October Prime Day deals helped me build the ultimate home theater on a budget — here's how you can do it too

(Image credit: Hisense/Viewsonic/Yamaha Audio)

There is little better than sitting back with a big bowl of microwave popcorn in front of an enormous screen while your favorite movie fills your living room with immersive sound. The rumbles of explosions, the emotion of an orchestral swell for a first kiss — all made better by a decent home theater system.

It's easy to think that making a spectacular home theater system is prohibitively expensive. But, if we shift our expectations to something more realistic (I'm going with $500), we can get something that gets as close as possible to the big screen experience without breaking the bank.

And, with the October Amazon Prime Day sales now on their last day, we're looking at the perfect opportunity to get stuff for a great price — so what are we going to buy? We need two things (you're going to have to bring your own chair); a screen, and something to make the sound. Let's get started!

The screen

Movie theater seats and screen — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

We've got a couple of options here. If you want something super huge (and arguably more fun), you're going to want to pick up some kind of projector. That's going to come with some tradeoffs at this price. It's not going to be as bright as some of the more expensive options, so you'll need to have those lights low for the best experience.

It's also not going to be the highest resolution — most likely 1080p. That means your movies might not look quite as crisp. The positive? A much larger display. You know, the best bit of being at the movies? A vision-dominating screen that makes your TV look like a postage stamp.

The alternative and more useful (in that you can use it for everything else beyond watching movies) option is a large screen TV. With our lower budget, there are trade-offs here as well. The most obvious is going to be screen size — the biggest we can afford is going to be around 55-65.

We'll get a higher resolution than a similarly priced projector, however, and it's going to be easier to watch in brighter rooms. But does the theater leave the lights on when you go to watch a movie? No.

I've found two options — a TV and a projector — that you can buy in the Prime Day sales below.

The sound

A THX home theater — (Image credit: THX)

I'd love to be able to tell you to go out and find one of the best home theater receivers, but that would end up costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars — and with our low budget, it simply isn't possible. Instead, we're going to go the way of the soundbar so that we can still get excellent sound without completely draining the budget.

We've got about $230-$250 left of our budget — which does make life slightly harder. Still, with a deft hand and some search parameters, I've been able to find suitable soundbars.

What was I looking for? Most important at this price is a subwoofer. That's going to bring the epic low-stuff that we really want, and make that couch wobble. Dolby Atmos is a nice-to-have, although we might have to trade it in at the altar of affordability if the bar is too expensive. So — here are a couple of soundbars that are going to bring the theater into your living room.

BONUS ROUND — what about the snacks?

Dash popcorn maker — (Image credit: Dash)

OK so sound and vision is all sorted — but what's a night at the movies without some lovely, warm, freshly popped corn? A mouth-wateringly squeaky bag of the good stuff really puts the finishing touch to our budget home theater system — and it's not going to completely smash our $500 budget either. Well — we're $7 over. But who's counting?

This popcorn maker is going to be the perfect way to finish our budget system. Just put your kernals in the machine, press a button and POP POP POP, you've a lovely bowl of popcorn ready to go. This one makes 24 cups' worth of corn for you and your friends.

Well, my mouth is watering now.

For more great discounts, be sure to check out our Amazon Prime Day deals live blog right now.

Shop today's best Prime Day deals

Shop all Amazon deals
Amazon devices: from $17
Skechers: apparel/sneakers from $27
YETI sale: deals from $10
TV sale: from $69
Crocs: footwear from $20
Roku: devices from $24/TVs from $139
Adidas: deals from $9
Lego sale: deals from $8
Columbia: deals from $15
Blink: deals from $19
Sony headphones: from $9

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Tammy and her generous collection of headphones have found a new home — Tom's Guide! After a two-and-a-half-year stint as iMore's resident audiophile, Tammy's reviews and buying guide expertise have more focus than ever on Tom's Guide, helping buyers find the audio gear that works best for them. Tammy has worked with some of the most desirable audio brands on the planet in her time writing about headphones, speakers, and more, bringing a consumer focussed approach to critique and buying advice. Away from her desk, you'll probably find her in the countryside writing (extremely bad) poetry, or putting her screenwriting Masters to good use creating screenplays that'll never see the light of day.

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