Technology has evolved over the last few years and it has changed the way that people see their home theater. While the traditional setup of a TV coupled with some speakers still exists, computers have made setting up a decent home theater a lot simpler or a lot more complicated, depending on what you're looking for. These setups are budget conscious, so take a look and let us know what you think.
One particular home theater setup involves using a HTPC, a home theater PC of some kind. This could also be a Mac Mini or a setup box like Apple TV. This setup would be almost traditional, since you'd just have your HDTV coupled to an extra box. A lot of people have started eschewing disc players, like a Blu-Ray player, in favor for an HTPC, which can easily be used to rent, stream, or play downloaded media.
This setup could work very well for users who have switched over to using a laptop as their main computing machine. The only other thing you'll need is a decent pair of speakers for the HDTV setup.
Alternatively, users who have larger monitors, 27 inches and up, can use their computers as a home theater system. This includes iMac users. 27 inches is a decent size for viewing purposes. The only issue is how to set up your home theater. Solutions that we've seen include having a sofa behind your office chair. Once you start watching stuff, you can just move your chair out of the way. We've found that all-in-one computers like the iMac are perfect for users who don't really want to mess around with a bunch of different setups. It doesn't take up much space and can meet most of your needs.
This setup can also work well for people who have converted their living rooms to other uses, like tucking in a home office workstation in a corner. In our home, we don't have a HDTV. We use our large computer monitors to view movies and watch our shows. The home entertainment center was replaced with IKEA bookshelves and there's a workstation desk in one corner.
These setups depend greatly on the amount of space that you've got available. If you are able to, coupling an LCD projector with a HTPC is also an interesting idea, since you can have a really big viewing area. What's your latest home setup?
[images by Gravitational Pull, Bose, Home Theater Mag]
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Comments (7)
A home theater is not a television and some speakers with wires draped all over.
maple is right.
A real home theater needs lots of measurements before press the play button.
The ideal set up is based on the hardware specifications and of course the size and the lay out of the room.
You have to spend many hours or days on calibrating, hidding wires, find the perfect spot for the subwoofer, even the lighting of the place needs our attention.
On the picture with the Boss speakers, their set up is soooo wrong....!
@ NikkosK
The set up is wrong... BOSE?!?!?
Regarding what you two have said, as an installer and enthusiast I can't agree more. While adding ANY speakers to a TV is a huge step up in quality and experience; you can improve that ten-fold with calibration. I would rather see you spend $500 on a pair of speakers than $500 on a whole surround system.
Oups! Sorry for the typo!
The FL and FR are too close and high and the C speaker is too high don't you thing? With this set up, the surround speakers should be on ceiling....
I thought a "home theatre" required a projector and screen? This, to me, is a home entertainment system.
I wish the media would get their terms right: a "home theater" is a space dedicated to movies; a "media room" is what you mean here. And neither of these spaces is even half-way decent. Lousy speakers (or none), bad speaker placement, bad TV placement in the upper photo, hard surfaces that mess up the sound, etc. It does not take a lot of money to make a good media room, but it does require following some basic audio and video rules. And decor and design seldom play an important role in whether a HT or media room is actually any good for audio or video. I wish you'd leave decor issues to your sister site and pay a bit more attention on this site to whether a space provides good audio and video presentation.
Seconding what Torgny said above. I would love it if Unpluggd focused more on the tech and less on the aesthetics (as much as the form is important to design, it would be nice if the writers were more knowledgeable regarding the function and the technological aspects, terms, etc.).