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Light fixtures are things that not that many people think about all that often. However, the way we light a room can make us feel a experience mood or enhance the atmosphere we want to create in that room. There are many types of light fixtures, fittings, bulbs, shades and stands to suit all rooms in the home. That means both indoors and even outdoors where you might want to emphasize some special landscape feature.

Are you planning to remodelredecorate a room? In this case, I know it concerns a home movie theater room, because my friend, Owen Jones, asked me to give some advice. I definitely think that you should consider light fixtures as one element to change. For example, you could start by altering the central, overhead incandescent bulb or tube light for sure.

I suggest that you install four or even six small wall-lights. They need not be expensive and come in hundreds of colours and sizes to suit any purse. The only disadvantage of wall lighting for your home theater, is that the wires would really have to be cut into the wall so as not to be visible.

But, you could get around this by using standard lamps. These are also available in a thousands of designs, but they come with two drawbacks: namely trailing wires and a higher cost. They are very easily moveable though. Small, table lamps is a sub-class of this alternative, but you may need more electrical points.

Once you have decided on what you want, have each lamp dimmable either in unison or separately, up to you. You should probably keep one fairly powerful light at the business end of things in case the equipment needs seeing to, but it too could be on a dimmer.

The effect can be quite incredible. And all from just changing the pre-existing light fixtures and fittings. You could even increase the level of reality and have an exit sign over the door or a few romantic mood lights higher up out of line of sight so that they are not distracting, say, a replica 1970s style lunar lamp and a fibre-optic lamp, for amusement or as a talking point while waiting for the film or snacks to be got ready.

So, whatever style home theater lighting you are thinking of, contemporary or old style traditional, you will find many options to pick from – from different colors to different sizes and styles, there are many. You can find them on the Internet or in home improvement stores. I have made a link to one of my online favourites below.

Furthermore, when you do make the changes, you will notice that your home theater has taken on an ambiance all of its own and it will “guaranteed” enhance your home theater experience. It may be these minor changes, room by room, that make you see your home in a completely different light.

Do you want to install a Custom Home Movie Theater? Then pop along to our website at Home Theater This article, Home Theater Lighting is released under a creative commons attribution licence.

The second most essential part of a good home theater set-up is its loudspeakers. You simply cannot achieve that authentic theater atmosphere, if you do not have good speakers. It goes without saying too, that the amplifier and player must be equally as good, because any system is only as good as its weakest part.

However, if you do it right, you can easily recreate the sound quality achieved in a full size movie theater. Regrettably though, many people seem to get confused about which speakers they should have, when they go to buy for their home theater in order to create proper surround sound.

The minimum requirements for a good set of surround sound speakers are a left and right channel speaker, a centre channel speaker and a sub-woofer. The following are the basic speakers that are required to complete a good home theater: front left and right speakers, a centre channel speaker, surround sound speakers. Sometimes people try to do without the centre channel speaker, but this speaker provides a good proportion of the soundtrack in a lot of movies as well as adding depth to the dialogue.

The surround sound makes the film seem more realistic. It is what makes the difference between watching TV at home and going to the movie theater. The option of having this at home has only recently become affordable. The most common systems are: 5.1 channel, 6.1 channel, or 7.1 channel surround sound. The first digit refers to the number of normal loud speakers and the second one to the number of sub-woofers. The amount of speakers that is the best for you, depends on the size and shape of the room you are sitting in. The more is not always the merrier.

The sub-woofer is the cause of the deep bass sound that underlies so many movie soundtracks and these are the sounds that are responsible for heightening the drama in a film. A good sub-woofer is an vital element of your home theater speaker package, if you do not have one, you will miss out on this.

There are many makes on the market and some are cheaper than others, but it is important that you pick speakers that will work well together. They have to be compatible. If you do not know how to make sure that they are, the best choice for this is to purchase all your speakers together in one package by one maker. It may be tempting to save money by mixing and trying to match speakers, but if you get it wrong, you will not create the true quality of sound you are eager to achieve in your home theater.

Some speakers are made to stand on the floor and others are made to hang on the wall. Floor standing speakers are the best for home theater, but they also take up the most room and can have wires running everywhere. If this is not a problem to you, then fine, but if it is, you can solve it by buying wireless speakers.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home theater speaker placement. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

Going to the movies is a very popular recreation especially for those young executives living considerably stressful lives managing corporate affairs. However, for those who cannot afford to waste time travelling back and fore to movie theaters, the answer to this recreational problem could be just inside their own home.

