For decades, movie studios and cinema operators have fought to hold off the ever-present threat of TV: the growth of television viewing in the 1950s led to films being released with everything from super-widescreen images to 3D, odours being pumped into cinemas and even tingling electric shocks passed through seats to heighten the excitement – yes really!

The trouble is, every time the film industry comes up with something new, home viewing technology manages to match or better it – well, not the smells and electric shocks, but you get the idea! And while there’s still something special in being among the first to see the latest blockbuster in a packed cinema filled with other expectant film-fans, there’s an inexorable trend toward films being enjoyed at home, thanks to new formats and equipment bringing us ever-closer to the quality of sound and vision available in the very best state-of-the-art cinemas.

After all, if you can enjoy the latest movies in the comfort of your own home, using a huge TV or even a projector, and with sound provided by a top-notch multichannel surround system, why would you want to go out, queue to pay a considerable sum to get into the cinema, and then have to share your viewing experience with an audience seemingly more interested in having a conversation, answering their phones or updating their InstaFaceChat pages?

These days it seems every technological advance made in cinemas is matched by home technology in very short order, and another major change is that the ‘window’ between cinema release and availability for home viewing is getting narrower, with rapid releases on Blu-ray of major titles.

But there’s another factor: the rise of streaming and download services, meaning you don’t even have to venture out to the shops or wait for the slim package from the great South American river to drop through the letterbox. Whether with a computer connected to your television, one of the latest TVs or a simple-to-use network connected device, films, concerts and programmes are available at a click or a tap.

And with the rise of content unique to the providers of these online services, not to mention the fact that it’s they – not the traditional broadcasters – that are leading the technological advances in home viewing, the whole home entertainment landscape is not just evolving, but undergoing some seismic shifts.

So what’s happening? And what do you need to enjoy it?

Vision

While HD television is now a given – remember how exciting it was when high-definition first came to the BBC? – and users of services such as Sky and Virgin can now scroll through dozens of channels of content, the home cinema world is moving on to ever-greater picture quality.

The headlong rush to 3D having stumbled and now more or less fallen by the wayside (as successive 3D ‘breakthroughs’ have done almost since the dawn of cinema), the concentration is now on more pixels on the screen to make today’s bigger TVs look even better. The average size of the home TV is growing, and we’re now a long way from the days when a 32in set was considered huge: these days 50in models are considered mainstream, and you don’t have to spend a fortune to buy a 65in screen – or something even bigger.

The problem is that the larger the screen, the more information is needed to fill it to an acceptable standard: think about zooming in on a digital image on your computer, and how soon the pixel structure becomes visible and obstructive. So just as 720p/1080i high definition TV took over from the 480/576 line systems once considered the world standard, now there are moves toward systems offering four times the pixels – the 4K standard – while lurking in the wings is even higher definition: Japan hopes to have 8K broadcasting in place by the time Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.

What does all this mean? Well the best way to snapshot the changes is to look at the number of pixels on the screen: standard definition TV displays had around 442,000 in the UK PAL standard (768x576), or 384,000 in the US NTSC (720x534); HDTV upped that to a maximum of just over 2m pixels (1920x1080 in the 1080p Full HD standard).

The latest 4K UHD (ultra high definition) TVs now offer a resolution of just under 8.3m pixels (3840x2160): twice the definition in each dimension of Full HD, so four times the number of pixels. The 8K system, should it ever become a commercial reality, will offer 7680x4320 pixels, for a total of just over 33m elements of picture information. That’s almost 100 times the potential resolution of the TV we were all happy to watch until not that long ago – the very first HDTV broadcasts in Europe were as recent as 1990, when Italian broadcaster RAI transmitted that year’s football World Cup.

As is often the case, the availability of content hasn’t quite kept up with the development of display technology, but just as HD discs and broadcasts caught up with the number of suitable TVs on the market, so 4K is slowly ‘filling the pipeline’ created by the huge range of 4K sets now available. There’s a limited range of 4K UHD Blu-ray discs available, but the numbers are growing slowly, and as already mentioned service providers are catching up.

Sky already has some 4K content available, including its sports coverage, the streaming services from Amazon and Netflix offer original programming, and there is even 4K content available via online services such as YouTube. Not enough to allow everyday 4K viewing yet, but progress is being made.

So what do you need to enjoy this new world of ultra high definition? Well, a 4K TV, of course, and the good news is that such sets now start from under £500 for a 49in or 50in 4K Ultra HD LED TV, while even a very large 65in set can be had for less than £1000.

Power-hungry plasma TVs having vanished from the shops some time back, the technological running is being made by OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen technology. Self-illuminating, like plasma, and making possible very thin displays, OLED is still quite expensive, the price reflecting what are still relatively low yields – ie high rejection rates – in the production process. Things are improving and prices falling, and you can now buy a 55in OLED for just under £2000, but prices rise rapidly with screen size: a 75in model could set you back the better part of £25,000.

