The Govee T2 is one such lightstrip that I wish I’d bought a few months ago, but instead I bought the Nanoleaf 4D. The Nanoleaf 4D LED lightstrip is still a great product, and the way it mimics colours on the screen which are then projected onto the wall behind, has proven to be far more immersive overall than the LG G3 OLED alone that I watch my movies on. 

The Nanoleaf 4D relies on a single camera positioned above the TV (it can also be installed below the screen) to ‘see’ what’s being displayed so it can mimic the colours as they’re cast onto the wall behind the screen. The Govee T2 meanwhile has two camera lenses, one for each side of the TV, meaning it should be more accurate when it comes to colour reproduction. And right now, it’s hit its lowest Australian price ever on Amazon, thanks to a 40% discount at Amazon,

My Nanoleaf 4D is still a great backlight, but I have noticed on occasion that the colour of light being projected onto the wall behind isn’t accurate – it sometimes projects green when the image on screen is actually black. I can’t be entirely sure if this is due to the single camera not being able to see the entire screen effectively, or if the software just isn’t as capable as I expected. 

Because the Govee T2 has two camera lenses and 60 LED lights per metre, it should prove to be more accurate. We haven’t reviewed the Govee T2 here at TechRadar, but our colleagues at GamesRadar have, and they found it to be a genuinely useful and immersive upgrade for gaming sessions in particular. User reviews on Amazon are strong too, and it currently holds a 4.5 rating out of five based on over 2,000 reviews.

What also seems to be apparent is that the Govee T2 lightstrip uses a strong adhesive to stick to your TV, and it has additional clips to ensure it stays in place. 

I’ve always been interested in the Govee T2, but its regular price of AU$229.99 was too expensive for me, which is why I went for the more affordable Nanolead 4D. But now Amazon has slashed 40% off its price, it could be one of the wisest investments you ever make for your home cinema. 

• For more Amazon deals and discounts, check out our round up of the latest Amazon coupon codes

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• Be sure to find out our pick of the best smart lights in 2024
• Govee LED Strip Light M1 review
• I ditched my pricy Philips Hue smart lights for these cheaper Aussie alternatives – with some surprising and impressive results

The Nanoleaf Skylight is an alternative indoor lighting solution that can provide everything from strong white lighting to subtle mood lighting in whatever brightness or color you desire, and easily sits among some of the best smart lights. The simple square panel design belies the true nature of the device, which reveals itself once it’s brought to life in brilliant technicolor via the app or PC/Mac software. 

It’s not all sweetness and light though. The installation is a bit more involved than the usual Nanoleaf ‘stick the LEDs onto something and plug them into a power outlet’ scenario. 

The main panel is the same as any other ceiling light, in that it’s hardwired into the lighting circuit. If you have experience installing traditional light fittings, you shouldn’t find it too challenging, but, as always, get a professional to install it if you’re at all unsure; this is dangerous work.

Once the lights are up and running, you can control them with the free Nanoleaf software for PC, Mac or phone app, and it soon becomes apparent just how flexible the system is. I put it through its paces for a couple of weeks and its performance impressed me. I can see a broad range of uses within my home, but the cost seems prohibitive and I did have a fair few teething issues. So, is it worth the asking price? Read on.

Nanoleaf Skylight review: price and availability

• List price: starts at $249 / £229 / AU$469 for a three-light starter kit. Other options include;
  • Expansion pack (1 panel): $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$139.99
  • Starter kit (6 pack): $459.96 / £418.61 / AU$609.90
  • Starter kit (9 pack): $669.93 / £623.64 / AU$889.90
  • Starter kit (12 pack): $879.90 / £828.66 / AU$1,309.90
• Available in the US, UK and Australia 

The Nanoleaf Skylight was released in February 2024 and the starter kit is available for $249 / £229 / AU$469 directly from Nanoleaf’s US, UK and Australian websites and Amazon. 

