Home Movie Theater Room Ideas
A dedicated home theater may be the best investment a movie lover can make. Imagine a room with comfortable seating facing a wide-screen television, with surround-sound speakers delivering a powerful listening experience. Favorite film posters and movie memorabilia hang on the walls. Your film collection on DVD and Blu-ray is organized in the media system.
To get started, just use these ideas for setting up your home theater room. All you need is imagination and popcorn.
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Planning the Space
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Most people have two options when planning a home theater: Use an existing room, typically a den, or convert a space such as a garage. The latter will be time-consuming and expensive, but converting a space allows you to customize the room to suit your needs. It's also easier to plan the layout of speakers, run wires behind walls and install special lighting while a room is under construction.
Using an existing space such as a den or family room still requires some planning. Decide first where the television will be placed, whether it's going on a stand or will be wall-mounted. All seating and speaker placement decisions follow TV installation. For your best viewing angle, the distance between the seating area and the television should be about 1.6 times the diagonal measurement of the TV screen, according to recommendations from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. So if you have a 42-inch TV, your seating area should be 5 or 6 feet from the set.
Two front speakers flank the TV, with a center speaker over the screen to deliver movie dialog. Two Surround Sound speakers should be placed behind and slightly above the viewing area at a 45-degree angle to your head. A powered subwoofer can be placed anywhere in the room where it won't be in the way. Subwoofers deliver a deep bass sound that lends realism to movies. The omnidirectional sound produced by a subwoofer means this speaker can go anywhere in the room.
Selecting the Equipment
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Home theater systems are available for every budget. If you want to spend $100,000 or more on equipment, there are home theater dealers ready to oblige. Or you can spend a few hundred dollars on a complete system in a box. Then you'll simply need to hook up a TV and connect the speakers.
A good rule of thumb is to spend about half your budget on a television, another 40 percent on a home theater receiver, speakers and a DVD or Blu-ray player, and the remaining 10 percent on high-quality speaker wires and component cables for patching the gear together. You can tweak the numbers a bit if you also need to buy a media center or TV stand to hold the equipment.
Be careful when buying accessories at big-box electronics retailers. You might get a great deal on a big-screen TV only to pay an absurdly inflated price for connecting cables and speaker wire--those essential items that tend to get overlooked until after you have spent the big money on equipment. Often, you'll find better deals on accessories if you shop around.
Display, Decor, Ambience
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If you collect a lot of films on DVD or Blu-ray, you'll need media storage. Bookshelf storage is a popular choice for discs. You can opt for open bookshelf systems or enclosed storage such as an armoire that can also hold your audio-video components and television. Get input from your spouse or partner, as your desire to display your films in open shelving units might make other people think they are living inside a video store.
Posters and film memorabilia can be added gradually, depending on your budget. Reproductions of virtually all classic movie posters can be ordered online or purchased at specialty retail stores. Vintage posters are pricey collector's items.
Decorations can include old projector reels, framed pictures of Hollywood stars, a theater marquee to show what's playing or perhaps an old-fashioned popcorn machine in the corner.
As a finishing touch, consider installation of a light dimmer to darken the houselights when it's show time. A simple solution is to replace the light switch with a rheostat dial. You can also buy wireless light dimmers that can be programmed into a universal remote control so you can dim the houselights from your seat with the push of a button.
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