Kenny Hemphill
Thinking about system? You’re not alone. Home theater is one of the fastest growing areas areas in home entertainment and the advent of DVD recorders means your set-up can now be entirely digital, without an inch of video tape in site.
Installing a home theater is a big decision and requires careful planning. Luckily there are a number of resources around to help you and you needn’t be a technical expert or a hi-fi buff to get the job done.
If my sons are to become the kind of men our daughters would be pleased to live among, attention to domestic details is critical. The hostilities that arise over housework...are crushing the daughters of my generation.... Change takes time, but men’s continued obliviousness to home responsibilities is causing women everywhere to expire of trivialities.
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
One of the first decisions you’ll need to make before you set about installing a home theater is whether your going to dedicate a whole room to the theater or whether it will share a space with a lounge, dining room, or office. Having a dedicated room allows you to position seating and speakers in the optimum position and you can seriously consider a projector and screen without it looking as out of place as it might in your living room.
Obviously budget is another consideration and this will dictate which equipment you buy initially and what you save for another day. As a bare minimum you’ll want a DVD player, widescreen television, and a surround sound audio amplifier and speakers. We’d recommend opting for a DVD recorder like this one from Phillips, or this from Panasonic. They’re obviously more expensive than a DVD player, but will give you much greater flexibility. And don’t forget to budget for cabling, its a very important part of installing a home theatre and one that’s often overlooked.
You’ll also want to think about the interior design of a dedicated home theater room and of course the seating is all important. You’re going to spend hours and hours watching movies and the last thing you need is uncomfortable seats.
Both at-home and working mothers can overmeet their mothering responsibilities. In order to justify their jobs, working mothers can overnurture, overconnect with, and overschedule their children into activities and classes. Similarly, some at-home mothers,... can make at- home mothering into a bigger deal than it is, over stimulating, overeducating, and overwhelming their children with purposeful attention.
—Jean Marzollo (20th century)
About the author:
Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of Master Home Theater Design (http://www.master-home-theater-design.com), a website which provides information, articles, and tutorials on issues and products related to getting started with Home Theater.