Whether you’re looking for that sophisticated, polished look, or you just want to create a home theater that is unified in style, there are some guidelines that you must keep in mind when doing things yourself. The DIY approach is popular with home theater enthusiasts because it gives you complete customization and control over the outcome. So if you’re ready to get your hands a bit dirty, grab your tools, home theater equipment and your imagination, and read on.

The level of hands-on depth you want to embrace while putting together your home theater is completely up to you. Some people prefer to conceptually design the layout and get a professional to do the actual installations and setup. Others take on small tasks themselves: you might decide that mounting your flat panel display is something you can handle, or maybe you want to play with your home theater speaker layout yourself to find that “sweet spot”. If you decide that a whole-room renovation is up your alley, or just a few adjustments, read on for some home theater installation tips and tricks to get you through the rough patches of DIY home theater construction.

Planning is key. Plan out you whole vision before you even pick up a screwdriver. Gather your devices and store them safely before you begin – you don’t want to be halfway through and realize you didn’t leave room for your gaming console or your AV receiver. And planning goes beyond just the handy-man attitude: you should plan out the decor, from the color of the trim to the style and size of seating, in advance as well. This is a “whole-vision” project, and you want to see results that are smooth and coherent.

Something that often gets lost in the shuffle of a home theater installation are the cables and cords. In order to save yourself time and money, thoroughly check your devices and gather the cables they need before you begin your project. Need the latest HDMI 1.4 for your home theater? Get it sooner rather than later. By ordering these cables in advance online, you’ll save yourself the trip, and the expense, of picking them up at inflated prices at the local hardware store.

Check your room for power outlets. Try to place your main equipment near these outlets, or, if your layout doesn’t permit this, be sure to purchase extra-long power cords.

Lighting is as important as the placement of your devices, when all is said and done. If you have your AV rack nicely nestled in a merlot-stained cabinet to bring out the beauty of your Classical TV Frame from HD Envy, that’s great. But if you can’t tell the Blu-Ray player from the PS3, you’re going to run into problems. Many people choose to install wall sconces or ceiling lighting to brighten the whole room, and add dimmer functions for those nights that they want a little romantic lighting. Be sure to sketch in your lighting placement and wires before you begin your DIY project.

By planning everything, writing down directions or sketching out visuals, you will save yourself potentially expensive and time-consuming reworking. You don’t want to have to spend hours fixing the placement of your speakers because you didn’t leave enough room for your soundbar, or be faced with the prospect of constant reshuffling until everything haphazardly fits. A home theater DIY installation can be a satisfying and rewarding experience, but without the planning stage you might end up with more of a mess than when you began.

So now you understand how speakers work, and the difference between stereo and home theater speakers. You’re committed to achieving the best possible movie sound, and you know you need a good center speaker with limited off-axis vertical response and two rear speakers to provide the reflecting sound. This is the start of your surround sound system. Next, you should get to know the other speakers you’ll need, and how to set them up to achieve the most accurate sound reproduction for your next home theater experience.

Possibly the most important element that a good home theater speaker system will achieve is total sound immersion. This is basically that experience of being in the film. You don’t want to have to crane your neck every time a loud, low thud occurs to see where it’s coming from. The speakers in front, behind, above and to your sides should blend seamlessly with your visual experience.

How do you get this smooth audio reproduction in your own home theater? First, be prepared for a bit of tweaking. The acoustics of every room vary, so your setup might need several trial and error attempts before it hits perfection. But when it does, you’ll realize what all the fuss is about.

Dialog is a driving audio force in many movies. You want your center speaker to be close enough to your flat panel display so that the dialog feels cemented to the actors in front of you. In a 5.1 surround sound recording, more likely than not the dialog is hard mixed, attached, to the center speaker. This is the driver of most dialog, and as such you need to experiment until it is positioned so that you can hear the dialog coming straight at you.

