Below we have listed a few ideas and tips for making a great home theater!
So there are times you want to watch a good movie on the 27 inch TV in your room. Am I right? OK, maybe not.

Deciding to install a dedicated Home Theater rivals the excitement of buying a new private jet. Just take away the high price tag, luxury taxes, fear of heights, small bathrooms and call it even.

Now lets talk about what this all involves. The first and most important item to tackle is your wants and needs. Before we begin choosing equipment or designing the room, we will sit down with you and find out what your goal is. Is the room going to be used for movies only? Watching sporting events? Watching television regularly? Entertaining lots of company? Surfing the internet? All of the above? If the room will also be used for another purpose, a motorized screen can be installed that will retract back into the ceiling when not in use, the same can be done to the video projector. Whichever it may be, there are many design and seating arrangement to choose from, we would just like to keep fit to what suits you best.

Next we need to know about the physical room or area the theater will go in. We want to make sure there will be good control over lighting, including windows, shades, and doors. Control systems can be installed to automatically dim lights, close drapes and doors, and turn up or down heating and air systems. Sound deadening can be installed on the walls, floor, ceiling, and even used with the desired furniture. We are an authorized dealer for Kinetics Noise Control and can also build custom sound deadening systems to match the decor of the room. We can match about anything on the face of the earth and make it look good!

For projectors and screens, most commercial theaters use a 1:85:1 widescreen ratio, High Definition television (HDTV) uses a 1:78:1 ratio (also listed as a 16:9 format), and your standard television set uses a 1:33:1 aspect ratio (also listed as a 4:3 format). As far as screens go, don't go cheap (or try the old "project on a painted wall.") There are many different styles, textures, finishes and light ratings to pick from that will be easy to narrow down once we determine the amount of ambient/ controllable light, desired viewing audience and room dimensions, and projector being used. We deal with Stewart Sceen Company, who has been around for over 55 years and makes the best screens with the best warranty in the industry. Many of the worlds most famous theaters use Stewart, as well as the US Government and NASA. Each screen is hand-built for your particular theater, none of them just come off a warehouse shelf somewhere! For more information, come by our store and see a Seleco HT200DMF projector with a Stewart Firehawk screen in use, call us or check out Stewart on-line at www.Stewartfilm.com. We sell and install projectors from JVC and Italian-made Sim2 Seleco. Buying a projector can be quite confusing with many manufacturers advertising "HDTV Ready" and "Theater Ready" slogans. The truth of the matter is all determined by the resolution output and aspect ratio. High Definition Television is set to be the national standard as soon as 2006, which displays a 16:9 format with a resolution of 720p to 1080p. Is all this gibberish to you? Let us help you out a bit.

If you have a standard 4:3 "square tube" format television that is 10 or 20 years old, it has a resolution of horizontal 520 interlaced lines, of which 480 are visible. Interlaced means that allthe lines do not appear on the screen at the same time, instead they rotate, every odd line displays every 1/30th of a second, the same with even lines.So now to get a more detailedpicture, many DVD players, etcoffer progressive scan. Progressive scan displays the information at a rate of 1/60, which means you are seeing twice as much information at any onetime. The problem with many of these so-called HDTV ready projectors, is that they can onlydisplay a 480p resolution with a pixel area of 680x480. (Most computers come set at 1024 x 768.) So no matter how good the input is to this projector, you are already limited to what the end result of pcture quality will be unless you buy a costly line doubler or scaler.

Any good projector can directly display a true 16:9 format, (not morphed) and will display higher resolutions like 720p and 1080i with a good level of brightness and high contrast ratio (at least 600:1). Don't be fooled by the pricing either. Many companies advertise HDTV ready projectors as low as $1999. These are great for standard video projection or slideshows and demonstrations, but not for home theater.

As good as picture on your big screen or projector is, it doesn't do much good without the sound. A sound system can be put together in many ways, all depending on what you like and want, so I can't tell you here what the best is for you. For "invisible" speakers, we can build them into the walls in custom deadened non-resonant chambers, use in-wall and in-floor subwoofers. The grills and mounting assemblies are paintable on most for that blended look.

Correct placement of speakers is crucial for accurate surround sound in any theater. Dolby Digital is the most widely used recorded and decoded audio format for surround sound. Dolby Digital 5.1 is still the most common, having 6 channels of digital output- Left, Center, Right, Rear Left, Rear Right, and Low frequency Effects (Subwoofer). Other formats such as 6.1 use another pair of rear speakers matrixed for added effect, and 7.1 uses another pair of rears with discrete left and right output. Selecting components can be confusing, as many manufacturers rate power, features, and specs so differently. We can help guide you through the deciding process.

For ultimate performance, pick out units that are THX® or THX Ultra® certified, they have gone through rigorous testing to meet or exceed standards set by Lucasfilm® to achieve the highest possible theater and audiophile listening experience. We happen to carry some awesome receiver and processor lines such as Onkyo Integra, Bose and JVC.

Now that you are pumped up and just dying for more information, come and see us at Kansas Audio Video, we would love to help you with your home!