You don’t need to do much to turn a standard room into a home theater. All you need to do is add a television. However, if you consider the number of movies and TV shows most people watch at home, it only makes sense to go the distance and create a space that rivals the movie theater experience. Here are some simple steps you can take to create a home theater that’s worthy of the amount of time you’ll spend in it.
1. Find Your Room’s Visual Sweet Spot
Scientists and engineers have worked on ways to come up with the optimal viewing distance for watching an HDTV. The formula is relatively simple, multiply the TV’s diagonal screen size and multiply it by 1.5 to 2.5. That is the best distance to place your chairs, couches or other seating choices, relative to the front of the screen.
2. For a Small Room, Try a Soundbar
Modern HDTVs are capable of producing decent sound, however, it cannot deliver the same cinematic experience as a dedicated speaker. For a small room, you can use a soundbar to get high-quality sound. A soundbar has multiple speakers in a single low-profile, horizontal bar. Some the sleeker models can fit under the screen, while others can act as a reinforced base and you can sit your TV on top.
3. Clear Space For Wall-Shaking Bass
A subwoofer is another simple audio upgrade that can help give you movie theater quality sound. A subwoofer is a bass only speaker which is designed in a way that can cause it to vibrate the room. You don’t want to mount these boxy speakers in a cabinet because their vibrations can create an unsettling rattle as it bands against the sides of the cabinet. These speakers should produce a satisfying rumble. In order to get this sound, you should put the speakers on the floor, right against one of the home-theater walls. The best location is in a corner.
4. Put Speakers In Bookshelves
One major element of a next-level home theater audio system is separation. You can set your speakers up in a way that make dialogue, sound effects and other audio seem like they are coming from all directions. You can pull off this effect with a massive pair of floor-standing speakers. However, the best approach is a subtle one, where you place smaller speakers on bookshelves. Position the bookshelves on the left and right of the TV. This setup can also hide some of those obtrusive cables.
5. Mount Up for Surround Sound
The most complex, and often the best, audio systems feature full surround sound. This means six total audio channels or speakers. One speaker for the center, one for the left and one for the right. Two speakers are placed in the rear and there is one subwoofer. The biggest channel when setting up this type of system is rear-channel placement. While you may be able to find shelves or furniture to place the speakers on, you should try to go the distance and mount the rear channel speakers on the wall, in the upper back corner of the room.
6. Sit up Straight for 3D
If you have a 3D TV and plan on watching a lot of content in 3D, then you should look for seating with a stiff back. This type of seat is needed because if you tilt your head to the side, you will garble the 3D effect. The usual sprawling position most people take then viewing the TV on their couch won’t work well for 3D. So, when you’re watching 3D content, make sure your couch or chair is facing forward in a way that keeps you from slouching.
7. Check the Angles
Some HDTVs can be watched from any angles, even relatively extreme ones. However, some TVs require that you are in a dead-center position for optimal viewing. Before you buy new furniture, place the TV in the area where you want it to go. Turn the TV on and test out your seating arrangements. Make sure you can view the image from all of the seats so that no one is completely short changed.
8. Turn Away From the Glare
The idea of conventional physical media is one that is increasingly lost in 2016 and most people now are using streaming from services such as Netflix and Kodi. There are also plenty of free movie streaming services out there too. They often have the ability to show you many of the latest titles for free and this content can really enhance your home theatre.
9. Kill Two Birds With One Curve
If you know from experience that glare and bad angles will be an issue, opt for a curved HDTV. The subtle bend in the unit will increase the viewing angle on both sides of the TV while limiting the effect of glare. Prioritize this feature if you know that this will be an issue and take some of the fuss out of setting up your home theater system.
10. Put on Your Headphones and Sit Where You Want
In the past, TVs and headphones were an awkward pair. Either you had to sit close to the screen, because the cord wasn’t long enough, or you had to figure out where to put the bulky wireless transmitter for your wireless headphones. There are some new products on the market that allow you to plug your standard headphones directly into your remote control. This gives you access to synced, private audio, from anyplace in the room. There are only a few products that offer this feature, including the PlayStation 4 which has an audio jack built into the controller.
