Home Theatre - Enjoy the magic of movies at your home!!

The dimensions of a room are one of the most overlooked features when one decides to get a quality Home Theater. The Size and shape of your room can affect the quality of your Home Theater system. The dimensions of your room will determine how the sound will interact with your walls especially low frequency sound waves.

The ideal shape of a room would be rectangular. However it's better to stay away from rooms where the length and width are double of the height. Let's take for example if the height of your home theater system is about 8', the length and width should not be 16' x 24' both which are multiples of 8, try altering about one dimension by a foot and it should be fine. A square shaped room would be the least acoustic friendly shaped that you can have.

If one has invested quite a bit of buying their AV system, the weakest link in the home theater system would be the acoustic properties of the room. Any room for that matter requires some sort of acoustical enhancements, most of the cases you would be sitting more than 3' away from your primary speakers. When doing this, the major part of the sound would come to you indirectly bounced from the walls in your room rather than directly from the primary speakers. Hence your room will amplify some sounds and tones down other sounds.

In order to make the best of your home theater investment you need to be able to control how the sound waves bounce around your room. This can be solved by hanging acoustic panels in your theater. The majority of time you need to use absorptive acoustic panels, these panels help to absorb sound waves which stop the bouncing of sound on several walls before they reach your ears. When your Home Theater design demands a large portion of your room to be covered in panels, then you should consider installing Diffusive acoustic panels. These panels contain uneven surfaces (hidden by acoustic fabrics) which help distribute the sound wave such that they don't bounce all over the room, yet they keep the room sounding alive and vivid.

In the upscale neighborhoods of New York home theater systems incorporate the dedication of an entire room to the viewing of high definition entertainment. In addition to professionally installed screens and custom designed sound systems these movie rooms often incorporate theater style seating with large oversized chairs, individually arranged and sometimes staggered in two rows with plenty of leg and elbow room, for viewers to enjoy. These elaborate viewing rooms bring all of the sights and sounds of spectacular movie productions from the big screen right into the home.

With the advances in digital television and high definition products saturating the market almost everyone can recreate the movie going experience in their own home. The adaptations of surround sound speaker systems that deliver crisp tones and basses in concert with a big screen television have led to a home theatre revolution. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can affordably recreate the experience of going to a movie in their living room, but it takes a true professional to design and create a custom installation of home theater system that transforms ordinary television watching into a feast for the senses.

James Vasanth writes a blog on eInterativeHomes, about Home Theater, Lighting Control and connecting the dots between online and offline.

Cool Ideas for Your Home Theater

So you have your home theater equipment and you're ready to set up your new room, but you want to make sure you make it, well, as cool as possible. It's already pretty special that you get to set up this room for your family. Why not add a few special touches that will make it excellent. Here are some ideas making your home theater really cool.

1. Go vintage

Use history's theaters as a model for yours. Think of those decadent 1920s theaters with the big gold double doors. Even if you don't get the doors, you can still model your room off of those elegant red carpets and red plush seats. Consider covering the walls with wood paneling and vintage sconces that give the room a rich feeling when they're on. If you want to really drive the idea home, get those chairs monogrammed. This Parisian opera house feel is great for classic movie buffs and people who love all things vintage.

2. Go man cave

If your theater is mostly going to serve as a man cave for sports game viewing, choose decor that imitates a sports bar feel. Choose wood molding and simple recessed lighting. Use neutral paint to emphasize the manly feel of the room. Use leather seating to increase the feeling of relaxing and enjoying the games. Granite bars going in front of the seating will be a great place to serve beer and snacks. Or, if that's too elaborate, you can get the seats that have a cup holder attached to them and use trays to serve food.

3. Go simple

If your home theater is more prominent in your house, you may not want a novelty room front and center. If you want to incorporate your home theater into the rest of you house's decor, match the paint and lighting to reflect that. Choose light walls. Since you may not be able to set up stadium style seating, you can just build one level above the ground level. This way, people can sit on the floor and on the couch above without feeling crammed.

4. Go modern

If you like clean lines and want to emphasize the techie feel of the home theater choose a concrete bar for the back of the room and concrete walls. Choose square chairs that emphasize strong lines and make the lighting just as angular. The result will be Star Trek meets Pottery Barn, and it will be beautiful.

5. Go kid friendly

If the home theater is mostly going to be for the kids, consider letting them weigh in. Of course, you might not be able to model the theater after a princess castle or spider man, but you can get some ideas that can be translated into a more civilized space. Consider hanging pictures of the kids' favorite cartoon characters or getting colorful sconces that make the space fun for kids but still tasteful enough for adults.

Once you've decided on your video equipment and you've started to set up the technology, you'll want to start considering the design of the room. It's great that you'll have a new fun room for the family, but it can be that much more fun if you make the room really cool -- whatever cool means to you and your family.

Grace Lord writes for home design blogs and recommends checking out www.theaterseatstore.com when looking to purchase theater seating.