Almost every film fan dreams of his own cinema: with comfortable seats and with a self-determined film program. What used to be a dream in the days of analog projectors is now quite feasible since the digitalization of the film world. Where you place your home theater is less a question of the size of the room than of how well the components fit together: "the distance to the picture should be at least two to two and a half times the width of the screen", recommends wolfgang fleischer, author of various guides on the subject of home cinema. A projector that can project an image over two meters away can only really be used to its full potential in rooms that are more than six meters long. In an average living room of between 15 and 20 square meters, coarser plasma and LCD screens or a smaller screen are therefore more appropriate.
And thanks to modern beamer technology, you don't have to install the cinema in a lightless basement. Because with the light output of today's projectors of around 1500 to 2000 ansi lumens, you no longer have to darken the entire room. Nevertheless, the less light from the outside, the better the picture. Plasma and LCD screens, on the other hand, have no problem with daylight – at least in maben. They should therefore not be placed directly opposite windows.
Another important element: the screen. In principle, it is possible to simply project onto a white wall. But be careful: the picture quality suffers greatly. Nevertheless, you don't have to build a bulky, rigid screen in your living room; motorized roller systems are available for 300 to 400 euros. The bottom edge of the screen should be no more than one meter from the floor. Ideally, the center of the image is at about viewing height.
The question of sound remains: the center speaker is important, as it must be located in the middle in order to fix the image. The surround loudspeakers must be placed about one meter above the ceiling to simulate room size and create atmosphere.
Complete systems offer the advantage that the technology is already ideally matched to each other. You should be prepared for costs of 4000 euros. If you have high expectations, you can quickly invest a few million dollars.
Laser projector
After about 3000 hours, it's time to call it quits: that's when you have to change the lamp on conventional beamers. Often an expensive undertaking. The future lies in light-emitting diodes (leds), but because this technology is still too expensive for beamers, manufacturers are using a different technical solution: lasers. The company acer even relies on a hybrid technology and showed the projector K750 at ifa 2012. With full HD resolution, 20 000 hours of lamp life, a brightness of 1 500 ansi lumens and a contrast of 100 000 : 1. Purchase price of the K750: 2499 euro.
3D projector
Hollywood has rediscovered 3D technology, and movie theaters with three-dimensional projection are welcoming new audiences. But the special viewing value is not reserved for coarse screens: 3D is already moving into the living room, for example in the form of home cinema projectors. One of these is the panasonic PT-AT6000E: brightness of 2400 ansi lumens, a contrast of 500,000 : 1 and, thanks to special optics, also suitable for cinemascope projections (image ratio 21 : 9). The projector can of course also reproduce 2D and is said to cost 2799 euros.
3D glasses
No space for the coarse screen? For the movie enthusiast there is another alternative: 3D glasses. And because this works mainly with small technology, the HMZ-T2 version from sony uses the promising organic light-emitting diodes (oleds). Instead of normal eyeglass lenses, the HMZ-T2 has two postage-stamp-sized OLED screens. Their resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels should lead to the illusion of a huge canvas when looking at both pictures. The glasses are considered to be particularly lightweight, the integrated headphones offer different sound modes that provide a virtual 360 degree hor experience with 5.1 channels should simulate. The sales price should be 999 euros. Pa
Home theater systems
The main advantage of a complete system for the cinema in your own home: unlike individual components, you get a comparatively inexpensive and, above all, perfectly coordinated system.
When deciding which system is the right one, one's own visual habits should play a role above all else. Collectors of special DVD collections will be interested in still being able to enjoy their old dvds despite the small resolution. Then the integrated blu-ray player should "blow up" these films to HD in good quality can. This function is called upscaling.
1080/24p capability is also important for the player. This means that the picture is output at the cinema frequency of 24 full frames per second and thus fairly close to the original. Equally important is the sound quality. With blu-ray, you benefit from the new HD sound formats, i.E. Dolby digital plus, dolby true HD and DTS-HD. However, the system must be equipped with a suitable decoder. In terms of loudspeakers, there is a choice between virtual surround technology in the form of a 2.1-box sets and true multi-channel systems with 5.1-, 6.1- or 7.1-speaker sets. Virtual surround technology uses reflections from the wall or specially arranged chassis to produce surround sound.
Virtual systems are much more compact than real multi-channel systems, but do not deliver the same results. In addition, the connection options are important: the system should also have inputs for game consoles, TV receivers and MP3 players. Modern interfaces such as USB-3.0-host and SD card reader were also not to be missing.