The starter pack consists of one main unit, which is wired directly into the mains electricity, and two expansion panels. Larger kits are available from Nanoleaf consisting of six, nine, and twelve lights, and there’s also a single-panel expansion pack. 

Nanoleaf Skylight review: Specs

Nanoleaf Skylight review: Design

• Minimalist and unobtrusive (when they’re off)
• Modular design allows for a multitude of configurations
• Unique ceiling-mounted lighting system

Anyone who enjoyed playing on the Atari 2600 in the 70s will get a kick out of the look of these lights. I like the pixel-esque aesthetic and would love to create some huge ceiling icons with a 9x9 square - if only it were possible to control the color for each square individually. I mean, who wouldn’t want a 2.7-square-meter Space Invader or Pac-Man on their ceiling? Unfortunately, that would set me back approximately £5.5k and 1300 Watts, so this vision will forever be a dream.

The combined equal depths of the housing and diffuser are nicely proportioned to the 300 x 300 face but I’m not completely sold on its shiny surface. Maybe a matt finish wouldn’t diffuse the light so well or look any better, though.

The cable management inside the units is well-designed but a little fragile. Each side has two cable routing holes that allow for some more interesting offset configurations if you don’t just want a symmetrical layout. The rubber bungs for these holes can be left in situ as the cables can be passed through slits in them. 

Little features like this make it feel like Nanoleaf spent a great deal of time and effort getting the hardware design right, but then rushed the component selection and software testing. I’ll cover this in more detail in the performance section. 

As is the running theme with this review, the Nanoleaf Skylight’s design is akin to the troubled second album by your favorite band. You buy the record because you love what they do but feel they have let you down.

Nanoleaf Skylight review: Installation

If you skipped over the one-minute review, I will reiterate: if you have experience installing traditional light fittings, you shouldn’t find it challenging, but, as always, get a professional to install it if you are unsure.

Your existing wiring will likely be too inflexible to follow the path to the connectors in the Skylight and it only requires two wires. The rest of the wiring must be out of the way above the ceiling. I replicated the connections within the existing light fitting and increased the size of the hole in the ceiling to do this. 

The next hurdle is the rather poor installation instructions, which erroneously show the plasterboard self-drilling fittings as being screwed through the housing, for example. In reality, the fittings should screw directly into the ceiling and the screws should go through the housing and into those fittings. I say “should screw directly into the ceiling” as during my installation, two of the supplied fittings broke off in the ceiling before I gave up with them. 

Fortunately, I had some more robust metal fittings to hand, which saved the day. To be fair, my ceiling is ‘mature’, and perhaps drilling a 4mm guide hole first would have reduced the mortality rate of the plastic fittings. There are, however, plenty of other inaccuracies in the installation instructions, which add to the confusion. If these instructions were a cake, the missing ingredient would be “care”.   

A bit more wiggle room in the screw holes would also be of benefit as screwing or drilling into a ceiling is prone to error unless you are Spider-Man. Usually, fittings have a combination of horizontal and vertical slots that allow for errors made during drilling or screwing. I’d also recommend ensuring that someone is available during installation to provide placement directions, as it’s not easy to get things straight on a ladder facing upwards. 

Once the primary unit is up, the others are very straightforward. I found it much easier to install the data wires (the short wires with square connector blocks at the ends) between the light units first, and then push through the power wires. Alternatively, the rubber grommets can easily be removed but they may be needed at a later date, should you want to move or reconfigure the lights. Routing the cables between the lights is made easier by the numerous clips built into the unit for this purpose, but, as I learned when I managed to break one, they are a little fragile.

After restoring power at your dwelling’s fuse box and flicking on your light switch at the wall, the Skylight will initially come on at low brightness. It will then increase in brightness to signify that it’s ready to pair with the Nanoleaf app.

Nanoleaf Skylight review: Performance

The first thing that struck me about the Skylight was how much light it gives off. If you sometimes need a bright, even white light while assembling something or taking things to bits, this light is your friend. It’s reminiscent of old-school fluorescent lighting without the irradiation and mercury poisoning. 

