With the Oscars film season underway, I've been loving the new movies in the cinema right now; the usual summer blockbusters are on hold for some of the best films out in a long time. Cinemas are great for surround sound and big-screen action. But new technology means you can enjoy great sound, a sharp picture and a night at the movies without leaving your lounge. It's also a lot more private for inviting a date over. I've just bought a new home cinema set-up and I'm as excited as a puppy with a new toy - here's what I've learnt about how to buy a home cinema package.

Five top tips for buying a home cinema set up

1. The disc player – forget a DVD player, it’s all about Blu-Ray. Amazing. Essentially high-def (or HD) on disc, it’s as future-proofed as you can get right now, and well worth the investment for the improved picture quality.
2. The TV – the screen size on most TVs may be smaller than the cinema, but the real edge is the picture quality. HD LED TVs, or even LCD and plasma displays will always look sharper than the projectors in your local cinema multiplex. Incredibly, it’s possible for a TV to be too big (I know, I didn’t believe it either), so buy within the scale of your room.
3. Speakers – Often the weakest element of the set-up, you need quality speakers pushing out around 100w and a 5.1 system (five speakers and the central sub-woofer producing the bass). Active sub-woofers are best, with their own power supply.
4. Amplifier – this needs to be able to pump out the volume sufficiently without straining and distorting the sounds. The more outputs and inputs, the more flexible your system will be as new kit comes out.
5. Cables – home cinemas require a lot of wiring for the speakers, which get in the way when you head for the beer fridge. A wireless speaker set up does away with all this, using a transmitter instead. For the rest of the system, don’t skimp on the cables (or ‘interconnects’). Cheap cables destroy picture and sound quality. Allow 10% in your budget for these.

Best affordable home cinema set up

All-in-one packages tend to offer the best value in this price bracket and are easy to set up. The well-priced Sony BDV E370 is 3D-ready, has 5.1 speakers, is internet-compatible and has a HDMI digital output and one for your iPod too – an excellent all-rounder!

Best mid-range home cinema set up

These offer a great deal of flexibility, bought as separates. Go for the 3D TV Samsung PS50C6900, Sony BDP-S770 Blu-Ray player, Onkyo TX-SR608 amplifier and the B&W MT-25 speakers.

Best blow-out home cinema set up

You can spend the price of a decent family car on a set-up, whether you should or not is no-one’s business but yours! But these are real things of beauty. If money’s no object, you’ll want a digital projector (try the JVC DLA-HD550, with suitable display surface – at extra cost). Go for separate amplifier (the Pioneer SC-LX83), speakers which look the business (Monitor Audio Silver RX6 AV12) and a Blu-Ray player (Sony BDP-S770), using the best in each class.

Film genres to test out a home cinema set up

1. Action You need enough explosions, crashes and car chases balanced with dialogue to test your speakers’ range.
2. Animations With their diverse colour palette, these are great for testing screens.
3. Black and white Any black and white film, shot recently, will test your screen’s ability to display grayscale (i.e. the nuances between black and white). Foreign language films also include subtitles, a useful test if you watch a lot of foreign-language films.
4. Musicals Great to test your speakers for music as standalone CD-players, and can also show up any time lag between the picture and sound.
5. Sport Any film including sporting sequences will help you ensure the set-up’s going to work well with live sport too!

Once you’ve got your package lined up, remember to allow for an evening’s frustration as you set it all up – you’re not exactly going to read the instruction manual, are you? Arrange for your date to come over on a subsequent night. I learnt the hard way, and I don’t expect to be seeing much more of Sara!