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If you do not buy your home theater in one box, as many people do, then you will have to choose a screen at some point or another. However, not only that, but you may be faced with deciding between a TV-cum-monitor unit and a drop down canvas screen.

It really all depends on the size of the room you want to use as your home theater. If you are going to convert the box bedroom into a movie theater, then a 28 inch TV screen might be enough for you, but if you are going to use a long room and people might be quite a few yards from the screen, then a projector and drop-down screen would almost certainly be the right answer.

However, for most people, a normal TV screen would be sufficient. There are several types of television sets on the market at the moment, so we will take a look at them in turn later. Firstly, I would like to mention the dimensions. It has been standard practice for hundreds of years to hang a painting five times the diagonal of that painting from the viewer’s eyes. In other words, if a painting or a screen or a window, is two feet diagonally, then the best place to view it from is ten feet away.

This is a broad rule, it is not written in stone. Personal preference and eyesight come into it too. Therefore, if you used a 28 inch television set, the optimum viewing distance would be about 12 feet away. So, 28 inches would be ample for most spare bedrooms, but maybe not for a converted attic or basement. This relationship between screen and room size is the most important to get correct, otherwise the rest is a waste of money.

It all boils down to: do you like to sit in the front of the movie house or at the back? [We are only discussing viewing the film here]. If you like to be dominated by a huge screen, then the proportions I gave you must be decreased, otherwise they should be about accurate. Assess yourself: how far do you like to sit from your TV? Is it more or less than 5:1?

There are basically three types of view screens and they are: plasma, rear projection and front projection screens. The first is the modern flat screen TV, the second the conventional TV and the third a system with a projector.

Plasma Televisions

These televisions provide the best quality, especially for watching movies that are formatted for wide screen viewing. They have a much larger viewing area than traditional televisions and they also come in a wide variety of sizes in order to adapt to many varieties of home theater needs. The biggest problem with these beauties is the price, but that is dropping every month too.

Rear Projection Televisions

This is the standard cathode ray tube TV that we have all been watching since were born. Their major problem is that they are big and deep, but that was not a problem for decades, so if it suits your room, do not let it be a problem to you now,

Front Projectors

This is what you see at the movies or on old Cine 8mm - the drop-down projection screen. But, do not write it off. It still produces high-quality images and for larger rooms, it is really the only screen for your home theater.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

Shoppers in this new millennium are much more knowledgeable about electronic goods than people were at any time earlier. The older generation of today grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s when everyone in the West had a television set and a stereo. Earlier generations were not so lucky for financial and technological reasons. Therefore, most shoppers nowadays have no compunctions about going shopping for complex electronic equipment like a home theater.

It is in the shoppers’ best interest to study and understand about the components that go into making up a good home theater. It is not particularly exacting and many if not all of the elements involved have been around for at least a few years now. Consider what goes into a home theater:

a screen - can be a television screen, a canvas screen for a projector or a modern plasma or LCD screen. Stop thinking about the modern types of screen, they are still fundamentally TV screens and they have been around for 80 years or so. Same with a projector.

a player - a DVD player is just an improved CD player and they have been out for 20-30 years. You have probably had one for most of that time. (You can add another dimension to your home theater here by swapping an Xbox for the DVD player, but games machines are not new).

speakers - they are nothing new either. Speakers have been about as long as the television set.

So you see, there is nothing in that package which you should feel awkward about buying. Fair enough, you will be buying state of the art examples of what I listed above, but they are fundamentally the same. You attach them all together with their special plugs and wires and then plug them into the mains. Switch on and it will work.

So the next question is: do you purchase a package or do you buy the elements and build your own home theater? The answer to that question really depends on your level of competency. A package is easy and may work out cheaper too, but will it have the flexibility that you want? If you have a standard sized and standard shaped room, then I am sure that you will be able to buy a package that will suit you. If you think that the speakers are sub-standard, you could always sell them on and upgrade after a period.

if you want to be sure of getting exactly what you need, I think that most people will have to buy the components separately: that is screen, player and speakers.

The size of the screen depends on the size of the room and how close you are sitting to it: a distance of between three times and five times the diagonal of the screen is about correct. However, some people like to be dominated by the screen and others do not want to wear their glasses, so it is up to personal choice.

The DVD player is a question of personal preference too. They are all much of a muchness, but some people favour Sanyo while others prefer Philips. If you want gaming functionality too, use an Xbox instead of an regular DVD player.

Most rooms will require at least a 5.1 surround sound speaker set. These should be acquired as one package to make certain that they are all compatible. That is five normal speakers and a sub-woofer.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Home Theater Screens. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site.

Do you love going to the movie theater and get lost in the realism that their superior sound systems create? If you do, then I bet you are also one of those people who dislikes going there, only to have a potentially wonderful evening ruined by irresponsible people talking through the movie or letting their cell phones ring.

I used to love the movie theater, but that was in the time when people respected the rights of others to listen to a movie in silence. There were no crying babies, ringing mobile phones or noisy youths in cinemas and if they got in they were soon kicked out if there was any row.

Nowadays, cinema managers seem to take the easy route of letting these people spoil it for others. As a result, more and more quiet people are staying at home and the cinemas are becoming even noisier. If you are one of the stay-at-homes, but miss the cinema, why not recreate one in your home?

Build yourself a home movie theater with surround sound. You will never regret installing surround sound in your home, because you will be able to play your favourite films, the TV and your music through it. The difference between surround sound and stereo or even quadraphonics is breath-taking.

Different people have different requirements, aspirations, finances and even hearing ability, so it is tricky to recommend a system to a mass audience, but there are strategies for going about the purchase of your own home theater system. A lot of people buy a kit home theater. This is fine, if funds are limited, but you will want to upgrade the screen and the speakers before very long. If you just want to put a home theater in a small spare bedroom and do it quickly and easily, then this approach is for you.

If, however, you want a bit more, then you might prefer to get a bigger screen but make do with the speakers that came with the kit. These can easily be upgraded later. If you want to get everything part by part, you will need a screen, speakers and DVD player. If you would like to play games too, replace the DVD player with an Xbox.

But back to the speakers, whether you are renewing or putting your own system together, the strategy I suggest hold true. Write down the dimensions of your room or better still do a little plan of it to scale. Take this around the shops and malls and try to listen to a few installations in a room similar to your own. This could be difficult, but you might be lucky.

Decide whether you need a 3.1; 4.1; 5.1; 6.1 or even 7.1 set of compatible surround sound speakers. Basically, it all depends on the size of your room, but the shop assistant will be able to demonstrate and advise you. As a guideline, a 5.1 surround sound set will be sufficient for most rooms. The figures stand for normal speakers and sub-woofers: ie 5.1 means five normal speakers and one sub-woofer.

The arrangement of the speakers depends on the size and shape of the room and on your personal preference, but the standard layout would be: one speaker the far left and far right of the screen and one beneath it with two more speakers a little apart from each other at the rear of the audience. The sub-woofer can go at the front or the rear.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.