The Skylight can, of course, emit any color you wish, but be warned that the color is not uniform across the surface of the diffuser. Inevitably, though, you will need to address the elephant in the room – the Nanoleaf app.  

In previous reviews of Nanoleaf products, I’ve described the Nanoleaf app as “wayward”. Perhaps I am just unlucky, but every time I add a new Nanoleaf product to my network there is a period of chaos. Some of the mayhem may be due to the many and varied devices that I have, and the synchronization between the home automation systems and their cloud accounts. Whatever the root cause, there will be a couple of days of rebooting, deleting, and adding devices until everything works again. The app will invariably have a different view of reality, which may or may not change depending on whether you look at it. Schrödinger’s app.

The sense of frustration was further compounded by the hardware itself misbehaving. I had a period where the light was flickering when set to white light at full power. Following this, the unit then point-blank refused to switch on even after I removed the face plate to press the reset button. Flash forward to the time of writing, I can’t replicate the flickering and it has behaved itself consistently for a few days. 

It’s like having a cat on your ceiling; you ask it to do something and it will ignore you, show you its backside, and walk away. Schrödinger’s app and cat… On the plus side, the supplied scenes are good, you can create your own or use scenes created by others, and these can all be synchronized and used in Apple Homekit. You could avoid using the Nanoleaf app altogether, but you would miss out on firmware and app updates. It’s a necessary evil. 

I have spent many hours with the Nanoleaf app thanks to one of my favorite bits of kit, the Nanoleaf 4D. I was looking forward to using Sync+ to extend the screen colors to the Skylight but, no, it does not work. So, I have two products that support Sync+ but do not support each other… right. 

Not to worry, as Nanoleaf should be applauded for developing a desktop app for both PC and Apple Mac (both Intel and Apple Silicon), which offers screen mirroring. The screen mirroring via the desktop app is a great idea and works well with the 3-pack starter kit laid out in a straight line, but I do wonder how the app would know if you have offset your units in a stepped layout. It also didn’t work with all of the games I tried. I wanted to watch a film via Apple TV+ while mirroring the screen to the Skylight, but the Mac was unhappy about sharing. Thank you, Apple. 

It’s a similar state of affairs with the rhythm feature – a great idea but it falls at the last fence. You can select which source the sound is coming from, but that doesn’t seem to work as well now as it did when I first received the device. Having said that, it is good enough and as I write the Skylight is gently pulsing color along to the music. Wonderful.

Unlike dumb lights, the best smart lights offer a host of control options but that’s not always a boon with wired lights like the Nanoleaf Skylight. When the Skylight has been powered off at the wall, it will take about a minute to appear online within your home automation system or the app when you flick the switch on again. 

Normally that’s not an issue with smart lights, but the problem with the Skylight then becomes the almost imperceptible little ticking noise that the skylight makes when it has power but is not on. It’s akin to Chinese water torture and drives you nuts after a while. I’d strongly recommend using one of the best smart switches for easier control and happier ears.

On top of all this is the lack of Matter support and no built-in thread border router as promised at CES 2023. I like Nanoleaf, I like its ideas and that it makes these feature-rich products happen, but a simple thing like testing could make them so much better. 

Nanoleaf Skylight: Should I buy?

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The Nanoleaf Skylight is, as far as I’m aware, a unique product, so it is difficult to find a direct equivalent. Here are some alternatives if you want to dip your toe into smart lighting, but don’t want to give it the full beans.  

Nanoleaf Skylight: How I tested

• I used the Skylight for work and play for over a month.
• I tested the PC/Mac application on both platforms where possible. 
• I controlled the device from both the Nanoleaf iPhone app and Apple Homekit.

I installed the Skylight in the room where I spend the majority of my time during the dark winter months. I tried to understand what each feature within the application does and how reliable/repeatable they are. Any inconsistencies were investigated but I have yet to find any form of event logging to help me understand exactly what it thinks it is doing.

