Viewing Room Systems & Design

Home Theater Tech

The commonly used term “Home Theater” refers to an audio and video equipment setup in your home that tries to duplicate the movie theater experience. How the concept of home theater is applied can vary widely. Many consumers are intimidated by the term “Home Theater” (HT) as they think this means a lot of money, equipment, and cables running all over the place.

Custom Home Theater:

Custom home theater is HT at its most complex. One of Blue Ridge Mountain Connected Home’s main services is the building of custom home theaters. These dedicated rooms can cost as much as tens of thousands of dollars and can include a high end large screen TV or video projector, Blu-Ray Disc/Ultra HD Blu-ray player(s), ATMOS multidimensional sound, a media server, cable/satellite, separate amplifiers for each speaker controlled by a master preamp or controller, in-wall speakers, and a couple of subwoofers that can just about shake down the entire neighborhood. If that is what you want for your house.

However, in reality, HT as actually applied in most homes, does not necessarily consist of an expensive custom installation, nor a lot of money. A modest home theater setup can be something as simple as a 55-inch TV, combined with at least a DVD player and sound bar, or a DVD/Blu-ray Disc player combined with stereo receiver or home theater receiver, speakers, and a subwoofer.

Declining Prices:

With plunging prices, upgrading to a large screen LCD TV, and/or Blu-ray Disc player does not require a big wallet – even a growing number of video projectors and creative screens are becoming reasonably-priced home theater options in the living room, family room or screened porch. For TVs and if you have a little more cash, a 4K Ultra HD LED/LCD or OLED TV are options to consider.

A major consideration now is including internet streaming in your home theater setup.Most TVs and Blu-ray Disc players can also stream TV shows and movies from the internet. Even if you don’t have a TV that has this capability, there are many inexpensive add-on media streamers like Roku and AppleTV can be added that provide access to an abundance of internet streaming content that includes movies, TV shows, user created content, and music. The quality of the movie and TV streams from the Internet is quite high now, in some cases rivaling that of Blu-ray. Providing a quality home theater experience with streaming content is completely at the mercy of the speed of the Internet connection.

In the final analysis, the application of home theater is intended to provide the consumer with an entertainment option that is suitable for watching TV and movies at home with a little extra excitement than you normally get just watching a plain-old TV by itself.

In fact, for many, going to the local cinema is a distant memory, as it is less expensive and more comfortable to stay at home. Also, with the ever decreasing time between theatrical and broadcast to home video and streaming release, waiting a couple of extra months to watch that big blockbuster movie or TV show is not necessarily a big deal, as long as you avoid spoilers from those that have already seen that content. In addition, for TV shows, there is the fun of “binge watching” – instead of watching to see the next episode, you can watch several during one viewing period.