A 5.1 surround sound system is the standard for most DVDs and HDTV broadcasts. The ideal spot to sit is directly in front of your center speaker at 0 degrees – your ears level with the speaker’s drivers. You should place the front left and right speakers about 22 to 30 degrees on either side of the center speaker, as seen from this spot on your couch. Your left and right side speakers should be mounted two or more feet above ear level, if possible, and be angled between 90 and 110 degrees toward you. These are rough guidelines, and you should try listening to all types of audio (Dolby, DTS, SACD, etc.) that you will be listening to, in order to get the most out of your setup.

7.1 surround sound is truly a surround sound setup, as it uses the rear speakers that are so important in establishing your location. The two rear speakers should be placed about 135 to 150 degrees towards the center of the room (which should be directly in line with the center speaker’s drivers). The other aspects of the speaker setup are similar to 5.1. Keep in mind that your rear speakers should never be directly behind you, or a 180 degree angle, because our brains will sometimes process this sound to be coming from in front of us.

So now that you have the basics of the two most popular types of home theater setup, try it out! Listen for all the details in your favorite movie, and adjust your speakers based on what you hear. You are going to be the one listening to and enjoying all of the great movie sounds, so be sure that you are enjoying your audio experience to its fullest the next time you pop in your favorite disc.

Lauren is a contributing writer for the HD Envy blog. If you’ve ever wondered how to frame a flat screen TV, HD Envy has your solution. In order to frame a flat screen TV, you just have to visit HD Envy’s website to get started. Just contact HD Envy and ask them how they can let you custom frame a flat screen TV using any color or style of your choosing. And the next time your neighbors come for a visit, they’ll be asking how to frame a flat screen TV too.

With a crystal clear 1080p Full HD image projecting from your flat panel TV, you want a sound quality to match, right? It would be terrible if you were enjoying Iron Man’s dramatic flight into the atmosphere above Santa Monica while only hearing the faint muffled sound of his jets (or at least you assume it is his jets because of the image – it could be a lawn motor or a scooter as far as your ears know). Theater-quality sound is half of the experience. Without it, you are left with a dull impression of the movie, and you are rarely pulled in to the extent that you forget where you are and actually live the experiences on screen. Movie audio is so important, in fact, that there is an entire branch of audio equipment dedicated to providing the most accurate reproduction of sounds for a home theater setup.

First, a little background knowledge on what makes a speaker sound best. The position of the listener is a key feature of great sound. Your head should be directly in front of, and at the same height as, the speaker’s driver. This is known as the “on-axis” position. If you move to the left, right, up or down from this position, you will be “off-axis” and the sound will not be as clear.

When comparing stereo speakers with home theater speakers, you will often find that stereo speakers have a better off-axis sound than home theater speakers. This is because audio from a CD or other music source sound great when it is combined with left and right channels, and reflects off the walls and ceilings. With a stereo setup, the best sounding position will be in the center of the setup, but of-axis seating will sound great too.

Home theater speakers are a bit different. The vertical off-axis response, that is, the range of sound that occurs above and below the center position, of a center speaker in a home theater setup will be very limited. This is to prevent reverberation of sound off the ceiling and the floor. This is done to allow the rear speakers, which are often absent from, or include a more limited range than, a stereo speaker setup, to do their job. In a good home theater speaker system, you should include two rear speakers that act as “false reflections”. Sound from an actor’s voice in a large, cavernous room will take longer to bounce off the back wall and hit your ears if you were really standing beside that actor while the film was being created. Directors want to give you the feeling that you are really immersed in their world by tweaking the reflecting sounds so that they are slightly delayed as they bounce back to your ear – this can only be done with rear speakers, not with the reflections from a front speaker.

Home theater speaker systems are designed to provide an accurate reproduction of audio from a movie. The center speaker and rear speakers are the most important elements in this configuration, as they drive the bulk of the sound. The next installment of our series on home theater sound will examine how to set up your speakers to get the most out of on- and off-axis listening, and to get the most faithful reproduction of movie sound possible.