I powered down my whole house to simulate a power cut to see how it would recover and also rebooted the Wi-Fi router and other devices in my smart home setup at various points.

I kept a log of any updates to the versions of the applications and the device’s firmware. I avoided using Beta versions of the application.

For the majority of the time it performed as expected but it is not bulletproof.

Nanoleaf’s 4D TV-syncing strip lights are a first for the brand, which is known best for making some of the best smart lights available. With Nanoleaf 4D, the brand has easily accomplished one of the best Ambilight alternatives and created some serious competition for established brands in the space such as Philips Hue and Govee. 

The set is available in two sizes, one for screens up to 65 inches and the other for models up to 85 inches, and come in at a fairly affordable price of $99 / £89 / AU$189 and $119 / £119 / AU$229 respectively. 

Out of the box, the Nanoleaf 4D kit consists of an LED light strip that is attached to the back of the screen and plugged into a control box, which in turn connects to a camera that detects the colors displayed on the screen. The kit illuminates the LEDs to match the picture on your screen, throwing the colors onto the wall behind the screen for a pleasing synchronized glow around the screen. 

The camera can either be mounted atop the TV with the included armature, or placed on your TV table using its built-in stand, and those concerned about prying digital eyes around their home will be pleased to learn that the camera also comes with a magnetic privacy cover.

One of the slight niggles I found when setting up the lights concerned how the cables that connect the lights and camera to the controls are positioned. The rather vague instructions in the handbook encourage you to begin your light strip placement in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, meaning the wire for the lights trails from that corner, while the camera cable falls centrally. 

This leaves you with a choice of either bending and sticking the light strip wire or having the control sit somewhere near the right-hand side of your screen, lest you run out of wire length to play with. All in all, although not a major issue, I value a neat home entertainment setup and this doesn’t necessarily facilitate that.

Installation is otherwise very straightforward, although you will need to remove your television from the wall to fit the lightstrip, and potentially need a second pair of hands if you’re a real perfectionist. I cheated as my test screen is on a stand! The kit comes supplied with corner mounting blocks which allow the strip to curve around the corners (rather than creating a loop out of the strip which would create problems in accurately matching the colours to the screen.)

There are 10 color zones per meter and 30 LEDs per meter, and the strip can be cut to length at specific 10-centimetre intervals. This does mean you might end up with a gap or excess of the strip when they meet at the end, but a little trial and error with placement before sticking anything on will minimize this. 

Once that’s done, simply peel off the tape backing and stick that strip down, and you’re all set. The strip does tend to peel away from the back of the screen where the two ends meet, but that’s easily resolved by applying some more double-sided sticky tape.

The Nanoleaf app is nicely laid out and works well most of the time, but can occasionally crash. Whilst I appreciate that all software has bugs, some sort of an error message would be nice. Having said that, the things that you can do with this software and the kit impressed me; the Nanoleaf 4D does all of the usual colored lighting tricks that LED strips do. But let’s face it, screen synchronization is what we’re here for. 

The app guides you through mapping out your TV lights, and once you’re set up, you can create your own scenes, or you can use the Magic Scenes feature to create a palette based on a mood or keywords (although I found that the latter favored washed-out hues).

You can choose between four settings (or dimensions, between 1D and 4D), which range from an ambient white glow to the aforementioned screen-matching lights akin to the gold standard Ambilight-style experience. It’s a little tricky to find clear guidance on what each of the dimensions does, so here is my take on it.

1D: White light that’s well suited to documentaries and general viewing

2D: Block color that’s great for ambiance, representing an average of the color displayed on-screen 

3D: Splashes of color reflective of on-screen action, but not extending the screen 

4D: Colors extend from the edges of the screen for full immersion

You can change the color settings by cycling through the controls or via the app. 

