Picture yourself in the comfort of your own home, relaxing in your plush, custom made leather home theater seating, watching the movie you never got to see in the theater because things came up and you were busy, and now it’s on DVD. Get the picture? Once you’ve had the pleasure of viewing a great movie in a home theater setup, chances are you’ll forgo the crowds at the movies and opt for your cozy surroundings where you can fully relax.

Setting up your own home theater system is not at all difficult. If you’re new to home theater, you might feel more comfortable purchasing a bundled home theater system. Once you’ve hooked up the various components to your TV, you’ll be ready to enjoy your own home theater. A number of manufacturers such as Pioneer, Panasonic and Sony offer some of the best home theater systems for easy, do-it yourself home theater setup. Depending on your room size and other needs, you can find high quality systems that require little or no expert knowledge to set up.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for full immersion into the home theater experience and crave all the bells and whistles, then you’ll want to consult with a professional for a custom home theater design. The consultant can guide you on everything from room size to power requirements to support your new home theater system. If you’re a die hard do-it-yourselfer, then visit different retailers to explore what’s available or coming into the market.

The key to selecting the best equipment for your home theater system is to do your research prior to shopping. Makes sense, but you’ll be surprised how many people go to the store and buy either the cheapest or most expensive system on the shelf without first considering whether the product is right for their needs. Most people spend a lot of time researching a new car purchase. They’ll read different reviews and consumer safety reports or best buy guides, before deciding on a make and model. It should be the same for a home theater system. Expensive doesn’t necessarily equate with quality, so you should read various reviews to learn about the pros and cons of different components.

Ultimately, the best home theater system boils down to getting the most enjoyment out of whatever you can afford. Setting up a basic system that will accommodate both your current needs and plans for future upgrades is a smart move. With just a HDTV, a good speaker system and subwoofer setup, a receiver and a DVD player, you have all you need to deliver cinema quality to your own home theater.

You know that great feeling of being able to relax at home after a long day’s work. Even better than that is coming home to enjoy your personal home theater. But, think what would happen if the seating were uncomfortable. What good is the rest of the home theater experience if you have to constantly shift around to find that perfect spot? If you are to really enjoy your home theater, you need to be comfortable in it.

There are a couple of things you should consider before buying your home theater seating. Obviously, the piece of home theater furniture itself needs to be comfortable. Most major furniture retailers have entire sections devoted to home theater furnishings. Test drive a couple of seats in stores that cater to home theater setup and check out your “comfort zone”. Better yet, consider hiring a home theater design consultant. That person will be able to advise you as to your best options.

If you’re on a budget, a comfortable recliner could work just as beautifully as a high tech ergonomic massage chaise with built-in plug-ins. Consider home theater seating that’s easy to maintain. Spills and stains will be inevitable when you're caught up in the action. A well-made piece of furniture can probably withstand abuse a lot better than a designer showpiece.

Your home theater seating and layout can be anything that you can dream it to be. There is a wide range of seating options available. For example, you may enjoy theater seating that looks just like standard movie theater chairs with folding seats and cup and popcorn holders, or you may find that high end leather seats which are the most luxurious that money can buy are better suited to your tastes. Or, simply having a bunch of huge, comfy pillows or bean bags may provide just the ambiance you want.

Home theater seating doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. The key is comfort and finding what works perfectly within your home theater setup.

Basically, you'll need at least a 27-inch television set, a DVD player, preferably with a progressive scan option and a set of at least three speakers. If you're going to buy a new television set, look for HDTV-enabled or HDTV compatibility. All new TVs are required to have that capability, so finding one within your budget should not be hard. DVD players are also quite inexpensive these day, but if you can fit in a Blu-ray player, that's the way to go. A better and easier choice might be to purchase a home-theater-in-a-box system, which will provide the DVD player, receiver and the speakers in one package to save you even more money!

Easy Home Theater Setup

Position your TV first, directly in front of your seating area. Next, place the speakers around the room: one on each side of the den and one in the rear center of your den. The idea is to achieve a configuration around your seating area, looking toward the TV. Place the DVD player near the television set, either under it or above it. An entertainment center would be a good choice to keep things neat and attractive. You don't have to change the layout of your den to suit your home theater setup. By simply rearranging your furniture and allocating a section of your den to your home theater system, you can still enjoy a home theater and continue to use your den for other purposes.

Now, you can kick back and relax at the end of a long day with your favorite show. Think how nice it'd be to load up on popcorn and candy or enjoy your personal dinner theater, without having to dig any deeper into your wallet. With your new home theater setup, you can pause the movie, rewind to see a particular scene, or fast forward to the good parts. Now, how cool is that?

Aside from the home theater system components, basic home theater furniture, such as chairs and entertainment armoires, is what defines your home theater set up. Other furniture that will enhance the home theater set up may be nice, but the home theater chairs and television cabinet are two of the basic pieces of home theater furniture that you’ll want to spend time looking for.

When shopping for home theater furniture, seating is probably the major consideration. The television cabinet is a secondary consideration of home theater furniture. Adding other home theater furniture will give more character to your home theater system, but without proper seating, you’re just not going to enjoy your home theater experience as much.

The most popular type of home theater seating mimic movie theater seats with built-in cup holders and have the added comfort of thick padding and seats that recline at the touch of a button. Once you’ve sat in one of these specially designed theater seats, you won’t want to go back to plain old chairs. Of course, one of these babies will set you back $1,000 or more.

