WALTHAM, MASS. – April 4, 2006 – Forget the April showers. It’s Tax Month and, as everyone knows, April rebates bring big sales on consumer electronics, including the hottest “must have” media product of 2006: Digital television (DTV).

As DTV sales surge this year – the Consumer Electronics Association expects they’ll exceed $23 billion and 18 million units – more and more people are looking to make the most of their new digital technologies by creating their own media room for their homes.

To ensure their new media room is a hit, lead design consultant Davis Remignanti of Furniture.com (www.furniture.com) offers do-it-yourself solutions for all budgets with these helpful hints about location and furniture:

• LIGHTS!  – Create the fitting atmosphere for home entertainment and choose the room with the least amount of light – usually the basement. Face TV’s away from windows and use window treatments to prevent picture washout. Place a light with 10 or 15 – watt incandescent (or 5 – watt fluorescent) bulb behind the TV to further reduce eyestrain and glare. Choose a white light rather than pink to enhance the quality of onscreen color. Use a neutralizing, flat gray paint behind TV’s to maximize the quality of how colors look onscreen.
  
  
• CAMERA! – The home theater basics include a speaker system, AM/FM receiver, DVD/VCR player and – most importantly – a TV. The ideal screen size for your TV depends on budget, available space, and viewing preferences. High-definition is a more refined picture, without the visible scan lines of analog TV’s, letting viewers sit as close as they want without “ruining their eyes.” Small screens or small spaces shouldn’t be discouraging. Many people find sitting close gives them a more theater-like experience. A small screen and small space could be all viewers need for that edge-of-the-seat, lump-in-the-throat entertainment.
  
  
• PLACES!  – Finding the best seat in the house depends on the type of TV. A good rule of thumb, the larger the screen the farther away views should sit for optimum picture. For analog sets with a regular 4:3 ration (4 inches of width for every 3 inches of height), sit a distance 3 to 6 times the diagonal width of the screen. For high-definition, wide-screens (16 inches of width for every 9 inches of height) sit a distance of 1.5 to 3 times the diagonal width of the screen.
  
  
• ACTION!  – A home theater would not be complete without its supporting cast – the furniture. There is an abundance of different padding, motion and size choices available in the quickly growing category of home theater seating. Soft, comfy designs can give double feature luxury as well as absorb sound waves to improve the audio quality of the room. When choosing a home entertainment center, viewers should keep two shady characters in mind: dust and poor ventilation. A unit should be large enough to avoid stacking electronics – which can block vents and reduce performance. Adjustable shelving will allow enough room to frequently wipe components clean. Shutting cabinet doors when the system is not in use will keep dust under control.

• And CUT...   That’s a wrap. Of course, the focus of a media room should revolve around what’s on screen. But regardless of whether the screening is a Cary Grant classic or a Hugh Grant romp, with just a bit of planning, any homeowner can create their own media room environment that’s sure to rate 5 Stars.
  

# # #