Ben Anton asked:




For most people with a home theater system installed in their house, the cables are one of the biggest logistical challenges. The cords and cables for all the various components inevitably become a tangled, jumbled mess, making it nearly impossible to change the configuration of your system or any of the components. Most families don't put in the time to organize and hide their cables to improve the aesthetics and safety of the home theater room. With just a few simple changes, your home theater cabling mess can be easily cleaned up and put under control.

All of the components in the home theater system have a power cord that must find its way to a wall socket, surge protector or power strip. To keep the power cords neat and tidy, use a label machine to identify the cord before you plug your home theater components in. This will help when you need to know which plug to pull to move your speaker system or to replace your DVD player.

To clean up the knots and clutter caused by the constant wrapping and unwrapping of cables around each other, start by unplugging everything, including the cables that connect each component to the others, and separate them out. Figure out exactly where you want each component to go, and then set them up again and neatly run the cables without twisting them around each other. You may need to write down reminders for where everything goes if you are not accustomed to setting up the theater. Use twist ties or zip ties to the cables every foot or so when there is more than one cable running in the same direction to keep them from becoming tangled and out of control. This same organization can be applied to the power cords that lead to the same power outlet.

If your home theater is set-up such that some of the cabling must come out from behind an entertainment cabinet or floor speakers, it is recommended that some sort of cable hide be used to ensure that these cables do not become snagged by people walking by or grabbed by small children or pets. To keep power cords out of view and safe from tampering, use a cable hide designed to run along the wall and keep your cables protected and covered. These cable hides can be great for anywhere that your cables hang out in the open. If you are building your home theater from scratch, you can ask the installer to build the cabling into the wall or molding of the room in much the same fashion. You will not have to worry about tripping hazards or about your new puppy chewing through your power cables if the cords are neatly hidden and out of the way.

Your home theater speakers provide another potential problem, since you might want speakers around the room with speaker cables becoming a huge problem. To keep this problem down, the best option, though complicated, is to run the wiring for the speakers through the walls. This prevents them from dangling or getting in the way, and if you have the necessary tools and skills, you can run your speakers just about anywhere in the room.

Cleaning up home theater cabling does not have to be a chore. With some simple changes and proper storage, you can have a clean looking, safe home theater room for your family.

~ Ben Anton, 2007

Wanda

Ilango Chokalingam asked:




One gets the home theater to bring in the theater effect at home with no crowd. It gives the most pompous video effect for cinema at home with excellent quality. Setting up a home theater is not only about just getting a product and installing them at home. It requires a lot of analysis on the set up of the room too. Acoustics are an important branch to be considered when a video or an audio is to be applied on a larger space or in larger volume. Hence, a room must be designed well in accordance to the purpose of the home theater. Echoing, video disruption, interference with environment noise, clarity all should be tested before installing the home theater in the room.

Designing the room well to accommodate home theater's features would provide us with the ultimate outcome of the product. Designing a room involves furniture or seating arrangements, display and speaker placement in orientation to the room.

Selection of room:

Make sure to select the best room to fit in your home theater. This would involve considerations like the electricity supply, the space available, the windows and doors, the lighting capability, acoustic set up of the room and many more. Usually a sales person or a representative would be there to hook up your home theater for you. Get technical advice from the person to decide the room you want the theater in.

Display Positioning:

One has to derive out a logical relationship to the video display speaker and the seating arrangements. View of the viewers must be directly focused on the visual display without any strain to turn their neck. Moreover, sound must be directed right to their ears without any interference to outside noise. Therefore, it would be good to have the speakers on either side of the seating arrangement.

Lighting Set-up:

Lighting set up plays a major role in designing a home theater room. Based on the lighting of the room, one can get the real impact or effect of the display device. Lighting must not be too jazzy to degrade the quality of the visual display. It would be always better to have an ambience lighting that suits well to the atmosphere. One could have matching lights elative to that of the paint on the walls. Paints do show variations on the light reflection. Be sure that the lighting do not end up with their reflection on the display giving a glare effect.

