Missing movies during a lockdown? We have got you covered with this article that will help you create an awesome cinema-like viewing experience within the comfort of your home and also, this setup is going to be budget-friendly.
After our last list of top 5 tech gadgets you must have, we were extremely impressed by the projector featured in that list so we thought why not create a home cinema that will cost 5 times less than a generic home theater system.
We went back to the drawing table and excluded everything unnecessary and built a setup from scratch at the lowest price possible. The key products that you need in a home cinema setup include a huge screen and an immersive stereo sound system.
Without wasting any time, let’s move on to the list of gadgets you need to create a budget home theater :
1. A projector
Getting a huge TV or monitor is expensive. It is also not wise to give up on the luxury experience of enjoying movies and games on the big screen especially when you are missing out on cinema hall fun during the lockdown. What if I told you that an immersive experience of a huge screen can be brought to your bedroom and that too under 600 bucks? A Projector under $600 is all you need.
Can you imagine the fun of watching Netflix or your favorite movie on a 100-inch screen in the comfort and safety of your house? Without dragging the exciting use cases, let me introduce you to our top recommended projector for a home cinema under budget :
EGate i9 pro max full HD 1080p LED projector
- This mini projector is the perfect buy to fulfill all your entertainment needs. As the name suggests, this projector from EGate can display at a resolution of 1080p which means you can enjoy the big screen without compromising on picture quality.
- Talking about the big screen, this projector can produce a display of up to 150 inches or 3.8 meters from a distance of 16 ft at maximum and 60 inches from a distance of just 6ft at minimum.
- Its portable form factor means you can adjust it easily in your living room or even your bedroom permanently without compromising on a lot of space.
- It is also equipped with a 3-watt stereo speaker system which is great but kind of underwhelming for our home theater but we have got you covered in the sound department later in this article.
- The most important aspect of any projector is its brightness because a projector with low brightness can display a faded picture in daylight conditions. This mini projector from EGate has a maximum brightness level of 3300 lumens which is the best you can get in this price segment.
- It supports a wide range of input ports like HDMI, USB, VGA, AV, and SD cards. It is compatible with all set-top boxes, fire tv sticks, pc/laptops, and PlayStation.
Now that we have found a perfect match for a home theater, let us talk about the orientation of our home cinema.
We are looking to create a setup that is permanent and sturdy so we need to fix our projector in such a way that it does not occupy a lot of space and also remains accessible in case you want to change the input source. Note that our projector is not wall mountable so I think it’s a good idea to have a sturdy stand to place it according to the size of the room and the size of display you want.
2. A projector stand
It is important to know that the stand you choose for your setup should be a strong and reliable one. You should not try to cut corners and save a few hundred bucks here as the most expensive product of our setup is going to be placed on this stand.
Our key concerns while shopping for a stand included a metal construction that would add some weight to our stand so that it does not toss over easily in case someone hits it by accident.
It should be equipped with an anti-skid pad so that our projector will not toss over in case someone hits the stand and the stand tilts. Height adjustment is another important aspect as it has to fit in your room at a suitable distance and height to give desired picture quality and size.
Keeping all these points in my mind, we landed on our top recommendation for a projector stand :
Audiovan projector tripod stand
- This stand-by audio van has a tripod base, an adjustable neck, and a flat base all made up of solid meta
- It weighs 1.5 kilograms which is heavy enough to prevent unwanted toppling and light enough that you can easily relocate it.
- It is equipped with a flat rectangular base on the top which is 11 inches long and 16 inches wide, perfect for the mini projector used in our home cinema setup.
- The top platform is lined with grooved rubber padding which means our expensive projector is not going to slide out even if the stand tilts.
- The height of this stand can be adjusted between a height of 3.5 feet at the minimum and 6.5 feet at maximum making it a perfect fit for most rooms.
- It comes in matte black color which is powder coated on the metal making it durable and beautiful to look at.
3. A screen to project on
If you have ever used a projector, you know that it is very important to have a compatible projecting screen otherwise the picture quality is highly compromised and the colors are completely washed out even in a dark environment.
Therefore, we have included an affordable screen in this setup so that a real cinema experience can be achieved.
Inlight map type projector screen
- This screen is a tailored fit for our home theatre setup.
- It is 6 feet in width and 4 feet in height providing 84 inches worth of real estate to view content on.
- In our experience, this screen can be easily used at its full potential for content up to 4k resolution without losing any pixels.
- You need to place the projector about 10 feet away from this screen to get exactly 84 inches of display perfectly fitting into the screen
- Now that the display department is sorted with a high-quality projector, sturdy metal stand, and a fabric screen to project on, let’s move on to perfect the audio experience.
4. A theatre-level sound system
The audio experience is also something you should not compromise on. A great sound system with heavy bass and surround sound experience is essential to replicate a real cinema experience.
Keeping the budget in mind, we have managed to bag a steal deal from Philips offering an 80-watt surround sound system.
Philips audio MMS8085B/94 speaker system
- A home theatre is incomplete without a deafening sound system and this beast by Philips will do just that while matching the vibe of our home cinema setup and budget.
- The package includes a subwoofer with a diameter of 6.5 inches producing a thumpy heavy bass that you can feel in your chest.
- It includes two convertible soundbars to provide a surround sound 2.1 stereo effect like a cinema hall.
- It has 80-watt output power which is enough to irritate your neighbors.
- Input connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB, 2RCA to RCA2 cable, and SD card.
5. Amazon fire tv stick (optional)
It’s 2022, you don’t want to connect your home theatre with a DVD player, and connecting a PC via HDMI or VGA cables looks ugly and requires much more effort for controlling the content, play-pause, and volume.
Our top pick of input source for your home theatre is the amazon fire tv stick as it can provide a full-fledged 84-inch android tv in your living room with an 80-watt surround sound system for less than 25 thousand.
- The fire tv stick enables you to watch all the streaming services including Netflix, prime tv, and youtube. You can also use Chrome as your internet browser and enjoy the utilities of a PC.
- Fire tv stick is completely wireless and connects with your wi-fi router effortlessly.
- It can directly plug into our projector without the hassle of maintaining a bunch of cables and it can be remotely controlled.
CONCLUSION
In this article, we have compiled all the products you need to create a home cinema that is better than an actual cinema hall as it rests within the comfort of your home sweet home and displays whatever you desire from newly-launched movies to on-demand web series from Netflix, amazon, youtube and much more. For under 25,000 bucks, you can have 84-inch android tv that you can assemble and install all by yourself and enjoy cinemas at your home.
