Clearly AV

There are some common mistakes that are often overlooked when installing a home cinema that can easily be corrected with just a little bit of know-how. From the planning stage, purchasing of tv cables, to the calibration of AV components, you’ll find ways to avoid the common mishaps that can essentially turn a good home theatre project into a disaster. Here is a list of 10 of the most common mistakes people make when installing a home theatre and ways to avoid these all-too-common pitfalls.

1. Bad Planning

Having a master plan before getting started with a home cinema installation is the most crucial step there is, and it’s also one of the most over-looked as well. Without a well thought-out plan, a poorly planned cinema can turn into a disaster. Problems such as buying a screen that’s too big for the room, getting the wrong cables, buying non-compatible components, or under-estimating the total cost of a home theatre project can all put an installation on hold, or even make you go broke. Before beginning a home theatre project, a detailed plan of action is the most important first step to take, and always make sure to include estimates for the total cost of all of the required components from av cables to the projector screen and everything in between.

2. Crimes of the Early Adopter

You know the sort of person I’m thinking about — you might even be like this. There are certain people in this world that just have to have the latest and greatest gadgets as soon as they hit store shelves. The problem is that this type of person buys home theatre components based on impulse, and they typically don’t think the purchase through and often buy products that aren’t compatible with their current setup. Having the newest innovations on the market isn’t always the best way to go it can get really expensive, time-consuming, and just an overall hassle to keep up with the ever-improving technology. Save time and money, and plan out a home theatre that you’re happy with and stick with it. Upgrading components can be a good idea in some cases, but a good amount of due diligence is a required to make sure that each upgrade is compatible with the current system. Bottom line…just plan a setup that you know you’ll be happy with, and enjoy it instead of modifying it every time you see a new gadget that you just gotta have for your system.

3. Skimping on Essentials

This common mistake can end up costing money down the road because of poor quality HDTV, projector or projector screens that need to be replaced within a year or two of being purchased. Skimping on the essential components may save some money initially, but it will end up costing more in the long run. The centerpiece of any home cinema is the HDTV or projection system, and thus a quality, good-sized, TV or projector is essential in a good home theatre setup no matter what the total cost of the project is. The bottom line is that a little bit of research can go a long way when trying to find the perfect components for a home theatre within various price ranges. Think of the main components of a home theatre as an investment choosing a quality HDTV, for instance, will last years longer than a cheap one, and so it will save you money when it’s all said and done.

4. Uncomfortable Seating

Who wants to sit on an uncomfortable, dirty old chair for two hours to watch a movie? Not me! Seating is often overlooked by people looking to setup their first home theatre room. Many people see seating as an added expense, or luxury, that are only really necessary in more expensive home cinemas that’s so far from the truth. A home theatre room is supposed to set a mood, or create an ambiance, which allows people to escape for a couple of hours to watch a movie, watch the big game, or play video games. Comfortable seating is an essential piece of that puzzle. So leave your old, worn-out furniture by the trash bin, and consider getting some new seating - there’s seating available in just about anyone’s price range.

5. Sound Issues

Whether you decide on a 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 surround sound system for a home theater setup, there are a few simple things to consider when installing the speakers. First of all, the size of the home theatre room needs to be taken into consideration. If the room is small, in-wall, or ceiling mounted, speakers may need to be used rather than floor-standing speakers. Also, you don’t want to use ridiculously powerful floor-standing speakers in a setup where you’ll be sitting just a few feet from the speaker itself it’ll blow your ear drums out! You also need to consider how to run the wiring to all of the speakers, or if you’d be better off with a wireless set of speakers.

Lastly, speakers need to be placed in the proper locations of a home cinema in order to get the best possible performance from them. Ideally, you want the speakers to be equidistant from the seating in the theatre, but that’s rarely possible in most situations. The best solution to this is to use the distance compensation controls that are available on most receivers, which allow you to digitally adjust the distance of each in individual speaker in order to get the highest quality sound possible from the surround sound system. Also, don’t have the subwoofer levels too high or else it will drowned out a lot of the mid-bass frequencies and lower the overall sound experience. Looking at the above photo and this homemade setup, which surround sound setup would you rather have?

