http://www.househacker.com/ househacker/tags/entertainment home theatre. Topics covered include cabling choices, speaker positioning, video tuning, connection types and a ton more. Here's a television tip, from the article:

Try this simple visual test to determine if you have your video image too bright or contrasty. Look at any white area on the screen during scenes from live TV or a movie. It could be the white shirt or blouse on an actor or TV host. Are you able to see detail within the white areas? If you can't, then you are likely running the brightness too high, which washes out fine detail in bright areas. So lower the brightness and/or contrast. There's a reason why control rooms for TV productions and telecasts are always dimly lit: it's because video images on the monitors look best in a dim or darker room and the greatest range of colors and tones can be displayed.

Alan's website is also packed full of home theatre information and worth checking out. ]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Detailed-Article-on-Setting-up-your-First-Home-Theatre home theatre room, created by someone who obviously had a vision of what they wanted, and saw it through to completion. It's probably safe to say that the homeowner enjoys his cinema, no? The homeowner, Steve Jenkins, has posted galleries of the entire construction job, from sketch to finished room. Granted, it's definitely not the most subtle home theatre room in the world, but what a cool in-home movie experience it must create. It certainly looks like it would be easy to forget that you're still at home while enjoying your favourite Michael Douglas film.


]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Another-Amazing-Home-Theatre home theatre seriously. This is one of the more grandiose home theatres on the web (in recent memory, anyway). The owner obviously aimed for a true theatre experience, and given what must have been a sizable budget to play with, it's safe to say that he's achieved his goal.

Here's a nice touch, from the site:

One of the things I wanted to do is to provide a true cinema experience for movie showing parties. So I have three DVD players. One is used to show the theater intro (Welcome to the Regency Theater, etc.) which was done by Digital Forge, the other DVD player is used to show a movie trailer as a preview of an upcoming movie, and then the third DVD player shows a DVD if we're playing a DVD that night (alternatively, we show movies on the JVC 400 D-VHS player).

]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Amazing-Home-Theatre top 20 overall projectors.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Find-a-Home-Theatre-Projector-with-this-Exhaustive-Database ready made wireless music player, you can build your own out of some off the shelf (the shelf being ebay, usually) parts and some shell scripts, as Nathan True did. Luckily for us, Nathan has provided a nice step-by-step walk through of the process. If you're not afraid of some hardware work and elastic bands(!), then give it a go and help bring some harmony back to your home audio world.

via Engadget]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/DIY-Wireless-Music-Player some money as well.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/DIY-Arcade-Driving-Game-Cockpit HDTV, check out CNET's response to reader questions regarding HDTV, and specifically 1080i vs 1080p, source importance, price/value, and some gotchas:

Those of you thinking of running your PC through a 1080p set should be aware that you may not necessarily get to use all that extra resolution--even if you have the right high-end graphics card. For instance, the Sharp set we tested allows you to max out at only 1,280x1,024 resolution while the less-expensive Westinghouse LVM-37W1, along with Samsung's 1080p RPTVs and one series of high-end sets from Mitsubishi, accept true 1,920x1,080 resolution from a PC.
]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Informative-CNET-Article-on-HDTV-Resolutions
You can listen to your own library streamed from home, live concerts, and other great music from around the web.

This app manages to marry internet buzz like AJAX, del.icio.us and Google/Amazon API stuff to Flash for a damn cool app. Streampad is still in beta.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Streampad-Home-Audio-Server Electronic House has a nice slideshow of their product of the year picks. Selections include a nice variety of HDTVs, audio components, projectors and home automation toys. The Electronic House guys sure seem to know how to live.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Electronic-House-Products-of-the-Year-Gallery