You could recreate the visual and sound systems of the movie theaters with your very own personal custom home theater system. The best custom home theater installation certainly can consist of high quality components that are capable of rendering the entire movie theater experience without having to drive from your home to the movie theater spending time and effort queuing in heavy traffic. This modern technology can give you the relaxation and experience that full-sized movie theaters provide.

The basic components, such as a big screen and speakers with clear and flicker free images from a high quality DVD, can easily provide an almost-authentic movie theater experience. Home theater experts recommend that before you decide on the final set-up and equipment for your custom home theater system, the size of the location must be the first consideration.

So, if you have a small size room intended for your home theater system, a television may be best situated in the middle of one wall and three loudspeakers, placed on the left, right and center, might be enough to provide the surround sound you require from a custom movie theater. However, if you have a larger room, a home theater projector might be the best bet for recreating the “big screen”.

Home theater projector screens can provide an authentic movie theater experience. If you have a very rather location for your home theater system, in combination with your home theater projector and home theater projector screen, you could add some more loudspeakers about the room. Another useful tip is that a sub-woofer may also help to provide the optimum surround sound to enable you to produce the authentic sound of a movie theater in your own living room.

There are various designs and models of home theater projector you can select from. You will need to understand the features of each one, before you make up your mind which one to purchase. It may also be necessary for you to hire the services of a home theater designer in order to get the home theater package that will give you the best entertainment value. This will mean not having to spend an unnecessary amount of time and money on your home theater system and home theater projector.

It is very easy to buy equipment with an over- capacity for your home theater, especially if you do not know what the options are and the various requirements that your home theater may have due to the room’s size. The dimensions of your home theater projector screen should be a function of the measurements of your custom home theater and the equipment in your custom home theater. For example, from where you intend to sit to the screen should be about two and five times the diagonal diameter of the screen. Therefore, looking at it from another point of view, if you want to sit 10 feet (120 inches) from the screen, then the screen should be 24-60 inches, but it is a personal matter and depends on the viewers eyes.

Your home theater expert might also propose options for your home theater that may not include a television set. Why? The reason for this is the technological innovations employed by computers and home theater projectors. Home theater projectors like InFocus screenplay models, for example, can be hooked up with a computer in a small room set-up. Home theater projectors are also lightweight and can be transported effortlessly. Therefore, a projector is very useful for employment in custom home theaters and business presentations.

Home theater projectors and home theater projector screens do help provide a true cinematic experience. This type of installation is particularly handy for business presentations and therefore it is becoming ever more in demand. This combination of your custom home and custom office theater systems is a brand new phenomenon, which only a few smart customers have dreamt up.

However, I am sure that being aware of all these options: ie, that a basic television set, three speakers and a DVD player can be perfectly adequate for people who only want a basic home theater, you may decide that you do not really need a home theater projector, especially if the room for your custom home theater system is not very large.

Enjoy a cinematographic experience right in your very own home by researching your options intelligently. Then you can enjoy the exhilaration a movie theater gives you without having to put up with boring traffic jams on the way back and fore from the movie theater.

Are you considering installing a Custom Home Movie Theater? Then visit our webus at Home Theater This article, Home Movie Theater Projectors is available for free reprint.

It is sure that the most important consideration in setting up a home theater system is the size of the room where you will set up the home theater system. Therefore, the size of the most important component of a home theater set-up, which is the television, is also dependent on the size of the room. Regardless of the size of the room, the minimum suggested size of the screen is 28 inches.

A flat screen television is also recommended, because it will cut down on reflections and glare. Speakers are also dependent on the size of the room. Obviously, you would need more speakers in a very large room than in a small one.

You might want to put a lot of small speakers in a large room or one large speaker in a small room. The acoustics of the room is an important issue in this. Therefore, I recommend that you either get an expert in or get a wireless sound set-up that can be built upon.

The average number of speakers in a starter system in an average sized room would be five or six. The more speakers you use, up to a point, the greater the reality, but lots of speakers also means that you do not need thunderous volume too. There are many considerations when it comes to the sound – far more than with the screen.

You will want surround sound, with woofers, sub woofers, treble and bass speakers all with the Dolby control system, possibly all controlled by a graphic equalizer. All these controls can be confusing, but once you have the sound right, you will know it. It will sound like a full-sized movie theater.

Another important component of your home theater system is the DVD player. Your DVD player really must have a progressive scan. This is because a progressive scan produces sharp and flicker-free pictures. However, the progressive scan facility depends on the television unit, because not all television sets support progressive scan signals.

An optional upgrade might be a five-disk carousel DVD player. All of these items also depend on the amount of money you have, of course. However, if money is short, begin with the best DVD player you can afford and use a few old speakers and the biggest television set you can get hold of. Later, you can upgrade the television or the speakers.

