We recently moved out of our home of seventeen years to trim our various commutes by getting closer to where we spend most of our time – school(s) and work.  Since we made this decision independent of the most recent upward spike in gasoline prices, any monthly fuel cost savings are gravy.  In any case, since one of the things I’ve always wanted in our next home was a home theater, and the house we were purchasing had an unfinished basement, here was my chance.  I thought that my experience over these past several months, from designing the room to selecting, purchasing and installing all of the components, might be of value to anyone who’s considering a home theater of their own.

Although the house we bought already had some existing ‘rooms’ framed but unfinished in its basement, we made some slight alterations to the design per our contractor’s recommendations.  Initially, the (what we now call our) media room was going to be located in the windowless area of our daylight basement that, because of some existing ductwork, would have a lower than usual (e.g. below 8’) finished ceiling.  However, since one of the main entry rooms into the soon-to-be newly finished space already had a full masonry (never used) fireplace installed, we decided to forgo the single purpose home theater room idea and utilize it as our den/family room, making it the perfect place for our movie night viewing.  We also added built-in cabinetry on both sides of the fireplace for aesthetics and storage, and an electronics cabinet with an eyeball light on the same wall that our builder and electrician advised us to install a new flat-screen TV.  Since I’d never purchased a flat-screen TV or a home theater system, I learned a lot from talking to these gentlemen, especially our electrician, about what I needed.  I knew that I wanted to have a sound system (I’d never had surround sound before, so I welcomed his input), but didn’t know anything about them, nor did I know anything about flat-screen TVs.  Here is what I learned:

Home Theater Hardware

There is a lot available, the choices are limitless, especially if price is no object.  Since that was not the case for me, I had to decide what I was willing to spend.  I didn’t have a budget, but I knew that I wanted to have a screen big enough to make the room feel like a home theater.  The room is a rectangle that, when finished, would be approximately 16’ by 25’ with its entrance at one end opposite the fireplace on the other; in other words, people sitting on a couch or in a chair along the longest wall would be about 14 feet from the screen.  Through various Internet sources, searches and other research – I found CNET.com’s HDTV guide to be particularly helpful during the entire process – I determined that a 50-52” TV would be the right size.  Though some may prefer a bigger screen, we had a 54” Mitsubishi rear projection set in a similarly sized room of our existing house and my wife always thought that it was too big for that space.  Once you’ve decided to buy a flat-screen (e.g. to hang on a wall), the choice comes down to plasma or LCD.

Note for nerds like me – I never considered anything other than a high definition (HD) set for what should be obvious reasons, so I had to evaluate the various resolution options available.  The largest number of horizontal pixels (lines) available today is 1,080:  HD channels are broadcast in either 1080i – for interlaced, meaning two scans (odd then even numbered lines, in succession) within 1/30th of second are used to display the image – or 720p – for progressive, meaning the entire screen is ‘written’ from left-to-right every 1/60th of a second (like a computer monitor).  However, you can buy HDTVs which are capable of 1080p, though most believe that the screen size needs to be at least 50” to notice any difference from 720p.  Since I figured that I wouldn’t be buying a new one anytime soon, I decided to buy the best available (e.g. in case 1080p becomes a native resolution in the coming years).

Plasma vs. LCD – I’m not sure if this approaches the level of a religious issue for technophiles or not, so I’ll apologize in advance for oversimplifying the options and my decision.  Because of the technology, plasmas are said to run hotter but be better for sports programming whereas LCDs don’t have an issue with regards to burn-in but have a more limited viewing angle.  I didn’t find that there was a significant cost difference for the screen size I wanted to buy, and decided that the pros and cons didn’t make one preferable to the other, but 50” plasmas are most comparable to 52” LCDs, and bigger is better, right?  However, because I was concerned that watching tennis on an LCD might be impacted by its ‘slower’ technology, I ended up buying a 120Hz model (which is said to alleviate this issue).

  What brand did I buy?  I asked friends and family members who’d previously purchased HDTV flat-screens what they knew and narrowed it down to Samsung (their LCDs are price performers), Panasonic (plasma), or a Sharp AQUOS (LCD).  However, probably the best way to decide is to see different vendors’ products side-by-side in a store.  When I did this, it was clear to me that Sony had the best picture.  Unfortunately, their sets were priced several hundred dollars higher than the other brands.  Since I actually had a couple of months (the time it took to have the basement finished) to decide, I watched the prices fluctuate over that time period and waited until they dropped.  I expected a big Memorial Day weekend sale, which did materialize, but didn’t really want to have a TV sitting around in my otherwise empty house while the basement was being finished.  I was disappointed when July 4th rolled around and the same prices weren’t offered, but I decided to see if I could get a salesman to sell me the Sony that I wanted at the Memorial Day sales price in July, and I/he did.

Sound system – I had a lot to learn in this area since I’ve been behind the times and had never had one before; thankfully, my electrician had a number of recommendations.  First, he suggested that I look into home theater receivers which featured HDMI switching; this would allow a single cable to be installed in the wall (before the sheet-rock installation) between the electronics cabinet and the flat-screen TV to pass video from the cable/satellite and the (Blu-ray) DVD player; one brand he mentioned was Denon.

