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 What is a basic home theater? Do you have one, or do you just have a TV room. Can you turn your TV room into a home theater? TechDigs.net reviews home theater basics and provides some tips for screen size, audio, lighting and technology.
Read on to determine where you are and what you might want to invest in next.
A Bit of History The term 'home theater' has been around for decades. Back in the 60s and 70s, pre-YouTube, family and friends watched projected 8mm home movie film of birthdays, holidays and rites of passage like taking the training wheels off the bicycle. Home theater became synonymous with its current definition in the late 1970s when VHS and Betamax, as well as Laserdiscs, let anyone with the desire and some bucks create a home environment that offered a lot more than TV movie-of-the-week viewing. Home theater sound started first as stereo and then moved to surround sound. The first big screens were CRT-based projectors costing tens of thousands of dollars which made the home theater experience really only for those with the passion and the wherewithal to make the investment. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, all-in-one rear projection TVs began to come down in price and were available side-by-side in the same retail stores with 20" and 27" TV sets. The first mainstream large screen TVs, home theater receivers with Dolby Pro Logic analog surround, VHS tape and Laserdiscs really kicked off home theater for the masses as we know it today. The digital five-channel surround sound standard, Dolby Digital 5.1, which includes Left-front, Center-front, Right-front, Left-surround, Right-surround and Subwoofer channels, launched in the home market in 1995 on Laserdiscs. When DVD players became affordable and began penetrating the mainstream in 1999, DVDs and Dolby Digital became key components of the home theater experience. The Home Theater Today What qualifies as home theater today depends on who you ask. There are the purists who believe that a home theater requires a fully-dedicated windowless room that can be completely darkened, and a screen larger than 60 inches. The other end of the spectrum is a 32" TV with a DVD player. The TechDigs.net definition falls between these two extremes. We believe a home theater requires 4 key basics:
- Match your Big Screen with Your Room
Today, a wide screen (16:9) display is important. This means that the width is 16 units and the height is 9 units. Obviously, the size of a 'unit' depends on the diagonal length of a screen. For example, a 42" diagonal TV screen is 36.6" wide and 20.6" tall.
How big should your screen be? That depends on your room size and where you'll sit. Generally, from the screen to the back of the room, it's better to position seating about mid-way back; from left-to-right, it's best to sit right in the center of the room. Least Favored Viewing (LFV) is a concept that theater designers use to decide seat positioning and screen size. While the science used for screen sizing and theater design is more involved than we'll discuss in this article, here's a good rule of thumb: at a distance of 1.5 times the actual width of the screen, a row of seating can be twice as wide as the screen; at and a distance of 2 times the width of the screen, a row of seating can be three times the width of the screen. For most home theaters, depending on the shape and size of your room, you'll want your seating between 1.5 and 3 times the width of the screen for best viewing.
Your room shape, size and seating arrangement will impact the optimum size. Use the table below as a guide to determine what works best for your room.
Screen Sizing Based on Room Sizes
| Total Room
Length Range
(from the screen
to the back of room)
| 16:9 Dimensions | Optimal Sitting Distance | | Diagonal Size | Actual
Screen Width | Closest | Furthest | | 5 to 9 ft | 32" | 28" | 3.5 ft | 7 ft | | 5 to 11 ft | 37" | 32" | 4.0 ft | 8 ft | | 6 to 12 ft | 42" | 37" | 4.6 ft | 9 ft | | 7 to 13 ft | 46" | 40" | 5.0 ft | 10 ft | | 8 to 15 ft | 52" | 45" | 5.7 ft | 11 ft | | 8 to 16 ft | 56" | 49" | 6.1 ft | 12 ft | | 9 to 17 ft | 60" | 52" | 6.5 ft | 13 ft | | 9 to 18 ft | 61" | 53" | 6.7 ft | 13 ft | | 10 to 20 ft | 70" | 61" | 7.6 ft | 15 ft | | 13 to 26 ft | 90" | 78" | 9.8 ft | 20 ft | | 15 to 29 ft | 100" | 87" | 10.9 ft | 22 ft | | 16 to 32 ft | 110" | 96" | 12.0 ft | 24 ft |
The standard home theather layout with 5.1 audio. 
- HDTV Quality
In addition to a big screen, we believe today's home theater should include a TV capable of displaying the accepted minimum HDTV resolution, or 1280x720 pixels. Remember, that in order to actually view HDTV, you must have HDTV cable, satellite or OTA (over-the-air) service and you must be on an HDTV channel. Cable systems often have duplicate SD and HD channels, so be sure you are on the right one. To get the best quality picture from your DVD or HD-capable set-top box you must also connect it either to your TV or through your receiver using component, DVI or HDMI video cables. For more details, see Get the Right Video Connection on Your HDTV.
- 5.1 Capable Sound System
While you could get by with stereo sound, we believe at a minimum your home theater should include 5.1 sound with a Dolby Digital-capable DVD player and receiver. Complete 5.1 systems are available starting at less than $200 and go up from there. Again, 5.1 sound includes: Left-front, Center-front, Right-front, Left-surround, Right-surround and Subwoofer channels. The center channel is the channel you'll listen to the most, so don't assume it can be the cheapest or smallest speaker. We generally recommend that all five primary channels have similar or matching speakers. The center and subwoofer speakers really enhance the home theater experience, so don't go without them. In order to get 5.1 sound from a DVD player, set-top box or other device, you must connect your audio source to your receiver using a digital connection (either optical or coax). For more details see, Are You Maximizing Your Audio? Check Your Wires!
- Controllable Lighting
While complete darkness isn't an absolute requirement, the ability to control and minimize light is essential. This is especially true for front projectors or for displays that have a glossy finish. For rooms that have less control over lighting, we recommend either rear-projection displays or flat panel displays with a matte (as opposed to glossy finish). Keep this in mind when you are looking to buy a display. If you can see your reflection in the display, you'll face the same issue at home unless you can control lighting effectively.
So, do you have a home theater? If you don't and wish you did, use the 4 key basics above to get yourself outfitted to get that home theater experience. Tell us about your home theater in the comments below.
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