Lauren is a contributing writer for the HD Envy blog. HD Envy specializes in providing LCD and Plasma TV wall frame solutions for your home theater. If you are looking for a unique and creative way to display your TV, the LCD or Plasma TV wall frame products at HD Envy could be for you. You can get a custom made Plasma TV wall frame for your family room, designed to match any color or style that you prefer. HD Envy’s engineering experts have created an easily mountable Plasma TV wall frame solution so you can frame your flat panel TV with ease.

With the advanced display technologies of today, it’s more important than ever that all elements of your home theater are working together in harmony. You know that you won’t get the best image from your Blu-Ray player if it’s not connected with the best cables. But did you know that without the proper calibration, your brand new HDTV might not be living up to its full potential?

Even some in-store displays appear washed out, muted, or overly saturated with color. You walk away shaking your head, thinking that whatever TV that was, it definitely wasn’t premium high-def. However, a simple problem could be at the root of the lackluster performance: it was not professionally calibrated.

Many people will argue that anyone, even those who are uninitiated into the league of the videophile, can calibrate a TV. However, as new features are piled on, such as different modes for different devices and a nearly infinite number of color, level, saturation and other options, many of the tweaks and features will be hidden or too technical for most of us to fully grasp without a few hours spent snuggled in bed with our TV manual.

Calibration is basically a balance between a TV’s color gamut and grayscale, and its minimum and maximum brightness and gamma. The optimized TV will conform to the standards set by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), which tries to match consumer TV calibration with the images that the video cameras filming the media intended.

Calibration isn’t simply increasing or decreasing values on your TV’s menu until things look “ok” to you. Of course, you can do that, but if you’ve invested in a home theater equipped with surround sound, multimedia devices and a flat screen TV wall frame surrounding your HDTV, you want to get the highest video performance possible. Proper calibration rests on the backbone of so much scientific and engineering knowledge, that it is usually best to let the professionals handle it.

The image on your HDTV depends in large part on the ambient light and other factors of your home theater environment. A professional will understand environmental factors in addition to the capabilities of your particular TV and will maximize the picture quality so you are presented with an image that give you the least eye fatigue and the most true-to-the-filmmaker’s-ideal quality that your TV is able to produce.

A professional will understand several things about your TV and your viewing needs. First, he or she understands the fine tuning necessary for many of the color and other options, and knows when, and how, they interact. For instance, changing the gamma affects levels and grayscale, which need to be readjusted every time even the minutest change in gamma occurs. A professional will also have the tools that a proper calibration requires. A color meter is used for every aspect of calibration except levels, and test patterns will be available to ensure that viewing is optimized for all types of media.

Check with the online community whether your TV model is best viewed after a professional calibration, and chances are, you’ll find people happy to tell you that a professional is a good idea. If you want to go it alone, be an intrepid DIYer, go ahead – but in order to save yourself headaches and to get the perfect picture based on plain and simple visual science, go with the professional touch.

Lauren is a contributing author for the HD Envy Blog. HD Envy is a company that provides high-quality flat screen TV wall frame options for consumers interested in adding style and a unique touch to their home theaters. Each flat screen TV wall frame is engineered for easy installation and long-lasting durability. The stock designs for the flat screen TV wall frame products at HD Envy are inspired by some of the most famous casinos and hotels in the world. You can customize your flat screen TV wall frame too, in order to get a look that is uniquely you.

The consumer electronics industry is one of variety: that’s what makes it so great. You have nearly unlimited options when it comes to size, portability, features, style… but one thing you don’t want to choose between is mounting options. It’s an unnecessary headache. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a standard set of guidelines that could be followed so you could confidently purchase your TV, knowing you could mount it with stuff you bought at the hardware store?

As it stands, many HDTV companies require that you purchase their mount along with their TVs. If you buy a X-Brand TV, you know you’ve got to buy that matching X-Brand mount. And this can be quite costly. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) was created to tackle just these types of problems: problems of universal compatibility. They set standards that manufacturers can choose to follow in order to maintain stability and compatibility in the video electronics industry.

