Introduction

Home cinema is a term which has sprung up during the last couple of years, and the business of creating a cinema like audio experience in your own lounge has really taken off since the DVD revolution gripped the world.

10 years ago, people were plugging their VCR's into their stereos and getting NICAM stereo sound out of two big, powerful speakers and producing an all-round better audio experience than using the, frankly awful, built in TV speakers. A few years later, Dolby Pro-Logic started appearing, and people buying new TV's had the option of buying them with Pro-Logic support, which usually meant that the TV came with a couple of small rear speakers to produce a reasonable surround sound effect.

And that's pretty much how things stayed until the dawn of the DVD (I won't mention laser disks)

DVD's have almost become the preferred format for films these days - they are relatively cheap, small and easy to store, can hold vast amounts of data so you not only get the film, but also trailers, out-takes, music scores etc, and of course the picture quality is perfect. But the thing which many people seem to ignore is that DVD's have un-reviled audio quality. DVD's usually come standard with a Pro-Logic soundtrack which can be played back on anyone's TV whether they can support the limited surround sound this format offers or not. But DVD's also very often carry the Dolby Digital or even a DTS audio formats. These two formats are no good for your regular TV but can be fed into an audio/visual receiver, which coupled with some front, rear and centre speakers, produce cinema quality surround sound in your own front room!

Ask yourself what you get from a visit to the cinema. Well, apart from the obvious social side of it and the enormous screen, probably the biggest contributor to the atmosphere when you're watching the film is the sound. Cinemas spend thousands of pounds to create the perfect audio experience and that's usually what you miss when you later on watch the film at home. Why miss it? Why not just add cinema sound to your home?

Now, a few years ago, this sort of technology was quite expensive - DVD players alone were a few hundred pounds and AV amplifiers were often £500 or more. Speakers vary, but you were looking at little under £200 per pair. So if you had a grand to spare - it was do-able. This was too much for most of us. Fortunately, times have changed, and like any new technology, prices have come down rapidly. You can now get DVD players for under £100, AV amps for under £200 and speakers can be had for under £50 a pair. This all means that you can have quite a reasonable home cinema setup in your own home for under £500. Of course, many people start small and upgrade - spending even less than this and then building up with better quality equipment as their budget allows.

The picture below shows an ideal home cinema layout. A large screen TV with a centre speaker on the top, seating placed facing it and then front and rear speakers positioned equally around the room, and even a sub-woofer behind the sofa for that really stomach churning bass.

Now few peoples lounges look like this and probably very few ever will, but you can get quite close with minimal disruption. You may already have a DVD player in the lounge - many households do these days - that's less to buy. You may have some old but reasonable quality stereo speakers laying about which you can use as either fronts or rears. If this is the case, then you would only need to buy the AV receiver, and a few speakers. Under 300 quid would do it. All that's then required is some careful positioning of speakers and maybe moving your seating or TV a little if you're really after the perfect audio experience.

It really is worth doing, if you at all enjoy watching films regularly. If you already have a large screen TV and/or DVD player then you are already half-way there and really shouldn't miss out. If you spend copious amounts at the cinema then why not do the odd movie in your own cinema instead?

What are you waiting for then!.........