Your Choice
There are some important choices to make when considering setting up your own home theatre. These choices should all be based on you. The space where your home theatre will be installed, your personal viewing habits, and the different people that will use the products are some of the basic considerations that should go into selecting your home theatre products.

Space
The correct television screen size to select depends on the size of your room and the distance between where you will be seated and the television. Rear projection televisions come in a variety of screen sizes and feature packages that will suit almost any type of room and viewing configuration. The table below outlines each screen size and display output, and the corresponding appropriate viewing distance (measured in feet from the television). This table clearly demonstrates the obvious advantage to having a television with Progressive Scan: a larger screen size will fit more comfortably in a smaller space. Progressive Scan technology is a feature that helps recreate the theatre experience in your home. It gives the picture a high-quality, film-like appearance, and the ability to sit closer to the screen provides that all-encompassing theatre experience.

Lighting
Lighting is another important consideration for your home theatre installation. There are no lights on in a movie theatre when you watch a movie. In your family room, however, there may be times when you want lighting in the room. For example, when you're watching the Monday night football game, or the kids are watching their cartoons, you may want to have all the room lights on. But when you're watching a movie, you may want the lights to be dimmed or even turned off. When you're setting up your home theatre, give some thought to lighting control, such as dimmer switches on overhead lights. When you're selecting television features, look for items such as Individual Video Memory Settings, Movie and Sports Mode Preferences, and Colour Temperature Control, all of which provide you with customized picture settings to suit the lighting in any environment.

Your Personal Viewing Habits
If you primarily watch cable television and VHS tapes, you should consider a conventional television that uses traditional interlaced display technology to produce the on-screen image, such as Toshiba's 36AFX61 or 50A61 televisions. Both cable and VHS signals are relatively low resolution with a higher level of video noise than digital broadcast alternatives.

If satellite broadcast is your main source of television, and you own or are planning to purchase a DVD player, consider a television that uses a more sophisticated display technology-known as progressive scanning-such as Toshiba's 36HFX71 or 53HX71 televisions. The high-resolution, low-noise qualities of satellite broadcasts and DVD signals produce stunning picture quality on progressively scanned televisions, rivalling the quality you would experience in a movie theatre.

Future compatibility is also an important consideration. Our current broadcasting system will gradually change over the next several years to HDTV broadcasting. Your viewing habits today may not include an HD source, but they may within the next couple of years. If this is the case, you should definitely plan to purchase a television that is capable of reproducing high-definition broadcast signals. A high-definition broadcast signal provides greater resolution, more scanning lines, and is broadcast in a 16:9 aspect ratio (as opposed to the current 4:3 aspect ratio). In order to reproduce these signals you would require a product that is HD-compatible, such as Toshiba's 50H71 or 50HX81 televisions.

Viewing Habits
An assessment of the type of content you watch should be the final component of your personal viewing habits "inventory." This will help you make a decision on the aspect ratio of your television. Consider the percentage of time you spend watching movies on DVD and when you plan to integrate an HD signal into your home theatre. If you watch a couple of movies a week and are considering getting an HD signal soon, you may want to seriously consider a 16:9 aspect ratio TV, such as Toshiba's 34HF81 or 57HX81 televisions. Toshiba offers several different viewing modes on our 16:9 televisions to make your 4:3 content enjoyable as well.

Connectivity
A home theatre television must have separate inputs for a variety of video sources including cable, DVD player, satellite receiver, and VCR. The higher the quality of the connection available from the source the better the picture quality will be. DVD offers picture quality that is four times better than VHS. Not only does DVD offer more lines of resolution than VHS, but it also uses ColorStream™ Component Video output for the signal. This type of connection offers a very clean signal, as each colour that makes up the image is conveyed through a separate cable. As well, when the signal enters the display device it does not go through any processing. This offers stunning picture quality with extremely vibrant colours. ColorStream™ HD Component Video inputs are also the only means by which a progressive scan DVD signal and HD broadcast signal are transmitted. If you're considering connecting both a DVD player and an HD set-top box, either now or in the future, be sure to pick a television product with two sets of ColorStream™ HD Component Video inputs. Both of these inputs must also utilize a Wide Band Video Amplifier to maintain the integrity of these high-resolution sources. All Toshiba HD-compatible products offer these technologies.

High-quality cables to connect all of your devices are an excellent investment for any home theatre.

Who Will Be Using the Home Theatre
A good home theatre device should also be easy to use. Toshiba leads the industry in user-friendly components and features. For instance, First-Time Set-Up on all Toshiba DVD players can make the intimidating task of setting up your DVD player for the first time an easy experience. The first time the player is plugged in it will take you through a step-by-step installation menu that lets you adjust picture shape, audio options and language. Virtual Remote is another DVD feature that is ideally suited for home theatre rooms. This feature will display more commonly used remote control functions on the TV screen for a "heads-up" type of display.

Toshiba television products also offer convenience features such as Direct Input Select and Speed Surf, which provide the most impatient viewer with quick and easy access. Our high-quality, on-screen display offers logical and intuitive access to all menu features, making it easy for anyone to operate. And finally, Toshiba does not assume that only adults will be using this home theatre space. Front Audio Video Jacks make it quick and easy to plug in video games, and Front Panel Lockout renders all the physical buttons on the front of the television (except Power) unusable, just in case little fingers get too adventurous.

There are many options to consider when setting up a home theatre. An excellent home theatre product will suit the viewing environment and needs of all those using it with one, convenient, easy-to-use package.