The furniture is important too. You have to feel as if you are undergoing a special experience. The goal is to have reclining seats, but you can start with large bean bags. Add air conditioning and a fridge for cold drinks and a few tables for nuts and candy and you are almost there.

My concluding touches would be old movie posters, photos of movie stars, a collection of autographs would be great, a replica Oscar and any other memorabilia you can think of. Then set all this off with some subtle lighting that you can raise or dim as required.

Sound, camera, action!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Home Movie Theatre. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

If you do not buy your home theater in one box, as many people do, then you will have to choose a screen at some point or another. However, not only that, but you may be faced with deciding between a TV-cum-monitor unit and a drop down canvas screen.

It really all depends on the dimensions of the room you want to use as your home theater. If you are going to convert the box bedroom into a movie theater, then a 28 inch TV screen might be enough for you, but if you are going to use a long room and people might be quite a few yards from the screen, then a projector and drop-down screen would almost certainly be the right answer.

However, for most people, a normal TV screen would be sufficient. There are various types of television sets on the market at the moment, so we will take a look at them in turn later. Firstly, I would like to talk about the dimensions. It has been standard practice for hundreds of years to place a painting five times the diagonal of that painting from the viewer’s eyes. In other words, if a painting or a screen or a window, is two feet diagonally, then the best place to view it from is ten feet away.

This is a broad rule, it is not written in stone. Personal preference and eyesight come into it too. Therefore, if you used a 28 inch television set, the optimum viewing distance would be about 12 feet away. So, 28 inches would be ample for most spare bedrooms, but maybe not for a converted attic or basement. This relationship between screen and room size is the most important to get correct, otherwise the rest is a waste of money.

It all boils down to: do you like to sit in the front of the movie house or at the back? [We are only discussing viewing the film here]. If you like to be dominated by a huge screen, then the proportions I gave you must be decreased, otherwise they should be about accurate. Assess yourself: how far do you like to sit from your TV? Is it more or less than 5:1?

There are basically three types of view screens and they are: plasma, rear projection and front projection screens. The first is the modern flat screen TV, the second the conventional TV and the third a system with a projector.

Plasma Televisions

These televisions provide the best quality, especially for watching movies that are formatted for wide screen viewing. They have a much larger viewing area than traditional televisions and they also come in a wide variety of sizes in order to adapt to many varieties of home theater needs. The biggest problem with these beauties is the price, but that is dropping every month too.

Rear Projection Televisions

This is the standard cathode ray tube TV that we have all been watching since were born. Their major problem is that they are big and deep, but that was not a problem for decades, so if it suits your room, do not let it be a problem to you now,

Front Projectors

This is what you see at the movies or on old Cine 8mm – the drop-down projection screen. But, do not write it off. It still produces high-quality images and for larger rooms, it is really the only screen for your home theater.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

A home theater requires a sizable investment of money, thought and installation, especially if you have a high quality home theater. Therefore, it is a shame that so may people just connect all the pieces in a room without giving any thought to what else they should be doing to enhance it. Unless you hire a professional consultant, you might not realize the full potential of your home cinema system. However, it is not necessary to hire an adviser, if you just pay attention to a few common mistakes made by a lot of home theater owners

The lighting in any cinema is very important, as I am sure you already know. Why is it then that many people do not treat it as important in their own home cinema? You never see external light – sun light – in a professional movie theater and you should not want any in yours either. Hang heavy curtains over every window in the room and let them extend beyond the window by a good margin.

Heavy curtains will not only keep exterior light out, but they will also muffle street sounds, something else you never hear in a real movie theater. If you have neighbours close by, it will also help to preclude them from being disturbed by your loud films or music.

Do not try to save money by purchasing poor quality speakers. Do not mix and try to match speakers either, unless you are sure you know what you are doing. If you need five speakers and a sub-woofer, but can only afford three and the sub-woofer, buy speakers from a well-known brand that you know you can get hold of again.

Do not buy end of line speakers, as you will find upgrading hard. The best approach for the novice is to get a 5.1 surround sound set of speakers. Then, if at some point in the future you want to upgrade, you can quite easily, either by buying more or exchanging the lot in one go. One thing is for certain, a lot of the magic of going to the theater these days lies in the surround sound and you need to reproduce it at home.

It is not rocket science to put a home theater together whether it comes in kit form or not. However, if you do not feel comfortable setting it up, you would be better off having it done for you. Clearly, it is up to you how you go about this, but you could ask a relative or friend or neighbour or hire someone from the shop where you bought it. My speculation is though that any reasonably competent eighteen year old has already seen one set up before and can do it for you.

