Home Theatre & Cinema

Back in the 1980s they said that VHS tapes would be the death of cinema. It wasn’t to be. But they didn’t count on super-sized screens and DVDs. Along with a mega-bass system you can now make your lounge room shake and shudder as if you are in a real cinema.

You no longer need a 35mm projector to have a cinema experience, and you don’t have to know about components either. Home theatre in a box (HTIB) is an integrated home theatre package which “bundles” together a combination DVD-Video or Blu-ray Disc player and multi-channel amplifier, connection cables, a remote control, a set of five or more surround sound speakers and a low-frequency subwoofer. In other words you can purchase your cinema experience ready-made off the shelf without having to think about individual components.

A crucial component of home theatre is the receiver, and the job of a home-theatre receiver is to amplify your loudspeakers. A surround-sound system has five or more loudspeakers, with the industry settling on seven as the norm, so most receivers have seven amplifiers. What about screens? One leading manufacturers 85-inch Ultra HD TV is now selling for US$40,000 – but be realistic before you fork that much out. How big is the room the TV is going to be in? Can you get far enough away from a monster screen to actually enjoy the image? Bigger is not necessarily better.

If you know little about home theatres, settle on a budget and go buy a HTIB system. If you have your hearts set on a massive screen, buy it and upgrade the other components later. And remember: the point is to enjoy the movies! If you don’t, you may be just as happy watching them on your smartphone.