Nanoleaf 4D features the same sound-reactive functionality boasted by its smart light siblings, and as a bonus, responds to sound far better than the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights I reviewed last month.

Once I had finished playing with all of the settings I played a few games and films and noticed that one side of the screen was not displaying the screen colors correctly. Further investigation revealed the problem; I needed to close a white door that was being reflected on the screen. You have a choice: either be mindful of the lighting and reflective objects in the room or spend between 4 or 5 times as much on a Philips Hue system for its HDMI linking.  

The only feature I found myself missing is a perennial issue for non-HDMI smart screen lights – automatic screen detection. Call me lazy, but I’d prefer my lights to come on when they detect on-screen activity, rather than requiring me to use the app or physical control.

Overall, I’d say the Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip kit is a great low-cost alternative to the Philips Hue system that just edges out the other low-cost alternatives in several areas; it’s easy to install, well-designed and the results can be spectacular. This thing is so versatile and colorful that it made me want to get some Nanoleaf wall tiles to test their claim of the 4D’s ability to “extend the screen sync effects across 50+ Nanoleaf RGB lights”. Look, somebody’s got to do it…

Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip kit: price and availability

List price:

• TVs & monitors up to 65-inch: $99 / £89.99 / AU$189.99
• TVs & monitors up to 85-inch: $119 / £119.99 / AU$229.99
• Camera only kit: $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$149.99

The Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip Kit are available directly from the Nanoleaf website, starting at $79.99 / $69.99 / AU$149.99 for the camera-only kit. You can also buy the camera-only kit from Amazon in the UK but curiously, not the full kit - however in the US, you can buy all three packages on Amazon. 

The camera-only kit is a great cost-effective option which can be used with the Nanoleaf RGB LED light strip or any RGB light strip that has USB-C connection.

Value-wise, the Nanoleaf 4D is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best value smart TV lights - the Philips Hue alternative for 75-inch and over TVs is nearly $100 / £100 / AU$300 more expensive at $249.99 / £209.99 / AU$509.95, and you'll need a Philips Hu bridge if you don't already have one. Govee's lights sit squarely in between but don't offer such consistency or smooth light performance as Nanoleaf. 

Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip kit review: Specs

Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip kit: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip kit review: How I tested

• I installed the Nanoleaf application and added the Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip Kit to Apple HomeKit 
• I tested all of the modes and scenes against different types of content (i.e. films, TV programs, Games) and resolutions 
• I tested each claimed feature e.g. “Reacts to music” where possible 
• I tested the kit under various lighting conditions. 

I had already tested a pre-release version of this kit last year which was unfortunately defective and a very frustrating experience. The days that I spent trying to get it to work reliably were not wasted though as it gave me a good understanding of how the thing works and how it has been improved.

I was pleased to be able to make use of scenes in Apple Homekit which I  could not get to work when I tested the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights last month. I switched off Bluetooth on my phone and ran all of the tests again to find out if there was any function that used Bluetooth and everything behaved normally. 

The room I use to test things is the worst-case scenario for the Nanoleaf 4D screen mirror and lightstrip Kit as it is almost completely white. Everything gets reflected on the screen, especially in daylight which affects the colors that the camera detects. I was pleasantly surprised during testing to find that some of the reflection problems could be dialed out using a custom vibrancy set which allows you to change the values for Dynamic range, saturation, and white balance.

In a bid to become one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars to have graced our testing process, the Samsung HW-Q700C presents itself as a similar TV-boosting soundbar solution as the HW-Q800C. Essentially, it too is a mid-tier offering capable of pumping out Dolby Atmos from a single bar and subwoofer combination. Like its slightly bigger brother, there are no rear speakers, nor do you get the truly insane levels of power exhibited by the top-of-the-range HW-Q990C. Differentiating it from the 800C, the Q700C on test here adopts a 3.1.2-channel output – compared to the 5.1.2 layout of the 800 – making it a good option for those wanting to boost the sound coming from their TV in a smaller-sized room. And, as with all Samsung soundbars, you can take advantage of extra features if you own a compatible Samsung TV such as Q Symphony, which is explained in greater detail further down. 

