Replica phonograph for your steampunk themed TV room.

I am not really all that keen on themed home theaters. It is highly unlikely that anyone ever intends to watch only movies that go with a certain media room decor. At the very best, you will eventually become blind to all the niceties you spend lots of money on, so only visitors can truly appreciate your efforts. But maybe that's worth it to you?

Anyway, I am rather partial to steampunk design principles. However, my interpretation of steampunk is a bit demanding. I want to see brand new objects, designed according to the aesthetics of the age of steam. They must be well-made and fully functional. If you share these lofty ideas, here is an item that would be a great addition to a suitable media room. This phonograph is a replica of and old Gramophone, but apart from a turntable it features a CD player and AM/FM radio. The replica is produced by Technosonic.

If you don't need modern audio capabilities, this replica RCA (sold on Amazon) is perhaps even more stylish. It comes complete with the famous "His Master's Voice" logo. The design is from the early 1900s (1902-1916, to be more precise). Of course, it would be silly to use this little gem on a regular basis to play 78 rpm records. But it suffices to know that it would work, should you ever have to use it!

Home theater power conditioner and battery backup

Home theater power conditioner is probably something you have to worry about only if you have a very serious system in place. Also known as AC regenerators, these devices take AC wall power converts it to DC power, and then reconverts it back to "clean" AC power. The idea behind this is to protect your equipment and possibly improve the quality of image/sound. A backup battery is something that you should think about if you live in an area with frequent blackouts and generally unstable electric power. Not a bad thing to have if you want to make sure that your devices do not have to be reinitialized every time there is a power outage. Both these features (power conditioning and battery backup), along with voltage regulation are combined (rather inexpensively!) in APC AV H15 Home Theater 1500VA Power Filter and Power Conditioner:

From APC's power engineering labs comes the H Type Power Conditioner, a single unit that delivers pure, stable power for high performance AV. The preferred choice of power protection for high performance home entertainment systems, the H Type Power Conditioner combines surge protection, isolated noise filtering, and voltage regulation. Finally, there's a solution that eliminates stress on component power supplies, eradicates EMI/RFI and voltage fluctuation as a source of AV signal degradation, and protects equipment from damaging surges, spikes, voltages fluctuations, and lightning.

See also:
ButtKicker home theater subwoofer - audio connection to the action
Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons

Hip and chic TVs - home theater meets fashion

This may be one of the most overlooked aspects of media room design: the actual TVs! It is usually taken for granted that the TV you are picking for your home media room is the right size, preferably 1080p, has a nice viewable angle and so on. Modern TVs are simply indistinguishable from each other: big black rectangles. Very rarely a little bit of silver or white is introduced. This, however, is only the impression you will get when visit the show rooms. Some manufacturers have limited edition TVs that can easily become true centerpieces of your design.

A very simple route to achieve an ultra modern and almost futuristic view is to make a very thin TV, and many companies have just such sets. Such is the Hitachi's 1.5 series:



JVC has a similar series named Procision. Slim TVs are also available from Sharp, LG and Panasonic.

Samsung has a line called Touch of Color. Here is the description:
While the crystal-like bezel frame catches light beautifully, it actually reduces reflection of light off the bezel. And since the rich red color is injection molded for a blown glass effect, instead of spray painted, there is less environmental impact. It's easy on your eyes as well as on the environment.



Sharp Aquos SE94 is said to have a "cornerstone design." This involves " textured finish with eye-catching corner accents and detachable bottom speakers to match modern home décors."

Swappable bezels (similar to software skins and cell phone panels that were popular not too long ago) are also used in Sony's XBR series.

In most cases, these hip TV sets are just as attractive in terms of tech features as their black rectangle counterparts. If you want to make your TV stand out, check out what's available! You may be surprised by the ever expanding options.

Home theater speakers in stereo mode: design perspective

Most owners of surround systems know that they can play music CDs or enjoy great quality from other sources of stereo sound, such as satellite radio or even turn-tables. The surround home theater system can attempt to use all the speakers you have installed, or you can disable the surround mode. The second option probably produces better sound that is more true to the original recording, because the center speaker is disabled. One problem, however, remains. Your home theater system is calibrated and focused with the big screen as its main feature. Now, do you really want to sit in front of a blank screen listening to your favorite music? Probably not. In fact, there is something very unsettling about this. And yet, this is what you would have to do, if you want to hear the music at its best. There is a solution, however. You can set up a mode in which the home theater system will use the rear and the side (left or right speakers), thus focusing the audio on a different corner of the room. Add comfortable seating in that corner and you have a whole new way of enjoying music in your home.

