When they gave out the prize for the toy of the decade, you can be sure that the dedicated home cinema installation will come very close to the top of the list. Today, watching a move in your own personal cinema is no longer the purview of presidents, movie moguls and reclusive rock stars. In the American housing market, home cinema installations have become almost a standard feature in houses worth $500,000 or more, and in Europe, people are waking up to the possibilities.

What is now on the market is nothing less than cinema quality audio and visual in your own home. Mark McDivitt is a forex trader who spends his days watching banks of small screens at work. In the evening, he likes to come home and watch a big one. His over the moon with the projector-based system he has had installed in his living room.

"Its great fun," he says. "After a tough day at the office, I can come up here, draw the curtains, turn out the lights, and totally switch off." As befits a player in a volatile market, his idea of switching off is quire particular: "It's intense, it's in your face, and it's total escapism."

Robert Sinden of Zebra Audiovisual Design in London's Kings Road see an interesting demographic in the home cinema market. "About half of our clients are American, and probably another quarter are other expats of one nationality or another," he says. "They don't seem to have the same "I have to beat myself to treat myself mentality as the British do. They see, they like it, they buy it." His clients stem from a wide range of industries and occupations. "Probably a third of them are in banking", he says, "but there are plenty of media professionals, footballers and other celebrities too".

Movies in the home are now about as difficult to source as tap water, so for those who are looking for something extra, it comes down to the quality of the experience. That quality is really only limited by your budget. To get some idea of how much you could invest, consider that a high-end projection unit sells for up to £30,000, and serious aficionados will use more than one to get a bigger, brighter picture. installations worth £30,000 - £60,000 are common, and some run to more than £100,000 - popcorn is extra. It's not cheap, but people who pay this kind of money are hoping to replicate the same kind of audio and visual experience that is normally found at a larger movie theatre.