Getting Started With Your Home Movie Theater
Everything changes, of this we can be certain. The preceding generation of the 1950s and 60s remembers when gas was 22 cents a gallon, including full-service by a nice man in a white uniform; car hops brought hot dogs and root beer on a tray to your car, and movie-going was an exciting experience. Drive-in theaters had horrible picture quality and even worse sound; nobody cared because making-out was more important than the feature. Movie theaters didnt come in clusters, and were velvet-lined and richly carpeted even in the balcony.
Today the home movie theater is making a stunning debut. Mall theaters are still drawing a crowd, but many prefer the convenience of home viewing. Encarta defines a home movie theater as a combination of high-quality sound and video reproduction in the home. These systems range from simple and inexpensive to complex, expensive and high maintenance. A nineteen-inch TV hooked up to a couple of extra speakers in the family room may technically qualify as a home movie theater, but true enthusiasts would sneer at the mere thought.
Lets Do It!
To get started with a home movie theater, picture yourself as Russell Crowe playing Maximus in Gladiator. Youre standing in the middle of the Coliseum in Rome, surrounded on all sides by roaring crowds, advancing opponents and pounding chariots. You hear every clash of metal on metal during deadly sword duels. Its as if you were right there, experiencing the sights and sounds along with Maximus. Now youve got the idea: your home movie theater should create an atmosphere of virtual reality.
Theater enthusiasts will tell you that two things are essential to start building your in-home movie theater: a large television and a surround sound system. Consider strongly a TV of at least fifty inches, preferably the sixty-one inch, high definition models. You want to be there, remember. A decade ago, big screen TVs were twenty-five inches; today, a true theater-quality TV less than fifty inches is a contradiction in terms.
In addition to the TV, the heart of your home movie theater sound system is the surround decoder. This device recreates the experience of multi-channel cinema sound right in your home. The decoder separates all audio signals from a sound source and sends the signals to various speakers placed throughout the room. Dolby surround sound indeed puts you into the arena with Maximus. The sound isnt coming at you from the TVs speakers, its coming from all around you, depending on how youve strategically placed your speakers.
Now that youve acquired the basics of your home movie theater, youll want to think further about the location of the theater, its furnishings, and other extras that can turn any evening into a stunning cinema experience.
Assess your own abilities and try to look at the whole question logically, and you will probably be able to decide fairly quickly which way will work better for you.
Shopping For Home Theater Systems
Once you have your home theater projector set up, youll want to show it off to your friends.
The next best home theater video projector is an LCD projector. A decade ago, big screen TVs were twenty-five inches; today, a true theater-quality TV less than fifty inches is a contradiction in terms. To really test the limit of your speakers, get a good action movie with lots of explosions, car chases and shootouts. A television has more options, while a projector and screen can cover a bigger space.
|