If that’s too pricey, and you can live without the high-tech seating, but still crave comfort, why not check out a regular recliner? You, know, the kind your dad used to lounge around in. These can be unbelievably comfortable and considerably less expensive. Look for thick padding, durable material and quality workmanship. Check online for home theater furniture and you’ll be sure to grab a super deal on a quality recliner that doubles as your home theater seating. Place a small end table nearby and it’ll be the favorite seat in the house!

A professional home theater design consultant will be able to assess your home theater needs and make recommendations specific to your space and wallet. A home theater design consultant can measure out your space to determine the placement of various home theater components from speakers to home theater seating arrangements to optimize your listening and viewing experience. Major retailers like Best Buy or Circuit City often have in-house consultants to provide guidance for their customers. Even furniture retailers now have entire sections of the store devoted to home theater and can refer a professional home theater design consultant to you. Your home theater designer should be knowledgeable about the latest components and will be able to design the home theater with everything you need for your ideal home theater.

What if you can't afford the services of a home theater design consultant or if top of the line components are not in the budget? If you have a small budget, visit some showrooms to get an idea of what's available. Ask the salesperson for recommendations in your price range. This is the ideal situation for the home theater do-it-yourselfer.

Keep in mind that the listening rooms in most stores may be acoustically enhanced, so some speakers that sound great in the store may turn out to be awful when you set them up at home. Find out your store's policy for returns and make sure you can return or exchange before you commit to a purchase. This is true with online purchases as well.

Once you get an idea of layout and costs, you can proceed with your own home theater design and save money in the process by shopping online for your home theater system components.

Surround Sound

Surround sound will give great sound effects to home theater systems. The reason why movie theaters have amazing sound quality is that there are speakers strategically placed around the theater to create a feeling of being immersed in a picture, rather than just hearing it from one angle.

The Movie Screen / TVs

The next component of a true movie theater is the movie screen. Ideally, a home theater should have a large screen for viewing. The larger the screen, the easier it is to get caught up in the flow of the movie. There are options available for screens, from big screen TVs to projection screens, both of which are very popular. If you can't swing a large screen or plasma TV, a minimum of 32' HDTV will do until you can upgrade. Honestly speaking, anything smaller than that detracts from the experience.

DVD Players

A good quality DVD player that will be hooked up to the home theater is highly recommended. Be sure to stay away from DVD players that are too cheap as they often have poor sound and picture quality.  The better DVD players have progressive scan capabilities and are worth the few extra dollars. Blu-ray players are still a bit pricey, but well worth the money since the clarity in both sight and sound can be astounding.

Home Theater Systems Projectors

Projectors aren’t vital to home theater systems, but play a big role in the way that movies are displayed. The best way to describe the use of a projector is that it makes everything seem so much clearer. This will add to the movie theater experience and the feeling of being a part of the movie rather than just watching it.

The Home Theater Receiver

The receiver is another part of the home theater experience that is important. What a receiver does is to receive the signals from other attached devices such as VCRs, DVDs and cable or satellite dishes and sends them to other devices such as the television and surround sound devices. Top-of-the-line receivers often have built-in devices in them already such as Blu-ray DVD players and other media players. These systems are popular and a cheaper option than having separate units.

Designing the Home Theater Room

Once the home theater system has been chosen, it's time to "dress the room up" to make it look and sound like a theater should. Home theater furniture is designed especially to make it easier to arrange your components to achieve pleasing visual, sound and aesthetic effects. To begin with, the speakers need to be arranged strategically around the room. It is important to have at least 3 speakers in the front of the theater and around 2 to 3 on the sides and behind where you will be sitting. This provides the optimal surround sound effect.

This is common sense, but the television needs to be placed right in front of the couch or seating area. Special attention to the distance between the television and home theater seating needs to be taken. Being too close to the picture will make it seem to have poor quality and being too far away will make the theater experience seem less realistic.

The room will also need to be easy to darken on demand. This can be achieved by adding light blocking curtains and/or blinds to windows. Curtained or fabric lined walls will also help acoustics, especially if the home theater is a top-of-the-line system. Carpets on the floors will also help the acoustics and stop noises from bouncing and vibrating around the room. Once you have the system set up and ready there is only one thing left to do, that is...enjoy your new home theater!

How hard is it to design your own home theater? The home theater room design that you decide on should be one that will encompass your “must-haves” and “can only do’s”. It doesn’t really matter whether you are designing a large area that will be dedicated to your home theater and features projectors and screens, full surround sound speakers and theater style seating or a simple home theater that is just a high definition television with surround sound, you should plan your home theater room design carefully.

It makes sense to spend some time researching your options before deciding on what’s right for your needs and won’t bust the wallet. A home theater is a solid investment that will provide a continuous return on your entertainment dollars.

If your budget is limited, then start off small. Most people already have a television set and may just need the surround sound components. You can set up a small home theater in a spare room and still enjoy the full effects of a movie theater experience.

Think about, nothing beats the thrill of watching your favorite team driving down the field for the winning touchdown in the final seconds of the Super Bowl. Short of being there physically, think of how awesome it would be to watch that game on a mega-sized flat screen, in your own home, with your family and best friends. Picture yourself during the next Super Bowl, now picture yourself enjoying it from the comfort of your own home with your new state-of-the art custom home theater.