In order to set a standard for mounting HDTVs, VESA created guidelines known as the Flat Display Mounting Interface (FDMI). This interface is a hardware setup that manufacturers of both TVs and mounting options can follow in order to make life easier on the consumer, and give them the peace of mind that comes with standardized components.

The VESA FDMI outlines the placement of screws on the back of flat panel TVs. There are several varieties of screw patterns and distances between screws that TV manufacturers can choose from in order to best fit their particular TV. Along with this are standard guidelines for cable exits.

As the major players in the LCD HDTV industry step up their production and increase their competition, more and more will be choosing to go with VESA-approved FDMI arrangements. They will want to appeal to the consumer by offering standardized mounting options, and gain the edge up on, or keep up with, their competition. They can let consumers know they are VESA-compliant by adding a hexagonal logo to their compatible TV displays.

So, now that you know what to look for in a VESA-compatible TV, what about the mounts themselves? You need the two pieces of the puzzle in order to get the TV up on the wall and looking fabulous. In this market, only one manufacturer that makes TV wall frames for your flat panel TVs that comply with VESA standards. And that company is, of course, HD Envy.

HD Envy has patent pending designs in all of their custom and pre-fabricated TV screen frames that comply with VESA mounting standards. Other companies use straps and Velcro and shims, completely disregarding the industry’s standards. Not to mention adding to your headache when mounting your brand new HDTV.

You don’t want to be fumbling with all the mounting parts, your TV, articulating wall mount, TV wall frame, and realize that they don’t fit together when you get them up on the wall. HD Envy has used their innovative engineering to ensure that life is not only stylish, sophisticated and unique after you’ve installed one of their LCD TV frames, but it is also hassle-free.

Lauren is a contributor to the HD Envy blog. HD Envy is dedicated to providing customers with a unique and fashionable TV wall frame for their flat panel TVs. Using designs that have been seen in casinos, hotels and corporate lobbies worldwide, the TV wall frames at HD Envy are high-quality and original. Whether you get a custom design or choose from the selection of popular TV wall frames online, HD Envy is your one-stop source for your flat panel TV framing needs.

Imagine slipping into your hot tub with a group of friends and clicking on a beautiful, flat-panel HDTV to watch the latest action flick. Or having a bunch of the guys over to your outdoor patio bar and huddling around the game on that big screen you installed behind the counter. A TV outdoors can be a great way to entertain guests and give yourself a nice relaxing evening while being closer to nature, but there are many things that need to be considered before you go ahead and run those cables through your walls and out to the patio.

First, know your weather. Think hard about the environmental factors that will affect the area you want to install your TV in. Are there high winds? Lots of rain or humidity? How hot does it get? How cold? Ask yourself these questions to make sure you have a good grasp of what you have to protect your TV from when you start the installation process.

The main factor that will make or break your TV placement is location. Ideally, you want to put the TV somewhere that is sheltered as best as possible. Having a roof above your TV location is great, but be sure to observe wind patterns – if there’s high wind and some rain, will this get in under the roof through the front of the patio and potentially ruin your TV? If so, make note of it in order to create the right cabinet for your needs.

Speaking of cabinets, this should be a crucial part of your plan for an outdoor TV, especially those not designed for outdoor use. A TV needs to be sheltered from the elements. There are cabinets on the market that you can buy, or if you’re a real “do-it-yourself-er” you can get some supplies at the local hardware store and get cracking. The cabinet that you choose should be constructed with your particular situation in mind. Including a fan, to reduce the chance of overheating and dust particles in your TV is usually a good idea. And some people prefer a plexiglass front so they can leave the cabinet doors closed while watching TV to protect it even more – but be sure that all edges of the cabinet are water-proof tight.

