The Complete Guide to Home Theaters: Tips and Advice On How to Turn Any Room Into a Sensational Home Theater.
5/5
()
About this ebook
Our Complete Guide to Home Theater Planning will walk you through the process, step by step. As you’ll learn, creating a home theater requires carefully planning to get right, some imagination and plenty of time and patience. It’s hard work, but the results can be phenomenal—something that pleases every member of your family and adds real value to your house.
Related to The Complete Guide to Home Theaters
Related ebooks
Home Theater For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Home Theater Systems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsiHi-Fi Audio Setup Guide: Enjoy More Authentic Music From Any High Fidelity Audio System Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5High Performance Loudspeakers: Optimising High Fidelity Loudspeaker Systems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Build Your Own Home Theater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Guide to High-End Audio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Art of Loudspeaker Design Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAudio IC Projects: A Collection of Useful Circuits Based on Readily Available Chips Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHigh Performance Audio Power Amplifiers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raspberry Pi For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCar Audio For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSo You Wanna Be A Sound Guy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Audio Made Easy: (Or How to Be a Sound Engineer Without Really Trying) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Is Hi-Fi For You? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Designing, Building, and Testing Your Own Speaker System with Projects Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Newnes Guide to Digital TV Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAudio Demystified Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Movie Systems: Avoiding The Maddening Crowd! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Build A Home Recording Studio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Auto Sound Systems Made Easy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeck Designs, 4th Edition: Great Ideas from Top Deck Designers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAuto Sound Systems Made Easy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Build A Deck Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRenovate & Redecorate Without Breaking a Nail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Build and Stain a Deck - Special Bundle Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Designing Your Man Cave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAcoustic Design of Recording Studios Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlueprints to Building Your Own Voice-Over Studio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Home Recording Handbook: Use What You've Got to Make Great Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Audiobook Narration How-To Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Home & Garden For You
Elements of Style: Designing a Home & a Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/552 Prepper Projects: A Project a Week to Help You Prepare for the Unpredictable Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Fix Absolutely Anything: A Homeowner's Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/540 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead: A Hands-on, Step-by-Step Sustainable-Living Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Live Beautiful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Organization Hacks: Over 350 Simple Solutions to Organize Your Home in No Time! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Self-Sufficient Backyard Homestead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Little Book of Cottagecore: Traditional Skills for a Simpler Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Simple Method to Organize Every Room: And How to Keep It That Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Real Simple Clutter-Free Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmall Apartment Hacks: 101 Ingenious DIY Solutions for Living, Organizing and Entertaining Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Sufficiency Handbook: Your Complete Guide to a Self-Sufficient Home, Garden, and Kitchen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Organizing for the Rest of Us: 100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Survive Off the Grid: From Backyard Homesteads to Bunkers (and Everything in Between) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Household Hints: Over 500 Old and New Tips for a Happier Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Complete Guide to Home Theaters
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Complete Guide to Home Theaters - Lisa Montgomery
ISBN: 978-1-4835534-9-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Types of Home Theaters
Chapter 2
Planning & Executing Your Ideas
Chapter 3
Necessary Home Theater Equipment
Chapter 4
Extra Features to Consider
Chapter 5
The Pros and Cons of Doing it Yourself, Plus a Real-Life Examples of Home Theaters Designed and Installed by Do-It-Yourselfers and by Professional Home Systems Integrators
CHAPTER 1
TYPES OF THEATERS
Choose a room that suits your entertainment style
The Dedicated Theater
Make your theater feel like a special destination by dedicating a room exclusively for high-impact entertainment
GOING TO THE MOVIES in the traditional sense involves driving to the Cineplex, paying for tickets, buying a bucket of popcorn, and settling into a red fabric flip-down seat for a two-hour escape from reality. It’s as much about the trip there and the thrill of a new environment as it is about watching the film. The only way to closely match this experience in your home is by dedicating a room exclusively to the enjoyment of a cinematic presentation. A dedicated home theater, when designed right, can evoke the same kind of excitement you feel in a commercial theater when the lights dim and the previews start. Movie nights can become a special occasion at home too, where you’re free to totally immerse yourself in the on-screen action. There are no distractions; nothing to pull your attention away from the presentation. Once you’re in the room, being entertained by superior video and sound is your one and only objective.
This all sounds wonderful, and it is, but there are some drawbacks to committing a room exclusively to movie viewing. Depending on where the dedicated theater is located in your home, you may not use it as much as you had envisioned, opting instead to go to a casual family room setup to watch the news, sports, and other content that’s not a movie. Moreover, designing and constructing a dedicated theater can be an expensive endeavor. In addition to the A/V gear, you’ll need to buy materials and furnishings to finish the space.
