Ponderings In The Field of Grace

Home Theater

Welcome to our home theater page. This all started about 3 years ago when I decided that the 32″ TV we had in the living room was too small. I started looking at 42″ and 50″ rear projection sets, and even looked at some plasmas. But we couldn’t find one that Sam and I agreed on. I wanted a large screen but Sam didn’t like the way rear projection TV’s looked when you moved from side to side (dimmed in the corners) she wanted a plasma!

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am cheap, and I could not see spending $3000 – $4000 (back in 2004) on a TV, no matter how big it was or how good it looked. So, one Sunday in January of 2005 I brought home a projector from church to clean the filters because it was over heating. Once I had cleaned it, I hooked it up to our DirecTV receiver and shot an image on the wall to make sure it was no longer over heating. Then BANG! it hit me. Why not go for a really BIG screen? A true Home Theater… I asked Sam what she thought, and I don’t think she stopped laughing for a whole hour, but I finally brought her around and here we are.

Wall Plaques Today we have a 110″ front projection Home Theater in our living room and we absolutely love it. We mainly use it for watching movies, although it is connected to our DirecTV system. I’m still too cheap to pay for HD. So the TV doesn’t look nearly as good as a DVD. You are probably wondering. If I’m so cheap how did we end up with such a large screen? Well, it doesn’t cost what one might think. I have less than $2000 invested in everything from the projector and screen to the Yamaha surround sound receiver and JBL speakers. I did a lot of reserach for the projector and what type of screen would work good for our application. I got most of my answers from the AVS Forums. The projector I decided on was the Optoma H31 and I built my own screen using information I received from the internet. The projector has a native resolution of 480p which is the same a a standard DVD. It can accept HD signals of 720p or 1080i but will scale them down to 480p. The sound for our theater comes from a Yamaha HTR-5830 AV receiver that sends 220 watts to the front speakers, 110 watts to the center channel speaker and 220 watts to the rear surround speakers. I purchased this unit in a Home Theater In A Box kit from Best Buy. I have replaced the two front speakers with 2 JBL E60 floor standing speakers and replaced the subwoofer with a Sony 12″ 200 watt SA-W3000 from Best Buy. These speaker upgrades really make a huge difference in the sound you hear when watching a movie.

I would have to say to anyone looking to get a movie theater experience from their home theater, a projector is the way to go, if you have a room where you can control the ambient light. The prices of projectors just keep coming down. You can now purchase a HD 720p front projector for less than $1000, and with the way technology is progressing, the prices will continue to come down.

Equipment List