Life Ambitions: Design And Implement Your Own Home

Tag : Flat Angle
Life Ambitions: Design And Implement Your Own Home No noisy food allowed. Jenny Sanders gives an overview of how tobring the silver screen into your front room.
The majestic landscapes of The Lord Of The Rings. Theclaustrophobic semi-darkness of Panic Room. The horrifying,blood-spattered hospital basement in Saw.
All completely ruined by having to watch them on a fourteen-inchportable in a living room fully lit by 60-watt bulbs, and, when thelights aren't on, partially lit by the floodlights of the localpolice station. Yes, it has to be said, there are a lot of filmswhich directly benefit from the cinematic experience, and on whichthe newfangled invention of television is simply wasted.
So, short of hijacking your local Odeon (or Cineworld, or Virgin -we don't discriminate around here) and begging them to show Se7enin a format that doesn't involved it being cut to ribbons by ITV,what can you do?
The answer lies in an old proverb: if the audience can't go to thecinema, the cinema must be built by the audience. And then youdon't have to admit those popcorn-scoffing, sweet-wrapper-rustling,unappreciative little blighters who for some reason get up andstart walking about at the slightest hint of action. Unless you'vemarried completely the wrong person.
This is, however, quite a big task - and one which is going to costa considerable amount of money if you're really serious. Dedicatedcinema rooms can cost between £50,000 and £100,000. They're afantastic, and increasingly desirable, feature to have if you'reselling your house on, but rather lose their appeal if you'rehaving to take out a second mortgage to construct it. So, puttingthat option aside for a while, I'm going to look at the cheaper andquicker ways of achieving a decent viewing experience.
Dolby Trouble If You Don't Use It
If you've been to the flicks within the last several years or so,you'll be very aware - for the simple reason that it's rammed intoyour face during the trailers - of Dolby. This is the companyresponsible for a sporting chunk of cinematic sound systems, andyou can't consider having any kind of setup without it being atleast (and we mean at least) capable of handling Dolby Pro Logic.If you're not going to entertain the best audio possible thenyou're totally missing the point of having a home cinema in thefirst place.
Dolby Digital 5.1-standard sound involves having five differentspeakers - the two main stereo channels, a centre channel and tworear mono channels. This creates the 'surround sound' effect. Ontop of that, there's a bass unit to handle the really grunty stuff.Plenty of televisions now support the basic Pro Logic (whichsupports a basic left, right and centre speaker, although there isthe more capable Pro Logic II), but to keep future-proofed you'llneed equipment which supports Dolby Digital. Pro Logic does the jobfor many people, but with the imminent onset of Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD,whichever wins) your discs will be encoded to take full advantageof the latest technology and beyond.
The changes between Digital and Pro Logic look minor on paper butcreate a big difference. The encoding and decoding of the sound isdone through entirely digital means, which gives clearer and deeperaudio - but the key feature is that both rear channels are instereo. In layman's terms this results in 'stuff being all over theplace'. Be aware that this is not suitable for those of a nervousdisposition (see 'Surround Sound: A Warning').
Kit Hunting
With all this in mind, it's time to go out and buy some bits ofkit. Theoretically, the absolute basics are a NICAM (not Hi-Fi) TVand a NICAM video player. However, as we are now in thetwenty-first century you will be wanting a DVD player and digitaltelevision. Failure to obtain the latter may result in you notbeing able to watch TV at all after 2008...but then you alreadyknew that.
Choosing a TV has become considerably more complicated thanks tothe arrival of LCD, plasma and projection. What you opt for willcome down to three factors: what you can afford, what you thinklooks best, and what you can fit in your living room. While I'mcertain that a 52" wall-mounted set is probably wonderful, it wouldnot only dwarf everything else in my lounge but give me a crickneck trying to view it without damaging my eyesight. Be sensible.
If you're going for HD, be aware that you'll need an HD input forit to be of any use. Sky now sell HD subscriptions, and the BBC areheavily involved in plans to implement HD across all its channelsas soon as they can manage it. For the time being, however, it'sunlikely you'll see much of it about.
Whether you can use equipment you already own depends on just howold it is. If it involves black-and-white - no. If it lacks a SCARTsocket - no. If your kids have lost the remote control - forget it.You need the best gear you can lay your hands on, which may meanpolitely but forcefully telling little Johnny that you are swappinghis TV for the one in the front room.
If you want to go to whole hog and have a projector, you'll need asuitable screen. You could project the image onto a wall, but thenyou could just watch TV because the results would be awful. A mattewhite-diffusion screen cloth is the basic option, but reflectivefabrics (such as Datalux) do an even better job by giving a widerviewing angle. If you've got lots of cash to play with you could gofor rear-projection, and have it fitted into the wall.
DVD has come so far down in price that I'm surprised they're notgiving basic players away in boxes of cereal, but you still need tobe careful what you get. A DVD recorder is the best way to go; andI'm not going to get into the whole DVD+RW/DVD-RW debate, so getone that supports both*.
It's worth having Dolby Digital decoding, because then you knowyou've got the best regardless of what the rest of your kit iscapable of (and if you really want to go to town, DTS decodingtoo). Players with this kind of decoding can also produce VirtualSurround sound, which emulates the sound of ten speakers regardlessof how many you've actually got.
Also: beware of regions. Our Region 2 supports discs from Europe,Middle East, South Africa and Japan (which is where all the bestfilms come from anyway), but if you want to watch discs from NorthAmerica - or indeed any other continent - you will need something'region-free'.
*And don't even talk to me about Blu-Ray.
