Home Cinema

The home cinema project is drawing to a close, and the results are pretty spectacular considering the costs involved even if I say so myself. First, lets look at the components I chose to install in our bedroom for that real cinema, big screen experience when viewing DVDs and a low cost solution for football matches and TV dramas.

Projector: Toshiba TLP-ET1
Cost: £380
Supplier: www.oyyy.co.uk

Surround Sound: Sony HT-SS600 AV Amp+5.1 Speaker Package
Cost: £163
Supplier: www.homecinematv.co.uk

DVD Player: Targa DP-5100X
Cost: £50
Supplier: www.ebay.co.uk

Other hardware purchased included 5m component video cables, 10m SCART cable to connect the projector to the existing freeview box, and a universal ceiling mount all secured from eBay for a cost of approximately £40. For a screen I've just painted a 72" diagonal sized white rectangle (16:9) on the wall with a 2" border of matt black paint. Looks well smart, woman friendly and gives a good picture too. I may go for a better DIY screen at a later date.

The DVD player was selected as I wanted a machine that would read absolutely anything... PAL, NTSC, multi-region, branded/unbranded, DVD+R, -R, RW DivX, xVid you name it this thing reads it with no quibbles. According to the experts on the avforums this is the one and I'm very pleased with it as, so far, it's played everything flawlessly.

The projector is mounted to the ceiling with all cables hidden in the ceiling above (roof space) and explains the need for the long cables to track everything invisibly. The power cable was made at work. All together very smart and all for a total cost of £640. Very much chuffed. Next post I'll show some photos of the set-up in action.