Hardware Features

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Ed Selley  |  Jan 11, 2017  |  0 comments

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.

Barry Fox  |  Apr 19, 2016  |  0 comments

We’ve all been there. Grovelled around the back of an AV system looking for the plug that needs jiggling in its socket to restore a mysteriously lost connection. We’ve trodden on a plug, and broken it, and so made an expensive cable useless; or broken the little plastic lock leaf on the RJ45 plug at the end of a carefully-laid Ethernet network cable. Worse still, we’ve tripped over a lead, wrenched the plug and broken the socket in a pricey piece of gear. And how many smartphones and tablets have been wrecked by someone pushing the USB connector home the wrong way round? What a wonderful world it would be if connections no long relied on plugs.

Martin Dew  |  Feb 22, 2016  |  0 comments

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.

John Archer  |  Dec 04, 2015  |  0 comments

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.

Steve May  |  Sep 11, 2015  |  0 comments
Revealed: The golden rules of home cinema - and when it's okay to break them
Jamie Carter  |  Aug 28, 2015  |  0 comments

Where is your home cinema from? While speakers and even amplifiers designed for discerning domestic theatre owners often come from specialist boutique brands, the centrepieces – the TV screen, the projector and the Blu-ray player – almost always hail from East Asia. Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Epson and Sharp were birthed in Japan, and Korea's LG and Samsung have been busy chipping away at their dominance for the last decade.

Steve May  |  Feb 01, 2015  |  0 comments

We’ve been harping on about 4K content ever since 2160p panels first broke cover, and now it seems 8m-pixel movies, in the shape of a UHD upgrade to the Blu-ray standard, are in sight. While the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) continues to play some cards close to its chest, it’s confirmed a pre-Xmas 2015 debut for 4K Blu-ray has been scheduled.

Steve May  |  Jul 21, 2014  |  0 comments

It’s a curious fact that even the smartest TVs can seem inscrutably dumb. So much so that many buyers fail to even get them online. Even if you’re tech savvy, Smart TVs often seem little more than utilitarian devices. 

Mark Craven  |  Jul 17, 2014  |  0 comments

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...

Steve May  |  Nov 02, 2013  |  0 comments

Light and cinema have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Without the former, our flickering home theatres would be little more than gloomy sheds with extravagantly comfortable seating. A well-designed lighting system can really help deliver that 'wow factor' that we want our cinema setups to provide – especially if you want the room to rock even when you're not watching a movie.

Steve May  |  Oct 24, 2013  |  0 comments

Apple's iPad Air is the must-have gadget of the moment, available from November 1 with a price tag of £399 for the 16GB version. Yet there are plenty of other great things you can spend that sort of money on. Not got the following? Then hold off on that pre-order…

Steve May  |  Oct 04, 2013  |  0 comments

Right. I’m hearing an awful lot about 4K, but why should I be excited?

Martin Pipe  |  Aug 19, 2013  |  0 comments

The Raspberry Pi is a very cheap computer that's no bigger than a credit card. It's the brainchild of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity devoted to promoting 'back-to-basics' computer science in schools – as opposed to simply teaching the kiddies how to use spreadsheets and design web pages on Windows PCs. What was needed, reckoned the Raspberry Pi gang, was an affordable computer that could encourage children to experiment with programming and electronics – the sort of thing that went on during the home computer boom of the 1980s and gave birth to a generation of entrepreneurs.

Adam Rayner  |  Aug 10, 2013  |  0 comments

It all started with a disastrous screening at my local multiplex cinema, where I eventually had to complain about stifling heat, 3D trailers in a no-glasses 2D showing and a baffling system of seat allocation. And when the complaint yielded a grunted response, I began looking for another cinema for my business – and discovered that my local Odeon in Uxbridge had a new IMAX screen.

Mark Craven  |  Aug 03, 2013  |  0 comments

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…

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