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Terry Paullin

Correspondent

After 25+ years as a Silicon Valley Executive, most recently as President and C.O.O. of Crosscheck, Mr. Paullin decided to follow his passion to the emerging Home Theatre industry. In 1994 he formed Front Row Cinema to design, build and calibrate Home Theaters for private residences. Nearly 600 theaters later, he remains engaged in the Industry in the following ways. Builds dedicated (single purpose) Home Theaters and "Theatre Environments" (rooms used for other purposes as well). Teaches Imaging Science and other courses for the Imaging Science Foundation. Mr. Paullin has taught CEDIA accredited classes to the installation community at both AVAD and ADI. Consults to Industry on the topic of Imaging Science (Pioneer, Optima, In-Focus and several others under non-disclosure). Mr. Paullin has served on the Board of two companies and the Advisory committee of two others. Has written articles/product reviews for major industry publications, including Widescreen Review, The Perfect Vision, The Ultimate Guide to A/V, WIRED magazine and CEPro and has maintained a monthly column (One Installer's Opinion) in Widescreen Review for the past eight years. Mr. Paullin has a B.S.E.E. degree from Long Beach State University and performs ISF monitor calibrations for private individuals. Mr. Paullin also maintains 3 theaters in his home for testing, comparison, performance verification, and reference viewing.

24 articles
4K Ultra HDHome TheaterStandards

One Installer's Opinion: The Perfect Storm

The 4K display standard faces a fragmented rollout complicated by competing resolutions (3,840 vs. 4,096 horizontal lines), unresolved naming conventions, and a missed opportunity to advance beyond 8-bit color depth and Rec. 709 color space. Upgrading to 10- or 12-bit color with 4-4-2 or 4-4-4 chroma subsampling and a wider color gamut such as DCI or Adobe color space would deliver perceptibly greater image fidelity than resolution gains alone. For consumers and installers, rushing an incomplete standard risks repeating the format-war delays seen with HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, potentially stalling hardware adoption once again.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion: Times, They are a Changin' - Part Deux

A veteran home theatre installer surveys the shifting A/V landscape, flagging the 4K-to-8K pixel race as a likely step backward for early adopters due to native-resolution remapping and first-generation compression artifacts. Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA), already debuting in select high-end commercial theatres, is identified as the most significant true step-function advance in surround sound authoring and distribution in decades. For consumers, the practical takeaway is that specialized custom installation shops now offer more reliable long-term support than the big-box retailers that have largely disappeared.

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Home TheaterHD Audio

One Installer's Opinion: What?! ... Better than Home Theater?

Dolby Atmos, introduced at the newly renamed Dolby Theater in Hollywood, is an object-based audio mastering platform supporting up to 128 inputs and 64 simultaneously active speakers, enabling sound mixers to position individual audio elements anywhere in three-dimensional space rather than routing to fixed speaker channels. The system requires only a single master that the software can remap to any venue's hardware configuration, eliminating the need for separate 5.1 and 7.1 mixes. For home theatre enthusiasts, the technology raises serious questions about whether a comparable spatial audio experience can be replicated in a living room, and the author concedes the commercial cinema has temporarily reclaimed the edge.

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HD AudioHome Theater

One Installer's Opinion: Subtraction as a Means of Addition

Dolby TrueHD with advanced 96K upsampling addresses a longstanding audio artifact called preringing, caused by brickwall filters that roll off at 44.1kHz and 48kHz during digitization, by applying an apodizing filter originally developed by Meridian Audio for their $18,000 Signature Reference 808.2 CD player. The process temporally shifts preringing artifacts to the postringing side of the signal where they are masked and rendered inaudible, and is encoded directly into Blu-ray content so it passes transparently through any AV receiver or Blu-ray player. Listeners at a controlled demonstration unanimously detected improvement, reporting smoother high frequencies, crisper detail, and more natural reverb decay.

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Home Theater4K Ultra HD

One Installer's Opinion: Searching for the Truth...

