About Home Theater

Home Theater, also called home cinema, is an entertainment set-up that attempts to replicate the cinema experience in your home.

Home theater have travelled a long distance since the 1950s when playing movies at home became popular due to the Kodak 8mm film projector becoming affordable. Home movies or home video underwent a paradigm change with the introduction of laser disc in 1980s. Things further changed with the development of DVD video format, 5.1-channel surround-sound speaker system, high-definition TV and 3D television.

Currently, a typical basic home theater set up comprises of video and audio equipment such as a DVD player, standard definition television of 27 inch screen size and a surround-sound speaker system with a subwoofer. Expensive choices include Blu-ray disc player, home theater computer or digital media receiver streaming devices with a 10-foot user interface, HD video projector and a 100-inch or more projection screen and a powerful audio system with five to seven surround-sound speakers and equally powerful subwoofers. With the advent of newer technologies, advanced home theaters have 3D capabilities.

Creating a home theater, the layout and size, is a personal choice. The minimum equipment requirement is a video display device (TV or projector), audio reproduction or a home theater receiver, speakers, subwoofers, cable TV, DVD player or any other source component and a universal remote control. Besides, it is obvious that you need a room, connection cables and furniture for sitting viewers.

A home theater is a great way of getting access to high quality audio and video content and can be as basic as a source component and a AV receiver. The receiver is the heart of the home theater system to which you connect everything including your TV. It serves as a radio tuner, a preamplifier that controls the selected audio/video source and a multichannel amplifier.

You can purchase individual components and set up a home cinema using a basic home theater design that has input devices plugged into a processor unit (an all-in-one AV receiver), which in turn is connected to audio and video output equipment (normal LCD or projection TV and a speaker system). The other option is to get a home theater in a box or all pieces from one single manufacturer. Buying individual components has its advantages as it allows one to research each component and buy the one that suits individual requirements. A classic example is that the choice of speakers depends upon the size of the room.

It is also possible to set up a home theater in a backyard given proper outdoor atmosphere. Depending upon the use, an outdoor home theater could either be a temporary set up with foldable screen or a permanent set up with a large projection screen and a dedicated audio set up.

NOTE: Information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Some content is compiled from 3rd party sources. If you are aware of incorrect or outdated information, feel free to contact us.