6. Lighting The Room

A common problem in home cinemas that feature windows is not being able to stop natural light from coming in during those matin screenings. The best way to fix this problem is to pick-up some black-out curtains for the room. These curtains will not only totally block light from getting into the theatre room, but they also help to dampen sound from being heard outside the windows. Another issue with lighting is one which people don’t often consider. Most of today’s HDTVs will produce a better looking picture when there’s some slight fill lighting in the room preferably behind the screen if possible. You can use very dimly lit lamps strategically placed around the room to produce this effect just make sure to position them in such a way that they won’t produce any kind of glare or reflection on the screen. It’s a good idea to use 6500k light bulbs for this type of application.

7. Too close or Too far from Screen

It’s of utmost importance to mount the HDTV or projection screen the proper distance from where you will actually be sitting in the theatre. Too close to the screen, and you may be able to see the individual lines or pixels. Too far from the screen, and you’ll lose your immersion in the picture. A good rule of thumb for 16:9 widescreen HDTVs is to sit approximately 1.5x-1.9x the diagonal measurement of the screen away. For instance, if you have a 42-inch diagonal HDTV, you’d want to sit at least 63-inches from the screen, or about 5.25-feet away. You should sit slightly further away if you’re dealing with a 4:3 HDTV (1.8x), and even further away for a standard TV (3x). Also keep in mind the viewing angle of the screen. Plasmas tend to have a wider viewing angle, while LCD screens can produce slightly less desirable results when viewing the screen from sharp angles. See this chart full-size for reference.

8. Cables, Wires, and Connectors

Many home theatre enthusiasts make mistakes when it comes to the type of cables that they should be using, as well as with cable management. First of all, it’s very important to use the inputs/outputs on a TV that will produce the best quality picture possible. Today, most HDTV manufacturers are using HDMI inputs to produce the best quality on-screen imagery, so make sure to use the HDMI port if there’s one available. Some people don’t know that there’s even a difference between HDMI, component video, Scart, or DVI hook-ups, and it reality there’s a huge difference in video and sound quality.

Another often overlooked aspect of creating a home theatre is cable management. Nothing looks worse than a huge helping of cable spaghetti inside of any home cinema. There’s plenty of cable management products out there that help to give the home theatre a clean and finished look. Make sure that cables and speaker wires are hidden away, but yet are easily accessible if you have to get at them. Another great tip when running cables is to keep them as short as possible, and try not to kink or bend them or else it will affect the image quality and sound performance.

9. Calibrating All of the Components

A home theatre will not function at its highest level without some sort of calibration on the part of the owner. HDTVs and surround systems/receivers are often calibrated to look/sound awesome in the store, but when you get them home and try them out, it’s a different story. The reason for this is that in order to get the best performance out of all of your AV equipment, they must be calibrated specifically for your home theatre room. This is something that can be done by yourself or a professional. Professional calibration services can get rather expensive, but it’s the best way to get the highest quality video and sound possible from your equipment. Spending a few hours calibrating the surround sound system and HDTV settings to specifically fit your home theatre room will make a world of difference in performance.

10. Not Using a Universal Remote Control

The biggest issue with not using a universal remote control in a home theatre setup is the fact that you’d need five or more remotes to operate all of the system’s components otherwise. This is a problem that not only takes up a lot of coffee table space, but it can get frustrating when you’re fumbling around in the dark trying to find the correct remote to turn on the DVD player, receiver, TV, or adjust lighting. Using a quality universal remote will help solve these problems by allowing you to control all of the components of your home theatre with just one remote.

High-end universal remotes often times will have touch-screen interfaces that will allow you to operate just about anything in the room including: closing curtains, dimming the lights, raise/lower the projection screen, and adjust just about any setting imaginable on any AV component. Universal remotes also allow the user to program macros, or a series of functions, that are accomplished with the push of one button. For instance, you could program a macros to turn on the TV, turn on the DVD player, turn on the surround sound system, and dim the lights all with the push of one button on the remote.