More mainstream is what is commonly called ‘LED’ technology, which actually means a liquid crystal display lit from behind by an array of light-emitting diodes (early LCD displays used something not much more sophisticated than a couple of small fluorescent tubes). This is now a mature – and thus very affordable – technology, bringing HD sets down to mass-market levels.

The alternative to a large screen TV is a projector and screen system for that full cinema experience. Prices of decent projectors start from around the £1000 mark and go all the way up to ‘But I paid less than that for my car!’, and the effect can be very impressive – but it’s worth considering a couple of points.

First, a good projector needs a good screen, for which you should budget at least a few hundred pounds for one that’s ‘tensioned’ in order to remain completely flat when in use – no point in just pointing a projector at a white wall or a sheet pinned up on it!

The second is that projector/screen combinations require the room to be dimmed down, or preferably blacked out, to give the best picture. Yes, modern projectors are bright enough to give a decent image on the screen even with some ambient light, but what no projector can do is create black where there is none. So the best you’re going to get with unwanted light falling on the screen is grey instead of black, limiting the contrast range of the image.

For most homes without a dedicated cinema room, the best combination would be a TV set for day-to-day viewing, plus a projector and drop-down screen, plus blackout curtains, for ‘serious’ viewing. And if you’ve just thought ‘that sounds expensive’, you’re probably right – a TV as large as you can afford and/or fit in the space available is a pretty good substitute when it comes to watching movies.

When it comes to sourcing content, most modern TVs have ‘smart’ technology built in, meaning they can connect to the home network to stream content, including 4K programming. Alternatively such features can be added with the purchase of a simple, low-cost adapter which plugs into one of the HDMI input sockets on the rear of the TV: popular choices include Amazon’s Fire TV, at around £80, and the Google Chromecast Ultra, which is around £10 less.

But should you want to buy movies on disc, you will also need a 4K Blu-ray player, which will handle both standard and 4K discs, and even play your DVDs, upscaling content at less than 4K to suit the new TVs. Prices start at around the £300 mark, but I have seen the odd ‘last year’s model’ on offer for £100 or less. However, I’d stick to a ‘latest specification’ model if buying such a machine – the 4K format is still evolving and settling down, and a more recent model is more likely to be able to keep pace with any changes via downloadable or online firmware updates.

Sound

Home cinema sound has moved on as much as vision, and while the true movie enthusiast can now set up a sound system to match those you’ll hear during a good night out at ‘the pictures’, the good news is that you don’t have to fill your living room with loudspeakers to enjoy an enveloping sense of surround sound, able to immerse you in the world of a movie.

For many years the standard in home cinema was 5.1-channel sound, with an array of three speakers in front of the viewer – including a centre channel to enhance dialogue and ‘lock’ the audio image to the screen, a pair of surround speakers to the rear of the room, and a subwoofer to deliver those low-frequency effects so beloved of action movie fans.

Having moved on to 7.1 channels, with extra side speakers to replicate the effect heard in the best cinemas, which have a ‘horseshoe’ layout of surrounds beside and behind the audience to create that immersive effect, the technology has now expanded again. The latest systems take in new formats with not just speakers added to create ‘height’ effects, but also advanced ‘steering’ of the sound to enable viewers to pinpoint the location of sounds with greater accuracy.

Just as we moved on to systems with five or six discrete channels encoded into them – the early 7.1-channel home set-ups ‘invented’ the two extra channels by analysing what was in the front and rear channels – so now we have the latest movie soundtracks to appear on disc, in the form of Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and – to a lesser degree of popularity – Auro-3D.

The new Dolby and DTS formats move on from the 7.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus and True HD, and DTS-HD, and can now support those extra height speakers. Most new AC processors and receivers (all in one processor/amplifiers) on the market can now support these formats, and all that’s needed to play the content is a suitable source, such as a Blu-ray player.

Well, almost all that’s needed – there’s the slightly tricky problem of how to accommodate two – or four or even six – height speakers, especially as these really should be firing down from the ceiling above the home audience. You could of course go to the extent of cutting purpose-made speakers into the ceiling – most speaker companies have a ‘custom installation’ range – but then you’d also have to channel speaker cabling into the walls and above the ceiling to connect them. It’s really only the sort of job you might want to consider as part of a major home renovation, unless you’re really serious about all this stuff.

Fortunately, some enterprising speaker companies – including KEF, Klipsch and Onkyo – have a simpler solution involving add-on boxes designed to sit atop your exist loudspeakers: these fire upwards, ‘bouncing’ the height information off the ceiling. In most domestic environments, they’re a more than acceptable substitute.

So, to take advantage of these new formats you will need a player, a display, anything up to 11 speakers plus one or more subwoofers, and either an AV receiver, or a processor and sufficient amplifiers to drive all those speakers. However, don’t think you need all those speakers to enjoy the latest movie soundtracks: any AV receiver will ‘downmix’ a soundtrack to suit the number of speakers you can accommodate, and a very involving experience can be had with just a basic 5.1-channel set-up, while you could also run the system in ‘phantom centre’ mode if you don't have space for a dedicated centre speaker – for example if your TV is mounted on a wall and you don’t have anywhere to put a speaker below it.

