How to Set Up a Home Entertainment Center

This article explains how to set up a home entertainment center for all your audio visual entertainment needs. It discusses all the key elements of a home theater and how they come together to create an entertainment room that will blow everyone away.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• TV or Projector
• The want to be entertained
• Reciever and Speakers

Your Home, Your Needs

1. First of all you must decide what you want your home entertainment center to do. There are the obvious things which most people expect from a home theater like watching TV and playing movies and surely you want to be able to listen to your mustic collection on it, but a home theater can do much more like playing video games via a console system or computer and recording TV while you are away.
2. Taking stock of what A/V components you already have can help you figure out what you need to make your home entertainment center complete. Deciding on a budget for your home theater is also important since you don't want to blow all your money on just one component only to realize that you still need a bunch of other items.
3. Now take a look at the space where the entertainment center will reside. There needs to be plenty of space for the TV and front speakers as well as a stack of all your other components like the receiver and DVD player. You need an outlet close by to power everything and if you will have a Media Center computer (explained in the next section) you need some way of getting it internet. Take some measurements of the space so you know how much room you have when you buy a shelf for everything to go on.

The Components

4. The center of any home entertainment center is the TV. If you already have a good sized TV you may want to hang on to it for now, but older televisions, even really big screen ones, cannot compare to the brightness and clarity of todays high definition models. Alternately you may want to consider a projector as a replacement for your TV . Projectors can throw an 80 to 100 inch high definition image right on to your wall, and that is truly home theater!
5. A surround sound receiver (the amplifier that everything hooks into) is essential to a home theater. You will want one that has high definition outputs and has an input for every device in your home theater. This means that if you will have a DVD player, a Video Game system, a cable box, and a CD player you will need at least 3 video and audio inputs and 1 audio only. As far as the whole 5.1/6.1/7.1 thing goes you really only ever need 5.1. For more information there is an eHow specifically on buying receivers on this site.
6. You will also need speakers to go with your stereo. These include front left and right, a center channel, rear/surround left and rights, and preferably a subwoofer. There are guides right here on eHow that can help you pick out just the right speakers for your system and your wallet.
7. You may want to consider a Media Center computer for your entertainment system. Media center computers (sometimes called home theater personal computers or HTPCs) greatly expand the capabilities of your home entertainment center. They allow you to have your whole music collection at your fingertips, watch movies off the internet on your big screen, play DVDs, play computer games on your home theater, listen to internet radio through your stereo, and surf the internet from the comfort of your couch. If you choose to get a media center computer you WILL need a high definition TV or projector.
8. Now of course comes all the basic components. DVD player, VCR, cable box, CD player, game systems, etc. You probably have many of these already, and if you are getting a media center computer then it will replace many of them.
9. Lastly you will probably want a piece of furniture to house everything. What you go with here is mostly about your personal tase and what will go well in the room. If you got a projector, then all you really need is a small shelf for all the components to sit on and maybe a wall or ceiling mount for the projector.

Setting it all up

10. Now it's time to set everything up. Put all your components on the opposite side of the room and put your shelf in place leaving plenty of room behind it to hook everything up.
11. Now put all of the components in their place. To avoid confusion do not hook any wires up until everything is where you want it to be.
12. Now interconnect all of your components. Try and use the highest quality connections for each item, here is a guide starting at the best quality: VIDEO: High definition, S-Video, RCA Component, Co-Axial; AUDIO: Fiber Optic, SPDIF Co-Axial, Shielded RCA, Headphone type plugs. If you need any extra wires make sure to measure how long they need to be and make a list.
13. Finally, plug everything in to a surge protecting power strip. This will protect both you and your equipment from power surges.

Tips & Warnings

• The best part of a home theater is that it provides you with the big screen surround sound experience of a movie theater in your own home. However, one part of a movie theater you don't want to replicate are those cramped uncomfortable seats. So make sure you have plenty of comfy seating for you, your family, and all your friends.
• Another advantage of a projector is that it goes behind where you sit in your home theater room. This means that all your other home theater components like the receiver and DVD player go in the back of the room as well. This can be very nice since you do not have to get up to change DVDs and if you have a game system it is right next to where you sit so there is no issue of the controllers reaching you.
• When you buy components the sales people will probably tell you about various cables you need to hook everything up. However, it is really best if you wait and go home and get everything set in it's place before you buy any cables you may need. The idea of making a extra trip to the electronics store may seem frustrating, but the benefits are two-fold. First much of what you bought and already had will have it's own cables that are all you need. Secondly, by waiting until you have everything in its place you will know the length of cables that you need.
• Often the remote that comes with your receiver can be programmed to control many of your other components. Read the manual to find out how to do this.

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