Seating Arrangements:

Seating arrangement would be the most difficult task in designing the room for home theater, because arranging the seats would spoil all the above set-up made for the room. It is always difficult to satisfy a human mind. One must make sure that all the viewers are comfortable with the view they obtain from the seat. Make sure the seating arrangements never cause neck and back pains. Always get comfortable furniture that would keep you for long time without any strain. Make sure that you get an adjusting handle to raise or lower the seat position this would add additional comfort for people of old age. Check in to get the most suitable furniture that suits people of any age range.

To get the full product benefit of a home theater, one has to make sure that they make proper arrangements of all the above said details. Acoustic planning and room design is very important when considering setting up the home theater. One has to consider all the issues right from positioning to seating arrangement to give the entire family a pleasant experience of getting into home theater.

Francisco

Lee Dobbins asked:




Over generations, the layout of our homes has evolved to meet the changing lifestyles of the family. For instance, although televisions were once normally restricted to a single corner of the living room, we now devote entire rooms to our entertainment systems. In this article, we've included some great tips on designing a home theater room for the modern home.

Consider choosing a large room that is rectangular in size. You may also want high ceilings to make the room feel more authentic, more like an actual movie theater. Also, to allow for increased noise you will probably need to add some type of soundproofing device or equipment.

A home theater is a great way to take advantage of a dark room in your house. If there's an area in your basement that doesn't get much natural light, you should consider taking advantage of it. Even if you want to design a home theater for a room with windows, you can simply use heavy drapes or black out shades.

Next thing in designing a home theater room is the sound and space. The room should be away from bedrooms or other rooms where noise would be bothersome. If the room is near other rooms a good option would be to soundproof the room by adding insulation before you hang the sheet rock or adding soundproofing panels to the walls. The space should be large enough to fit some nice comfortable seating for you your family and friends. Remember to keep the seating at the right distant from the television for best viewing.

You will probably also want to set up stereo TV and surround time, but we will save that for another article. Just make sure to research what electronics are available to fulfill your needs and how you can make them work properly.

There's more to designing a home theater room than just the shape, size, and electronics. You'll also want to add your personal style with small details that really make the room special. Find couches or chairs that reflect your personality, or even memorabilia from your favorite movies. If you have enough room, you could even include a popcorn machine or a bar. These finishing touches will really be the aspects that you take great pride in.

Edgar

Jared Dawson asked: A home theater is a great way for you and your family to enjoy the latest blockbuster movie or video game. The following home theater design tips will help you plan your home theater so that you will get hours of family entertainment and be able to impress your friends and neighbors with the sights and sounds of a first class home theater. Location: When thinking about home theater design, consider that an ideal location for a dedicated home theater room is a room that is isolated from the rest of the home, such as a basement. You do not want people walking in and out of the room when you are trying to enjoy your favorite movie. It is also important to keep in mind the surrounding rooms. If you share a wall with a neighbor, your new subwoofer that is the pride and joy of your home theater system may shake the pictures off their wall during intense action scenes. Of course if they have a dog that sneaks over into your yard to do his business this may be a good way to get even.

Acoustics - Acoustics are what help determine the sound qualities of your home theater. The goal is to both absorb and reflect your sound. A room with too little reflection would resemble having your theater outside and would be dull and lacking bass. If your home theater design includes too much reflection the sound will echo, resembling an old stone cathedral. The goal is to include sound absorption between the screen and the seating area. This can be in the form of professional sound absorption materials or it could be in the form of drapes, carpet or bookshelves.

Shape of Room - The shape of the room is important for a number of reasons. One reason is for sound quality. Bass and mid range sound can be distorted near the walls and corners. Avoid rooms that are cubic such as 8' x 8' x 8' as well as rooms where 2 of the 3 dimensions of the same. Another consideration is for the room to be as enclosed as possible and not have an open space shared with other rooms.

