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Setting Up A Home Theatre on a Budget

A home theatre has become a highly desirable addition to any house, but it can be expensive, so how do you keep the costs down and still get the right experience?

You know what they say, a little knowledge can go a long way. When it comes to creating a home theatre, whether you get someone to do all the work for you, or you want to DIY, when  you should understand the components of the system and the design elements of the room to ensure you get a great result.

An inexpensive resource that may help you is the Home Theatre Design eBook. It will give you all the knowledge you could ever need to design a home theatre.

Lots of people get sucked into buying the latest and greatest (read expensive) and system components that go well beyond what you actually can usefully use, but is is possible to put together a system that meets both your expectations and your budget.

So What's Your Budget?

The project you embark on can be as simple as setting up a system in your existing living room to creating a dedicated media room.

You can readily expect to set up a reasonable system for under $2000, but just as easily you could spend $20,000 or even more.

You could also plan to develop a system over time by starting with the basics and adding components when you can afford them.

Do you have a budget in mind?

Home Theatre System:

Command Centre
This is the box that everything plugs into and it outputs vision and sound. It should also let you to switch between various video and audio inputs.

• AV Receiver (prefer to have component up conversion)

Vision

• Option 1 - Projector (DLP or LCD) & Screen (Motorised, Pull down, fixed frame or portable)
  This can give you a bigger viewing screen for a smaller price, but a projector bulbs are expensive (~$700) and have a shorter life span than a TV.
• Option 2 - Big Flat Screen TV - Plasma, LCD
  If you are going to watch a lot of regular TV in your home theatre (or use it alot) you may consider a big screen TV as they tend to last longer, and you won't have to replace bulbs in a projector every 12 months
• Option 3 - Rear Projection TV
  These are expensive, but an option worth looking at.

A lot of people are going for a projector and motorised or pull down screen for watching movies etc and putting a Plasma or LCD TV behind the screen to use when they are watching regular TV

Sound

• Surround Sound Speakers

Input Devices:

• DVD Player (and/or recorder for movie watching)
• HD Digital Tuner (for watching TV)
• Gaming Machine (XBox, Playstation, Nintendo etc)

Other Components

• Rack or mounting to store the AV Receiver and other input devices
• UPS with surge protection (protects the lamp)
• Projector Ceiling Mount
• Cables (enough speaker cable to connect all of your speakers back to the receiver. If you are hiding cables behind walls you will also need wall plates and banana plugs. A 10m component cable is required to connect the receiver to the projector. TOSlink or optic fibre cables are required for connecting digital sound (1 per source)

Choosing the Room

This is really where the project starts. The size and proportions of the room you choose to locate your home theatre in will effect the optimal screen size and viewing distance, acoustics, and lighting. The video projector, A/V Equipment rack and surround sound speakers all need to be properly located.

And, if you are going for the full-on home theatre experience, then the finishes of the walls, floor and ceiling should be considered.

Do you have a room in mind?

Make a Plan, Write a List

Once you have determined the location of your home theatre it is very useful to make a drawing of the room to use in developing a plan/layout. Be as detailed as you can, photos can be useful too. Armed with this plan you get the best advice from people when you discuss your options.

Write down a list (or make a spreadsheet) of the components you will need to build your home theatre, and get some price estimates. Does it fit into your budget? If not, what are the essential or most important items and can you add the other things later?

Home Theatre Design Resource:

	Home Theatre Design eBook
This Complete Guide includes: How to Choose A/V Equipment Home Theatre Room Design considerations Big Screen HDTV, DLP TV and Plasma TV New improved rear projection TVs Possibilities of Front Projection TV Surround Sound Formats How to Choose Speakers A New Generation of remote controls Shopping and Finding the Best Prices <view now>

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