Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

Widescreen TV, with a 16:9 width-to-height ratio, undoubtedly represents the future for home theater designs. However, this does not mean that you should rule out standard TVs with a 4:3 ratio. There are definitely good reasons to go for a 4:3 TV, or even projection screen if your home theater design calls for it. Let's explore the issue.

Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

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Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

Firstly, from a point of view of cost, standard TVs are still cheaper than widescreen TVs, so if you have a restricted budget, this is worthy of consideration. You could perhaps get a good quality standard TV for the price of a budget widescreen model; definitely worth considering for your home theater design.

Secondly, there are still plenty of programs that are filmed with the 4:3 ratio. If you have a widescreen TV, you'll find that you either have to put up with a distorted, stretched image, or you'll have to set the display up at a 4:3 ratio to show these programs, in which case you are not showing anything on a quarter of the area of your screen. If you mainly watch 4:3 programming, that's a waste!

Thirdly, width and depth are normally restricted more than height in the average living space. Let's take a 28" widescreen TV as an example. The theoretical width of the screen is about 24", and the theoretical height is about 14". Into the same width of 24", you could fit a 30" standard TV, and the theoretical height of the picture on a 30" TV is about 18", giving you about 33% extra screen area for your home theater!

What happens when you want to view widescreen programming, though? 16:9 anamorphic programming can be viewed on most modern standard TVs. They reduce the height of the picture as opposed to increasing the width. The proportions of the picture remain the same. In the above example of a 30" standard TV, the TV would display a picture of the same size as that of a 28" widescreen TV! If you think big is beautiful, a standard TV is the way to go for your home theater design.

Of course, style considerations may apply, and you may prefer to go for a widescreen TV because you prefer the way it looks. However, there are some excellent reasons to consider a standard TV for your home theater design.

Home Theater Design: Widescreen Or Standard TV For Your Home Theater?

Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater

Sound bars are the perfect way to get great home theater audio without setting up tons of speakers or dealing with messy wiring. If you want unmatched audio quality, you owe it to yourself to find out more about soundbars. Sound bars, or sound projectors as they're also known, consist of a single unit that houses multiple speakers to get the best home theater sound without multiple speakers and messy wiring.

Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater

Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater

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Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater

Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater

If you have a plasma flat screen television, sound projectors are the perfect speakers to get great sound. As you probably already know, the little built-in speakers in most flat screen TVs simply don't put out great audio for movies, music or video games. When you add a sound projector to the mix, though, you'll get the best surround sound without cluttering your room up with speakers or tripping over wires all the time.

Sub-woofer Concerns

Some single speaker solutions don't really provide the low end bass that you need to get the best quality audio. In fact, some soundbar systems include a wireless sub-woofer to make sure that you get the best audio experience possible. There are some sound projectors that do include sub-woofers, just make sure that you check before you purchase to know whether or not you'll have to purchase an additional speaker.

SoundBar Types

Some soundbar systems are active and include their own amplification; this means that they simply plug into your television and start putting out great sound. Other models, however, are passive and need to be plugged into a home theater receiver to produce audio.

You can even add a sound projector into an existing home theater audio system for the ultimate in dynamic sound quality. Soundbars work great on their own, but when you add them into a full surround sound set up, you'll be amazed at how much better movies, music and games sound. You'll think you stepped into the local theater when you put a sound projector into the mix.

Whether you choose to integrate a sound bar into your existing system, or to simply use one on its own for better sound from your television, make sure that you get the best sound bar for your unique home theater set up.

Check out some sound bar reviews to see which models offer the best sound, and while you're at it, look for the best deals to save some money in the process. You'll be amazed at how much better movies sound when you crank up the volume on a brand new soundbar.

Sound Bars - Important Tips to Remember When Buying a Sound Bar System for Your Home Theater