Hello, my name is Michael Fallert. I am the general manager of the Sound Shop in Colorado Springs and today we will be discussing what it takes to put together a home theater.

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Choosing a Home Theater System

Well, today we are going to talk about home theater and the choices you have to make prior to start picking at equipment. The first thing you want to do is decide what type of room you are going to do. The two choices really are a dedicated home theater much like what is right here where you have got dedicated seeding, a screen, a front projection device, lighting control, things like that. That makes it a dedicated theater.

Your other choice is an open media room. For example like a wreck room in the basement. Those can be done with a lot of other type of displays. You can use a flat panel or re-projection DOP. You can still do a screen in the projector in a wreck room as well but because it is open and there is ambient light it is considered more of a media room than a wreck room.

Once you decide what type of room you want to make then you can start making the choices that are going to lead to your home theater. For the first thing you have to decide is what type of display you are going to use. Well, in a dedicated theater room fort projection is kind of no brand new. That is where you are going to end up because you are going to get the largest screen in the nicest picture for the least amount of money and besides that re-projection and flat panels, they stop at 73 inches and that is not big enough to give you that theater room feel.

In font projection really there is a lot of choices but the main two choices out there are going to be DLP and LCD projection. Both of them have short comings and both of them have good things about them. LCD projection is going to give you the riches contrast ratio and the clearest colors as well as the highest contrast ratios but it is not going to do as well as the DLP in high action sequences. It is more prone to ghosting and artifacting when there is high action. You have to decide what you are going to be watching in your theater room. If it is going to be primarily movies I would lend to suggesting the LCD’s because they are the highest resolution, best looking and most cost effective for your money.

The one I would recommend first and foremost and probably the hottest one out there is the Sony. Sony makes a 1080P LCD projector in the $4,000.00 to $5,000.00 range that just knocks your socks off. It has got every type of input as well as true adopted motion technology which is going to help put that artifacting some. There are less moving parts in an LCD so you are not going to have the maintenance issues that you are going to have in the DLP. I have seen DLP color wheels break. There are a lot of moving parts there and there are not as popular now that LCD’s have exceeded them in resolution.

Couple of years ago, DLP where the best thing out there for front projection but now that LCD can achieve their level of contrast ratio and clarity at the same price point LCD’s have really, really growing in popularity this past year.

Then, once you have made those choices your next step was type of speakers. Basically there is in walls, on walls, hook shelves and floor standing speakers. I feel and it is pretty much to consensus is that in walls lend to the theater feel the most. The very cost effective, the very efficiency and you do not need a lot of portage and they are kind out of the way. Do not take either room up, there is not foot print.

Now, if you much more of an audio fight, you want way better sound then you need to look at the physical speaker like a book shelves or a floor setting speaker. But keep in mind that they are going to take real estate from your room.

Let us talk briefly about remote controls. This is how most people’s coffee table looks. Whether it is in their living room or it is in the theater room. Everybody ends up with all this remotes. You got one for the projector, one for the Blu-Ray, one for the receiver, one for the CD player. There are a lo