Okay, folks, time for a little of that old fashioned brutal honesty.  Not everyone will have a perfect rectangular or square room to put their home theater hardware in.  In fact, more than likely, most will have to deal with some unusual shaping, which means figuring out ways to deal with horrendous acoustics.

And in the case of today’s sweet home theater, they had a whole lot of weird nooks and crannies to work around.  I’d say the room was at least partially hexagonal with some…odd lumps.  So to work around that, they added various wood features to the room to give it a sort of defining feature, like a proscenium.  Then they added the hardware.

And oh, what hardware it was–they put in a Marantz projector, an SMX screen, Triad speakers and a Denon DVD player.  Plus, because the homeowner in question had a large family, they’ve got seating for eight.

The huge handicap that was the oddly shaped room becoming an incredible home theater setup definitely qualifies this for sweet home theater status.

Ah, the multipurpose basement.  Sometimes called the playroom in times past, it represents a great, truly sort of American utility in which families troop down into the basement to do most of their playing.  The kids have their friends over, the folks might have a party, family game night usually goes on down there.  But sometimes, the multipurpose basement takes on a whole new life as a home theater setup.

Considering that this particular multipurpose basement had about twenty five hundred square feet of space to work with, there was more than enough for lots of accoutrements like a bar, an exercise area, and of course a home theater.  It seats a dozen people, for crying out loud.  It’s also right in the middle of everything, so it’s almost a focal point of the room.

Plus, there’s plenty of fantastic media goodies in here too, like a Sony projector, a Stewart filmscreen, Sonus speakers, a Sony Blu-ray player, and plenty more.

You add up the sheer utility found in this room, considering that it’s only a very small part of the whole, and you come to one inescapable conclusion–it’s one sweet home theater setup.

Remember how I was talking about slow and steady winning the home theater race?  How great it was that some people took their time and learned everything they could about home theater before they installed theirs?  Well…for Audiovisual Concepts And Solutions’ Andy Caraballo, that means less than nothing.

This guy actually had a two month deadline, start to finish, and he was working under a handicap that would balk most of us–the client in question was an interior designer.

Yeah.  Basically, this is the equivalent of trying to remove a doctor’s appendix, or trying a lawyer’s tax case.   But as you can see from the picture at right, Caraballo definitely came through.  And what did he put in there?  Well, there’s a lot of sweet gear in there–he’s got Acoustic Innovations home theater seating, a SIM2 projector, a Da-Lite projector screen and speakers from James Loudspeakers.

For putting together a home theater setup that made an interior designer happy, well, that can only be called sweet.

Epson has been known to deliver a wide variety of projectors but for the coming Holidays, here is one offering that should be a multi-functional addition. The Epson MovieMate 60 is not only a projector but a CD/DVD player which features a microphone input along with stereo speakers. The Epson MovieMate 60 should be a neat addition to the home for family entertainment options like gaming, movie viewing or even displaying various pictures on a wider display.

(Source) Press

Oh yes, we all know the fervor of the day you decide to get started building a home theater setup.  Especially if you want to build a really sweet one.  You crave nothing so much as to get started, because deep in the back of your mind, all you can think is: “Sooner started, sooner done”.

But for Steve Caesare, that temptation was one he fought down, because his home theater projected lasted an awe-inspiring three years.  And that’s why we call it the three year home theater.

What went into this, besides a lot of time and, naturally, cash?  Good question–let’s get you an answer.  This home theater setup includes a  Da-Lite one hundred thirty three inch screen, a Pioneer receiver, JBL speakers, Samsung Blu-ray player, and a Sony projector.

Between three years of careful handcrafting, research, and consideration of the perfect product for every available slot, well, it’s clear enough that this is one sweet home theater setup.

A lot of people aren’t fond of widescreen.  I heard the moaning often enough during my video store clerk days about letterboxing and suchlike, and I doubt it’s improved much sense.  But for guys like Wayne Hanson, widescreen isn’t a format–it’s a challenge.

While most home theater owners dream about 16:9, Hanson went for the brass ring that is 2:35.