At $549.99 / £599 / AU$899 – although you can regularly find it for less in all territories – it’s what could be deemed affordable, and while some may wish they had the extra couple of channels found on the 800C, the 700C delivers a loud, dynamic and impressive performance – particularly where vocals are concerned. If you want those extra channels and a more authentic Dolby Atmos surround sound experience at a later date, you could wirelessly connect the SWA-9500S speakers for $299 / £249 / AU$349.

The Samsung HW-Q700C supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X by way of two up-firing drivers to deliver the all-important height effects, and it will happily double up as a music system, accepting a range of music files including high-resolution FLAC. In practice, it is a formidable bit of kit, and certainly passes the test when it comes to the task of boosting your TV’s sound and bringing a cinema-like experience into your main room. Bass levels are insanely good considering the size of the 'bar and sub, Dolby Atmos height effects are convincing – as much as they can be given the speaker configuration – and as already alluded to, vocals  are crystal clear. 

However, considering you don’t need to spend a lot more money to pick up the HW-Q800C, it does beg the question who would take the 700 instead. This review intends to answer that one for you. 

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Price & Availaibility

• $549.99 / £599 / AU$899
• Released April 2023

The Samsung HW-Q700C received a global launch in April 2023. In the UK and Australia, it appears to have maintained its original launch price of £599 and AU$899, whereas in the US, it’s undergone a price cut from $699.99, down to $549.99, at the time of writing. 

However, this is only the MSRP, and you’ll likely find it’s been discounted a fair amount at many third-party retailers, making it seemingly better value for money. But you’re also going to find the slightly more powerful Q800C has been discounted too, and so if you can afford the extra spend, that would ultimately be our recommendation. 

This is because the Q800C gives you a couple of extra speaker drivers for a bigger, wider sound. An alternative would be to use the money saved by buying the Q700C and spending it on the optional rear speakers for a more authentic 5.1.2 surround sound setup. 

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Specs

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Features

• 3.1.2 channels
• 4K HDR HDMI passthrough
• Exclusive features for Samsung TV owners

The Samsung HW-Q700C’s 3.1.2 channel arrangement comprises a center, two wide-range tweeters, two dedicated upward firing drivers and a wireless 6.5-inch subwoofer, delivering a total power output of 320 watts. This is another area where the Q700C differs from its higher-specced siblings. The Q800C and Q990C are paired with an 8-inch subwoofer, which is capable of making your room shake even more with low frequencies. A larger sub is going to be useful in larger rooms and consequently, could be overkill if your living room, bedroom, media room, whatever it may be, is on the smaller side. The 6.5-inch sub included with the 700C is still plenty capable, it must be said, and in my time using it I didn’t feel short changed.

If you’re in ownership of a compatible Samsung TV, you can effectively increase the channel count by way of integrating the TV’s speakers into the equation via Q Symphony. The aim is to create a bigger, more detailed soundstage, since you’ll be using all available speakers. If you are able to connect to a compatible Samsung TV – 2021 - 2023 QLED Q70 TVs and above – then you can take advantage of SpaceFit Sound room calibration. This uses the microphone in the TV to automatically calibrate the sound without any user intervention. SpaceFit Sound Pro, which doesn't require a Samsung TV to be connected, is available on the Q800C soundbar and the flagship Q990C.

The vast majority of audio formats are supported, including the aforementioned Dolby Atmos, alongside DTS:X, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD. As for music, there’s across the board support for AAC, WAV, FLAC, MP3 and ALAC. Put simply, the Samsung HW-Q700C will be able to playback virtually anything you wish to throw at it. 

And since there’s Wi-Fi onboard, you can also play music via Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2 and Tidal Connect. Amazon Alexa is also supported, although it’s not completely built in. You’ll need a separate Alexa device, such as an Echo, through which you can bark commands, such as asking the soundbar to skip a music track or adjust the volume.

