Furniture

True home theater enthusiasts believe the movie watching experience should be as entirely complete as possible. From popcorn makers, to ticket booths, to motorized remote controlled curtains which conceal the TV/screen when not in use – there is no limit to the lengths fanatics will go to make their experience ‘the best’.
Personally, I would not consider specialized home theater furniture to fall into the realm of these ‘fanatics’. There are extreme home theater furniture options on the market, for example, vibration modules which are placed underneath furniture to provide rumbling and shaking during explosions or loud noises. However, comfortable and attractive chairs and pleasant decor will only enhance the true home theater experience

DTS versus Dolby Digital

Over the past 10 years I have often followed the endless, endless, endless discussions and arguments on which sound technology is better, DTS or Dolby Digital. In my view, who cares? Most consumers have invested zero dollars on the sound quality of their home theater system, while most of the remainder have general performance surround sound receivers which would not allow someone to be able to discern the difference.
My point is, DTS may be better. Dolby Digital may be better. At the current time, a very, very, very small percentage of consumers have the systems in their house to be able to tell the difference. For those home theater enthusiasts who DO have the technology in their homes to be able to say which is better, well...... let them continue their arguments amongst themselves.

Surround sound receivers

Perhaps the most commonly neglected aspect in any amateur home theater setup is sound. It’s difficult for me to understand why spending thousands of dollars on a nice high definition television should be ruined by spending zero consideration on optimizing the sound quality to match the picture quality.

For several hundred dollars an adequate surround sound, multi-channel receiver and speaker package can be purchased which will compliment any high def TV. One must be careful however to not be too thrifty in choosing their surround sound package. There are offerings out there on the market that cannot even match the built-in speaker systems on many high def televisions. I would suggest sticking with trusted brands such as Panasonic or Sony if considering lower price alternatives.

Projectors

My ‘TV’ of choice simply due to the size of picture afforded, is the projector. The previous drawback to the technology was the quality of the picture. This was partly due to the image technology utilized by the projector itself, but another aspect was the screen material technology upon which the projector image is transmitted.

Great advances in projector image quality have been made in the past 2 years and many high definition models are currently available. However, just as pairing a bad surround system receiver with a bad speaker system results in a poor sound, pairing a high definition projector with the incorrect screen technology will negate the entire advantage and result in poor image quality.
Commonly projector systems require a much larger room for installation and proper setup. The room is typically located in the basement due to the darkness required for optimal picture quality. Further, the location must be in a low traffic area since people walking in front of the projector will disrupt the picture.

Big Screen TVs

The market for ‘big screen TVs’ really is a relatively new one. Standard models pre-1997 ranged from 22-36 inches in size. Today’s market, dominated by plasma and LCD models, boasts screen sizes measured in feet, with some models in excess of 72 inches. Projectors are able to boost picture size to even greater heights and 140 inch or greater images are possible.

The television has become the centerpiece of the North American living room. While movie theaters have experienced resurgence in the past 10 years, people are realizing that an equally attractive option is enjoying the same quality movie watching experience in their own home.

Larger image

I see it time and time again when consumers ignore one equally important aspect to the home theater experience. Sound. Although present televisions do a far greater job of reproducing true sound performance than older models, the technology really pales in comparison to true home theater systems with dedicated surround sound receivers and multi-speaker setups.

Millions of years of evolution have resulted in humans relying primarily on their sense of sight to interact with their environment. When enjoying a home movie night it only stands to reason that a larger image = greater interaction with the movie!