Your movie theater, if it came in a kit, will or should have detailed instructions for you to follow. Please read the manual before you start plugging things into each other. Read the manual and inspect the parts until you are well acquainted with the installation process and the recommended positioning of the equipment.

Make sure that the voltage is adjusted correctly before you plug it into the mains. Most equipment is made abroad for sale to many countries, so they often have some sort of selector for the voltage. Get it wrong and you could blow a part of the equipment, probably the amplifier, the DVD player or the screen. that could mean replacement of the module or poor reproduction of sound or picture.

It is not hard to get the installation of your home theater right, but you do have to pay some attention to detail, if you want to get the best out of it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home theater speaker placement. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

Wireless speakers are not the height of technology that they were not so long ago, but they are still pretty new. The good news is though that the price of good quality wireless speakers has come down to an affordable level for most people. However, the constant march of technology continues and it is almost impossible to be on the forefront of it for more than six months before something new comes out.

So, I have come to a deliberate decision not to be on the forefront of technology any more. Twelve months behind is good enough for me these days. It can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars to make that decision. I am sure that you are already aware how much items like computers, in particular laptops, and plasma TV screens have come down in recent times.

So, now is the time to get into wireless speakers. They are a good idea in any situation, because you can move speakers around without needing extension leads, but they are particularly practical in a home theater because people will not be able to trip over the wires in the dark.

Wireless speakers have come down in price because there are more manufacturers making them, which is the normal reason why this happens. Many of the newer manufacturers are in the Far East, which is also nothing new, but the quality is just as good. They are just less expensive.

Wireless speakers are one of the first up-grades you should think about if your system is a couple of years old. Wireless speakers permit so much more freedom to move your speakers around to get the best sound out of your home theater set-up.

One tip if you want to try to save a bit on your acquisition of wireless speakers is to buy online. But, do not rush into it. First of all do the round of the shopping malls and find out which wireless speaker systems you like. Take a note of three brands or models. Then go online and check the prices for these models.

You should note down the models, the online prices and the URL of the store where you saw them online. Then, go back to the stores where you first saw those models and ask if they are willing to equal, or better, the price. If they are willing to price match, all well and good. You have won because, if there is a problem you can return them locally. If they will not, you must judge the value of a local purchase to you.

You can easily end up with a top quality home theater system with wireless speakers by going about buying your up-grades in this way. You really ought to go the way of wireless speakers and if you do not believe me, just walk around the shopping mall one Saturday afternoon, you will soon be persuaded.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

Do you love going to the movie theater and get lost in the realism that their superior sound systems create? If you do, then I bet you are also one of those people who dislikes going there, only to have a potentially wonderful evening ruined by irresponsible people talking through the movie or letting their cell phones ring.

I used to love the movie theater, but that was in the time when people respected the rights of others to listen to a movie in silence. There were no crying babies, ringing mobile phones or noisy youths in cinemas and if they got in they were soon kicked out if there was any noise.

Nowadays, cinema managers seem to take the easy route of letting these people spoil it for others. Consequently, more and more quiet people are staying at home and the cinemas are getting even noisier. If you are one of the stay-at-homes, but miss the cinema, why not reproduce one in your home?

Build yourself a home cinema with surround sound. You will never be sorry for installing surround sound in your home, because you will be able to play your favourite films, the TV and your music through it. The distinction between surround sound and stereo or even quadraphonics is breath-taking.

Different people have different requirements, aspirations, finances and even hearing ability, so it is tricky to recommend a system to a mass audience, but there are strategies for going about the purchase of your own home theater system. A lot of people buy a kit home theater. This is fine, if funds are limited, but you will want to upgrade the screen and the speakers before very long. If you just want to put a home theater in a small spare bedroom and do it quickly and easily, then this approach is for you.

If, however, you want a bit more, then you might prefer to get a bigger screen and make do with the speakers that came with the kit. These can easily be renewed later. If you want to get everything part by part, you will need a screen, speakers and DVD player. If you want to play games too, replace the DVD player with an Xbox.

But back to the speakers, whether you are renewing or putting your own system together, the strategy I suggest hold true. Write down the dimensions of your room or better still make a little plan of it to scale. Take this around the shops and malls and try to listen to a few set-ups in a room similar to your own. This could be difficult, but you might be fortunate.

Work out whether you need a 3.1; 4.1; 5.1; 6.1 or even 7.1 set of compatible surround sound speakers. Basically, it all depends on the size of your room, but the shop assistant will be able to show and advise you. As a guideline, a 5.1 surround sound set will be sufficient for most rooms. The figures stand for normal speakers and sub-woofers: ie 5.1 means five normal speakers and one sub-woofer.