Taking It Further
Now that you are capable of watching normal TV and stuff out ofplastic cases (providing you've got it wired up correctly), the'home cinema' bit begins. For starters, get that telly out of thecorner so that everybody can see it, and keep it away from anythingthat's going to cause a reflection. Unless you have a dedicatedroom where watching films is the only thing that's going to takeplace, with tiered seating and the like - i.e. an actual cinema -it's more than likely that the room you use will need to houseother activities.
Now you need a speaker setup. The placement of five differentspeakers can be tricky, so you might need to try a few layoutsbefore you come to one that not only gives you the best soundquality but also fits conveniently into the space you have to workwith. Three of them are relatively easy - the centre speaker needsto go as close to the viewing screen as you can physically get it,and the two main stereo speakers need to go one on each side. Youmight already be familiar with this if you've got your Hi-Fi in asymmetrical arrangement.
It's the rear speakers that pose the challenge. They should bebehind you for maximum benefit, but I'm sure I speak for a lot ofpeople when I say that my sofa is against a wall. Your other optionis to put them at the sides of the room, so that you can at leastget some kind of effect. If you want to wall-mount them, makeabsolutely certain that you've tried them out first - otherwiseit'll be a lot of kicking yourself and Polyfilla (incidentally, ifyou have a sub-woofer it can go anywhere. But against a wall isgreat. Unless you live next door...)
Next up is wiring it all together. How you do this very muchdepends on three things: how far you can dedicate the room to just'cinema', how house-proud you are, and whether you've got civilliability. Having leads trailing around is a very bad idea forsimple safety reasons, and that it makes your room look ugly.
If you're having a new house built with a room designed for thepurpose, that's fine, because you can have all the wiring put intothe walls. You can even have a projection screen built betweenfloors, so that it disappears when you're not using it. But ifyou're giving over the living room, or your back bedroom, there arelots of ways to keep things tidy:
1. Shoving the leads under the carpet (don't underestimate this)
2. Special plastic 'piping' which will house several leads together
3. Stapling/fixing the leads into the join of the floor andskirting board

But, this being a PC magazine and all, there is another methodwhich doesn't involve any leads at all. And this requires acomputer.
If you keep media files on a hard disk, or you just want everythingto run from one place, you can abandon the need for separateDVD/VCR players, hard disk recorders and digital set top boxes - oreven the need to have the PC in the same room - and use WirelessMedia Adapters. You just need the appropriate card and router to'talk' to your TV, and then you can control it all remotely over aLAN.
Media Center PCs are becoming increasingly common because the ideaof having everything in one box is getting very appealing. I haveminimal kit in my flat but seem to need four remote controls. Butusing Media Center, I could lose the stereo, TV, video recorder,digital box and all their relevant paraphernalia.
But it also provides some other features that you would only beable to get otherwise with a bit of thought and some extra cabling.For example, Media Center can record from two channels whilstallowing you to watch a further one at the same time. You can burnprogrammes instantly to DVD or CD from the hard disk rather thanonly getting one chance when the show is transmitted. You've gotaccess to Internet radio (huge options there), somewhere to showall your photographs, and a flashy front-end from which to controlit all.
There are still some problems you might encounter using thissystem. The first is satellite and cable television, which willrequire a coaxial cable to be connected to the PC, as you can't usewireless. You might well need some serious USB and SVG extensioncables depending on where you want the keyboard and monitor (ifyou're using one) to go in relation to the computer. And if youdon't already have a Media Center-enabled PC...you'll have to goout and spend some money to get one. Which you may or may notregard as a 'problem'!
Surround Sound: A Warning
When you first get it, Dolby Pro Logic or Dolby Digital isfantastic. It blows standard NICAM so far out of the water that youwonder how anybody enjoyed watching TV without it.
And then you watch your first horror film. Please keep a note ofhow many times you had to leave your seat to check that there wasno intruder skulking about in the next room, or upstairs, or on theroof. My parents got so sick of unidentified noises that theyremoved the rear speakers so that they could at least watch thenews without believing they were the next people to appear onCrimewatch.
Projectors: The Really Technical Stuff
If you do go down the projector route, it won't be long before youdiscover that there is a bewildering array of facts and figureswhich is supposed to 'inform' your choice.
First off is the brightness level. This is measured in 'ANSIlumens'. A standard projector outputs at about 1000 lumens, but ifyou've got a lot of ambient light in the room (bad curtains,streetlights just outside) then you can go for 2000 or 3000, atgreater expense. Remember: you can't get darker, only lighter. Aprojector only works with what it's got to begin with.
For PC users, you'll have a resolution issue. Dedicated home cinemaprojectors always use widescreen and therefore WVGA (854 x 480pixels), WSVGA (1024 x 576 pixels) or WXGA (1280 x 720 pixels). Butif you don't have widescreen output on your PC, you'll be usingSVGA (800x600), or XGA (1024x768). Trying to stuff an XGA signalthough an SVGA projector can really muck up your image, so becareful what you're using.
Then there's the choice of LCD or DLP. In an LCD projector, thelight is filtered through red, blue and yellow LCD panels toproduce a full colour image. But DLP converts light straight into afull colour image, meaning that the projector can be far smaller.It can, however, affect the accuracy of the colours you see, sosize versus quality becomes an issue.
And finally...keystone correction and lens shift. Both of thesemethods help to produce a squarer, and therefore better-looking,image. Keystone correction does this digitally, by compressing theimage in certain places to counteract any errors, and lens shiftdoes it physically by adjusting the angle of the lens (it's thesame difference as optical versus digital zoom in a camera - oneactually adjusts the image, whereas the other 'simulates' it).