Home theaters are entertainment systems that seek to reproduce cinema
quality video and audio in a private home. In the 1950s, home movies became
popular in the United States with Kodak 8 mm film projector equipment became
affordable. The development of multi-channel audio systems and laserdisc in the
1980s created a new paradigm for home theater. In the early to mid 1990's, a
typical home cinema would have a Laserdisc or S-VHS videocassette player fed to
a large rear projection television. In the late 1990s, home theater technology
progressed with the development of DVD, Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio
("surround sound"), and High-Definition Television.
Today, the term "home theater" encompasses a range of systems.
The most basic system could be a $50 DVD player, a standard television ($200),
and a $100 "home theater in a box", a 2.1 speaker system with left
and right speakers and a small 8" subwoofer cabinet. An expensive home
cinema set-up might include a High-Definition DVD format such as Blu-ray, a
60" High-Definition Television with a "cinema-style" 16 X 9
format, a several thousand-watt home theatre receiver with five to seven
surround sound speakers, and a powered subwoofer with a 12" subwoofer. The
most expensive home theater set-ups, which can cost over $100,000 have digital
projectors, expensive screens, and custom-built screening rooms which include
cinema-style chairs and audiophile-grade sound equipment.
Some home cinema enthusiasts go so far as to build a dedicated room in
the home for the theater. These more advanced installations often include
sophisticated acoustic design elements, including "room-in-a-room"
construction that isolates sound and provides the potential for a nearly ideal
listening environment. These installations are often designated as
"screening rooms" to differentiate from simpler installations.
This idea can go as
far as completely recreating an actual cinema, with a projector enclosed in a
projection booth, specialized furniture, a piano or theatre organ, curtains in
front of the projection screen, movie posters, or a popcorn or snack machine.
More commonly, real dedicated home theaters pursue this to a lesser degree.
Presently the days of the $100,000 and over home theater is being usurped by
the rapid advances in digital audio and video technologies, which has spurred a
rapid drop in prices. This in turn has brought the true digital home theater
experience to the doorsteps of the do-it-yourself people, often for less than
what you would expect to pay for a low budget economy car. Current consumer
level A/V equipment can meet and often exceed in performance what you would
expect to experience at a modern commercial theater.
Home theater seating
consists of chairs specifically engineered and designed for viewing movies in a
personal home theater setting. Most home theater seats have cup holder built
into the chairs' armrests and a shared armrest between each seat. Some seating
is movie theater-style chairs like those seen in a movie cinema, which features
a flip up seat cushion. Other seating systems have plush leather reclining
lounger types, with flip-out footrests. Additional features like storage
compartments, snack trays, tactile transducers (nicknamed "Bass
Shakers"), or even electric motors to recline the chair are available,
depending on the model.
Let MTP bring the movie theater experience to life in your home.
MTP offers the finest products and
accessories available for home theater.