The arrangement of the speakers depends on the size and shape of the room and on your personal preference, but the standard layout would be: one speaker the far left and far right of the screen and one beneath it with two more speakers a little apart from each other at the rear of the audience. The sub-woofer can go at the front or the rear.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

Shoppers in this new millennium are much more knowledgeable about electronic goods than people were at any time earlier. The older generation of today grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s when everyone in the West had a television set and a stereo. Earlier generations were not so lucky for financial and technological reasons. Therefore, most shoppers nowadays have no compunctions about going shopping for complex electronic equipment like a home theater.

It is in the shoppers’ best interest to research and comprehend about the components that go into making up a good home theater. It is not exceptionally exacting and many if not all of the elements involved have been around for at least a few years now. Consider what goes into a home theater:

a screen – can be a television screen, a canvas screen for a projector or a modern plasma or LCD screen. Stop thinking about the modern types of screen, they are still fundamentally TV screens and they have been around for 80 years or so. Same with a projector.

a player – a DVD player is just an improved CD player and they have been out for 20-30 years. You have probably had one for most of that time. (You can add another dimension to your home theater here by swapping an Xbox for the DVD player, but games machines are not new).

speakers – they are nothing new either. Speakers have been about as long as the television set.

So you see, there is nothing in that kit which you should feel awkward about buying. Fair enough, you will be buying state of the art examples of what I listed above, but they are fundamentally the same. You connect them all together with their special plugs and wires and then plug them into the mains. Switch on and it will work.

So the next issue is: do you buy a package or do you buy the elements and build your own home theater? The answer to that question really depends on your level of competency. A package is easy and may work out less expensive too, but will it have the flexibility that you want? If you have a standard sized and standard shaped room, then I am convinced that you will be able to buy a package that will suit you. If you think that the speakers are sub-requirement, you could always sell them on and upgrade after a while.

if you want to be certain of getting exactly what you need, I think that most people will have to buy the components separately: that is screen, player and speakers.

The size of the screen depends on the size of the room and how close you are sitting to it: a distance of between three times and five times the diagonal of the screen is about correct. However, some people like to be dominated by the screen and others do not want to wear their glasses, so it is up to individual preference.

The DVD player is a matter of personal preference too. They are all much of a muchness, but some people prefer Sanyo while others prefer Philips. If you want gaming functionality too, use an Xbox instead of an regular DVD player.

Most rooms will require at least a 5.1 surround sound speaker set. These ought to be acquired as one package to ensure that they are all well-matched. That is five normal speakers and a sub-woofer.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home theater speaker placement. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

If you want to get a home theater system, there are a few essential principles that you should keep in mind. However, no matter how much advice you are given, if your level of know-how is insufficient to understand it, it is useless. Therefore, you have to be honest with yourself and admit to yourself how much you know.

Fortunately for most of us, the Baby Boomers are the most electronically savvy older generation ever, because many of today’s older age band grew up in the 70’s when everyone had a TV and a stereo.

Music and sound quality is important to Baby Boomers. However, if you were one of those who was not interested in electronics, a home theater kit is probably for you. On the other hand, if you feel competent to take on the task, you will be better served by a system that you compile yourself.

This is not to say that packages are not much good, it is just that there are certain variables that must be taken into account before purchasing a home theater system.

Sound or acoustics depends on the measurements of the room where the home theater system is installed, most of us understand that, but because we are unlikely to want to remodel the room to suit the theater, we have to choose a speaker system to suit the room.

Likewise with the screen. Bigger is not always better. There is a ratio that can be used to help you work out the size of the screen you should be thinking about, but even this proportion depends on individual predilection.

The formula says that you should sit 9-15 feet away from a 36 inch screen, but you may have poor eyesight and prefer to have a 48 inch screen. This is where kit fall down.

In general, home theater packages suit regular shaped, smallish rooms. By that, I mean 12 – 20 feet in length and combinations thereof. Then, depending on the room again, you will have to consider the sound system. Stereo is not up to the job, if you want to replicate the sound of a full size movie theater. In order to do that, you will need surround sound with at least three speakers and probably five or more.

All in all, you will get the best system for your home movie theater if you buy the components separately, especially if you have an odd or oblong shaped room or certain personal preferences. However, a standard package delivers a quick and easy, passable solution for many modern, ’standard’ sized rooms.

One last bit of advice though, if you do buy a package, make sure it is one that you can upgrade, particularly in the sound department. A TV screen is just a matter of a connection and they are all the same, but if your home theater kit comes with three or five speakers, maybe you will want to add some more one day. You may also want to think about adding games functionality to your system too.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.