There was a time when people had to go to town in order to see a movie. There were no televisions inside homes, and the movie that was played at the cinema would play for a week and sometimes longer. This meant that people had to watch whatever movie the cinema owner decided to show and they had to wait for a new movie to start playing. The idea of a home theater was out of the question completely. The first home theater to be constructed was seen exclusively in the personal homes of the very rich. The movies were played on projectors that allowed the film reels to run through them. There had to be someone to run the projector and only the very wealthy could afford to get a motion picture on film. It was a very big deal to be invited to one of these private screenings to see a movie. The ability to make home movies became available to people who were just average citizens, but the ability to show a picture starring real actresses and actors took a while in coming. When the VHS tape players became affordable to the majority of the population the popularity of the home theater began to grow. For most people who owned a VHS player the watching of the programs on the tapes happened in their living rooms. The sounds of the movie were not as high quality as they would be at the cinema, and the pictures were formatted to fit the smaller television screens they were being shown on so they were not as clear as the ones at the cinema. The invention of the DVD players and the Blu-Ray disc players has changed the quality of the pictures, and the affordability of surround sound equipment has improved the sound to something equal to what people hear at the cinema. With all of the advances made in film players, surround sound equipment, and the price of the actual films, the home theater has gone from a place on the living room couch to an actual entertainment area designed to enhance movie watching. People no longer wish to wait until the cinema plays the show they want to see. They no longer want to get dressed up and go downtown in order to enjoy a motion picture with their friends. They set up areas that allow them to view the films in comfort and this is a growing trend in every part of the country, indeed every corner of the world.