Size of Room - The amount of available space and intended use of your room will dictate your home theater design. Some people prefer a small intimate setting for their families, while others want their home theaters to feel like the local movie theater and want to use it for entertaining friends. Neither choice is right or wrong. Just keep in mind that the room should be large enough to comfortably place several recliners or sofas. For those that want to imitate the local theater you will want to design the room big enough for several rows of dedicated home theater seating. The distance between the screen and your seating should be 1.5 to 2 times the width of your screen.

Lighting - A home theater with a limited amount of natural lighting is best, especially if you plan on using a projector where it is best to keep the room as dark as possible. Lighting should be placed so that it does not cause a reflection on the screen. Lighting should be soft and comfortable. Keep in mind functional lighting that will allow guests to make it safely to the exits for a bathroom break without having to turn on all the lights. A home theater that is placed in the right location with the correct attention to sound and lighting will allow you and your family to be immersed in the action. Jeanette

Mike Singh asked:




Once we decide we want a home theater design for our very own - what then? Do we have room for it in the basement, or in a spare room? Will our electricity have the power to handle it? Most professional designers will tell us that the design of our home theater system has to meet specific requirements in order to place it inside our home. For example, our theater system set-up must fit with the size and shape within our home, with the sound likely to be off if this is not done correctly - causing it to be less than the high quality sound system we originally purchased. Without much trouble, the theater design can be created within our home if done correctly. Seeking to reproduce an actual theater or cinema quality environment, the fact is that a large-screen high definition television or projection system requires certain things to work correctly.

Basically, the technical description of a home theater system is a television, VCR, DVD, and a set of speakers. When we are selecting a home theater combination, our first considerations should be about the design elements in the home. If we will be purchasing a theater set-up that is going to fill a larger room, we may need to consider additional elements, such as the amount of speakers that are needed. Quite possibly, a sales person or a designer in the store we purchased our set-up from, will help us with the layout. This can be the sales person, a professional designer, or obtaining professional services from someone else. We may find that the design aspect of the theater is not as complicated as we originally thought. In fact, many adept home owners are able to do this on their own when they take a home theater kit out of the box in their living room.

Most research have found that when setting up the home theater system within the home, if the homes have a complete home cinema set-up the layout of the speakers is common to use the speakers integrated within the TV instead of playing the sound through the surround sound system. Spend a few extra minutes to make sure that you have the right home theater for your home and it is hooked up correctly. The design of it should be easy to install, but by far the most important thing is that the quality of the sound system should be as close to perfect as possible. When we take the time to do this, we will have created the perfect theater for our home. If we find we cannot do this, we can work with a movie theater specialist to help us to come up with specific needs, based on our home's shape and needs. The other option is to follow the directions that are provided to us with our movie theater system.

Colleen

mkayreagan asked:


I surprised my husband with this media room featuring 100" screen. Inspired by the style of HGTV designer Candice Olson, I did the work myself on a much smaller DIY budget. Complete shopping list here: www.ratemyfavoritespaces.com Details: Panasonic AE3000U 1080P projector, Denon 1909 AV Receiver, Aperion 7.1 cherry speakers/SW, Stewart Firehawk 100" screen, PS3, DirecTV HD DVR, Apple TV, VUDU, Slingbox HD Pro, Harmony 890 remote, BDI cherry cabinet. Brown wall color is Sherwin Williams' "Toasty" in flat finish. If you need reinforcement with the wife or SO, email me. Tell them American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, HGTV, Food Network ALSO look amazing in 1080p. (With a Harmony remote, she can operate the theater too.) Thanks for watching! Please note: The lights were on for shooting this video, but not when we watch TV or movies.

Ruben

LucyGFCA asked:


Richard Glikes and David Berman of The Home Theater Specialists of America partnered with vendors to construct the world's first solar powered home theater. The Guiltless Green Home Theater has all the features of a high-end home theater room, with one extra; a connection to four solar panels that provide 19 hours of off-the-grid entertainment each week. HTSA worked with HiFi House, LG Energy Solutions and Nolen Companies to complete the project. Visit www.htsa.com to contact an HTSA member in your area who can help you design your own green theater system.

Lucille

MyFJ asked:


Home Theater Room ideas, Projector Screens, Seating.

Tyler