For the past several years, I have spent countless hours researching and planning products, technologies, and designs for my home theater that I intend to build someday. I have always been the type that plans such large and elaborate projects that they will take years to accomplish, but I feel that this is one of those ventures that will be better the more I plan. I will only be rewarded by my extensive planning and research.

Now that I have chosen to change the focus of my blog, I would like to begin a series of ongoing posts discussing research and designs I have in mind for my future home theater. I hope that my discussions will help others in the same planning stages, and encourage comments from others that have done research, build home theaters, and are interested in the subject.

A little background… I love movies. I have always loved movies. I have a collection of over 800 DVDs, and growing perpetually. I have always been involved in technology, and have long wanted to integrate my love for both into a common ground. The logical and most rewarding (to me) choice here, was to plan and build a home theater. Now, when I say home theater, I don’t mean a room that is converted to a viewing room part time, I mean a light controlled, acoustically sound room dedicated to the display of movies.

Some of my initial decisions that I have used to help guide my research was what technologies I would focus on, and what equipment I had available already. This analysis helped me build a starting point for my designs. My areas of focus on the project are to make a system that is easy to use, technologically sound and scaleable, and of high enough quality to impress yet stay within a reasonable budget. In the long run, I expect that my theater will end up costing me close to $20k, but entails more than just my dedicated theater, as the technology I chose to work with entails more of a whole-home system, with a dedicated viewing room.

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing a series of posts discussing what I have chosen, what research I have done and am still doing, and what my progress is as I continue. I encourage anyone and everyone to post comments to suggest products, provide ideas, ask questions, etc. I will be happy to research your question and provide a summary of the results for you.