So you’ve purchased a 40″ wide screen TV, a surround sound speaker system, a DVD player with DTS or Dolby Laboratories compatibility. What you now have is your basic home theater system, which is arranged to mimic movie theater environment, and make movie watching at home an enjoyable experience.

A consideration in addition to the equipment is the space because the next step is to fit all your equipment into your designated home theater space. There are certain ideals you might want to achieve. A home theater set-up is quite a bit different from the typical arrangement in a family room with a TV set. Surround sound for home theater is best achieved to be in an enclosed room. Of course, working with what you have is key, therefore a room less enclosed will still work, but may alter the sound or viewing experience.

Carpet and curtains work well in a home theater to help improve acoustics as well as keep out unwanted light. Good ventilation is important for the longevity of your equipment and reduction of dust. Consider installing a dimmer switch for the lights in the room. This will provide the ability to precisely adjust the lights for maximum viewing pleasure.

OK,.I recently upgraded my basement, which means I spent a few thousand dollars and made it into a “Man Cave”, or a full-on Home Theater. I am very pleased except that once I finished, I realized that the furnishings I had to put in my new space was an odd collection at best. I believe from a design standpoint, it would be called “Early American Garage Sale” . Luckily, the wife let me drop another pile of money to buy new furniture, so I wanted to share a few tips on my experience.

First, determine your budget. If you just spent $10k on creating the new space, your furnishings should at least be color-coordinated to match right? It’s quite ok to find bargains at retail stores, or the web, or wherever, just plan on knowing your limit. I chose this cool place.

Next, figure out who is going to use your new room, and what for. My brother has a great media room in his house, and he has awful chairs there. His wife loves them because they really go well with th drapes, but for watching the game, it is like sitting in the sanctuary of your favorite church! Point is, if his chairs or love seat was remotely comfortable, I would be at his place more, and probably never built my own.

I plan on inviting people over regularly for movies and sporting events, so I got a huge sectional sofa and some Lounge Chairs. You know, the big leather ones with the drink holders in the arm rests?! I am sleeping there for a few more days, while the afore-mentioned wife recovers from the budget overage I created, but you get the point.

In truth, there are a huge variety of directions to look in when choosing furnishings for your space, and even more places to look for them. The key is knowing what you are looking for, how you will use it, and how much to spend. Great deals are available everywhere you turn, so happy hunting!

If you aren’t pressed for time, shop around and choose a projector based on the cost of the lamp. Some of the brands with inexpensive lamps are Epson, Optoma, Sanyo and Eiki. The reason the lamps for these models are more inexpensive is because the models are more popular. A popular projector has a higher demand for projector lamps. The manufacturer can then make them in greater bulk, which is more cost-effective, and can keep the lamp in stock for many years. When researching lamp costs be sure to look at OEM lamps rather than knock-off brands.

If this is your first projector purchase you may be in for a surprise when shopping for a projector lamp. Normal light bulbs cost around ten bucks or less. A projector lamp, however, is a bit more costly. Surprisingly, this small light bulb usually costs between 200 to 400 dollars. This may sound outrageous but there are some understandable reasons for projector lamps being expensive, including scarcity, expensive materials, complex design and high quality control standards that must be met.

In these challenging economic times, you might find yourself wondering if a LCD or plasma monitor is a viable option. At $700 they aren’t cheap, thanks to the all the parts required for their production, and certainly aren’t portable like a projector.

Projectors can be purchased for well under $1000, and can be displayed on screens much larger than a plasma TV. If finances are an issue you should forecast your projector lamp usage and plan on purchasing a replacement lamp well before the existing one burns out. You should also plan on paying a slightly higher price for the projector lamps in the short term. OEM lamps are the best option for projector lamps.

Presentation projectors are becoming everyday tools for business presentations. Today’s lightweight and affordable portable projectors provide the image quality needed for a wide variety of venues including boardrooms, classrooms and trade shows. Presentation Projectors can be moved from location to location or can be semi-permanently suspended by a ceiling mount for ready-to-use viewing.

Because presentation projectors are such an everyday tool now, here are some quick tips for making sure your presentation is successful.
Before you write your presentation, determine how far away your audience will be from the screen and choose your font size accordingly. A 1″ typeface is readable from ten feet away, 2″ from 20 feet away, and so on. 72 point fonts are 1″ high.

