Home Theater Tips

So, you want a home theater, but don’t know where to start?  Here are a few tips from the experts at Platinum that can save you time, money and frustration.  We’ve presented them in a sort of Q and A format.  If you have your own questions, please email them to us, and we’ll try to answer them, and perhaps add them to this page.
1. “Do I have to do it myself?”
You are not alone!  Putting together a home theater is more than picking out equipment and wiring it up.  Think of a home theater as a total system, including the room (walls, ceilings, floors, seats, furnishings, decorations, lighting, etc.).  None of us are specialist in every area, so don’t be afraid to call in the troops!  Many think that doing it all themselves saves money.  Perhaps, but consider this: if you wanted to paint your car, but had never done it before, would you run out and buy paint and spray away, or would you call an expert, realizing that painting it wrong would cost you more than having someone help you paint it right the first time?  Same thing is true with home theater. 
“What equipment should I get?”
Pick your equipment last!  Funny, but most people think of home theater as equipment first, and grab the catalog that comes in the mail every month to see what to buy.  Frankly, that’s a great way to spend money, but not a great way to get what you really need.  We approach home theater design by defining the needs and budget first, developing a design, and picking out equipment dead last.  Doing it in that order saves you big money!
“I can get it cheaper on the Internet!”
Partially correct!  You may buy it for less money, but the cost of something includes the cost of ownership, and is really measured by the cost of your satisfaction.  When you buy a car, you enter into a relationship with your car and your dealer.  After all, it’s the dealer you’re most likely to go back to if there is a problem.  If the dealer just sold you the car then evaporated, you might get it for less, but what would it cost you in time, frustration and money to handle issues later?  And if the dealer pushes you into a car because he really wants to sell it, rather than it fist your needs, what have you really purchased?  Don’t focus on price, focus on cost. Of course, many items that Platinum Home Thaters provides are not available on the Internet at all, due to their specialized nature. Be sure you are compairing apples and apples!
“Can’t I just get a “Home Theater-in-a-Box”?” 
Sure you can!  In fact, we were recently impressed by a small package with a DVD player, speakers and a projector in a brief case.  Nice idea!  But analyze your long term needs.  Do you want a temporary set-up permanently in your house?  Or would you rather a well engineered system that raises the value of your home?  The “theater-in-a-box” concept has is place, just like the hamburger-in-a-bag.  Yes, it’s food, but you don’t want it for every meal. If your needs do indicate a "theater-in-a-box", call Platinum anyway. We'll help you pick out the best one.
“What about those tiny cube speakers that sound so big?”
Amazing, aren’t they?  And that’s what they were designed to do…amaze.  It’s actually not all that hard to make a tiny speaker sound big.  What’s the trick? Use a big bass speaker that’s hidden!  But as amazing as they are, they aren’t very accurate.  That means they don’t reproduce the original sound faithfully, though they may sound big.  Accurate sound requires speakers that are more than just small and amazing, they have to be able to reproduce the full spectrum of sound without distortion.  There are some smaller speakers that we recommend, and are every bit as amazing as the tiny cubes, but ours are also accurate.  Don’t settle to just be amazed.  Once it wears off, you need to like what you hear to be happy.
“Which High Definition TV should I get?” 
OK, that’s not a fair question!  You might as well ask “What car should I get?”  There are too many answers.  But here are some guide lines.  Recall that Platinum only suggests equipment once the needs are determined, and a room is designed.  So really, the question is out of sequence.  There are several technologies now available, like DLP, Plasma, LCD, and others.  Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and which aspects become important will only be clear once your needs are discovered.  But one thing is true: if you select a TV first, you’ve made a mistake!  The technology is important, but only as it applies to the end design.  Questions like “How big a screen should I get” are very related to how big your room is, how far away you sit, where the screen is mounted, how many people will watch, etc.  And it may surprise you to know that there are actual mathematical formulas that help us determine the answers!  Again, the simple answer is, “don’t try this at home”!  We’re here to  help.
“What about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVDs?  Which should I get?”
At this writing (Feb, 2008) Blu-ray seems to be surfacing as the winner.  In the end, it's not about which system is better, or even which player is cheaper, it's about content, and more movie studios have now begun to produce Blu-ray Discs than HD-DVD.  Recently, Warner Brothers, and subsidiary studios, announced as of March 2008, they will no longer produce HD-DVD discs, and will be Blu-ray exclusive.  The consumer electronics industry has reacted to this announcement as an "end of the war" proclamation, and manufacturers and consumers alike have moved even closer to Blu-ray as the one winning system.

But the reality is, it's not over yet. To date, there have been Blu-ray Disc sales in the millions, but in the first half of 2004, standard DVD sales hit the 3 billion mark.  There's a ways to go yet, and before every consumer has the ability to play a Blu-ray Disc at home, there may well be yet another alternative: Video Download Services.  If the industry is at all cost-driven (and it is) the economy of downloading content has a serious leg-up on disc-based distribution of content.  Studios don't need to make discs, box wraps, or anything physical at all.  The content could be made available to the consumer more economically, and without a trip to the video rental store. 

Last but not least, don't abandon your DVDs yet.  A good up-converting DVD player will afford you a stunning picture that will be so good that many viewers (with 42" screens, for example) won't be able to tell the difference between it and a true HD picture.  Your DVD collection, and all those new DVDs, are not dead yet.
“High Def Cable and Satellite TV…which is better?”
Depends on who you ask!  We’ve heard good and bad reports on both cable and satellite systems.  Since performance is connected with installation quality (for Satellite systems) or the quality of the infrastructure in your neighborhood (for cable), the reasons one may be better than the other are variable, and inconsistent.  Here’s what you really need to know: Cable and Satellite services are highly competitive!  They both want your money, and are willing to work to get it, so let them!  We’ve found that if you don’t like what you are paying for, say cable TV, try this: call up and try to cancel your service!  We’ve done this several times, but have never actually cancelled!  Each time, we’ve been offered a substantial price reduction for a period of time, say six months.  After that time is up, we call again to cancel, and are offered another deal.  Yes, each company has a ‘customer win-back” department.  As an educated consumer, you should make use of this fact, and get your TV service bill lowered with a single phone call!  Watch out for long-term contracts!
“How big a room do I need for my home theater?” “I have only a small space.  What can I do?”
Ideally, a home theater should be about 2000 cubic feet of volume or more, in other words, a typical living room.  But small spaces can work too.  The key is in the design.  We approach each space as unique, and fit the design to the space, and of course, the budget.  Yes, bigger is better, but you can have a small home theater!