To help you decide if a dedicated theater is the best route for you, here are some of the pros and cons:
The Pros
Ideal Shape and Size. Based on parameters specified by a home theater designer, your contractor can construct a theater room to the ideal dimensions for top-notch acoustical performance. Built to the appropriate length, width, and height, the structure of the home theater itself will be able to combat audio echo, reverberation, and other anomalies that can plague imperfectly shaped rooms. The space can also be built in a way that will prevent most of the theater sound from seeping into other areas of the house. Many home theater designers use a floating room
or a room within a room
technique to achieve this. These well-constructed theaters are the model of perfection.
Aesthetic Appeal. Building from scratch gives you the opportunity to easily fuse the electronics into the room design. As the room is being framed, accommodations can be made for in-wall speakers, subwoofers, equipment racks, and a video projector. If you’d like the screen to sink into the wall for a flush appearance, the appropriate size cavity can be constructed. Any motorized lifts (for a drop-from-the-ceiling video projector, for example) can be incorporated while the walls and ceiling are exposed. As your home theater is being designed, you can also request that a special room for the A/V gear be added—a great feature, if you’d prefer to keep the equipment out of sight.
TIPS FOR CREATING A DEDICATED THEATER
1. Choose a spot where you know you’ll want to spend time.
2. Ensure comfort by installing specialty theater seating.
3. Make a dedicated theater more inviting by incorporating a bar at the back for snacks and drinks.
4. Choose a theme to add personality to the space.
5. Invest in high-quality A/V gear for the greatest impact.
6. Stow A/V gear in an equipment room separate from the theater.
Decorative Freedom. Since a home theater is typically set apart from the rest of the house, following a style that’s cohesive with your home’s existing decor isn’t really necessary for your new movie room. A dedicated theater is the one space where you can explore a new decorating flavor. If the rest of your house is traditional, you could make your theater ultra-modern, or if you tend to stick with neutral color schemes, make a statement by accoutering the theater with bold reds and purples. Have a hobby, passion, or favorite movie? Pick a theme that allows you to create an homage to Star Wars, your trip to Italy, a favorite NFL team—and design your theater around it.
Environmental Control. Superior theaters have no windows, include seats that are laid out perfectly and set on tiers for optimal viewing, and suffer from no audible or visual distractions. It may be tough to accomplish these goals in rooms that already exist in your house, but they’re totally doable when a theater room is designed and built from the ground up.
A/V Liberty. If you’re building a theater from scratch and have always dreamed of owning a 120-inch screen, make sure to leave plenty of space for that coveted display, as well as other electronic must-haves. There’s no need to hide the gear—unless you want to. Because you’ll be mainly watching movies in the room, there are no worries about the technology conflicting with the decor; it IS the decor.
The Cons
It’s Lonely Down There. In a dedicated theater, you’re shut off temporarily from what’s happening in the rest of the house. For some families, especially those with small children, this is just asking for trouble. If the theater resides in the basement or a new addition, those with busy schedules and hectic lifestyles may find it easier and more comfortable to simply catch a movie on the smaller TV in the family room than to make a special trip to the dedicated theater.
Difficult to Multitask. Dedicated theaters are designed to do one thing and do that one thing really well: show video. Although you can always use the space for parties or to relax, read, and listen to music, there are probably other rooms in your house that are better suited for these activities.
It’s Expensive. A dedicated theater is a space that’s built from the ground up. Even if you plan to locate the theater in the basement, you may still need to construct the walls and ceiling, lay down a floor, buy new furniture, add outlets, jacks, and lights; the list goes on. Add the cost of the materials to the A/V equipment that will be installed, and the price of a dedicated theater can easily skyrocket. You’ll need to set a firm budget—and stick to it.
Lots of Rules. If you’re going to invest the time and money to build a dedicated theater, you may as well do it right. This means abiding by the many tried and tested design rules that will dictate everything from the size of the screen, the location of the speakers, and the configuration of the seating. It can feel excessively formulaic, particularly to people who aren’t hardcore videophiles.
Design and Installation by Hi-Tech Home, Clovis, Calif.
The Multipurpose Room
Fusing a home theater into a family room, den, or some other existing space is a popular and smart option for many families
THE POPULARITY OF MULTIPURPOSE rooms has grown by leaps and bounds over the past