Home Theatre in a Small Apartment

Editor: Dzwick

Turn your limited apartment space into a full home theatre with rich sound for cheap prices!

I've got a small apartment, but I love to watch movies with surround sound and a big screen. The big screen television I use to own doesn't fit in my apartment, so I sold it and improvised.

I put together a surround sound system with a big screen that folds up so you don't even know it's there when you're not using it, and I did it for around $650 on Overstock.com.

Here's how.

The first thing you need is a projection TV. Projection TVs are wonderful. They take up very little room, they're relatively cheap, and they look as good as any other big screen TV.

You'll want to put your projection TV on a shelf, preferably over your couch or wherever you plan to sit while watching movies.

The projection TV I use is a Cinego D-1000 DLP, which has a great picture and can be purchased at a great price. Most other projection TVs I've seen are much more expensive than the Cinego, but are still less than a comparably "sized" big screen television.

The next thing you'll need is a projection screen. I used some hangers from a local Home Depot and attached the screen to the top of one of my bookshelves. When I'm watching a movie I pull the screen down over my books, and when I'm done the screen goes back up and you barely notice it's there. You can find a projection screen online or at most camera or electronics stores. They're all pretty much the same (there's not much to them) and so I'd recommend the cheapest one that fits your size constraints and/or desires.

The Cinego D-1000 DLP also has its own sound system and built in DVD player, so when combined with a projection screen it can serve just fine as a stand alone entertainment system, but if you want surround sound you'll need to get some other speakers.

For a true movie experience you'll need surround sound. I wouldn't recommend spending thousands of dollars on a Bose system. Yeah, they sound great, but they'll be more than your apartment needs. You can get an awesome sounding set of speakers for about $175. You can buy your speakers, amplifier, and DVD player separately, but that will cost you more money. The amplifier can be nice if you want to use your surround sound for more than just DVDs, and buying the speakers individually means you can pick and choose specifics for your apartment and usually will get you better overall speakers. However, if you do all this it will cost you more than just a packaged deal, and if all you want to do is watch DVDs with a nice sounding surround system a combination DVD player, amplifier, and spekaer sytem is the way to go.

With the projector, projection screen, DVD player and a surround sound system you've got a sweet setup for watching movies in a home theater environment that takes up hardly any space.

I purchased all these items on Overstock.com. You can find comparable items elsewhere, but I can't guarantee the price. The prices based on Overstock are calculated below:

Total cost (again, the projector is an incredible deal)

Projector - $379.99

Projection Screen - $75.00

Home Theatre Speaker Setup -$168.10

Club-O Membership - $29.95

Shipping - $1.00

Total - $654.04!

Note - This includes a Club-O membership. The membership gets you 5% off any order and $1 shipping. In this case, the 5% off the order makes the bottom line less expensive with the Club-O membership than without it, so you save money and get the membership!

For specific product details and links please go to - Talk: Home Theatre in a Small Apartment

Categories: Home Theatre | Do-It-Yourself | Decorating | Visual Arts