Dan's Papers - August 17, 2007

While summer is a time for outdoor barbeques and spending the day at the beach, sometimes our worst fear occurs and we are forced to deal with a boring, gloomy, rainy day. But have no fear! You can calm the kids, entertain yourself and nurse that sunburn while enjoying the ultimate home theater.

Home theaters come in all shapes and sizes for all kinds of houses. First, pick a room. Depending on how ultimate you want your home theater to be, you can convert a small guest room or a large living room. For the perfect sound quality, pick a room that is more rectangular in shape and mostly enclosed. This will ensure the best acoustics. Square rooms or a room that's twice as long as it is wide will distort the sound quality.

A home theater can be modeled after your favorite cinema from your hometown or personalized. If you have the space and want to make this theater the best possible, upholstering your walls or putting curtains up will stop all of the echoes from around the house. Also, dark red or purple upholstering will give the theater a cozy atmosphere.

After you decide on a room, it is time to layout and furnish your home theater. The seating in your theater may seem insignificant, but it can make or break your viewing experience. Make sure to pick out chairs that are comfy and will fit your space, but also allow enough room in between the screen and the chairs. Set up chairs to face the screen head on and don't place seating along the sides of the walls. Also, the distance from the seating to the screen should be two to three times the screen size.

As far as lighting goes, less is more. Overhead lights that can be dimmed once the movie starts and turned all the way on once the movie is over are ideal. You don't want too much light because it can cause a glare on the screen, but you want some light in case someone needs to take an emergency bathroom run, so they don't trip over everyone to get there. Just because the lighting shouldn't be that bright doesn't mean that lighting isn't important. It will set the mood in the room, so have fun with it. Place cool-looking wall fixtures along the sides of the room that also dim, or place lighting on the floor. The lighting should make the room warm and inviting.

Now, for the most important part of your home theater - the electronics. The video projector is essential and when it comes to this piece of equipment you want to make sure it is high-definition. Video projectors are best for screens that are more than 60 inches. If your screen is smaller, opt for a plasma or rear projection television. As far as screen size goes, the proportions are two and one-thirds wider than it is high. Other than that, the size is up to you.

Whether you want freestanding speakers or in-wall speakers is also up to you, but it is suggested that freestanding speakers give best sound. If you're already working with a small room you may want to go for in-wall speakers. If you want the ultimate sound, invest in a surround sound system. The most common system is the 5.1 Dolby Digital and includes five speakers and two subwoofers. For a deeper room, go for the 7.1 Dolby Digital, which adds two additional speakers on the back wall to help amplify the sound. A surround processor is another highly important piece of equipment for a home theater because it basically controls it. They come in all-in-one receivers or separate pieces. Choose based on how much you want to spend and how good you want the sound quality to be. As far as controlling your home theater, invest in a master remote or a touch screen. This will ensure that you can control everything with ease.

Follow these easy steps and with enough money and good design chops you can have your own home theater in no time - and you can kiss those rainy day blues goodbye!