He also advised installing a three wire (component or composite) cable in the wall to carry my VCR’s signals (since I have all these VHS tapes of TCM’s programming!).  These cables, especially long (25’) ones, can be costly, so don’t buy them at your local retailer; my electrician recommended TigerDirect.com, but I got mine at MonoPrice.  He also had suggestions regarding speakers:  longer length front and center speakers with 8” round ceiling-mounted ones for the rear (e.g. surround back speakers).  This type of arrangement is referred to as a 5.1 (for 5 speakers) system; a system with two additional side mounted surround sound speakers is dubbed 7.1.  I think the 1 refers to the subwoofer, a small coffee table sized cube which provides the deep reverberating sounds; it can be located almost anywhere in the room, so we decided to put it in a corner along the long wall (e.g. next to where our couch would be).  I was fortunate to find a Denon receiver prepackaged with Boston Acoustics speakers on sale at a local retailer and, because of a mix-up (or what I called deceptive advertising), I was able to negotiate and get a brand new 200 watt subwoofer system for $250 off the sales price of their 100w system!

Cable vs. Dish Network vs. DirecTV

To serve my new system, I needed input.  Unfortunately, my only cable choice was Comcast – AT&T’s U-verse is promised for our area at some unknown time in the future – and my only experience with this provider has been negative (plus, their prices were astronomical even if you’re interested in their high speed internet and telephone service bundling). 

So it was time for me to finally take the satellite TV plunge.  I didn’t have to agonize too much about this because it was pretty clear, based upon the channels we watch, which provider had the most economical solution for us.  I could share all the technological differences that I learned about during my research, but the bottom line is – since monthly costs are locked in for 12-24 months because of the equipment they provide (like an HD DVR) – I was looking for a minimal cost commitment over the contract period.  The fact that DirecTV was having their seemingly perpetual sale at the time certainly helped me to make the decision.  Our basement was nearing completion and our move-in date was set for July 2nd; I established an installation date of July 3rd for the DirecTV installers so that I could watch the semi-finals and finals of Wimbledon over the July 4th holiday weekend.  After the installers found a suitable (e.g. not too conspicuous) location for the HDTV dish on my roof, I was in business.  I guess I was lucky because I’ve subsequently heard horror stories about some installers that don’t seem to care about where or how they run the cables from the dish to the set receivers in the home; mine did an excellent job.

My electrician returned on that Monday to drill the holes to find then feed through the HDMI and component cables, speaker and electrical wires that he’d preinstalled in the wall, preparation for mounting the flat-screen.  Since he’d premeasured everything (I’d told him that the HDTVs I was considering buying were 50” wide) and even had a picture of where all the studs were on his cell phone, it was a fairly easy process for him to locate what had been sheet-rocked in.  I’d bought a Peerless one-touch tilt wall mount from Amazon.com, and it didn’t take us (him) long to install it, the TV and the front and center speakers.  Though it took me a little time to figure out all the settings on the Denon tuner, the room is now rocking!  Did I mention that the receiver had an iPod input option as well?  My wife added some finishing touches (wall treatments) to the media room which help define its function, and we still need to find and buy the right kind of seating furniture, but overall it’s a dream-come-true room.  Now if I could just find the time to enjoy it!

Of course, with anything there are lessons to be learned.  If I had it to do all over again I would have bought and had more cables – like another component – hidden in the wall between the electronics cabinet and the HDTV.  Why?  Well, I didn’t want to have to buy a Blu-ray DVD player right away so, in addition to my VCR hookup, I needed to have another set of non-HDMI input cables from my existing DVD player to the TV (composite and component, instead of just one).  I’ve figured out a workaround, using the front input port on the receiver, in the meantime, but these are visible and not entirely attractive.  And I completely forgot about the PlayStation!  Hiding some controller cables in the walls so that one could sit on the couch and operate it without having wires strung across the floor would have been good.  Also, though there’s a power outlet for the HDTV hidden behind it on the wall, there’s not enough room between the wall mount and the set for a surge protector to fit.  I found a relatively thin Belkin model with side entry outlets that almost does the trick, but even it is a little too fat for the space I’ve got.  Something you should know if you’re going to use a home theater receiver, you won’t get any onscreen feedback (e.g. for volume) on your TV.  I suppose if you bought a one vendor solution, this may not be a problem, but I have no visual indication that I’m increasing or decreasing the volume unless I look over at the Denon receiver in lieu of my TV set.  This is more annoying than having a handful of remote controls or a universal remote that doesn’t really implement all the functions of every component.  Lastly, for you satellite TV virgins out there, if you like The Weather Channel’s “Local on the 8’s” which gives you get the forecast and weather map that’s specific to your area, this functionality is only available for cable subscribers and the alternative provided by DirecTV, even though one can input their zip code, leaves much to be desired.

Finally, after watching HDTV programming for a while, it’s hard to enjoy regular broadcasting with its inferior resolution (even if your system, like mine, converts lesser resolutions to 1080i) … so TCM needs to offer a high definition channel!