Use a sans serif font such as Verdana. Serif fonts like Times are great on paper but don’t work nearly as well on screen. Use a narrow font if you need to squeeze a lot of text into a small space.

Consider using a wireless mouse so you can run your presentation without being near the laptop.

Keep in mind that sunlight shining on your screen will wash it out so choose the right location for your laptop.

If you are presenting to a very small group (1-4) people you could just put your laptop in the middle of the table and pass it around instead of using a screen. This will encourage more communication and make it more intimate.

Be careful with color. Red and green in particular get washed out on screen. Another problem with red and greens is that 10% of the population have difficulty seeing red and green due to color blindness.

Above all, don’t sacrifice readability for style. Your job is to communicate.

If you want to upgrade from a TV set to a home theater system then a portable front-projection system is a smart choice.

There are two basic types of portable front-projection projectors: LCD and DLP (which uses a silicon chip). These projectors are so compact and lightweight that they are easily hidden on a shelf and can be kept entirely out of view. And the projector screen can even be paper-thin and placed against a wall because it doesn’t have any electronics inside of it. This saves a great deal of space when you compare it to a big-screen television or CRT projector. A portable projector system is also less expensive than a television or CRT projector and projects a picture more than 10x brighter. It’s literally like being in a movie theater and has a huge picture (up to 300 inch screen size).

So before you run out and buy a 50″ screen TV, consider a home theater system instead.

Aspect ratio is one of the most important considerations in your home theater.
The aspect ratio is the ratio of video image’s width to its height. Standard television screens are 4:3; this means that the video is four units wide for every three units of height. Another way to refer to the 4:3 format is by the numeric value 1.33 (4 divided by 3). The picture can then be thought of as having 1.33 units of width for each unit of height.

All standard television programs today are broadcast in 4:3. Most older classic movies were also filmed in 4:3. Today’s movies, however, are produced in widescreen formats. There are several widescreen formats. The back cover of most DVDs will tell you the aspect ratio. It usually won’t be 4:33 (1.33). The most common is 2.35. This means that for each unit of image height, the picture will be 2.35 units in width.

A movie with a 2.35 aspect ratio won’t fit on a 4:3 (1.33) screen without compromising. There are two ways to work around this. The first is to simply show the movie in its original aspect ratio. This shows you the movie the way it was filmed but, unfortunately, the picture will look smaller because you will only use a portion of the television’s 4:3 display area. The other option is to use the “pan and scan” feature but this will cut off some of the original film in order to fill the entire 4:33 screen.

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1) Projector Resolution. I will pretend I have a Panasonic PT-AE2000U projector, 16:9 aspect ratio for playing Hi-Def movies in a home theater. That means I should use a 16:9 HDTV format screen to get the biggest and best picture.

2) Ceiling Height. My ceilings are 8 ft. high. So my screen should be 48 in. high at the most. That means the largest screen I can fit in my small home theater is 92 in. diagonal 16:9 HDTV format (45 in. H x 80 in W).

3) Distance from Screen to Audience. If you prefer a smaller screen, the rule of thumb that screen width is based on the distance between viewer and screen offers some guidance. For example, if you set up the couch 10 ft. or 120 in. away, then the screen should be at least 20 in. wide (1/6 of 120 in.). That means a screen that is anywhere between 20 in. and 80 in. wide with a 16:9 aspect ratio will fit in my home theater.

Remember to use these points merely as a guide. There is no substitution for good common sense. If you think the screen is going to be too big for your room, go and measure the space. Typically with home theater setups I would not go any bigger than 120″ diagonal. The recommended size for your basic home theater is in the 100″ diagonal range. This will typically give you your best viewing image.

1. Portable. These easily travel from location to location.

2. Manual. These are mounted on a wall or ceiling and can be pulled down when needed. These are popular in classrooms and meeting rooms because they are economical and are well-suited for situations where a screen is not needed constantly, thereby freeing up the wall space for other needs.

3. Electric. The screen is raised and lowered by remote control or an inline switch. These motorized screens are used in large churches, auditoriums and boardrooms. They are easy to use and ideal for those situations where the screen is large and it would be awkward or difficult to pull it down manually.

4. Fixed. These are perfect for home theaters and meeting rooms where a screen is used on a daily or very regular basis. They range in size from anywhere to a small home theater to a large scale movie theater.

When choosing a type of screen, think about the screen size you will need and how often you will use the screen. Thanks to the high quality projectors on the market today you can get a high-quality viewing experience with any of these four screen options.