Hardware Features

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Hardware FeaturesInterviews
'We don't want to make me-too products' – talking subs and speakers with Perlisten
Mark Craven  |  Aug 27, 2024  |  0 comments
Mark Craven talks to Perlisten's Erik Wiederholtz about the company's newest subwoofers, automated EQ, and building speakers for submarines...
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Hardware FeaturesSoftware Features
Looking back at the birth of Blu-ray
Martin Pipe  |  May 23, 2024  |  0 comments
Now every cinephile's favourite disc format, Blu-ray's evolution began over twenty years ago and was marked by an infamous format war, changing 'profiles' and premium priced hardware...
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Hardware Features
California dreamin' – behind the scenes at JBL
Steve May  |  Jan 31, 2024  |  0 comments
JBL is one of the most storied brands in hi-fi and cinema sound. Part of the larger Harman International portfolio (since 2017 a subsidiary of global behemoth Samsung), it's uniquely synonymous with theatrical sound systems, live music, and home audio. So how did this American company become so ubiquitous? I travelled to the Harman Center of Acoustics Excellence, in Northridge, California, to unravel its entertainment ancestry.
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Hardware Features
The sound of real cinema?
Mark Craven  |  Jun 02, 2022  |  0 comments
Looking for a speaker system with Hollywood heritage? JBL Synthesis wants to help. Mark Craven treats his ears to a 9.4.6 array in a dedicated room where even the amplifiers have brains...

The American audio marque JBL has a storied history when it comes to cinema sound. Founder James Bullough Lansing, then with his Lansing Manufacturing Company, answered the call from studio MGM in the 1930s when it sought loudspeakers of better quality to do justice to its slate of new 'talkies'.

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Hardware FeaturesNewsSoftware Features
The HCC 2021 Christmas Gift Guide!
Team HCC  |  Dec 14, 2021  |  0 comments
On the hunt for a Blu-ray boxset to binge on Boxing Day, or some AV add-ons for your cinema room? We draw up a wish list of accessories, software, movie merch and more
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Hardware Features
Gone but not forgotten: remembering some of home cinema's best (and worst) innovations
Steve May, Mark Craven  |  Oct 14, 2021  |  0 comments
From curved TVs to golf ball-sized speakers, 11in OLEDs and glasses-free 3D, these AV inventions are worth celebrating – even if they often didn't take off.
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Hardware FeaturesLoudspeakers
Surround sound explained: from 5.1 to Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and room EQ
Team HCC  |  Oct 12, 2021  |  0 comments
You know the famous George Lucas quote: when it comes to movie-watching, ‘sound is half the experience.’ And in your home cinema setup, it’s quite likely you’ve spent more than half your budget on everything that goes towards creating that experience – speakers, subwoofer(s), an AV receiver or processor/amplifier combo.

Of course, buying the equipment is only one part of the journey. To get the best from your multichannel setup, consideration of speaker placement is key, before you get into system EQ and the effects of your room environment. Spend time getting it right (or as right as you can), and you'll be on the path toward a sound performance that perhaps Mr Lucas would be proud of...

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Hardware Features
Cruising at Altitude with Trinnov Audio's state-of-the-art home cinema processor
Martin Dew  |  Mar 09, 2021  |  0 comments
If you thought immersive audio at home topped out at 11, 13 or 15 channels, try 30 for size. Martin Dew gets enveloped by Trinnov’s DTS:X Pro-equipped Altitude32 processor
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Hardware FeaturesInterviews
Why 8K is transforming movies, and why you probably haven’t noticed yet...
Steve May  |  Jun 19, 2020  |  0 comments
We chat to Dan Durran from RED Digital about being ahead of the pixel curve, the benefits of downsampling, and I Love Lucy...
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AVTech Media AwardsHardware Features
AVTech Awards: the best home cinema and hi-fi hardware, 2019/2020
Team HCC  |  Jan 24, 2020  |  0 comments
Our annual awards celebrate the very best home cinema and hi-fi hardware you can buy, from 4K TVs and projectors to Dolby Atmos speaker systems, AV receivers, soundbars and subwoofers, to stereo amplifiers, turntables, DACs, headphones and more...
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Hardware Features
Dynaudio: inside the speaker corp's state-of-the-art measurement facility
Daniel Sait  |  Oct 01, 2019  |  0 comments
Known as 'Jupiter', this cavernous space is used to fine-tune Dynaudio's in-house speaker designs – and is a bit like something out of a sci-fi movie
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Hardware Features
IMAX Enhanced: first look at HDR10+ 4K Blu-ray
Jon Thompson  |  Dec 21, 2018  |  0 comments
Armed with an Arcam AV860 processor and platoon of disc players, we sample the first IMAX Enhanced disc release, Journey to The South Pacific.
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Hardware FeaturesInterviews
Taking it to the IMAX: The past, present and future of the premium cinema corp
Martin Dew  |  Oct 06, 2018  |  First Published: Oct 05, 2018  |  0 comments
Having spread its wings into home cinema and VR, and astonished moviegoers with last Summer's Dunkirk, IMAX is on a roll. We quiz IMAX CTO Brian Bonnick about the development of its laser projection system, 12-channel audio and the IMAX 'DNA'...
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Hardware Features
LaserDisc – celebrating the first premium home cinema format
Martin Pipe  |  Aug 17, 2017  |  0 comments

One of the tell-tale signs you're a 'home cinema hero' – according to my colleague Steve May – is that you 'still have a LaserDisc player, somewhere...' And, indeed, to AV geeks of a certain vintage, the mere word conjures up cherished memories of that unmistakable whooshing sound as the big and beautiful medium – think CD, enlarged to LP size – was brought up to speed within the sizeable slab of a player.

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Hardware Features
Celebrating five years of Dolby Atmos
Mark Craven  |  Apr 24, 2017  |  0 comments

In an issue of HCC five years ago, we tasked Steve May with imagining what technology and concepts would be making a name for themselves in home AV in 2017. Ultra HD and OLED were naturally tipped to develop. That Dolby Atmos wasn’t even mentioned, though, is testament to just how quickly the object-based audio format has found favour in our living rooms and picture palaces. At the beginning of 2012, Dolby Atmos didn’t exist.

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