Overlooked Home Cinema Features

When we think about creating our perfect home cinema, we often focus on how big the picture can be, how many speakers and where to place them. This is incredibly important, but because we become so focused and obsessed with these two overriding factors, other critical elements are often overlooked and this can be critical and spoil the whole home cinema experience.

When you settle down to watch a film, most of the time, the lights are turned off, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. For example, you put the film on, then have to get up to turn the lights off, but then it’s so dark, you stumble around to get back to your comfy sofa, or worse still, you stub your toe (we’ve all been there). Then there’s the time you’re watching a scary movie and you want some low-level lighting on, just to make it a little less scary. With lighting control, you can set lighting levels with dimming or turn lights on and off without even leaving your seat, so no risk to your toes!

Your eyes are attracted to bright lights, so the only light in the home cinema should be that of the screen. When you go to the local cinema, it’s dark so the image is brighter and you’re not distracted by other lights, which is a major reason mobile phones aren’t to be used, everyone can see one phone screen light up the space. In a home cinema room, reflective surfaces are so much brighter as the room is generally very dark and easily causes a distraction. For example, glass surfaces on coffee tables, glass on the front of cool movie posters and even the paint used in the room, as much as possible need to be dark and matt.

It’s all very well having the all-singing and all-dancing cinema, but if it’s challenging to operate, it won’t get used and could get embarrassing when showing off to friends or family and no one wants that. The last thing you want is more than one remote control and you could easily end up with 5 remote controls (1 for the projector or TV, 1 for the Sky box, 1 for the Blu-ray player, 1 for the Apple TV and 1 for the amplifier). Then you have to select the correct HDMI input for each device etc… Our solution is a single, easy-to-use remote control.

Such an important element of any system is the bass and LFE (Low Frequency Effects), which are two different things. Both are very important and will have a huge impact on how your system sounds and can be the difference between an average system and a system that’ll blow your socks off!

Even when everything is connected up and working, that doesn’t mean everything is done. To get to best audio and video performance, both should be calibrated to ensure you’re hearing the best sound you can along with the best picture. Each room and configuration is unique and therefore, the system has to be set up for your specific room. Even the devices connected to the system, such as a Sky Q, these often need settings changed to output the best picture and sound to match your investment.

If you’d like to see and hear what a Home Cinema can look and sound like in your own home, we have systems on permanent demo at our showrooms. Of if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.