Home Theater Buying Guide

Just because you weren't pre-IPO atsome technology hi-flyerdoesn't mean you can't enjoy the benefits of a home theater system. As the prices for DLP, Plasma and LCD technology fall, the enjoyment of a quality home entertainment experience is within your reach. This buying guide will walk you through the essentials of building a high quality but moderately priced home theater system.There are four things to think about when it gees to creating your home theater: i) Room and Furniture, ii) the Audio/Visual Equipment, and iii) Installation.i) Room and Furniture:Simply put, find a dark room or a room that you can make dark. Natural light can wreak havoc on the viewing experience. If you have windows in the room, look for light occluding blinds and curtains to make the room dark. Lighting for the room should be on a dimmer control - you'll want it bright inside when you are setting up and darker (but not pitch black) when you are enjoying the movie.Get a cabinet for the A/V geponents. This isn't your college dorm room where you want the world to see how big your amplifier is. You are an adult now - less is more. The cabinet should make your geponents easily accessible but hidden from view when not in use.Finally, find a nice sectional sofa for 6 adults with a couple of ottomans so that you and your friends can put your feet up. Also, go for leather. Its more expensive than cloth fabric but you are guaranteed to spill wine and nachos on your sofa and leather cleans easier.ii) geponentsAudio geponents: Im a big fan of the new integrated home audio systems such as the Bose Lifestyle or the Sony systems. They save space by gebining all the necessary geponents into one box, reduce wiring / connectivity geplications, typically gee with an integrated remote and are generally high quality. Things to consider when buying your system include the full bandwidth power rating (how many watts can the system deliver across the frequency spectrum - higher is better), total harmonic distortion (how distorted are the aforementioned watts - lower is better) and what sort of multi-channel (surround sound) processing/decoding does the system have (Dolby technology is the best).TVs: This area has seen tremendous advances in the last 5 years. There are three options worth considering in the purchase of a TV for your home theater. DLP is a video processing technology used in traditional CRT (cathode ray tube) television that produces images that are considerably sharp than regular CRT images. The primary benefit of DLP relative to plasma and LCD is cost. Next up on the price scale is plasma. Don't let anyone scare you with talk of "burn-in" or "image-ghosting". These problems associated with early generation plasma TVs are no longer a concern with today's technology. Plasma TVs provide an incredibly bright picture in a remarkably gepact (essentially flat) package. The benefit of Plasma relative to DLP is space, and relative to LCD is cost. Finally, at the top end of the scale you have LCD TVs. LCD provides the sharpest and brightest image in a flat screen package. However, be prepared to spend quite a bit more money relative to Plasma and DLP. A quality 40" LCD TV can run you $4000. When geparing TVs, be sure to look at the contrast ratio (the difference between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a display can show. The higher the contrast ratio, the greater the ability of a display to show subtle color details and tolerate ambient room light.), pixel resolution (the smaller the size of the pixels in an image, the greater the resolution), brightness (determines the level of picture detail) and viewing angle (a video display's maximum usable viewing range from the center of the screen, with 180 being the theoretical maximum)iii) Installation:My final bit of advice is around installation. This is a room that will get a lot of use and you want it to look nice and work well. Wires should be hidden from view, preferably behind the walls. If you buy a flat screen (Plasma or LCD) TV, it should be wall mounted. Your speakers should ideally be embedded into, or mounted on, the wall or ceiling. Professional installation will save you considerable time and headaches around mounting and wiring, and in some locales, may even be required by local building codes.Summary:All in, a reasonable price for the system described above shouldn't cost you more than $20K. While this may seem like a lot, the average kitchen remodel costs $50K. For a room that will provide you and your family with hours of quality time and entertainment, this is a small but worthwhile investment. Enjoy and happy viewing !Some great movies to watch on your new home theater system:Star Wars: Return of the JediTop GunDie HardLord of the Rings: Return of the KingThe Matrix