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Ask the Expert: HD Upside Down
 |  Jun 02, 2007  | 

Q. I'm interested in buying a front projector for ceiling mounting. I realize that when projectors are turned upside down for a ceiling mount, a circuit inverts the image so you don't have to watch the movie standing on your head. I also realize that there's another circuit to reverse the image left-to-right for rear-projection.

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Ask the Expert: HDTV Over Cat-5 Cables
 |  May 03, 2007  | 

Q. I'm about to buy a whole-house video and audio distribution system, and I'm being told that I can tranfer HD video around the house using double Cat-5e connections without loss of picture quality. It sounds too good to be true. Is it? Kapil Wadhwani via email

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Ask The Expert: How Important is 1080p Input Capability?
 |  Jun 06, 2006  | 

Q. I have a Sony Qualia 005 LCD HDTV that accepts a 1080i video signal through its HDMI inputs but not 1080p. Now I'm interested in Sony's upcoming BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player, which has a 1080p video output. Are these two components compatible? If not, how can I view a 1080p video signal on the set? Chris Strigos Beacon, NY

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Ask the Expert: In-Wall Speakers for Surround Sound
 |  Jul 08, 2007  | 

Q. My home theater employs small tower speakers with a matching center speaker below my rear projector, dipole surrounds, and a 12-inch powered subwoofer. I'm building a new family room and would like to move to a flat-panel TV with in-wall or ceiling home theater speakers.

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Ask The Expert: Long Distance Runaround
 |  Sep 03, 2007  | 

Q. I'm in the process of building a new home and will be putting a home theater in my basement. I want to be able to watch the movie that's playing in the home theater on a TV in my upstairs living room.

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Ask The Expert: Primary Colors
 |  May 02, 2006  | 

Q. I was a printer for many years, and in our business we always worked with the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow to derive other colors. Why does the television industry use red, green, and blue as its primary colors? Jack Phillippe Yeadon, PA

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Ask the Expert: Room Tuning
 |  Oct 11, 2007  | 

Q. For a home theater in my basement, I have a room that measures 16 feet wide by 27 feet long. I'd prefer to keep the space as a multipurpose room with the theater integrated in a way to keep the space open.

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Ask the Expert: Setting Up Dual Subwoofers
 |  Jan 03, 2007  | 

Q. After reading your article "Why You Need Four Subwoofers" (November 2006), I felt adding a second subwoofer would probably be enough for my rec room. I just have two questions. First, should the second sub be the same size and power as my first sub, or is it better to have two different sizes?

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Ask the Expert: Surround Speaker Placement
 |  Dec 05, 2006  | 

Q. I watched a special on Discovery Channel called "Home Theater Revolution," and the theater expert built a room for a family to watch movies. He put the surround speakers on the back wall, as opposed to on the side walls facing in.

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Ask Theo, Part II (September 2008)
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Jul 31, 2008  | 

Hi Theo, There are things I wished I hadn't done with my home theater. For example, I shouldn't have spent so much on my receiver and should have waited for one with HDMI inputs and the new Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats. Also, I heard really good things about Sony's 1080p projectors, but was persuaded that a Runco 720p model would look better.

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Ask Theo: Design Discipline (and the lack thereof)
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Sep 14, 2008  | 

Ten years ago, when home theater was just becoming the hot trend in new-home construction, I came up with an inexpensive, ready-to-assemble theater design for a large corporation in the housing-supplies business. Our target was the builder of homes for the average American family.

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Ask Theo: Design Discipline (and the lack thereof)
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Sep 15, 2008  | 

Ten years ago, when home theater was just becoming the hot trend in new-home construction, I came up with an inexpensive, ready-to-assemble theater design for a large corporation in the housing-supplies business. Our target was the builder of homes for the average American family.

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Ask Theo: Less is More
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Jul 27, 2008  | 

Before I get to my first critique of reader's home theater, let's make sure we're all on the same page. This column is not going to be about electronics. There's plenty of that going on elsewhere on this site. Here I will be talking about the effort to integrate electronics into the look of a room dedicated to watching DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, or HDTV.

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Ask Theo: Show Some Restraint
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Nov 03, 2008  | 

With the attitude of someone who thinks he's seen it all, I visited the recent CEDIAExpo in Denver expecting to be neither pleasantly surprised nor particularly disappointed. Let's be real: When Blu-ray Disc delivers film-like picture plus audiophile sound, and a well-engineered home theater puts the local multiplex to shame, what else can impress a rabid movie buff like me?

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Ask Theo: Two Jobs Well Done
Theo Kalomirakis  |  Mar 12, 2009  | 

In terms of means and level of accomplishment, the two theaters featured this month couldn't be more different. One is the work of a professional custom installer for an apparently well-off client, and it actually involved the services of an architect.

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