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Design Trend: Tips on Creating A Prime Home Theater Experience

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If you’re a movie buff, you know that watching movies at home has become a dramatically sophisticated experience compared to what it was even just a few years ago. Today, it’s possible to approximate the feeling of an actual cinema, from the large screen right down to the surround-sound.  In fact, it’s even better than a movie theater because the concession stand (your refrigerator) is always open!

If you’re pondering enhancing your home theater, it’s important to keep a few key points in mind. After all, having a home cinema system can take your movie experience to a whole new level and help you enjoy your favorite flicks at no extra cost.

 

Do Your Homework.

Building a sensible home theater that works for you takes planning. It first begins with deciding where you’ll install your theater and how flexible the space needs to be. Turning a family room into a TV room calls for a different approach than creating a fully-dedicated media room.  In either case, keep in mind that you’ll want a decent-sized screen that is placed at the proper distance from seating, relative to the size of the screen.  Next, you need to consider your price point, which will determine how you’ll spend your money.  Prioritize. Maybe your top desire is for a large screen but sound quality is of less importance. In that case, you’ll be dedicating most of your funds to a state of the art large screen television or wall projector system but you may be fine with getting by with a basic sound system. Knowing in advance what you really want can help rein in the costs.

Consider Blu-Ray

Want the latest in technology? Consider Blu Ray. 4K Blu-ray offers better resolution, color, and dynamic range than either streaming videos or conventional DVDs. Blu-ray’s huge advantage is that there is no reliance on shaky Internet connections. Also, 4K Blu-ray offers four times the number of pixels as in today’s prevailing 1080p video. That means that the newest technology allows for a higher dynamic range so details in shadows and highlights are visiblel. The new format also will be able to show 4K video at 60 frames per second.

Surround Yourself with Sound

Got a craving for ear-blasting sound? In that case, you need a a home theater receiver which will act as the control center for audio,  processing audio signals, amplifying them, and sending them to your speakers. All home theater receivers can process and amplify multichannel surround sound as well as stereo audio, because they have built-in surround sound decoding.

Some people use their home theater receiver to manage video as well as audio — by running all their video signals to their receiver, they can make a single video connection from their receiver to their TV and simplify everyday use. It’s a great option if you want to connect multiple sources, like a cable box, a Blu-ray player, and a video game console or two, to your home theater system.

Don’t Forget Your Speakers and Subwoofer

So how serious are you about sound? If you really want larger-than-life, wraparound sound, you need at least five voice-matched speakers and a subwoofer. If you buy a pre-matched speaker system, you won’t have to worry about voice-matching. But if you put together your own system, then make sure you buy from the same family of speakers.

Cables and All the Rest

There’s a whole lot of wiring necessary to pull off the optimal experience. Speaker cables, audio cables, and video cables, to name a few. Don’t forget that very old or very cheap speaker cable can degrade your sound quality. Also, “freebie” audio and video cables that come in the box with a component can also result in lower-quality pictures and sound. And reduced picture quality is especially noticeable with today’s high-end TVs.

Building a home theater does require consideration, as there are so many components and details to be aware of. But with a little bit of forethought, you can build yourself an at-home cinema you’ll never want to leave. Pass the popcorn, please!