In fact, you’ll even get a more involving effect if you run the TV sound through your existing two-channel system, provided the speakers can be placed to the left and right of the screen. Compared to the frankly feeble sound of the speakers built into most TVs these days – as sets have got slimmer, space for speakers has been lost – any add-on sound system will be better.

And that thinking has led to one of the big success stories of recent years: the rise of the soundbar, an all-in-one unit containing sound processing, amplification and speakers, designed to sit below the TV – there are even soundbase models on which the TV can sit if space is tight – or even be wall-mounted below the set.

Having started out as simple ‘anything is better than the built-in speakers’ add-ons to boost TVs, with models often offered as packages when you buy a new set or – as in the case of Bang & Olufsen TVs – provided as the main sound system with a display, soundbars have now expanded their abilities to become complete surround solutions in a single box.

Using digital video processing of various degrees of sophistication, either with or without built-in speakers designed to bounce sound from the walls of the room, these surround soundbars can create ‘it’s behind you’ effects of really rather uncanny effectiveness. For example, Yamaha’s YSP ‘sound projector’ range, using a large number of tiny drive units partnered with digital processing to ‘steer’ the sound and create the illusion of multiple speakers, have long set the standard for this ‘all-in-one’ surround trend. Yamaha has been making soundbars longer than most, and it shows.

Soundbars also come with subwoofers to develop realistic bass – oh, and make up for the relatively small drive units they tend to use in the quest for compactness. These can be built-in, or in a separate housing, which fortunately you can hide away if required. Many soundbars now have wireless subwoofers, cutting down on the cable clutter.

It’s never been easier to enjoy more of the movie experience at home, whether you’re lucky enough to have the space and budget for a dedicated cinema room – and yes, you can buy theatre-style seats and a popcorn machine if you want! – or are looking for a more domestically acceptable solution. Enjoy your viewing!

Try these…

TVs

Panasonic TX-50CX680

50in 4K TV from, £350

Yes, you read that right – this is a 4K resolution 50in TV for well under £500, complete with Smart TV features, DLNA and USB playback and more. Not the sleekest around, but then at that price…

Buy now on Amazon.

Samsung UE65KS8000

65in 4K UHD TV, £2000

Using the company’s top-notch LED-lit display panel, this slim set has a very narrow bezel around the screen, and also offers a full suite of Smart TV features

Buy now on Amazon.

Blu-ray players

Samsung UBD-K8500

4K Blu-ray player from, £210

This a first-generation 4K machine, and while more recent arrivals have more features, this one still has great performance and built-in Netflix/Amazon 4K streaming

Buy now on Amazon.

Oppo UDP-203

4K Blu-ray player, £649

Premium-priced, and with performance to match, the Oppo is the latest in an acclaimed range. Supports a full range of disc formats (even including SACD), and has no fewer than three HDMI outputs – for your TV, projector…

Buy now on Amazon.

TV add-on

Amazon Fire TV

Streaming media player, £80

Taking the successful formula of the Amazon Fire Stick and adding 4K capability, this compact box is just the thing to add network video streaming services such as Amazon’s own and Netflix to your TV.

Buy now on Amazon.

AV receivers

Onkyo TX-SR373

5.1-channel receiver, £299

This entry-level receiver may ‘only’ be a 5.1-channel design, but it has passthrough for 4K UHD, simple automatic set-up using AccuEQ, and even Bluetooth to allow music to be streamed from your iPhone.

Buy now on Amazon.

Denon AVR-X6300H

11.2-channel receiver, £1899

The Denon is every bit the flagship AV receiver, with both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding, wide-ranging 4K/HDR compatibility, and 11 205W channels of amplification onboard. It even plays DSD audio files from your computer.

Buy now on Amazon.

Surround speakers

KEF R50

Height speakers, £599

These upward-firing speakers are designed to sit on top of existing loudspeakers, bouncing sound off the ceiling to create the height effect in Dolby Atmos systems.

Other manufacturers have similar models, such as Onkyo’s £129/pr SKH-410.

Find out more.

Bowers & Wilkins 685 S2

5.1-channel speaker package, £1680

Based around the company’s entry-level range, this package uses two 685 S2 speakers for the front left and right channels, a dedicated centre speaker and two 686 S2s for the surrounds. A powerful subwoofer makes up the ‘.1’

Find out more.

Soundbars

QAcoustics Media 4

Soundbar with built-in subwoofer, £329

Slim, powerful and very capable, this soundbar is an ideal solution when you want a better sound without spending a fortune. Drawing on the company’s excellent budget speakers, it’s even good for music.

Buy now on Amazon.

Yamaha YSP-5600

7.1.2-channel soundbar, £1699

Not exactly a slim soundbar, this Digital Sound Projector uses no fewer than 44 drive units, each with its own amplifier and including two subwoofers, to create not just surround sound but also height effects for a fully 3D effect.

Find out more.