The idea is simple enough: A home theater provides a theater-like experience in your home. But what exactly does that entail? The quick answer is, there's no quick answer. A home theater can be as simple as a few AV devices in your living room or as complex as a completely renovated basement designed to look like a Hollywood Movie Theater. At its core, a home theater system should provide a high-quality video experience and an immersive audio experience that breathe life into your favorite movies, but a number of roads can lead to that destination. This primer offers a general overview of the basic home theater ingredients--from the AV equipment to the seating to the other room elements that can shape your perfect home theater.

Picking the Right Display for Your Home Theater System
When you envision a theater-like video experience, you probably think first of a projection system and a large screen TV. That's certainly the display of choice in the prototypical home theater.

As for the projection screen, you can choose between fixed-frame, pull-up/-down, or motorized screens, and most screen manufacturers offer a wide variety of screen materials to suit different projectors and environments. You also need to think about what screen shape you want: Do you want a standard 16:9 screen that's perfect for HDTV and many movies or a 2.35:1 screen that lets you watch CinemaScope movies with no black bars (this requires a suitably equipped projector and sometimes an add-on lens).

Of course, the two-piece projection system isn't the only option in the display realm. Flat-panel TVs are pretty much the driving force in the home entertainment marketplace. Smart TV, LED, OLED. 4K. HDR. The world of TVs is looking better every day, but also more confusing. Today, there's a wide array of high-definition (HD) and 4K Ultra HD sets to choose from, from bargain big screens to high-end displays that can cost as much as a car.

Home Theater Speaker Systems (5.1, 7.1 and more) The other main element that makes a trip to the movie theater so memorable is the enveloping audio, in which sound elements come at you from all directions. At home, the most basic surround sound speaker system consists of 5.1 channels. The "5" stands for speakers in the front left, center, front right, rear right, and rear left positions, while the ".1" belongs to a subwoofer that helps flesh out the bass for explosions and other low-end effects. Some home theater installers recommend the use of multiple subwoofers to help deliver smoother bass response across a wider listening area. Most higher end surround systems use dedicated Pre-Amps, amplifiers and or receivers. These can be connected to In-ceiling speakers, In-wall speakers, Floor Standing speakers and of course Subwoofers. CompSource also makes it easy with Home Theater Systems in a box. While these may not be as robust as a dedicated system they still sound great for many home users with limited budgets or not interested in as elaborate of a theater system.

If a home theater system is just a bit much, you can always consider a Sound Bar. Sound Bars include a speaker that has a left, center and right speaker as well as a sub woofer. Often times they have wireless speaker options as well and typically can be installed with little effort from the home owner.

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