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SHEDDING THE LIGHT ON PROJECTION |
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Home Theater
Do Your Homework First
If you want a home theater but don’t want to give up your first born to get it, consider doing the work yourself. Installing a home theater is not that difficult, if you understand the basic concepts and have a clear picture of what you want to do written on paper.
The first step in your planning should be to draw a diagram of the room you want to use for your home theater. Take good measurements and draw the room to scale using graph paper. Be sure to include any windows and doors or other characteristics that are present. You will also want to make note of your ceiling height and any obstructions that may cause problems.
Next, determine which way you want the room to face. It is usually better to set the room long instead of wide, but this may not always be possible or the best option. Also consider ambient light sources. Windows to close to the screen or a hallway close to the screen will cause poor image quality and other distractions. If there is a lot of ambient light, you will want to get a brighter lumen projector with a higher contrast.
Draw in the screen and furniture that will be in the room to determine what screen size you should use. Think about what aspect ratio you will be watching most, then size the screen using the following calculation:
FVD (farthest viewing distance) / 8 = screen height (SH), SH* aspect ratio (1.33 for 4:3 or 1.66 for 16:9) = screen width.
Finally, consider how much of the programming you watch will be in HD. It may not be as much as you think. You can still get a great image from a XGA resolution projector using the component connections.
Now you are ready to research projectors, based on your needs. You know what size screen you will be projecting on, how big the room will be, how bright your projector needs to be, what range of contrast ratio and what resolution you need to consider. |
