The Home Theater. It's not that this wasn't important before, it actually was, it's just that because of other happenings in the house certain budgets needed to be rearranged and the home theater budget got suspended. So half the stuff was bought and I wasn't about to let it sit around and get unused. So we bit the bullet and I finished it off.

The delay worked to my advantage because Mirantz, the company I wanted to buy an amp from and whose models were previously too expensive, came out with a model the week before in my price range. It had all the specs and options of the previous model I had an eye on and more. Put it simply, there’s a large gap between low-end and hi-end equipment known as “mid-fi”. Mirantz finally came out with an amp in that range. This amp has THX Select 2 certification, 7.1 channel output (125 W) and HDMI upconversion, which means any video I plug in to it will convert to the HDMI cable I have connected to the projector. HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is a single digital cable that can carry both HD video and surround audio. Any device that is meant to carry an HD signal (even some that aren’t) has this interface.

For the record, an “amp”, as I refer to it, is an amplifier and sound processor. Technically, it’s known as an “A/V receiver” because it does just that...receives all the audio and video inputs and outputs them to your speakers and monitor or TV. All the video is converted to one output (so only one cable goes to the TV) and the audio is processed, amplified and separated into all the speakers. For instance if the broadcast (or recording) is in Dolby Digital surround, a discreet signal is sent to all 5.1 speakers - front left, front right, center, rear left, rear right, subwoofer (the “.1”). In my case, I have a 7.1 system allowing for 2 “rear center channels” since it’s a long room.

First a little TV tech talk...and this gets complicated so bear with me. There are 5 basic types of TV technology (and you thought the remote was complicated enough) - 1) CRT (cathode ray tube, the big glass tubes that have been around since day one), 2) LCD (liquid crystal display) flat panel, 3) Plasma flat panel, 4) rear projection and 5) front projection. Each of these has their own pluses and minuses.

The CRT’s are the best in terms of color and clarity, but they are really heavy and cost prohibitive to make large (36”+...TVs are measured in diagonal) and they are really being phased out. Environmentally, they aren't good because they contain a lot of mercury, which is another reason why companies are phasing them out.

The flat panels are taking over. The LCDs are the computer monitors you see everywhere. Plasmas are the “in thing” in terms of TVs. Of all the technology, plasma suffers the worst from burn-in (when a ghost of the image remains on the screen). That means the CNN ticker, Tivo play bar or video games will burn into the TV. Not good. It’s also expensive compared with LCD, and has life of about 5 years. So yes, even though plasmas have better color and black levels their negative factors (life, burn-in, price) gives them a big thumbs down in my book...especially for what I need it for. So plasma is a waste of money if you ask me.

LCDs are getting much better. Their black levels and respose time (the two biggest negative factors) are impressive, considering. Even color. So much so in fact that there are now pro LCD displays for post production which are replacing the CRTs. So a good LCD would have a high contrast ratio and fast response (8 ms or less). LCDs range in size from 20” to 52”, while plasma ranges from 42” to 65” (I heard they made a 100” for mega money).

The latter 2 are basically the same technology. The projector gun is either inside the box or out. First using CRT tech in the 80’s and 90’s, the rear projection TVs were those big ugly TVs that had a very limited viewing angle. The front projectors were big boxes either on the floor or the ceiling that had 3 colored lights shining front. Now they use LCD, DLP (digital light processing) and LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) tech. These have significantly reduced the thickness of the set, and increased the brightness and clarity of the image. They still have a limited viewing angle, but it’s far greater than before. They are nothing like their predecessors. These rear projection TVs are the big screens you see at every electronics store. The range in size from 37” to 70”. They are much cheaper than their plasma counterparts. A front projector needs a screen to project on so the size is based on the screen you get. The smallest screen I’ve seen was 73” and they go up from there. Price wise, the sky’s the limit on the projectors. For an HD projector, they range from $1 - 50K easy (I’m not kidding).

So to review, I have an 11’ wall where the TV is going. The couch is going to be 14' away. CRT’s are phasing out. LCD flat panels aren’t big enough. Rear projection could work, but the size I need for that seating distance is a little expensive. So that leaves front projection. The only flaw to using a front projector is ambient light on the screen. Since this will be in the basement with one small window, the light is controllable so it’s not an issue. Let’s not forget the coolness factor of having a screen in my home theater. That being said, there are as many choices for screens as there are TVs. One of the top (if not the top) screen manufacturer is Stewart. I found a smoking deal on a screen at the local Harvey Electronics...a fixed mount (Lexus Deluxe frame) Stewart Firehawk unused, more than half of the retail price and the size that I wanted, 92”. That’s a screen that’s 6.75’ wide by 3.75’ tall. Not bad. The Firehawk is a “gray” screen (as opposed to white) which is designed to work with LCD and DLP projectors and help filter out ambient light. So even though the light is controllable, I plan on playing games on that screen, so the lights need to be on. The gray of the screen also help produce deeper blacks that the LCD has trouble with.

Which leads me to the projector. I choose a Panasonic HD (1080i) LCD projector. I got this one because it was the best rated LCD projector in my price range. As I mentioned, the flaw to LCD is the deeper blacks that DLP can produce. The flaw to the DLP is a bigger one, but only on the cheaper models (i.e. the ones in my price range). The cheaper model DLP use a color wheel to separate the 3 colors (red, green, blue). In order to produce an image, the wheel must spin (albeit very fast) between colors. This causes a rainbow effect that they say only 1% of the population can see. I can guarantee I am part of that 1%. I am essentially trained to pick up a bad frame (1/30 of a sec) while watching real time. They also say once you see it, you can never not. That was enough for me to go with LCD. The more expensive DLPs ($8K+) are 3 chip with no wheel, no it’s not an issue.

