Recently Filed in Special Features

As temperatures begin to drop, there’s no better time for upgrading your outdated, mechanical thermostat with a programmable thermostat, which gives you the ability to set your heating system to turn on only during the hours you’re home to enjoy it, for significant cost savings. Programmable thermostats can be used as direct replacements for most existing thermostats. Best of all, the upgrade process is much easier than you would imagine. Just follow the five steps described below. Prepare to Remove Old Thermostat Start by removing… View this story
Special Features • DIY Special • Home Control

History of Motion Sensors Motion sensors have been used with alarm systems since the 1970s. Back then, motion sensors were based on ultrasonic technology. Sound waves were emitted from a sensor, and the resulting reflected sounds were analyzed to detect changes. When a change was detected, the motion sensor notified the alarm system’s control panel (or whatever it was connected to). These ultrasonic sensors were frequently blamed for triggering false alarms. A phone ringing, an alarm clock sounding, or the heating system coming on could… View this story
Special Features • DIY Special • How To • Security

Don’t want to hassle with mall crowds for electronics deals this weekend? You can go online for a Halloween projector treat. ProjectorPeople.com is adding to an already sweetened deal on a Mitsubishi high-definition projector by throwing some more money at you. It will have the Mitsubishi HC1600 projector, originally priced at $895, for just $699 as its “Deal of the Day” on Saturday and Sunday, November 1-2. The deal includes a sales price, $100 mail-in rebate (good through Nov. 30 if you don’t happen to… View this story
Displays • Front Projection • Video Projectors • Special Features • Deals • Home Theater • Product News

You may or may not have been wondering what happened to the 80-GB and 160-GB iPod Classics after Apple made Tuesday’s announcement that included the next-gen classic of 120 GB at $249. We found the discontinued Classics on clearance at the Apple Store online, with prices on each discounted $50—down to $199 for the 80-GB version and $299 for the 160-GB model. (I suppose they’re on clearance at the brick-and-mortar store too, but maybe a reader can confirm? No stores nearby unfortunately.) If you’re a… View this story
AV Components • Portables • Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Special Features • Deals • Audio • Product News

Building a home theater is definitely better the second time around. Case in point, projectors that can do 1080p high-definition resolution weren’t available to this New Jersey homeowner when he was watching movies in his previous house’s theater. But oh the video options to choose from today! When the homeowner moved, he wanted to build a new, state-of-the-art theater. “He’s more into video than audio, and we did the 1080p projector when it was kind a new thing,” says system installer Bob Smith of Allwired… View this story
Displays • LCD • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Acoustics • Home Theater • Cool Homes

For this Calbasas, CA, homeowner, constructing a great home theater next to a game room whose highlight is a regulation poker table was simply in the cards. “He has an adjacent poker room so he could earn back all the money that the theater cost him,” jokes Murray Kunis, who owns electronics system installer Future Home of Los Angeles. “He’s an excellent poker player—he’s slowly made up about $5,000, $10,000 a night.” While the card playing might be a gamble on some nights, receiving a… View this story
Displays • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Home Control • Home Control Systems • Touchpanels and Keypads • Location • Rec/Play Room • Speakers • Speaker Systems • Surround Sound • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

There’s no water or hot air involved. This theater isn’t even a part of a yacht or a cruise liner. But it definitely floats. “We designed the room so that absolutely nothing ties it to the structure of the house,” explains Michael Pope, president of Audio Video Interiors of Medina, OH. “In essence, it’s a room in and of itself.” The practice of building a room within a room has been used widely among home theater designers as a way to prevent sound from the… View this story
AV Components • Digital Media Servers • Displays • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Furniture • Acoustics • Home Control • Home Control Systems • Speakers • Speaker Systems • Surround Sound • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

The home theater in the basement of this Monroe, NJ, residence was not quite what the homeowner had originally envisioned. When the client talked to system designer and installer Allwired Technologies and heard that the plans were nearing a $100,000 job, he realized it was a bit over budget—$55,000 over. He ended up with a pretty good plan B theater, though. Not only was Allwired on a tight budget to stay under $45,000, it was on a tight schedule, too: The couple, which had recently… View this story
Displays • DLP • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Furniture • Acoustics • Seating • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

What makes this home theater space on Florida’s Gulf Coast look so sleek and sophisticated? Maybe it’s the soothing earth tones, combined with the leopard-print carpet, that adds a hint of excitement. Maybe it’s the starfield ceiling that provides a sense of spaciousness. Or perhaps it’s the fact that once you sit in one the leather reclining chairs, you’re staring at a 100-inch Stewart Filmscreen that displays high-def images from a ceiling-mounted Vidikron projector. We think it’s all of the above. The cumulative effect of… View this story
Displays • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Furniture • Seating • Lighting Control • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Talk about homeowners who knew exactly what they were looking for in a home theater. Darby and Libby Williams made system installer Hi-Fidelity’s job “a rather easy one.” That’s because Darby’s the one who built the house, and wife Libby’s the one who designed it. When the Williamses began planning their basement home theater, they wanted warmth and coziness—nothing too fancy or too traditional—some storage space, bright sound, and, of course, a big screen (the 21-inch set in their living room just wasn’t cutting it… View this story
Displays • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Lighting Control • Speakers • Surround Sound • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Some people just have to have a home theater—and Florida homeowner Sean Tierney is one of them. “Basically, the reason I have a home theater is that I’m tired of disruptive people at traditional movie theaters,” Tierney says. “I purchased a home about a year ago, and we had empty room upstairs that I thought would be perfect for a home theater.” The 14-by-28-foot room is above a garage and has a sloped ceiling with a flat portion in the middle. It’s a bigger space… View this story
Lighting Control • Speakers • Surround Sound • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • DLP • HDTV • Video Projectors • Home Theater • Cool Homes

When the owner of this home theater decided on having an audiophile-grade system, he went all out—to the tune of more than a million dollars. The room consists of super-high-end Wilson Audio loudspeakers, FM Acoustics amplifiers, a Meridian surround processor and DVD player, a Halco preamplifier, dCS SACD transport and digital-to-audio converter, ReQuest Multimedia hard drive servers, about $200,000 worth of Transparent Audio cable, and a Faroudja D-ILA (direct-drive image light amplifier) video projector and processor—and those are just the highlights. “It’s nothing like I’ve… View this story
AV Components • Integrated Amplifiers • Preamplifiers • Cables, Wires and Tools • Audio Cables • Displays • Video Projectors • Video Screen • Speakers • Speaker Systems • Surround Sound • Special Features • Home of the Year Awards 2007 • Home Theater • Audio • Cool Homes