A Cinema at the comfort of your Home ...

A "Cinema" at the Comfort of your Home :)

More and more people are moving the cinema into their own house by building a Home Theater Room or integrating a set of home theater in their living room. There are many good reasons of doing so. Benefits being you can enjoy a movie at the comfort of house, pause the playback anytime you like when you need a toilet break, you don't have to pay for the VIP seat in the cinema and yet get a VIP seat in the best viewing seat or sofa. No more searching for parking, no need to worry about security when walking to the carpark after dark, no need to worry about the dirty seats in the cinema or oily smell on the headrest, no need to worry about paying extra on beverage and snacks, no need to worry about the dirty toilet when you need one, and lots more ...

Sound System in Cineplex is not always well maintain. Especially when you go to cineplex in Kuching where sound system are not being well maintained. Even the projector are suffering from dead lamp problem because of budget issues I guess. Noisy or broken sound are travelling everywhere in the cineplex. Very unfortunate that good recorded sound are not being output effectively. This is not how good sound is supposed to be feeded.

With your own sound system, you can control the sound stage and sound effect at a press of buttons on the AV Receiver. You can also adjust the ideal volume according to your hearing preference; increase the subwoofer level to give you more punch and low frequency (vibration in the room) whenever you like it. And the best thing of having a home theater at home is you can pay for the cost of a single DVD (RM6 ~ RM 59.90 depending on the quality) and the whole family can enjoy it together anytime you want. No need to wait for showtimes or queue up or stuck in the jam to get the tickets.

The pictures attached in this article are taken from my own HT room. DIY myself and almost completed but still need to add some acoustic treatment to the wall to improve sound quality by increasing sound stage while reducing stray sound reflection. A few final touch up and wall mount the rear speakers at the appropriate height once I've ran the speaker wiring. 1 Pair of floor stander for home theater, 1 unit for center. The extra pair of bookshelf speakers are for stereo system.

The room used to be part of my living room area and I partitioned it up to reduce the living area since I don't need such a big living area. Bigger living area means I need to have more furniture. After partitioned, it gives me a 15feet x 9feet home entertainment room. Got myself a two-seaters sofa for RM799. The two sliding doors are made of solid wood but I've laminated it with rock wool to improve sound proofing. Behind the curtain are my side entrance and windows. With the thick curtain, I am able to hide the doors and windows as well as improve acoustic to the room by reducing echo effect. Subwoofer is placed behind the sofa out of visibility.

System Setup

• Denon AV Receiver AVR-1909 (Year 2009 model)


• 1 Pair Mordaunt Short Carnival 6 Floor Standing Front Speakers


• 1 Pair Mordaunt Short Carnival 3 Bi-Polar Rear Surround Speakers


• 1 Unit Mordaunt Short Carnival 5 Center Speaker


• 1 Unit Mordaunt Short Carnival 9 10" Subwoofer


• 1 Unit LG 42" PG60UR Plasma TV (HD Ready 150Hz)


• PS2 with 80GB HDD


• 1 Unit LG DVD Player with optical out to AVR-1909


• 1 Unit china-brand DVD Player running stereo out to AVR-1909 for running low quality dvd


• 1 Unit Media PC running Media Portal RC3 for web surfing, photos and videos storage/playback, media recording


• 1 Unit Dreambox 500s Satellite Receiver


• 1 Unit Linksys Wireless Access Point


• Backup Power by a 600VA uninterrupted backup power unit

All audio/video output from PS2, DVD Players, Satellite Receiver, Media PC are connected to the Denon AVR-1909 AV Receiver. From the Denon AVR-1909, I run a 10 meters HDMI 1.3a supported cable to my LG 42" Plasma TV. Sound source are feeded to the AVR via optical or RCA cables. Video from PS2, LG DVD are feeded via component video cable while the rest of the video source are connected via composite (analog RCA) cable. All speakers are connected to the AVR using QED Classic 42 Strain speaker cable that is Made In England. Guaranttee to last for years to come without worrying about oxidization.

One good thing about using the new Denon AVR-1909 AV Receiver is that it will upconvert all digital and analog signal to 1080i or 1080P signal via a single HDMI cable. Meaning no more messy audio or video cables to your Plasma or LCD tv that supports HDMI input. Denon AVR also functions as a AV switcher so that you can simply put side the TV remote control; no need to switch between Video Input Sources anymore. Just use the Denon AVR to perform all the switching for you.