There are plenty of outdoor TV manufacturers out there that have created TVs designed specifically for use on a patio or by a body of water. SunBright.com offers LCD TVs that can withstand extreme temperatures, dirt, rain, humidity, insects… you name it. These TVs may cost a pretty penny, but the comfort of knowing that your new TV won’t even be phased if the kids do a cannonball into the pool and get a little back spray on that 52-inch LCD, might be worth the investment.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can always get the wires and cables all ready to go, but only bring the TV outdoors when you or your guests are going to be watching it. Rather than having it permanently reside in a cabinet, you just carry the TV out (perhaps with the help of some strong friends) when you want to watch, and bring it back indoors when the evening is done. This saves money, and although it might be a hassle, it is an option for those who don’t think they’ll want to use their TV outdoors too often.

Ultimately, there are many options designed for different purposes when considering installing a TV outdoors. The most important thing is surveying your location realistically and understanding the risks involved with setting up a TV outside – and how to best avoid them.

Lauren Dugan is a contributor to the HD Envy blog. HD Envy is a manufacturer of TV picture frame mount solutions for your home and business. Taking inspiration from picture frame TV mount products found in hotels, casinos and corporate lobbies, HD Envy has crafted a product that is stylish, sophisticated and unique. Your HDTV will look simply stunning when mounted with a picture frame TV mount, and your entire home theater experience will improve. The experts at HD Envy can help you custom design your picture frame TV mount, so visit HDEnvy.com today to get started.

All the new, digital image and audio processing today is fabulous for our movie and music experience, but it does require a little extra know-how. Cables and wires can be a confusing lot, especially if you’re new to the modern home theater world that requires multiple cables for the same purpose, or one cable for multiple purposes.

HDMI is a term you’ve probably encountered. It is the standard “holy grail” of video and audio high quality data transfer. But did you know that HDMI can be transmitted over Cat5 cables? Some home theater setups will necessitate this feature, and it is ideal in many cases.

First, some definitions. A Cat5 cable is also known as a UTP cable, which stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair. Basically, this cable creates a differential signal through balanced to unbalanced transformers, or Baluns. A huge benefit to this setup is eliminating ground loops, because a Balun transformer isolates the conduction path from the home theater equipment hooked up at the other end. A transformer also allows for extended length, sometimes allowing for HDMI signals to be transmitted 150 feet or more without loss in quality.

So, why is this system a good solution? First, Cat5 cables are small, smaller than coaxial, which makes them easier to run through the house or commercial building. Also, they tend to be cheaper, which can amount to hundreds of dollars of savings if you’re installing a large project. Terminating a Cat5 is comparatively simple as well. Overall, this solution is easier, cheaper and can run longer distances than many other possible solutions.

You might be asking why every home theater solution isn’t taking advantage of the great benefits of video over Cat5 cables. It’s not the best solution in all cases. The transformer is key to achieving a high-quality signal, and the best transformers (which produce the best picture in the end) often cost upwards of $500. And despite the great distance that a balun system is able to achieve, there is some quality degradation as distance increases. Many manufacturers will advertise that this solution can produce 1080i-grade images at 200 feet, but 1080p can only be achieved at 150 feet or less.

The actual Cat5 cables are sensitive to environmental factors. They cannot be too close to fluorescent lights or to high voltage lines, should not be passively split or run through a hub, and a single Cat5 cable can only carry either data or AV, not both. And finally, a Cat5 solution requires two separate runs of cable, one shielded and one unshielded, so it is not ideal for many retrofit situations.

If your are considering a project that requires a long distance, say 100 feet or more, the balun Cat5 solution is usually the best and cheapest option. There are both benefits and drawbacks to this AV system, so be sure to assess your home theater needs and limiting factors before you start wiring.

