Creating a Home Theatre in Any Room

I really enjoy watching movies. But the price of movie tickets these days makes watching movies at home more than just convenient -- it’s also economically wiser. I’m not alone in these sentiments I’m sure. So if you’re going to the movie theatre, why not movie theater into your home? There’s more to creating a home theatre than just buying a set of surround-sound speakers and placing them at the proper intervals around your HDTV. Nope -- we’re talking ambiance…creating a movie-theatre experience.

It all begins with the room…the TV…and your speakers…pretty much in that order too.

1)The Room of Choice: Not everyone has a separate room they can convert into a movie theatre, but you CAN control the placement of your TV in order to get the best viewing pleasure. Ideally, if you can wall-mount your television you’ll get more bang for your buck in terms of freeing up extra space in your room, as well as creating a better line-of-sight for your television. If you don’t want to wall-mount your flat panel, I recommend you use a piece of “entertainment furniture” which will have shelving for several components and also (and perhaps most importantly) special tracks to conceal your wiring. If you wall mount you’ll want to hang the TV with the bottom measuring at least 3 feet from the floor.Whether you wall-mount your TV or place it in a piece of furniture, try to allocate one wall in the room with the TV centered on that wall (see Photo I).