The Beginings of Home Theater

Home Theater. Exactly what is it? I know that seems to be a very simple question and a lot of you are probably saying “Come on Maxman what are you wasting your time with this topic for”

Well it just so happens that we are getting a lot of new visitors to AV Maxman everyday some are well versed in all things home theater and others not so much. So I want to dedicate this article to all the newbie’s out there who are just starting to think about enhancing their home movie watching experience.

First let me introduce myself. I am Maxman of AV Maxman (I know! It sounds like a character from the movie Transformers) and my goal is to provide my faithful readers with good, clear home theater info without all the technical terms and industry jargon.

Ok let’s cut to the chase here and answer the question. What is home theater?

The goal of home theater or home cinema if you prefer is to reproduce the whole movie theater experience in the comfort of your own home. Nowadays this is very easy to do, however it hasn’t always been this way.

A little Home Theater history

In the 1950’s and 60’s home movies were very popular in North America. Cameras using 8mm film and projector equipment became reasonably affordable. Images from the film were projected (with a portable) movie projector onto a screen or in some cases just a plain white colored wall and this was mostly done with no sound and no color just black n white. “Remember Charlie Chaplin”

These home movie projectors improved over time with the development of color film, and monaural (mono) sound.

Along came the 70’s and with it came the VCR which almost completely killed the market for 8mm film cameras and projctors. All you needed was a TV to connect your VCR to and bang you were in business. Less set up, less hassle.

In the 1980’s we got multi-channel audio systems and laserdisc (which was very popular with karaoke systems) however the VCR was still the most popular method used for home movies.

In the late 1990s, we were blessed with the new development of DVD (digital video disc which has 5-channel audio) and high-quality video projectors and HDTV’s sparked a new wave of home cinema interest.

The 21st Century

Nowadays a lot more people are changing their living rooms into home theaters and because of the changes, more choices than ever are available to us. If you're looking for a home theater system, you have a lot of decisions ahead of you.

But now that we are back in the 21st century let me point out some of the basics that you will need to create an entry level home theater system.

A TV is the obvious choice. Most of us have one so that shouldn’t be a problem.
A set of speakers and subwoofer (optional).
A DVD player.
An amplifier (to send audio signals to the correct speaker).
Various cables for connecting the equipment.

Now this is just a bare minimum that you would need to recreate your theater experience at home. In some cases you can make creating a system even simpler by buying a “home theater in a box”. This usually comes with all of the above and combines the functions of a DVD player and amplifier into one unit.

I should point out that a TV is never included in a HTIB (home theater in a box).

Now the Maxman could go into more detail on all of the equipment mentioned above and I will do so in articles to follow. The purpose of this article was to give you some basic history, and some info about what you need to get started today.

What you need to do now is figure out a budget and then find something that you like that fits it.

Some enthusiasts go all out and renovate their homes to look and sound like a theater which is great and definitely an option you have, but if that’s a little too much for you don’t despair as the market has some thing for everyone and you can just start out small one piece at a time if you prefer.

So go now and have some fun, see what you can find. But don’t forget to check back often because as you know we are all about “Maximum Value Minimal Confusion”

Maxman Out.