Starting With A Small Step

Putting together a home theater is something that can be done in stages, or all in one go.

People with enough money, or the time to dream about what they would do if they did, may well sit and put together a plan for their perfect home entertainment system, but for others it may be something that happens bit by bit.

If you want the perfect home entertainment system but do not have the money to immediately make it a reality, then you may find that starting with the basics is a good way to go.

A home theater needs at least two things to make it more than your run of the mill video entertainment system. It needs a DVD player and a TV of significant size.

Otherwise what you have is simply a TV and DVD combo and with the best will in the world that is not a home entertainment system.

So you can start with the DVD player and a big screen TV, and then think about what you want to add as you go along. The next thing on most people’s list will be an upgrade on the speakers that came with the TV.

As you go along, you can co-opt more hardware into the system. For example, hitching up a laptop computer will allow you to run programs from your computer through the system.

A slide show or presentation can be put on the big screen, or more interestingly you can run downloaded music videos or graphic displays that move in time to music.

As you go along, you can add still more bits and pieces. A games console, a telecommunications system, whatever you want. This is your project.