Okay, you've determined to set up a home theater by yourself. Now you'll have to have a game plan for getting all that paraphernalia set up and operation smoothly. The following guide will walk you throughout the main points of home theater system, from finding the right space to sit from the TV's screen to adjusting room illumination to get the top picture quality.

After deciding on a TV, the most fundamental setup step is to decide how far away you should sit from it. High-definition programs on cable, satellite, and disc are filled with picture feature, so you'll want to sit close enough to see it — but not so close that you can notice the individual pixels that compose up the image. Our guide will provide some samples of suggested seating distances for common TV screen sizes.

The next pace will be to unbox your components and run all the cables that attach them to the TV and speaker system. A huge selection of A/V furniture, wall-mounting hardware, and cable-concealing solutions are ready to help streamline this process. We'll cover those bases, and also present some information for achieving a clean, professional-looking set up.

The concluding part of your home theater installation will be tweaking the system for the best likely picture and sound. Though some of these adjustments can me done by using your own gear's setup menus together with commercially available test DVDs, there are times when you require calling in a pro to take things to the next level. And then there are the obscure areas of home theater installation - things like room improvement and lighting mechanization. We'll give you the lowdown on those subjects and more in the following section.

A home theater system can be as essential as a big screen TV and speakers squeezed into your present living room. It can also be a detailed, custom-designed movie palace with lush seating and a projector and screen that glide out of the ceiling. The end result depends on how you select accessorize your system, and the next guide will give you an impression of what kinds of home theater accessories are on hand.

Fundamental accessories that we suggest for any home theater include a power conditioner and learning remote control. The primary one gives you a place to plug in all your gear, and the second can take over the functions of your other remotes to remove coffee table litter. And while headphones might seem like an unusual addition for a home theater, they'll come in useful for late-night listening when you don’t want to bother others in the home.

To facilitate simplify your home theater's operation; you’ll want to make sure out more advanced types of remote controls. These usually have big liquid-crystal display screens and can be automated to do functions like turning on the whole system and starting a movie with a single button push. They can also be in charge of room automation systems that perform actions like lowering a motorized projection screen and opening curtains.

Finally, there's a home theater furnishing. Comfortable, theater-style seating can make the distinction between a normal home theater and one that you'll gravitate towards night after night. Read on and discover out about the world of home theater frills.

TV has come a extended way since the days when you just plugged in an antenna and clicked through the four or five channels you could tune in. The variety of video source components now comes with high-definition disc players, home theater PCs, and game consoles that expand the activity of TV-viewing well beyond settling down to watch CSI. The following guide will emphasize the various types of A/V sources that are on hand, and take a sneak peek at what’s around the curve as well.

The question of whether to subscribe to cable or satellite is one that many people find themselves asking these days. We'll cover the advantages and disadvantages of both, and also talk a bit about the new hard-disk digital video recorders that are used to record programs with either option. Next, we'll get into some of the finer points of the various decks used for watching movie discs - a group that includes regular DVD players, high-definition disc players, and a special category of players that process regular video signals on DVD to help them look like high-definition TV.

Videogames, too, have come a long way since the days of Asteroids and Space Invaders. With their sophisticated graphics, soundtracks, and storylines, the best titles have something to offer both kids and adults alike. And then there are Home Theater PCs - computers designed to fit in an A/V rack and play both DVDs and digital music, record TV, and browse the Web. Tune in and we'll bring you up to date on all of these devices and more.