Lauren Dugan is a contributing author to the HD Envy blog. HD Envy is a leader in LCD TV Frame production. Whether you need a classy piece for your home theater or custom designs for your commercial establishment, the Flat Panel TV Picture Frame offerings at HD Envy will satisfy your needs. You can work with the TV framing experts to create the perfect mount for your wall, a TV Picture Frame that is uniquely you. And each flat panel TV picture frame is created with easy-to-install brackets to ensure you get your TV up and running as quickly as possible. The modern home theater will become truly innovative with the addition of a flat panel TV picture frame from HD Envy.

You’re home from the electronics store, twitching in anticipation of opening that slim box and pulling out an even slimmer, brand-spanking-new flat panel TV. It’s high definition. All the bells and whistles. You pull it out of the box and figure it will take you about an hour to get it mounted in perfect picture frame TV mount splendor… an hour later and it’s up, but when you sit back on your couch all you see is a blinding glare from the window and a distorted image.

So what went wrong? You were promised a crisp, clear, high-definition image and all you got was distortion or glare. Even the picture frame TV mount you bought to frame it with looks a little out of place… but why?

There are so many considerations when hanging your flat panel TV that it’s best to get the lay of the land before you even pull it out of the box. Where are your couches and seats in the room? What’s the optimal viewing angle for your particular TV, and how can you achieve it? Where are your windows located?

First: location. The be-all-and-end-all of flat screen mounting. You’ll want to mount your TV so that the center is just about eye level with you when you’re sitting where you’ll spend the most time watching the TV. Although it might look great placed artistically up above the mantle, that’s not going to let you get the most out of your image. And if, for décor or practical reasons, you simply cannot place the center at eye level, always opt for placing it higher rather than lower. Try the bottom of the screen at eye level and you should be able to view comfortably with only having to look up slightly.

Now onto the second culprit of sinister wall mounting errors: glare. The last thing you want to do is settle in for a nice Sunday afternoon movie only to have the setting sun in your eyes rather than the show itself. Take a minute to sit in the couch you’ll be using to watch TV, and check the wall. Is there light reflecting back at you? If so, is it something you can change? If it’s a lamp that could be moved, or even a window with curtains, that’s fine. If it’s something unavoidable, you’ve got two options: either reconfigure your arrangement so your TV is placed somewhere else, or get a wall mount that swivels and/or tilts to move it when the light is affecting picture quality.

The size of your TV will also determine placement. For instance, if you have a 46-inch TV, you should place it anywhere between 5.75 and 9.5 feet away from your couch. If you have a 70-inch TV, it should be mounted about 8.75 to 14.75 feet from your couch. This will ensure that you get the best all-round image, and that you’re not sitting so close that you can pick out the pixels, but not too far that you can’t tell if the main character is a person or a large dog. For TVs with higher definition, the closer distances should be used as a guideline, and for TVs with standard definition, try sitting a little further away so you avoid looking too closely at the sometimes blurry image.

Getting that new TV is a wonderful experience, and you want to maximize on that. By calculating how you place your picture frame TV mount before you jump in, you’ll be able to enjoy the sights, the sounds and the entire package worry-free.

Getting the perfect picture from our HDTVs is a complex business, and relies on a number of factors. So once you’ve got the right cables, media hook ups, sound system and the like all set up, how do you get that “sweet spot” that everyone is talking about? How do you make sure you’re seeing the best image that your TV can produce?

Well, first, let’s define “sweet spot” for the uninitiated. Every HDTV has an elevation and angle that is the best in terms of picture clarity, quality and brightness – and this is usually smack dab in the middle. It might sound silly, but if you’re sitting on an angle, you might not be getting the most out of your TV.

Articulating wall mounts are a great, and popular, solution to both stylish TV display and practical HDTV orientation. Because many of us don’t have a room that is a dedicated home theater, it can be difficult to set up our seating to perfectly match the TV’s sweet spot. However, if we are able to move the TV to match our seating, we wouldn’t have to worry about reorganizing our living rooms to hit that perfect image. It would come to us.

