If you wish to convert an empty room into a state-of-the-art media room, you need to know that simply mounting a huge TV on a wall is not enough. A media room should offer so much more in terms of providing a perfect environment for enjoying movies, concerts, sporting events or anything else you like watching.
Also, if you’re short of spare rooms, you might install the equipment in your living room, but you need to make sure that the room actually serves its original purpose once you switch off the entertainment system. Whatever the situation, here are some basic tips on setting up a media room that will give you, your family and friends the chance to enjoy a great experience.
Make the most of your space
Depending on the dimensions of the room, you’ll have to adjust the setup of your entertainment system. Ideally, you’ve chosen a rectangular room with no tiles or hardwood, since these won’t give you the optimal audio experience. Instead, go for a wall-to-wall carpet or some other absorptive surface.
When it comes to lighting, you should avoid having direct sunlight shining on the screen in the late afternoon, because that will ruin the picture. If that’s not possible, make sure you have some window blinds. Also, consider installing dimmer lights, so that you can regulate the amount of light in order to achieve the best possible result.
Picture
This is possibly the most important aspect of the overall experience and you have to make the right decision when it comes to choosing your new TV. LCDs and LEDs are a great option if your room is bright, with a lot of natural light. On the other hand, plasma displays are excellent at providing high contrast and a richer image. Similarly, they usually have better viewing angles, which might be important considering the shape of the room and how you arrange the seating area.
There are also OLED screens, which are a great option as well and consume even less energy than all other ones, so that might be the way to go for you. Finally, if your room is big enough and you’d like to have a really large picture, you might opt for a combination of a projector and screen for the ultimate experience.
Sound
Another crucial element when it comes to media rooms is definitely sound. It is rare nowadays to find anyone who uses just the built-in speakers that come with the TV. The current standards are 5.1 or 7.1 stereo surround systems with a subwoofer. The problem you may have is how to conceal wires if you haven’t already wired the room before installing drywall, but that too can be solved by choosing wireless speakers or a soundbar, which should give you a good enough sound.
You may also wish to make another addition to the system in the form of a receiver, which will make it possible for you to use various sources for playing videos. This is quite a useful feature, since you won’t be restricted to just one source and you can experiment with different options.
Hooking it up
Once you’ve selected all the elements, you need to get down to connecting them all properly, so that you can finally enjoy the fruit of your labor. Learn how to get the latest firmware for your TV to stay updated with new features that might have become available and fix any possible bugs. To do this, make sure to follow the equipment manufacturer’s instructions to the letter.
You’ll need to be careful that you have all the right cables and that you know where to put each of them. Luckily, you don’t need to be an expert for this, just follow the instructions and look at the pictures that are usually provided. Finally, get a good quality universal remote control to avoid having to deal with many different remotes for each device.
If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll finally be able to entertain yourself, your family and friends, which is one of the most important benefits of having a media rom in your home in the first place.
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