Hardware Features

From a lack of legroom to unforgiving upholstery, we’ve all had a movie experience affected by an uncomfortable seat. At your local cinema this is just about sufferable, but in your own room it shouldn't be tolerated – spending thousands of pounds on AV hardware and software but ignoring where you park your fundament is home cinema heresy. The good news is that there are numerous options available, suited to most budgets and tastes, so before you start saving for a 4K projector, perhaps it's time for a seating upgrade...

Hi-def disc-spinners have become smaller, smarter and cheaper, making them great for adding to second-room screens. Mark Craven auditions a trio of big-brand offerings…

Once again, film fans find themselves in the midst of an audio format war. Long-time rivals Dolby and DTS are slugging it out in both commercial theatres and home cinemas with new object-based sound systems. Dolby's Atmos format matured first, launching at multiplexes in 2012 and in home setups two years later. Now, though, DTS:X is hoping to steal its thunder.

Can it really be five years since a TV and movie industry desperate to find the next big tech temptation set out to entice us and our traditionally 2D AV brains into the third dimension? 'Fraid so.In fact, it’s a bit longer than that if you take the 2009 launch of Avatar as your 3D starting gun. At HCC, however, it was the Summer of 2010 when the format became a going concern, marked by the arrival in the UK of the first 3D TV sets.

For historical reasons, Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire has an extraordinary number of audio manufacturers in close company to one another. One of the leading lights of this cluster is Meridian Audio. Founded in 1977, it has gone about the business of product development in a fashion that's paid little heed to the trends and traditions that might be doing the rounds elsewhere.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for us to employ headphones for AV use. Children would sleep through anything, your partner would be just as keen on the same films watched at the same volume as you, and you’d be separated from your neighbour by a bit of open space – Lincolnshire, for example. Sadly, this utopian vision of home entertainment is just that, and a good pair of headphones can allow you to keep using your system when speakers aren’t suitable.