Got the projector, screen, and amp. Only 2 things left. First, Tivo. A couple of months before Tivo finally came out with the Series 3 DVR which was HD. It has a dual tuner (that accepts cable cards), ethernet port (no more phone dialing), 30 hours of HD or 300 hours of SD (standard definition) recording. Not to mention a cool backlit remote. They had a deal where you can transfer your lifetime membership from an old Tivo to this one (for a price). This was a sweet deal since they don’t offer lifetime memberships anymore and my Series 1 is just sitting around. So I traded in my 32 hour SD Tivo for a 30 hour HD one.

Tech note. SD vs HD. SD, or to give you another acronym, is known as NTSC to us here the US (PAL to those in Europe). Recently, it’s been called simply 480i. The “i” being “interlace”. There’s also a “p” for progressive, but let’s not get into that right now. That means there are 480 lines of vertical resolution in the frame. 720 lines horizontal. That gives us an aspect ratio of 3:4, or 1:1.33, or just 1.33. Aspect ratio is important. Ever since TV was getting popular in the 50’s and 60’s, Hollywood came up with a new ploy to lure people into the theater - wider screen. Lots of different aspects came about, but 2 main ones stuck. Known as “panavision” (2.35 - very wide, like Star Wars or more recently, The Incredibes) and “academy” (1.85 - everything else you see in the theater). Look on the back of almost any DVD any you can see these numbers. Since the SD TV’s didn’t have the ratio to handle to image of film, they either “pan and scanned” over the image (bad) or letterboxed it showing the whole image with black bars on the top and bottom (good).

Now for some reason, when the engineers came up with HD, they gave it an aspect of 16:9, or 1.78. Sure it might work mathematically with SD, but for 90% of the film that’s out there, you STILL have to letterbox it to see the whole image. Not only does HD have a different aspect, it has (as its name implies) a different resolution...a higher one. To complicate things even further, there are different kinds of HD broadcast. But let’s just stick with 1080i, or 1080 vertical lines of resolution with 1920 lines horizontally. That’s more than 5 times the amount of pixels. The big thing with TV’s now is 1080p, which while clearer, nothing is broadcast in it. The only 1080p media is HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Second, Blu-ray (BRD). I won’t get into the whole HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war here (despite the fact that as I write this, Blu-ray is winning ;) ). For the uninitiated, BRD (as is HD-DVD) is the new high definition media. Just like DVD, it has movies, games and data storage. It all comes down to data. A regular DVD holds 4.7 GB of info per side. Double that for dual layer, etc. BRD holds 25 GB per side. You can see the advantage. I chose BRD for one simple reason - Playstation. I got the PS3 and it’s a BRD player...one of the best (if not the best) ones on the market. Yes, you can get them everywhere now, but I’ve had mine since November and I didn’t have to wait in line. It’s about the connection.

So, back to the set up. First on the list was the projector. It was relatively simple to install. Knowing where I wanted it to be I installed the conduit for the video cable and had the electrical line put in the ceiling during the construction. I had to get a ceiling mount to hang the projector from. I found a nice low profile (3”) one from Chief. Anchor it in, connect the cables and done. The wall in between the server room (under the stairs) and the main room had a 4 foot cutout. This is there all the components are. The idea was I was going to install a shelf for them inside the room, but for now, I just stacked them on the outside so when the inspector came, nothing was “under the stairs”.

In the conduit leading to the front of the room I ran the speaker cable to the 2 fronts and center channel. Since the components are behind the couch and the projector above it, it would be difficult to operate any remote. So I picked up what’s known as an IR blaster that extends the range and direction of the remote. I put the sensor in the front of the room and that is connected (via a normal network cable) to a small box that sends the signal to up to 5 components. I can even control everything from my desk in the back of the room.

For the lights, I installed a remote IR dimmer so I can control the light from the comfort of the couch. Ah, technology at its finest.

I used the same Boston Acoustics (BA) center channel and floor standing fronts that I’ve had for years. I got matching BA wall mounted surrounds for the sides and in-ceiling surrounds for the rear surrounds. It wasn’t until after the holiday that I installed the rear surrounds because it was a little more completed because it involved cutting into the ceiling. A little messy, but simple to do. The speaker wire was also easy to pass through because the joists ran in the same direction. I knew this going in so I didn’t need to bury it in the ceiling like I did upstairs.

Everything’s now set up and working. I’m ready to put up the screen. Only one problem...I open the box that I bought way back in July and it’s the wrong screen. After a phone call to Harvey, they happily exchanged it for the one I was supposed to get...which they luckily had in one of the other stores. So the screen will have to wait. For now, I’ll just watch TV on the wall. The projectors bright enough for the color of the wall not to matter...it’s just the blacks that were affected, and they were a little red. I got it up for thanksgiving weekend and the premiere movie was Pixars’ Cars.

After the holiday I exchanged and installed the screen. It was really easy to set up, with a little help from Alison, of course...it was quite large. The metal frame, numbered in each corner, was put together like any metal picture frame. We then measured and tested the placement without the screen. Once satisfied, we removed it, snapped the screen on to it like a boat cover and the whole thing was hung back on the wall.

The place may still be a mess, but it's finally set up.

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