And get it he did–you can see it at right.  But this isn’t just about the monstrous girth of Hanson’s screen, no sir!  This is about plenty of other choice gear included in the setup, like a BenQ front projector in DLP (probably better given the screen he’s on), M&K speakers, a Da-Lite hundred and thirty three inch screen, a PS3 straight out of Sony and plenty more.

Just managing to get a 2:35 screen makes for a pretty sweet setup, but when you’ve got all that other stuff in there too, you end up with something that’s almost past sweet.

People who plan to install home theater gear usually spend a lot of time considering just what kind of sound system they should install.  Should they get it in one of those all in one boxes?  Should they build a component system piece by piece by piece?

Well, if you’re Scott Vonhof, you don’t go either route.  You BUILD YOUR OWN.

Apparently, Scott owned four Peerless woofers, and these were the basis for his four compact-cabinet speakers.   Later, to get the surround sound experience, he added a center channel speaker and a couple of matching rear speakers.  But this wasn’t all he added, no sir!  Or ma’am, as the case may be.

He also threw in a Denon receiver, an LG DVD player, a Sony projector and a Stewart Filmscreen one hundred inch screen.  Plus, he even managed to find time to make his own subwoofer.

When you consider the sheer amount of hand tooling that went into this home theater setup, you know it has to be called sweet.  There’s no way to do anything but.

Anyone else remember that scene from Get Smart where Max Smart has to walk through a series of corridors and passageways before finally being able to access the phone booth that provides access to CONTROL?  Well, today’s sweet home theater setup is a lot like that, except not quite so convoluted.

Today’s sweet home theater setup owner, you see, installed–get this!–a FINGERPRINT LOCK on his home theater.  You literally cannot get in without the man’s fingerprint or the willingness to tear hell out of locked doors.

And it’s probably a good idea he’s got that lock on there, because there’s a panoply of high-powered hardware in there.  Just for example, he’s got a homemade hundred and ten inch screen, a Panasonic projector, Polk speakers, Denon receiver and an Xbox 360 with HD DVD add on.  In retrospect, the owner jokes, it was a bad move.  He’s actually planning to bring in a PS3 for the Blu-ray capabilities.

But between the lock and the choice gear, it’s definitely a sweet home theater setup.

The phrase “they don’t make ‘em like that any more” applies to a whole lot of items that we’re nostalgic for.  For me, it applies to old-school RPG gaming, a lot of horror movies, and Jolly Ranchers in the bar form.  Yeah, they weren’t always little chunks–sometimes they came in these long thin bars that you could either treat like lollipops or bite off, gumming your teeth up so hard they could scarcely move.

But for one home theater buff, the phrase best applies to his JBL home theater speakers, which were made back in 1972 and were part of his stereo system for years.  He keeps them as part of the system essentially because they work as well as they do.

And it’s not just retro tech driving this system either–he’s also got a Sony receiver, Advent surround and center channel speakers to back up his JBLs, a Panasonic projector, and more.  There’s even a little more retro tech in the form of a Samsung VCR.

A little of the old and plenty of the new helps make one sweet home theater setup.

It’s always great to do two extremes in the same day.  We talked about a theater earlier today that featured an incredible aspect ratio on a relative shoestring, and now today, we’re going to follow that up with a monster home theater that takes up an entire fourteen hundred square foot basement.

Oh yes.  Fourteen hundred square feet.  Now, it’s not JUST a theater.  I admit to a bit of duplicity on that score, as the space is shared with a wet bar, a game room, a workshop and a bathroom.  But still–a home theater with all those amenities may well surpass sweet and go all the way into epic.

The theater itself, meanwhile, has a concession area and plenty of choice components put into it, including a Kenwood receiver, a Panasonic projector, a Motorola HD DVR and plenty more.

It bears repeating–this stopped being a sweet home theater setup when it tacked on all the extras.  The term epic truly does apply, because for a home theater with all the trimmings and then some, sweet is almost a graphic understatement.

Okay, just in case that headline threw you a bit, what it actually means is a home theater setup with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 for less than fifteen thousand dollars.  Yeah, I know it read like a Japanese real estate listing, but still, in the end it works.

And it’s also terribly important, because most home theaters do NOT have a 2.35:1 ratio.  It just doesn’t happen in home theaters that cost less than fifteen grand because it’s actually pretty difficult to achieve without specialized equipment.