A veteran custom installer challenges 2013 home theatre predictions, arguing that 3D adoption is driven by feature bundling rather than genuine demand, and that plasma displays and projectors remain viable premium categories. The piece warns early 4K adopters about up-conversion artifacts, noting that a BD player fabricating 6 million pixels to meet an 8-million-pixel request creates a signal that a 1080p display must then discard, compounding errors across two devices. For enthusiasts, the practical takeaway is clear: matching source resolution to display resolution avoids the processing chain that degrades image quality.

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Events & Trade Shows4K Ultra HD

One Installer's Opinion: CES, by the Numbers.....

CES 2012 drew over 153,000 attendees and introduced 20,000 new products, with 4K displays (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) emerging as the show's defining challenge for home theater enthusiasts. The core problem is up-conversion: a 1080p Blu-ray source provides only 2,073,600 pixels to a panel requiring 8,294,400, meaning three out of four pixels are algorithmically interpolated rather than native. Until 4K content pipelines mature, owners of these high-resolution panels will see visible artifacts, particularly during fast motion on large screens.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion: A Belated Christmas Wish...

A home theater installer offers a post-Christmas critique of ten ill-advised A/V gifts, anchored by technical objections including edge-lit LCD panels failing rec. 709 color standards, 4K projectors lacking content and producing artifacts when scaling 2 million pixels into 10 million display holes, and wireless A/V products vulnerable to RFI from garage door openers and microwave ovens. The piece also warns against DVDs when Blu-ray players are available under $200 and flags displays advertising extra primary colors or inflated color gamuts as deviations from ATSC/BD specifications. Readers get practical guidance on returns and upgrades grounded in calibration principles and real-world installation experience.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion: A Tale of Two Vendors

A professional home theatre installer recounts a post-installation project in San Francisco featuring a 14-speaker system with dual 15-inch and one 18-inch subwoofers, where two separate component failures tested vendor support quality. Da-Lite Screen Company resolved a masking screen rattle by overnighting a replacement unit and covering labor costs within days, while a competing projector accessory vendor deflected blame onto the installer after an on-site visit. The contrast illustrates how a vendor's support culture directly affects an integrator's product selection and long-term brand loyalty.

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CalibrationHome TheaterProjection HD

One Installer's Opinion: Encouragement/Discouragement ...... and other matters

A veteran home theatre installer surveys the current AV landscape, highlighting the Epson PC9700UB projector as a standout value with a fully functional CMS capable of independently adjusting Hue, Saturation, and Luminance per primary color - a capability most manufacturers have historically failed to deliver. SpectraCal's CalMAN 4.3 software is credited with making comprehensive CMS calibration a practical workflow. On the downside, edge-lit LCD panels with block dimming measured in hundreds of pixels fall far short of true per-pixel local dimming, and 3D adoption remains stalled by brightness inconsistency, eye fatigue, and thin content pipelines.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion: Road Trip

A veteran home theater installer recounts building three custom media rooms for a single demanding client across California, Florida, and Montana, deploying hardware including an 85-inch Panasonic plasma, a Parasound 5x250 power amplifier, and Velodyne DD 15+ subwoofer. The Florida installation required full acoustic treatment via computer analysis, rack-and-cloth finishing, and a Vidikron 3-chip DLP projector with 2.35 anamorphic masking screen in an earlier build. Installers navigating multi-state projects will find hard-won lessons here on spec verification, logistics planning, and the real cost of assumptions.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion - A VERY Good Question

Veteran home theatre installer Terry Paullin, with roughly 1,000 installations over 22 years, advises prospective buyers on how to vet a qualified A/V integrator rather than defaulting to CEDIA membership alone as a quality benchmark. He recommends asking candidates specifically about ISF or THX Imaging Science certification for video calibration and HAA (Home Acoustic Alliance) Level One and Level Two training for small room acoustics. Skipping these targeted questions risks settling for a generalist installer who prioritizes price margins over measurable performance, directly affecting the quality of your home theatre investment.