There is a great variety of articulating wall mounts out there, designed for different needs. Most articulating wall mounts will have the ability to change depth, by pulling the TV away from the wall and closer to your seating. Some can come out as far as two feet or more. They can also allow you to tilt the TV to different angles, and swivel it from left to right.

When shopping around for a mount, keep in mind wall stress and the size of your TV. Some mounts are simply not up to the job of providing a sturdy mount for larger TVs, while others are so heavy-duty that they might cause wall stress even without the added TV poundage.

Wiring your HDTV once it’s mounted is usually a straightforward task. Because articulating wall mounts allow the TV to be pulled away from the wall, you can easily get behind there and connect to your heart’s desire. And check out the “bonus” features of your mount – many of them offer a wire management system so that you install is clean and clutter-free. And here’s a tip: make sure you install the cables with the arm outstretched, or else you’re going to find yourself in a tight situation after installation.

Articulating wall mounts are wonderful devices for stylishly displaying your HDTV while adding maximum flexibility. And they would work in perfect tandem with a wall mount TV frame to produce the slickest home theater setup in the neighborhood. The wall mount TV frame products at HD Envy are designed to fit snugly on any size flat panel TV, and rotate, swivel and pivot on the mount as if they were part of the TV itself.

Lauren Dugan is a contributing author to HD Envy. HD Envy offers wall mount TV frame solutions for home theaters that combine functionality with art. With modular designs, installing a wall mount TV frame from HD Envy has never been easier. And the years of expertise that HD Envy brings to the wall mount TV frame industry sets them apart as the go-to people for your TV framing needs.

Wall-mounting flat-panel HDTVs is all the rage these days, as more and more consumers realize the benefits of having their TVs flush against their wall. The space that is saved, both on the wall and the floor, by not having a massive, clunky entertainment center is a breath of fresh air to anyone who has, or is considering, a wall-mounted TV.

However, even if you have the sleekest and slimmest flat screen TV wall frame on the market, you are going to have some other considerations before you can sit back and enjoy the stunning action scenes in Spiderman 3 – where are you going to put all that stuff that was sitting on your entertainment center? Those DVDs and game discs, consoles and Blu-Ray players, amps and cable boxes… where does it go now that your TV is floating free from the bulky (but admittedly useful) entertainment center?

All that space you’ve just freed up on your wall and floor shouldn’t have to be filled up again in order to store your home theater accessories. There has to be a better way, but what is it?
The first and more obvious option is to install shelves for all of your storage needs. On the market today are some extremely modern-looking and heavy-duty shelves, so whether your concerns are style or functionality, you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for. These shelves can hold everything from your DVD collection to your amp and cable box, so don’t overlook the simple answer when on the hunt for home theater storage.

Smaller racks are also an option. Racks come in a variety of sizes, so in order to minimize their appearance but still benefit from their functionality, you could look into 19-inch or smaller. Racks can hold a variety of electronic modules and can take care of much of your audio and video needs, while remaining relatively discrete in a corner or unobtrusive spot in your room.
The floor space that you’ll save by installing a flat screen TV wall frame or other device can also be used for storage purposes. You can purchase a low-sitting cabinet to sit discretely under the TV itself, or you can use the space for speakers and other A/V enhancements. You can even use the floor space to play Twister between commercials!

The space you’ll save by wall mounting your flat panel TV can be used in a nearly infinite number of ways, limited only by your imagination and your home theater needs. If you are of the minimalist set, you can leave it entirely blank, hide the wires behind your TV and within the television frame, and hook up your cable box and other necessities at the back of the room. Or you can decorate it with pictures and curios. It is up to you.

Lauren Dugan is a contributing author to HD Envy. HD Envy is a quality manufacturer of flat screen TV wall frame solutions. By incorporating a flat screen TV wall frame into your home theater, you will save space and upgrade your style to meet the needs of a modern home. The flat screen TV wall frame products at HD Envy are produced with only the highest-grade material and are fully customizable, to ensure that you get the most out of your home theater.