Too Much Light
If you can see a glare in the screen or the image appears washed out, you have too much light in your room. The general rule is that most, if not all, home theaters have terrible light control. The best light is no light, but sunlight is so powerful and bright it's hard to make a room completely dark.

By using only man made light sources you should be able to get your home theater dim enough so your eyes can relax while looking at your TV without the room distracting from the presentation.

Many home theater enthusiasts prefer a pitch black room for dedicated movie watching which is fine, but having a tiny amount of light is actually better on the eyes.

The next time your in a movie theater pay attention to the side lights on the walls. You'll find that movie theaters never fully turn off the lights allowing for people to walk safely down the isles and to reduce eyestrain. You can apply what you learn at the big theaters to your own home theater.

Removing Light
Heavy curtains, verticals, with a combination of mini-blinds or shades can get your room dark enough to allow for quality movie watching during the day. Achieving total darkness isn't usually possible, and you may need to use 2 separate settings on your TV to compensate for different lighting conditions. Obviously night time is the best time to watch movies, giving you total control of the room's lighting.

Using many window treatments to get the room dark enough can be very expensive to accomplish all at once. You may want to get it done in stages. Start with getting blinds or shades first. Then get draperies or verticals to place over those to block out the even more light. You'll need to know how much you're willing to spend before committing to anything. You might want to figure out what time of day you do most of your movie watching. If you never watch movies during the day then you may not want to spend much time worrying about the removal of outside light, and instead focus on your home theater's atmosphere.

Lighting for Atmosphere
Creating the right look and feel for your home theater instills a certain richness and elegance your viewers embrace even before the lights dim. While many home theaters also double for other functions such as a family room or living room, you can still use a set of dedicated lights to create a theater feel when movie time approaches.

The best type of lighting to create a theater atmosphere is track or recessed lighting. There are certain reasons that lighting that is emitted from the ceiling gives a more theater-like atmosphere than any pole or table lamp can provide. The most used type of lighting in theaters is recessed lights, which is a pretty good reason why most people associate this type of lighting with movies. Sure there are usually lights or sconces on the side walls, but they're mainly there for decoration, or as ambient lighting while the movie's playing. You can employ the same strategy for the lighting in you home theater. Combine track or recessed lighting with a dimmer and you've got a home theater with a whole lot of atmosphere.

How many lights and where
Assuming your going with track or recessed lighting in a home theater sized around 18x26, you should only need about five or six lights. The trick is to direct the lights in strategic locations so that there is no glare on the screen from all of the seating positions, and so that nobody has a light pointing directly at their eyes.

Usually the best bet is to aim the lights at the side walls or other empty pockets in the room away from the screen. If placement allows, a light pointing to the wall behind the TV can reduce eyestrain during movie watching.

The type of lighting you use is simply a matter of personal taste, budget, and finally what you aspire your home theater to become. More often than not, home theater enthusiasts have to appease the opinions of a spouse and compromises need to be made.

Bringing the big screen home includes how the theater feels as well (with the exception of those uncomfortable theater seats). A home theater is just that... a "home theater". Bringing the whole experience closer to the real thing simply makes your home theater that much more exciting for you, your friends, and your family.