This was a long process. Construction began in 1997. The idea began in the 1970's with my 8mm, and later Super 8mm sound movie camera and projector. I also bought Super 8 sound movies. In reality, Super 8 sound movies were cost prohibitive and the image didn't blow-up all that well. I tried to create a movie theater-like atmosphere in my apartment. That went over like a lead balloon. Anyway, I spent an embarrassing amount of my youth in movie theaters. The idea of creating a theater in my home (the home I didn't have) was only a dream.

Move forward to the mid and late 1990's. Advancements in video technology finally allowed a dream to become reality. The awful low resolution of video tape didn't hold up to the scrutiny of front or rear projection. Laser disc's were a huge jump foward. They did fairly well for rear projection televisions but still fell short for front projection. DVD's were an improvement over Laser disc's. They weren't bad at the time. The video solution arrived in the form of HD DVD and Blu-ray. Personally, I preferred HD DVD. Well, we know how that went. Blu-ray's are here and they do look astounding.

So, the design of my theater today is almost identical to my design in the 1970's. What I couldn't imagine was this advanced age of digital video projection.

Audio advancements were somewhat predictible. You had Bell Labs experimenting with two and three channel analogue stereo in the 1930's. The 1950's brought us CinemaScope with four track audio and Todd-AO with six track audio. Most of the audio advancements had to do with quality. Digital audio (digital tape and CD's) was a natural progression. Some argue that analogue audio sounded superior to digital audio. That's like arguing over religion or politics...no winners, just pissed-off people.

*Click on the link below for an image based tutorial on how to design your home theater. I found and posted my notes and sketches on that page.

Enjoy