Creating your own home theater has never been easier! The challenge is to do this without breaking the bank. Surprisingly, a few simple tricks can do just that.
One common mistake when building a home theater is underestimating or overspending a project’s budget. But by knowing which items you can skip, which ones you can reuse, and what budget to buy, you can save a few dollars without sacrificing the quality of your experience.
In this quick guide, you’ll learn how to build a home theater on the cheap.
Don’t buy everything at once!
Before you get started, this is the most important piece of advice you’ll need. With the way technology is being updated these days, you won’t find cutting-edge, future-proof products in every category at the same time. So if you try to buy all the parts together, you will end up compromising and possibly needing an upgrade sooner than you thought.
Instead, buy break-in components now and get cheaper options for everything else — or skip them altogether. Even for these important ingredients, do your research on how long they will last and spend accordingly.
We will tell you about some of these aspects in this article, but no matter what, do not buy everything at once. Bet on purchases so that at every stage you can acquire the most promising components with the best value for money.
Buy a good TV and forget about Smart OS
Ideally, you want a TV that supports 4K and HDR. Although it will be a smart TV, it’s fine if you don’t like the operating system or interface. Either way, you’ll get a Blu-ray player or some sort of media center that does everything a smart TV does, and probably does better.
Check out our recommendations for some of the most affordable 4K HDR TVs you can buy. The size is up to you, but for a home theater setup, you’ll be watching at least 55 inches. Don’t worry about distance, as in home theater the rule of thumb is to be as big as you can afford.
The projector is not worth the cost
Instead of TVs, you can also use a projector, but this ends up increasing costs. Because the projector doesn’t have a backlight, you’ll have to spend on extras like blackout curtains and a projection screen like the Homegear 120HD.
Also, at the time of writing, good 4K HDR projectors are much more expensive than similarly sized TVs. And if you want to buy a big TV anyway, any reason to buy a projector has diminished anyway.
Consider using an old PC
Chances are you have an old PC or laptop lying around somewhere, or you know someone who does. You can use this to create a great PC media center. This will be the cheapest way to get a good home theater system.
Even if you have to add a few things, reconfiguring your old computer will be cheaper and will result in a better multimedia box than any gadget you buy. Yes, even the Raspberry Pi. While we’re big fans, there are some things Home Cinema can’t do.
The flexibility that a proper computer gives you can’t be compared to what you’ll get, even with something like Roku or Chromecast A PC can do all the tasks that a streaming device can do, but doesn’t work the other way around.
More importantly, the PC keeps your options open for the future. You can add a 4K Blu-ray drive or a better sound card. You can upgrade the processor or add a graphics card to turn it into a game console, etc.
