
- Digital cable, satellite TV, and wireless computer link
Who's Watching?
It's important that your investment in home theater gear satisfies everyone who will use it. The answer to this question doesn't automatically tell you what kind of system to buy, but it does color your choices in every step of this course.
So who will your home theater audience be? Will it be you and friends who like the same kind of fare as yourself, or are you in a family or household with diverging tastes and habits? This question helps you decide whether to get a system optimized for a single use (such as getting the most bone-crunching 3D sound possible out of The Terminator) or one more generally useful to a variety of interests. Will there often be more people watching than can sit on one couch? Do you have young children in the house for whom you might have to consider the scale of seating and size of the screen? And will the theater be a room dedicated to this purpose?
Watching What?
Now let's turn to what that audience will watch. What will your home audience primarily be watching?
Sports
Movies on television
Regular television
Movies on DVD
Movies on VHS
Games on PlayStation or XBox
In general, what you're looking at is the potential need for special video features (such as a sports-lovers' ability to watch several channels at once on some new televisions), and whether the programming you watch benefits from new high-resolution picture technologies. VHS tapes and regular television are fairly low-resolution, which means that no matter how high-tech a system you get, they'll never give you a super-clear picture. However, DVDs and the new HDTV (High-Definition Television) format provide a much finer picture, and therefore, benefit from better screens.
What Are Your Audio Needs?
When planning your home theater's sound system, two big audio questions face you:
Will you be playing a lot of standalone music on your system or primarily watching television and movies? That is, is this only your home theater or is it also your home stereo?
Is it important to have sound all around you in surround sound, which makes high-budget movies sound like you're in a theater?
Both of these questions guide you toward considering an idea that is heresy to your average home theater salesperson. In some cases, putting your audio budget toward a pair of great stereo speakers can serve you better than surround sound (although you'll miss out on the special theatrical feeling of movie action happening in 3D all around you).
If you do want this audio system to serve as your home stereo (whether you opt for surround sound or not), you should also ask yourself the following questions:
Will you have speakers run by this system playing in other rooms?
What components will your audio system have? Will it include a turntable, an iPod, a digital music player, and/or a radio receiver?
Do you require wireless transmission of audio or video from your computer?
It's also worth considering whether you need to keep the system's volume down at times. Do you have thin walls and sound sensitive housemates? At the extreme, you can use headphones, buy a sound system that sounds good at low volumes, or even install sound-dampening devices in and on your theater walls.
What's the Room Like?
Now that you've given some thought to sights and sounds, take a little time to assess the space you're going to transform.
The ideal home theater space is a rectangular room where the distance between the seats and the video display is approximately five times the diagonal measurement of your video screen (HDTV looks good closer). It's best to have the screen parallel to a wall, but you can put the screen in a corner if you have to. If your room is oddly shaped, try to select a rectangular footprint for your watching area so that the speakers are symmetrically oriented towards your seating.
TIP - You get the best sound reproduction if windows have thick curtains and the floors are carpeted instead of covered in a hard surface, such as wood or tile.
You want to keep the bright light of the outdoors out and be able to adjust the light in the room with a dimmer. This lesson already mentioned heavy curtains, but if you have any open doorways that lead to rooms with windows, you want to be able to close the door or get creative about keeping the light out with a moveable screen or doorway curtains. (Of course, if you only watch at night, light leaking in is not a problem.)
The room has to hold a certain amount of furniture: If you're considering surround sound, do you have room for speakers on the sides of your seating area? Don't forget that the more involved your home theater becomes, the more theater's components will need a home. Obviously, you need a place to put the video display, but do you also have room for a cabinet or shelving for all the component pieces?
How to Budget and Build
To build the best system for your money, start by coming up with the budget that you're currently willing to spend and decide whether you're going to build it all at once or if you'd rather buy pieces over time.
The advantage of buying pieces over time is that you can ultimately build a better system because you'll be spending more money on it. The downside is obvious: You have to wait to get the full effect of your multimedia Shangri-la. If you want to build your system over time, though, you may be able to use components that you already have as you add on.
If you take the grow-slow approach, be aware that some kinds of components are quickly becoming more advanced and less expensive; therefore, it may be better to buy these last -- most notably new video technologies such as plasma-screen TVs and HDTVs, as well as video storage devices, such as TiVo hard-disk video recorders. Speaker and audio technology is not undergoing the same technological transformation, so you might consider buying these parts first.
Before You Go Shopping
These days, electronics superstores and specialty home theater retailers have sample theater rooms set up in their stores. When researching your options, you can glean some good information from visiting such places, especially seeing the difference first-hand between video formats.
Don't forget, though, that it's hard to relax into prime movie-watching vibe in such a distracting environment and judge the subtleties of the experience -- especially, if you haven't watched many movies in a home theater in surround sound. Instead, find out if any of your friends have home theaters and see if you can invite yourself over to watch a movie or two on different systems.
Watch movies that you like and with which you're familiar. Relax and enjoy watching them, but take note of any factors that particularly impress you or distract you.
