John Sciacca

Projection screens come in virtually any size, and affordable solutions are available that exceed 100 inches diagonal. And even though much marketing hype continues to push flat-panel LED and OLED technology, here are five reasons why a front projector still makes the most sense for home theater.

Remote controls can essentially be clumped into three categories: low-, middle-, and high-end. At the low end are DIY models that offer basic “all-in-one” control functions and are meant to replace lost or broken manufacturer-issued remotes. High-end models require professional programming and provide powerful automation features, IP and RS-232 control, and radio-frequency operation.

Casa means “home” or “house” in Spanish and Italian. So a casa full of tunes — or housewide audio — is a pretty sweet thing. Of course, housewide audio is nothing new, but accomplishing it in the past has meant a rack full of sources, amplifiers, and control gear, with wiring spider-webbed out to various rooms, control pads, and speakers.

Control. Having personally installed hundreds of systems in people’s homes, I can definitively say that at the end of the day, that’s what it all boils down to. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a system for a dedicated theater, a bedroom, or even a simple home theater in a box. Having the ability to easily control that system is what sets the good apart from the bad.