Home media room - how to justify having one in your house

It is quite obvious that anyone who has doubts about their immediate financial situation should stay away from major home improvement projects, whatever they might be. For the rest of us, here are a few ideas that should help justify upgrading to a better movie/sports watching experience at home.

1. A lot of people would like to have a larger TV screen. I believe it is a mistake to get the biggest set you can afford and plop it in the focal center of whatever room you use to watch TV all the time. Here is why. At this point in time we have a great discrepancy in the quality of television signals that we feed into our TVs. There is Blu-ray, HD broadcasts, regular DVDs, SD digital broadcasts, regular cable channels, VCR tapes etc. The problem is that although Blu-ray discs will look good on pretty much any size TV screen you have, blowing up the picture of a regular SD cable broadcast would reveal extremely low quality (compared to Blu-ray). The simplest way to deal with that is to avoid watching such sources of the screen that is too large. This, in my opinion, justifies creating a separate media room where you will only watch high-quality content.

2. Human psychology is such that we get used to everything. It is a very simple fact that once you start watching everything on the biggest TV screen you can get very soon this will not feel special to you at all. Imagine if you spent several hours at the movie theater every night watching everything from movies, to nightly news. This would get old very soon. I believe that home movie experience is something that must be cherished and kept as something special. Using a huge TV or a projection screen for all your viewing needs will quickly cheapen this experience. So, the solution is to have a home media room and (also important!) not to use it too much.

3. This is perhaps a minor point, but things like that do add up on the scale of the entire countly. The bigger the screen, the more energy it consumes. If you are watching a news report about energy crises and global warming on a "65 plasma TV you are not a credit to humanity (unless you are strangely interested in Katy Curic's dental work). Limit the use of a bigger screen for special occasions. You will be happy you did (see above).

Home theater - choosing the best room

Granted, not everybody has the option of choosing between several rooms in order to designate a potential home theater. But even if you have a choice of only two spaces, these tips may be helpful. Also, you may see a great deal of problems with the room you have already set your heart on before even installing all the equipment, saving yourself a monumental audio-visual failure.

1. Do not pick a room that is too big. Generally speaking, the larger a room the more difficult it is to properly fill it with sound. By selecting a large room for the home theater you increase the chances of having to invite a professional or spend a long time figuring out the best placement for the speakers and additional elements that can improve the sound. Also, the size of the room will determine the size of the screen. Not a big problem if you were going with a projection system, but if your plan was to use a plasma TV the price tag may turn out not too accommodating.

2. Avoid perfectly square rooms. They tend to produce some strange sounds. A rectangle would be ideal, especially if you are going to place the screen on the narrow side. The wall behind the screen should not have any windows or doors.

3. It should be relatively easy to keep the room dark. You may have to install curtains on the windows.

4. It is great if the walls are muted. Dark gray or black walls are best. Avoid shiny surfaces, they can create a lot of glare. Be prepared to install drapes throughout the room to absorb ambient light.

5. The ceiling should not be too high. Sound can become trapped in the upper part of the room, it can also resonate and echo. Sometimes hanging drapes or partitions can create a smaller space in a large room.

6. You want to have a good rug in the media room. Hardwood floors, so desirable in the kitchen, would be a glaring nightmare in a home theater. The sound would also bounce from a tile or wood floor.

Media room lighting

1. Avoid natural ambient light in your home theater room. Lighting is very important in any theater, and there is no reason why you should allow something unpredictable and unmanagable as outside light to ever enter the room where you watch movies and sports. The simplest way to address this issue is to have no windows at all. This is a big reason why basements are such a good choice for creating media room. If this option is unavailable, install heavy curtains or blackout shades (they will also cut off the outside noise). Motorized drapes may be useful, because they would make it easier to convert the media room to serve other purposes during the day.
2. If possible, integrate the lighting into the entire home theater system. This means that your media room will benefit from having a designer work on the lighting early on. Ideally, you want to have control over the sources of light in the media room from the same remote that you use to manipulate your electronic equipment.
   
3. It is a very good idea to have several lighting presents. This way the lighting in the room can be changed quickly to accommodate the needs of the moment. Otherwise you will be going from switch to switch, changing the levels. Yes, the levels, which brings us to the next point.
4. You should always have a few lights at low levels when you are watching a movie. Just enough to see your snacks and so on. Soft recessed lighting will suffice, and there is no need to worry about any interferance with the TV or projector, because the contrast between the screen and the rest of the room will remain just fine.
5. Consider using floor level track lights, like the ones you see in a movie theater.
   
6. Avoid using shiny fabrics and materials in your home theater furniture. A shiny leather chair will reflect the light and create unwanted glare. Microfiber furniture is probably the best solution.

See also:
Media rooms pictures
Media room furniture