>> Today’s possibilities of home cinema have made for an extraordinary entertainment experience that can be enjoyed by an entire family. Never before has the level of home entertainment available to those “cocooning” been so state-of-the-art.

Many people began enjoying theatrical experiences in their homes in the pre-television days of radio plays that offered “theater of the mind.” Audiences would gather around the radio to enjoy the drama unfold in the audio realm alone.

When television became part of the home entertainment options, much of the radio audience broadened their tastes to include it, just as some of their favorite performers themselves made the transition to the new medium successfully.

After a few decades, TV began to display programming in color, remote controls gave users added convenience previously only seen in their favorite science fiction shows and there were even simulcasts of TV concert events coordinated with FM radio stations to provide better audio.

Projection television became more popular offering larger screens, and consumers began watching rented movies on tape while routing the audio through their stereo systems. The quality of audio and visual presentation continued to evolve to the current Blu-ray DVD players displaying content on large plasma and LCD flat screens, with accompanying audio supplied by complex 7.1 amplified speaker systems. And to think that the early movies had no sound at all.

Today’s home cinema systems include video displays with breath-taking representation of the movie frames shot on traditional film stock, television shows produced in high definition video as well as the computer generated images of animated feature films which are conceived entirely in the digital realm. Audiences with favorite classic films from Hollywood’s golden era may now see and hear them in a new light, with digitally remastered audio and video in the widescreen or “letterbox” format in which the films were intended to be viewed.

And there is a cross over between the film world and the gaming world. Today’s popular gaming consoles are compatible with today’s home cinema systems, and gamers enjoy interacting with the characters of their games that were in many cases introduced to them by movies. Gaming consoles also combine with the hardware of home cinema to offer an enhanced online experience, ranging from online role playing games, to surfing global news articles to streaming content of all kinds.

Today’s home cinema enthusiast can also archive his own content, whether it starts with screening his own home movies directly from his digital movie camera, or programming a digital video recorder to record desired programs to be viewed later, while fast forwarding through commercials. Any combination of home movie sequences or TV shows can be burned to DVD for posterity.

Recently many consumers realized that they could receive an impressive variety of high definition channels via HD antennas, which gives them the option of reconsidering their satellite or cable TV arrangements. But with HD programming available in the airwaves for free, it’s likely that eventually most homes will have updated home cinema capabilities.

Whether an individual prefers black and white classics from Hollywood’s stars of the forties, or the incredible computer enhanced action flicks of today, home cinema offers a rewarding entertainment experience, to be enjoyed any time.

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>> Looking to add a blu-ray player to your home theater? Ever since the blu-ray platform won the war with the competing HD-DVD platform a few years ago, home theater manufacturers have been releasing blu-ray players that include more and more features.

All of the blu-ray players made today offer 1080p high definition resolution. They also include HDMI capabilities that allow high definition and sound transfer to other audio and video equipment. The tricky part of shopping for a blu-ray player today is deciding what extra features you need.

Many blu-ray players have the capability to stream movies. They typically use the Netflix service, which requires a monthly subscription. A subscription includes movie rentals through the mail, downloadable movies to your computer and downloadable movies to your blu-ray player. If you are already a member of Netflix then make sure the blu-ray player you are considering is compatible with your movie service.

Some blu-ray players offer streaming music through Pandora. Pandora is a free service that allows its users to create and customize music channels. You can enter a song, an artist or a genre and Pandora will pick other songs that it thinks you will like. You tell Pandora whether or not you like a song by giving the song a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Over time Pandora learns your taste in music and offers up only songs that you like. Pandora is offered on a lot of blu-ray players and it should be considered when shopping for a new player.

In order for your blu-ray player to downloads movies through Blockbuster and Netflix and stream music from Pandora it needs to be connected to the Internet. Some blu-ray players must be connected directly to a modem or router with a cable. Other players can connect to the Internet via WiFi.  WiFi capable blu-ray players are a bit more expensive but if you want to rid yourself of wires and connect the player to your home’s WiFi network then the extra cost may be justified.

Even if you do not plan on using a streaming movie service or Pandora, you should still consider buying a blu-ray player that can connect to the Internet. Many manufactures release firmware updates. These updates fix glitches in the player’s software. Also, if new features become available the manufacturer may provide these features to its existing customers through a firmware update. Internet connected blu-ray players will automatically download and install these updates. If you have a player that is not connected to the Internet then you will have to download the update on your computer, burn the update file onto a DVD and then install it onto the blu-ray player. Considering the small premium that Internet connectivity adds to the price of a blu-ray player it is a smart move to include this on your list of features to look for in a new player.

Since all of the blu-ray players on the market today provide amazing picture and sound quality the decisions you need to make when buying a new player revolve around the extra features. Like any other electronics purchase it pays to think ahead to the features that may be useful in the future even if you do not think you will use them immediately.