I love going to the cinema, but I’ve always been disappointed that I can’t see older films and I can’t see them when it’s convenient for me. There have always been ways to watch films at home, but even today when large screens and high-definition formats are ubiquitous, it’s just not the same as the cinema experience. There’s something completely different about the big screen that a TV in a living room can’t replicate. For that reason I’ve wanted my own home cinema for as long as I can remember. The problem is I don’t want to spend a lot of money on it.
The first iteration of my home cinema looked like this:
Home cinema has a strong overlap with the audiophile world. You can spend as much as you want on it, and there will always be more. It’s not that it’s wrong to spend a lot on it; there are real benefits to the latest, high-end gear. But I think you can get 90% of the way there on about 10% of the budget, if that. However, you might have to make lifestyle sacrifices to save the most money.
This is my definition of a home cinema system. It will be opinionated and I make no apologies for that. You can do things differently, but I think the following features are non-negotiable:
- Big screen, at least 100" diagonal, filling your field of view,
- Full dynamic range, high quality audio,
- Highest quality media (usually blu-ray),
- Locally available; no streaming,
- Dark room.
A note before starting: this will also take some dedication. It’s a real project. Saving money usually means building your own knowledge rather than paying for someone else’s. But if you can get there, the results are thoroughly rewarding.
Projector
Currently I think a projector is the only option. You can get TVs up to 75" or so, but that’s not big enough and they are so unwieldy at that size you might as well get a projector.
The best home cinema projectors are the JVC DLA series. If you can stretch to a second hand X500 or newer, it will be great. The best value projectors are DLP projectors from makes like Epson, JVC or Panasonic. They are not as good as the JVC DLA projectors, and suffer from “colour wheel” artifacts, but many people enjoy them. Do not consider cheap Chinese projectors on Amazon. They are rubbish. Buy second hand from a good make.
Be aware that projector bulbs have a finite life and are expensive. If buying second hand the seller should tell you the number of hours left on the bulb. Factor in the cost of a new bulb if you’re not sure. JVC bulbs can cost £300 new so really not cheap.
You need a screen. Don’t project on to the wall. The screen is really important, but you can start with a cheap Chinese one from Ebay. I used a screen on a tripod because it didn’t need to be installed. But better ones will need to be attached to a wall.
You don’t need 4K, you don’t need HDR, you don’t need high frame rate. A high quality 1080p projector at 24fps on a 120" screen is more than enough. Luckily this also means you don’t have to worry about any HDMI standards etc. You can just buy whatever is cheapest.
The Room
Possibly the most important part of all of this is the room. First thing to get out of the way: a home cinema is not a living room. You won’t just be able to plonk your system down in the living room and call it a day. This is where the real project is. The rest is just buying equipment.
The ideal room is a squarish box shape with no windows. If you do have windows, chimney breasts, an L-shaped room etc. then it will make this more difficult, but you have to work with what you have. I wouldn’t suggest acquiring a new space in a budget home cinema guide.
If you do need your room to double up as a living room then you need to consider ways to convert it between these two very different purposes. This is especially true if live in a household that doesn’t completely share your enthusiasm for the project.
Furniture can be just standard living room furniture. A sofa is ideal. It just needs to be comfortable and oriented towards the screen.
Light control is extremely important for a projector to reach its potential. You need to block out external light sources but you also need to “deaden” the room as the projector itself will cause ambient light in the room which will kill your contrast. If you have windows, blackout curtains are a must. I bought full-length black blackout curtains and attached them to the walls near the screen. You can “open” the curtains if you want to convert the room back into a living room. A white ceiling is a disadvantage. Ideally it would be black. But you can get away with just having blacked-out walls.
Sound
Good sound is just as important as a big screen. What matters is good quality speakers and amplifier and correct positioning of those speakers. Do not consider anything with Atmos or all-in-one kits that contain a handful of tiny little speakers. Your budget home cinema uses good old Dolby Digital and is at most a 5.1 set up. Your equipment will be mostly second hand.
You will upgrade your equipment in the following order:
Stereo set up
Start with a high quality stereo system. You want speakers that can handle down to about 60Hz or lower, if possible, and a stereo amplifier.
An amplifier with 30W per channel should be fine (higher is better, but no point going above 80W per channel). Look for Japanese brands like Pioneer, Marantz, Denon, Sony or Technics. Basic amps last for decades and are readily available for very little money. As an example I bought a Pioneer A300X for about £50 without even trying to find a good deal.
Bookshelf speakers are cheapest but you need to position them at around ear height somehow. A couple of pieces of furniture are fine. Make sure you get hi-fi speakers, not PA or monitor speakers. Look up the frequency response and make sure it goes down to around 60Hz. Note that generally more capable speakers are physically larger and heavier.
You need to position them correctly. Basically you want a triangle with the speakers in front and you in the middle. Even a basic stereo system should sound a lot better than any TV.
Environment
The environment needs to be quiet. You don’t want any sources of noise. You also want to be able to play sound loudly without fear of annoying neighbours etc. This is so you can enjoy sound with full dynamic range.
Subwoofer
Next you can add a subwoofer. A good quality one from a make like SVS is worth it, but they do hold their value pretty well, so you might need to allocate more funds then your whole stereo set up. Make sure the subwoofer supports both high level and low level inputs. The low level input is preferable, but you need an AVR for that, so for now you will use the high level set up.
AVR
An AVR is a more advanced amp that will support multi-channel audio and digital inputs. You can also plug your subwoofer in with the low level input which you definitely should. These don’t hold their value well and as long as you get one without the latest HDMI standard you can get one for 10% of its original value.
More speakers
If you get this far, you should first look into adding a centre speaker. But you really want it to match your front stereo speakers, so you might want to upgrade the whole set of front speakers to matched set, called an LCR (left, centre, right). However, note that the optimal position for the centre speakers is behind the screen and this suddenly starts to cost a lot more money.
After that you can consider surround speakers, but these don’t add that much so do not consider them before doing the above. You can, however, consider them before a centre speaker if you are the only one using the cinema, as the ghost centre of the stereo set up should be good enough.
Media
I use a NAS to store my media. You can find an excellent video series by Jeff Geerling outlining how to rip blu-ray media to a NAS, starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ8ijmy3qPo
You’ll want to keep the NAS outside of your cinema as it will probably have spinning media and be noisy.
I use Kodi on a Raspberry Pi in my cinema to play back the content from the NAS. If you don’t have an AVR yet, you will need a USB analogue sound adaptor for it. I recommend the Behringer UCA202 which can be had new for around £20. If you do have an AVR then you don’t need this as you will use audio passthrough via HDMI, but at £20 this is probably cheaper to get started.
Conclusion
If you stick to second hand stuff you can cobble together a great home cinema for less than £2000. It’s still a lot of money and takes a lot of work and research, but it’s a great project. If a partner exists, it helps a lot if they are understanding and have a similar frugal mindset. If you want this to look good in your living room, expect to pay many times more and put in a lot more work. Hopefully you don’t have to. Enjoy your home cinema journey!