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Home TheaterBlu-ray

One Installer's Opinion - An Admission, an Excuse and Yet Another List

A home theatre installer revisits a 2010 prediction about Blu-ray displacing DVD, citing adoption data showing 61% of American homes own at least one HDTV and roughly 90% of those owners have a BD transport, split 35/65 between Sony PS3s and standalone players. The installer argues that HD broadcast capabilities, including deeper color saturation and multi-channel audio, have elevated prime-time television production quality to rival Hollywood films. For home theatre owners, this means a properly calibrated reference system now delivers compelling value from both Blu-ray content and 32 hours of weekly HD prime-time programming.

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Home TheaterEvents & Trade Shows

One Installer's Opinion - The Boys are Back in Town (The 2011 CES Report)

A veteran home theatre installer reports from the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, noting attendance up roughly 50% from the prior year as a cautiously optimistic industry signal. The show floor revealed persistent marketing distortions, including booths advertising 'LED HDTV' (no such product exists in production) and a manufacturer claiming to have discovered yellow as a fourth primary color. For home theatre professionals, the takeaway is that CEDIA remains the more relevant venue, while CES has shifted away from its former focus on display and audio technologies.

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3DTVHome TheaterStreaming HD

One Installer's Opinion - 3D..isappointment, Chicken Little is screaming ...and other matters

A home theatre installer argues that 3DTV adoption is stalling due to lack of standards, scarce content, and the burden of active-shutter glasses, while dismissing streaming video as a viable replacement for Blu-ray in high-end installations. Lossless audio codecs such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio remain unavailable via streaming, and compression artifacts further undermine picture quality for discerning viewers. For serious home theatre clients, physical media still delivers a richer, more complete experience that streaming cannot yet match.

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Home TheaterProjection HD

One Installer's Opinion - You Want It To Last HOW LONG?

Front projector lamp life is typically spec'd at 2,000 hours (up to 4,000 hours in economy mode), yet a professional installer with nearly 1,000 home theatre deployments reports that most projectors reliably exceed 10 years of service with only lamp replacements required. Manufacturer serviceability commitments are often weak, as illustrated by a plasma panel under 4 years old being declared unrepairable by an authorized service center. In practice, a 5-year upgrade cycle driven by advancing display technology tends to outpace actual hardware failure rates.

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Blu-rayHome TheaterProjection HD

One Installer's Opinion - (another) Terry's Top Ten

Veteran home theatre installer Terry Paullin marks his 1,000th installation by ranking the decade's top ten advances in home cinema, with Blu-ray's lossless audio formats (DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD) and anamorphic 2.35:1 constant-height projection delivering roughly 30% more pixel utilization among the highlights. Nine-channel A/V receivers approaching 200 watts per channel with HDMI 1.4 pass-through and automatic room equalization represent the backbone of modern system integration. For enthusiasts building or upgrading a dedicated theatre, this retrospective offers a practical checklist of technologies that collectively define the current performance ceiling.

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CalibrationHome Theater

One Installer's Opinion - This Changes Everything ... (About Calibration)

SpectraCal's CalMAN calibration software advances display calibration by automating coordinated measurements across color analyzers, signal sources, and display technologies, delivering gamma readings in under 30 seconds and structured CMS workflows covering greyscale, gamma, and gamut. The software's guided workflow reduces errors for novice calibrators while enabling precise adjustments across display types including LED-based LCD, LCoS, and plasma. For consumers, pairing a well-designed display with a properly equipped calibrator using tools like CalMAN represents the most reliable path to accurate, optimized picture quality.

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Home Theater

One Installer's Opinion - A Half Dozen Reflections on a Thousand Theaters

A veteran home theatre installer with roughly 1,000 calibrated systems over two decades shares six hard-won observations, noting that Blu-ray Disc adoption proved a stronger HDTV adoption driver than the FCC analog cutoff, and that flat panel sweet spots have climbed from under 40 inches to 85-inch panels now competing with sub-$10K projector setups capable of 100-inch-plus screens. Outboard video processing has moved from niche tinkerers toward mainstream buyers, raising the bar on system integration and calibration. For anyone on the fence, the practical takeaway is clear: the cost of waiting is measured in missed content, not avoided obsolescence.

