Home Theater Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools (Paperback)

by Brett McLaughlin (Author)
Key Phrases: video components, audio components, sound meter, High Definition, Buying Gear, Remote Controls (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
It might be the long lines at the theater, the $4.00 for a small bag of popcorn, or the cutting-edge technology that's now so readily available to the home market. Whatever the reason, the home theater market today is booming like the soundtrack to Star Wars! Want proof? A Google search for home theater reveals over three million results. Yikes!

It's simply undeniable: More and more people prefer watching their favorite movies, television shows, and videos from the comfort of their own sofas and couches. What's also undeniable is the inexperience of most people who choose to install or upgrade their home theaters.

Until now, the knowledge, technique, and experiences of those who've encountered similar conditions to yours could only be accessed through laborious web searches, stacks of magazines, and water cooler conversations. Home Theater Hacks from O'Reilly is the perfect remedy for this group.

A smart collection of insider tips and tricks, Home Theater Hacks covers home theater installation from start to finish, purchase to experience. Just imagine: no frustrating trial-and-error process and better yet, no expensive appointments with installation experts. Home Theater Hacks prevents both by imparting down-and-dirty technique not found anywhere else.

The book begins with a quick glossary of terms so you can speak the lingo when you go shopping, and then dives right into hush-hush, insider tricks. It's all covered where to find the right audio and video components, how to deal with speakers and wiring, understanding cable connectivity, mastering remote controls, how to fully grasp TiVo, and so much more. And to top it off, each of these insider tips is presented in a concise yet delightfully entertaining style. Bringing the Jurassic Park dinosaurs into your living room has never been so easy!

A seasoned veteran with numerous O'Reilly titles under his belt, author Brett McLaughlin leaves no stone unturned in helping you customize your home theater experience to your own personal environment.

About the Author
McLaughlin has been working in computers since the Logo days. He currently specializes in building application infrastructure using Java and Java-related technologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 404 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596007043
• ISBN-13: 978-0596007041
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #401,187 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The O'Reilly Hacks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful hacks for amateur home theater, December 14, 2004

By	Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Sometimes the Hacks books go a little too far. The iPod book for example spent eighteen pages on how to mold a new iPod console for your car. It would have been very easy for this book to go over that edge but it keeps it's focus and stays well within the realm of practical advice to enhance your home theater.

The sections on how to enhance your projection TV is excellent and very practical. There is good coverage of speaker calibration, system maintenance, and TiVo. There is also good material on acoustic tremblers which will bring the experience really close to home.

A must buy book for home theater enthusiasts. There is lots of material here that you can find on the web, but it's better organized, illustrated and explained here.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but some weaknesses, April 15, 2006

By	Steven Childers (Winston-Salem, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a good choice to learn about home theater, and the author has a number of great ideas to get you started. I recommend the book, but I was disappointed with several aspects. 1) It seemed to be aimed more to the high-end user; no information about home-theater-in-a-box or virtual surround sound was given. I can imagine the author's opinions on these subjects, but he should have at least addressed them. 2) Some information is rapidly becoming outdated, especially in the video processing and connectivity sections. This book should probably be updated once a year. 3) Too much unnecessary detail in some areas. For example, a large section on antenna construction should be shortened, since most people probably use either cable or satellite anyway. And while the long section on user service codes is good, most of it will be out of date by the time the book is published. 4) Too much emphasis on projection displays, and not enough detail on flat panels (e.g., mounting issues, care/maintenance issues). 5) I would like to see more information about wiring strategies: different ways to hide wiring, the status of wireless speakers, etc.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read before working on your home theater, March 15, 2005

By	ueberhund "ueberhund" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews

Home Theater Hacks is the perfect book for anyone in the planning, building, or improvement phase of their home theater. This book really covers everything that has to do with a home theater: from selecting the right components, to component configuration, to cabling, to making your theater look awesome. This book is a must read before you start your home theater.

The book begins with a very thorough and impressive discussion of how and where to buy home theater components. The author discusses receivers (both audio and video), DVD players, TVs (both HD and standard), as well as the ins and outs of buying online versus at a local store. This discussion naturally leads to a very large section on "configuration", which includes such things as how to install and configure a terrestrial television antenna, how to match your subwoofer to your room, and everything you ever wanted to know about cables. I particularly enjoyed the author's discussion of the modern myth of expensive cabling. He provides a very good explanation of what "good enough" means (you wouldn't put gold water pipes in your home, why spend $100 on a gold cable?).

As mentioned, this is a very interesting and useful book for anyone planning or currently working on a home theater. It dispelled a lot of myths I had heard in the past, and provides clear explanations as to why many of these myths are false. Additionally, I found that the book provided sound advice in the purchase and configuration of home theater components.