But this one did exactly that.  And what did it pull this little wonder off with?  Adjustable side masking panels.  But that’s just a start–they’ve also got a Denon receiver, Home Theater Direct bookshelf speakers,  JBL subwoofer, Oppo DVD player, Optoma projector, and a homemade one hundred and three inch screen.

It achieved the nearly impossible and did it for a shockingly low amount of cash as home theaters go.  So when you consider them all together, there’s no other choice but to count this one as a sweet home theater setup.

A new projector is available in the UK. Samsung has released the A600B today and if you are looking for a new toy in your life you should definitely inspect it. The projector features 1,000 ANSI lumens, HD resolution, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio and a lamp capable of offering you 4,000 hours of life in eco mode. The projector measures only 13.5 x 6.4 x 13.7 inches and weighs just 10.3 pounds. The price for the device hasn’t been announced yet but the A600B sells for $1,795 in the USA.

via JP-UK

Using your PC as part of your home theater is a poorly understood and often sorely underestimated  part of your home theater experience.  In fact, the PC can replace a lot of different facets of your home theater, as Jason Klinke discovered.

A former PC engineer, he used his PC not only to play movies via its attached BD-ROM drive (from LG, no less!) but also to store other movies on the network as well as play a custom pre-show presentation with movie trivia and assorted random bits.

What else does he have involved in here, you ask?  Let’s take a look!

He’s got TWO Sony four hundred disc changers, for a start.  When you couple those on to his home theater PC’s hard drive space, you’ve got room for, roughly, a maximum of nine hundred titles.  Nine hundred titles.  That’s no small library, folks.  Plus, you’ve got to consider he’s watching them with a Sanyo projector on a one hundred twenty eight inch Carada screen, with a Denon receiver and Definitive Technologies speakers backing his play.

All this added in together makes for one pretty sweet setup, especially when you consider what all the home theater PC kicks in.

Sometimes home theater publications like this exact one can create a monster.  We show you all the incredible things you can do with the various spaces in and around your house and how you can take all of these spaces and, with a lot of time, patience, effort and money turn them into grand showpieces in which to sit around all day and watch movies.

And for Jerrod Shook, that’s exactly what happened.  He got into the home theater mags and suchlike and eventually just started churning out the ideas.  What happened became his home theater.

What’s in there, you ask?  It’s an eighteen hundred square foot theater with an Oppo DVD player, Ascend Acoustics speakers and subwoofer, a Panasonic projector, a hundred and twenty inch screen from Carada, and more.

So be careful, folks–you start reading us long enough, eventually you’re going to get to wonder what movies look like on a ten foot wide screen and the next thing you’ll know, you’ll want to try building your own sweet home theater setup at home.  Let’s just hope it’s as sweet as Jerrod’s.

We’ve talked about some really sweet home theater setups up and down the dial, from bargain basement theaters to the spectacularly extravagant.  But very few home theaters breach that seven figure mark, and today, we’ve got one that did.

Ivan Messer’s home theater setup contains fully one million dollars worth of audio products alone. In fact, most every single audio component installed in the array comes in multiples.  What he’s got in there is downright shocking, and he built this setup mostly to prove that he could.

What does he have in there, you’re probably asking by now?  It’s downright phenomenal–here’s the rundown:  a one hundred twenty inch Stewart Filmscreen, a Sony projector, two Sony Bravia televisions (one forty inch and one fifty two inch), and two–yes, TWO–Sony HD receivers.

But here’s where it gets wild:  he’s got fully twenty four McIntosh MC-1.2KW amplifiers.  Your jaw might drop there, but hold it in–this home theater setup has a GRAND TOTAL of fully, unless I misread the spec sheet, thirty eight amplifiers. I had to do some MATH in there because there’s maybe eight different kinds of McIntosh amp in there.  There are another eight McIntosh speaker systems on top of that, plus an additional nine regular McIntosh speakers.

It’s a sound system that might be classifiable as a weapon if you pick the right song, and for that reason, it’s definitely one sweet home theater setup.

Now HERE is an awesome idea, folks–Tom Hetzel, who lives in a townhouse in Cleveland, has neighbors surrounding him in pretty close quarters.