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Home Theater3DTVStandards

One Installer's Opinion - Equine Brutality, The Wisdom of the Doors ... ... and Other Matters.

A home theater installer offers a skeptical take on 3D TV adoption in 2010, arguing that CES product timelines, glasses-related friction, and a market segment analysis suggest only 20-30% of consumers are viable candidates for the technology. The piece also critiques bandwidth-compressed internet video, warning that codec-driven bit reduction degrades picture quality below even over-the-air broadcast standards. Readers invested in display calibration and high-fidelity video reproduction will find the author's real-world cost-benefit framing directly relevant to purchasing decisions.

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Politics & Policy

Green Nonsense

California's 2009 energy efficiency mandate requires flat panel televisions to achieve 33% greater efficiency by 2011 and 50% by 2013, applying only to sets 58 inches and below. The author argues that regulating light output in foot-lamberts rather than wattage would better balance image quality with efficiency, noting that LED-backlit displays already meeting the standard can measure 140 fL, far exceeding the 40 fL most videophiles prefer. For consumers, the practical implication is that the regulation as written may force inferior picture quality without addressing the real variable: factory default 'torch mode' settings that drive unnecessary power consumption.

Articles
Home TheaterStandardsCalibration

Another Opinion - A Matter of Integrity

Contrast ratio specifications from A/V manufacturers are routinely inflated to figures exceeding 10,000,000:1 by measuring peak white with controls maxed and black level with the display unplugged, conditions bearing no relation to actual viewing. A calibrated display realistically achieves 70-75 foot-lamberts peak output, and the best measurement equipment only resolves down to approximately 0.005 foot-lamberts with plus-or-minus 100% accuracy at that floor. The modified ANSI checkerboard method, yielding honest scores of 600-800 on quality displays, is the only practically meaningful benchmark consumers should reference when evaluating a display purchase.

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Home Theater

Another Opinion - The High Cost of Saving Money

Sub-$300 HD DVD players flooding the market ahead of the February 2009 analog-to-digital broadcast transition illustrate a core principle of A/V system design: mismatched component quality levels waste investment, as a low-grade source will mask the performance of an $8,000-plus display. Pairing components of wildly unequal quality - such as a sub-$100 DVD player with a high-end video display - makes accurate performance evaluation impossible and leaves expensive gear underutilized. Readers building systems should maintain balanced quality tiers across components to ensure each piece delivers its full performance return.

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Home Theater

Another Opinion - The Case for Outboard Video Processing

Outboard video processors such as the DVDO VP50-Pro address the growing problem of video artifacts on large-screen displays, where scaling and de-interlacing deficiencies in budget panel chipsets become increasingly visible at 60-plus-inch diagonal sizes. Unlike the basic processing bundled with a $799 Costco panel, dedicated units from DVDO, Lumagen, and Key Digital offer motion-adaptive de-interlacing, re-de-interlacing of progressive signals, ISFccc calibration modes, and multi-input HDMI switching. For viewers still consuming 480-line content on a large fixed-pixel display, a quality outboard processor can deliver a more visible improvement than upgrading to a higher-end receiver.

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Home TheaterHD DVDBlu-ray

Another Opinion - On the Matter of the HD DVD Petition...

The HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war ended not because consumers chose a winner, but because Sony secured the investment returns by writing the checks that brought Warner into the Blu-ray camp. With only around 750,000 to 1,000,000 HD DVD players sold, a petition of 12,000 signatures carries no meaningful weight with studio executives focused on ROI rather than consumer preference. Owners of high-end units like the Toshiba XA2 are advised to repurpose them as upconverting NTSC players and accept the format's fate alongside other failed technologies.

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