Home cinema, also called home theater, are entertainment systems that seek to reproduce cinema quality video and audio in a private home. In the 1950s, home movies became popular in the United States with Kodak 8 mm film projector equipment becoming affordable. The development of multi-channel audio systems and laserdisc in the 1980s created a new paradigm for home cinema. In the early to mid 1990's, a typical home cinema would have a Laserdisc or S-VHS videocassette player fed to a large rear projection television. In the late 1990s, home theatre technology progressed with the development of DVD, Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio ("surround sound"), and High-Definition Television.

In the 2000s, the term "home cinema" encompasses a range of systems. The most basic system could be a DVD player, a standard CRT television, and a "home theater in a box", a 2.1 speaker system with left and right speakers and a small 8" subwoofer cabinet. An expensive home cinema set-up might include a High-Definition video format such as Blu-ray, a 60" High-Definition Television with a "cinema-style" 16×9 format, a several thousand-watt home theatre receiver with five to seven surround sound speakers, and a powered subwoofer with a 12" subwoofer. The most expensive home theater set-ups, which can cost over $100,000 US, have digital projectors, expensive screens, and custom-built screening rooms which include cinema-style chairs and Audiophile-grade sound equipment.

Design

Today, "home cinema" implies a real "cinema experience" and therefore a higher quality set of components than the average television provides. A typical home theater includes the following parts:

1. Input Devices: One or more audio/video sources. High quality formats such as Blu-ray are preferred, though they often include a VHS player or Video Game Systems. Some home theatres now include a home theater PC to act as a library for video and music content.
2. Processing Devices: Input devices are processed by either a standalone AV receiver or a Preamplifier and Sound Processor for complex surround sound formats. The user selects the input at this point before it is forwarded to the output.
3. Audio Output: Systems consist of at least 2 speakers, but can have up to 10 with additional subwoofer.
4. Video Output: A large HDTV display. Options include Liquid crystal display television (LCD), video projector, plasma TV, rear-projection TV, or a traditional CRT TV.
5. Atmosphere: Comfortable seating and organization to improve the cinema feel. Higher-end home theaters commonly also have sound insulation to prevent noise from escaping the room, and a specialized wall treatment to balance the sound within the room.