The ultimate State of Origin home theatre set up

CAN’T make it tonight’s State of Origin Game three? No worries. You can have an even better experience at home with these tips.

Home Focus Smart TV Samsung Series 9 JS9500 SUHD TV

CAN’T make it tonight’s State of Origin game three? No worries. You can have an even better experience at home with these tips.

If you feel like making a last minute dash to your local Harvey Norman or JB Hi-Fi there’s a few things you should consider first before buying.

TV or Projector?

Both have their advantages. If you want a huge picture at a relatively cheap price, then you can’t look past a projector.

Our pick of the bunch would be LG’s PF80G portable projector. For around $1999, you will get a projector that can display a display up to 120-inches, nearly double the size of most high-end TVs that can cost more than twice the price. Resolution is a crisp full-HD which more than does the job. You could grab a 4K projector which is four times as clear, but you’ll be looking at spending a lot more money to get that. Just make sure you have a set top box, like Fetch TV to connect to watch the big game as most projectors don’t come with a built in tuner.

Samsung’s SUHD TV’s sports mode is perfect for any sports fan.

While you might not get as big of a picture, if you spend a bit more on a high-end TV you’ll be rewarded with a much better picture. If you’re a sports fan, your best bet is going to be one of Samsung’s new SUHD TVs, their sports mode is a killer feature. With tonight’s game for example, you will be able to watch the game live while simultaneously replaying highlights of the game. It also allows you to stop, rewind and zoom in on frames if you ever want to be your own video referee. Prices for Samsung’s SUHD TVs start at $4999 for a 55-inch model, but you might be able to convince a salesperson to shave a little off.

What about sound?

Of course, to feel like you’re really at the game you need great sound to complete the atmosphere. While TV speakers have become a lot better in recent years, there’s still no beating stand-alone systems. If you’re on a budget, try one of Samsung or LG’s sound bars. They look good and fit right below your TV without drawing attention while creating significantly better audio than your TV speakers. Best of all for you neat freaks, they’re wireless so you won’t have cables running around everywhere.

Sonos’s smallest speaker, the Play 1.

If you want the ultimate set up though, you can’t go past Sonos’ combination of speakers. They are quite pricey, but if you combine their Playbar soundbar at the front of your room, a sub and a few Play 1 or Play 3 wireless portable speakers throughout your room you will feel like you’re in the middle of Suncorp Stadium. The Sonos Sub and Playbar will both set you back $1099 each, while the Play 1 portable speaker retails for $329 and the Play 3 for $499. For the perfect set up, expect to pay around $3700.

If you want to use it as a home stereo too, no worries. You can move all the wireless speakers anywhere in your home and control them with your phone. It’s all super easy to set up and takes away the hassle of traditional speaker systems.

So I have my TV and speakers, how should I set it all up?

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your lounge is the right distance away from your TV. If it’s too close, you won’t be able to focus on the full picture and if it’s too far you’ll miss out on all the detail. The general rule of thumb for the optimal screen distance is to have your lounge around three times the diagonal width of the TV away. So if you have a 60-inch TV, you’ll want your TV 1.8 metres away.

Next, you’ll want to dive into your TVs settings and turn it on to its highest display settings, or sports settings if it has it. What this does is reduce the motion blue from faced paced movement on the screen, like a ball passing or quick side steps. For the best picture when watching sport, an optimal refresh rate is 200Hz, which is the speed it changes picture. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the picture. This is only beneficial to things like sport though, so once you’re done, don’t forget to turn it back to its normal settings.

Your perfect audio set up.

With your speakers, if you have a 5.1 (five speakers and a sub) set up like recommended above, you want to have your most powerful speakers facing you from the front. So you’d put your soundbar under your TV, your two bigger ones at the front of the room on the left and right and the two smaller speakers from the back. When you’re at a concert, the majority of the sound comes from in front of you, that’s what you want at home too. Your smaller speakers behind you on each side are there to fill in the sound gaps and create a surround sound environment.

One area you can’t make any better though is Channel 9’s joke of a broadcast in standard definition. But at least you’ll have the equipment to make the most out of it.