DIY Network

The Big Picture Find out how to create the perfect home theater. From "Home Theater" episode DHTW-101

Corey Greenberg, a technology expert, will be your guide to creating the perfect home theater in DIY's five-part Home Theater Workshop.

Home theaters are all the rage now, and it wouldn't take much to build one in your home. Host Corey Greenberg, a technology expert, shows you the hottest gear and latest technology in order for you to build your very own home theater in this five-part DIY Home Theater Workshop.

Home theaters are dramatically changing the way we watch television these days. Big screens and big sound are becoming the number one choice for most consumers.

When talking about home theater, we mean the marriage of large-screen video and surround-sound audio. Your home theater can be as simple as a big-screen television and basic surround sound in your family room, or you can have a dedicated room designed with digital components, a dropdown screen and booming speakers throughout the room for an all-around movie-theater experience.

No matter what type of home theater you choose, it's first important to realize that we as a culture are moving into a digital age.

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Analog vs. Digital

Analog is what we've had for years--VHS, cassette, eight tracks are all examples of analog, which sends electricity in the form of a continuous wave that reproduces the sound.

Digital formats--DVDs and CDs--send pulses of electricity that represent the zeros and ones that computers can understand. Digital has a lot of advantages, including the fact that you can record repeatedly with high quality and the diskettes don't tend to wear out like cassettes can.

	Plasma Screen
	LCD Screen

Size Does Matter When It Comes to Home Theaters

For the best view, buy a television that's 27" or larger. You also need to decide on a type of screen, and there are lots of choices:

• Plasma--Plasma displays use more than a million, tiny fluorescent picture tubes to make up the image. It gets its name because all fluorescent lights contain plasma.

  Plasma screens are flat, as small as 3" thick, which is a real advantage if you want to save space in your home theater. Plasma screens can be pricey, costing from $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the size and quality.

  Plasma screens are also susceptible to "burn in," which means if you leave your TV on a channel that has a static image on it for long periods of time, you run the risk of having the image permanently burned into your screen. For this reason, plasma screens are "not" recommended for video games.

• LCD -- This is another flat screen that's extremely popular right now. LCD stands for "liquid crystal display" and it uses the same technology as a laptop computer screen. These screens cost anywhere between $700 and $5,000, and they can be as slim as 2". There's no danger of "burn in" -- and they have a long lifespan.

  But when compared to plasma screens, LCD screens do have their limitations. Many experts believe plasma has the better quality picture. It comes in larger sizes (up to 70" or 80" diagonally), while LCD is limited to approximately 50" now. Plasma has truer black levels, so you get better contrast and detail in the black, where LCD is a little grayer. LCD also has what's called a "slow refresh rate," which means if you have a fast moving object, the edges of it will appear blurred as it goes across the screen.

  In the smaller size screens, LCD's are wonderful sets -- great to put in the bathroom, kitchen or under a counter. The larger sizes are looking better all the time, and for some people they're fine, but a plasma screen would definitely be the ultimate choice.

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