So how’d he beat that?  What he did was he built a room…in his basement.  The “room within a room” concept provides a little extra dead air insulation so that he can have his sweet home theater setup and not bother the neighbors.  He even showed the neighbors the construction process and how the various additions would be largely unnoticeable.

How sweet is this setup, you ask?  Sweet like candy, I’ll tell you that much.  He’s got Acoustic Research speakers, a ninety two inch Draper screen, a Pioneer receiver, a Samsung DVD player and a Sanyo projector.  The Acoustic Research 910s he’s got, for example have two twelve inch woofers, and one liquid cooled titanium tweeter.  They weigh a whopping one hundred forty seven pounds each.

Considering that the neighbors actually approve of this monster setup, you know it’s got to be pretty sweet to pump out that kind of force yet not wake the neighbors…or even the kids.

In his home theater, that is.  And for Adam Feldman, doctor by day and home theater buff by night, he’s got good reason to stay in–plenty of them.

It took him about six months and forty grand to put together this home theater in his formerly unfinished basement, so when you factor in all the construction costs, he didn’t really shell out a lot of cash.  Finishing a basement costs pretty substantial amounts of cash, so that accounts for a LOT of it.  But what did he get for the rest of it?

He’s got a whole flotilla of B&W speakers in there, as well as a Sharp projector, a Stewart filmscreen, a Pioneer Elite receiver and plenty of acoustically transparent wall fabric to help keep the sound in check.

The doctor pulled off one doozy of an operation, and transplanted a sweet home theater setup whole and breathing in his formerly unfinished basement.

Famed as world’s number-one selling projector brand, Epson recently revealed two ultra short throw projectors, namely the Epson PowerLite 450W and Epson PowerLite 460. Both the projectors were introduced with an aim to provide educators bright and versatile viewing dimensions.

Both the ultra short throw projectors come with inexpensive easy-to-install solutions. They are ideal for use with standard or interactive whiteboards. Other worth mentioning features of the projectors include closed captioning, USB Plug ‘n Play instant setup, a 10W speaker, PC-Free presentations over the network and optional wireless capabilities. The projectors offer extended lamp life and supports 3LCD technology to deliver true-to-life color and detail for influential presentation.

The Epson PowerLite 450W and Epson PowerLite 460 will be available for purchase by February 2010.

Via: Epson

No, you didn’t misread that.  But man, I was as shocked as you are now when I read about how a guy put together a complete home theater in his backyard for two hundred and fifty bucks.  And how he did it, now that’ll amaze you.

One day, while Ed Sweeting was talking to his seven year old girl about drive in movies, she asked a rather fateful question: “What’s a drive in?”.  Now, it’s not so hard to believe that she didn’t know.  There aren’t very many of them around any more.  But Ed wasn’t letting this old institution go down without a fight–he put one together in his backyard and he did it on the cheap.  Just two hundred and fifty bucks assembled a drive in in the backyard.

What does two hundred and fifty bucks buy you these days?  Not much, actually.  But thanks to some timely donations, eBay, and a little fixer-upper attitude, he managed to bring together a set of Yamaha speakers, an Eiki projector, a one hundred ten inch Stewart Filmscreen and an RCA DVD / VCR player.

Next thing you know, he had his backyard drive in.  And hopefully, his little seven year old is learning just how sweet a home theater setup can be.

Okay, so on the surface, five thousand bucks sounds like a lot of cash.  But if you break it down over the course of a year, you’re actually only talking about a hundred bucks a week.  And if you’re willing to put aside that kind of cash for that whole year, then you too can have a home theater setup like Mark Wiener’s.

When I read about this one I was pretty well surprised.  He mostly paid for electronics and furnishings, doing most of the construction work between himself and his father in law, which was probably a good bonding experience for the duo.

But that five grand went a pretty long way, putting up a Toshiba DVD, VCR and HD DVD player (though that one probably doesn’t see much use any more), a Panasonic Blu-ray player and 720p projector, KLH speakers and a B-tech ninety inch screen, and plenty else.

With some careful planning, you too can put in a really awesome home theater setup and without breaking the bank to do it.  That makes it, especially these days, doubly sweet.