Further proving the fact that it’s the physical features that separate the Q700C from other Q-series soundbars, Samsung has given its mid-range soundbar its full suite of audio technologies. These include Adaptive Sound 2.0, which claims to intelligently analyze the content you’re watching, whether it be sports, a movie or the news, and adjust the audio output accordingly.

There’s a separate audio mode for gamers, in the form of Game Made Pro, which aims to more accurately place various sounds, such as another player coming from behind you. Do note that the Samsung HW-Q700C doesn’t support 4K 120Hz pass through. It will support 4K pass through, but if you want to make the absolute most of your next-gen console, you’ll need to plug the console directly into your TV and send audio to the soundbar via eARC.

• Features score: 4.5/5

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Audio Performance

• Surprisingly deep bass from the wireless subwoofer
• Vocal clarity a particular highlight
• Impressive, if not totally authentic, Dolby Atmos effect

The Samsung HW-Q700C took the place of the more powerful and much more expensive JBL Bar 1300 in my living room. The JBL does have genuine rear speakers, therefore capable of delivering a more authentic Dolby Atmos experience, so I was keen to hear how Samsung’s single-bar solution would fare. Truth be told, I was impressed. 

To get things started, I fired up a stream of Lightyear on Disney Plus, and the opening scene alone proved the HW-Q700C could deliver power that belies its size. Buzz’s rocket ship blasted through space with ferocity, and the subwoofer provided plenty of low end rumble to highlight just how powerful the ship’s jet propulsion was. So much low end rumble in fact, that I felt compelled to turn the volume down a few notches, not just so as to not annoy my housemate, but the neighbors in the units above and below me. 

The bar itself also impressed. What was immediately apparent – positively for Samsung and negatively for JBL – was how much clearer dialogue was. No matter the movie or TV show, I never once felt the need to make a beeline for the subtitles menu, as voices came through with impressive clarity. I toggled the voice enhance feature on and off too, to hear if it made dialogue any clearer and sure enough, it did. I did find the rest of the audio presentation took a slight backseat when this feature was turned on however, so for the most part I had it turned off.

As for Dolby Atmos effects, it’s a mixed bag. Yes, the Samsung HW-Q700C soundbar did indeed fill my room with sound that evidently had greater height, and during Avengers: Endgame in the main, epic battle at the end, sounds of various spaceships and otherworldly beasts flying in from the sides of the screen did sound as they had come from my side or behind me. But when compared to a soundbar with dedicated rear speakers, or a fully-fledged home cinema speaker system, there is a noticeable difference.

But, this should pretty much be expected. The HW-Q700C doesn’t have physical rear speakers and so placing the responsibility of enveloping a room with sound on the 2 upward firing drivers is going to be a big ask. I would say there is a slight sensation of a half-dome of sound, because you’re definitely getting a larger soundfield than you’d get from a front-firing-only soundbar, but not quite a full dome over your head.

This is realistically only a minor setback as on the whole, I was seriously impressed with the audio performance of the Q700C. It had no issues filling the room with sound, and I had the volume relatively low during the entirety of the review period. I did turn things up on a couple of occasions to see what it was truly capable of, and once again I was taken aback by the sheer power of the unassuming bar and sub package.

Musically, it’s a good performer too, although I found it wasn’t without its issues. First and foremost, I wasn’t able to stream music from my iPhone or Macbook via Apple AirPlay. AirPlay recognised the soundbar as a device, it just wasn’t able to connect. I removed the Q700C from the SmartThings app (and subsequently my wi-fi network) and added it back in to try and remedy the problem, but to no avail.

So, to play music, I streamed tracks from Apple Music via a connected Apple TV. I first loaded up the rather funky, foot-tapping first album from Barry Can’t Swim, which streams in Dolby Atmos. The same effortless room-filling sound experienced with movies carries over here, and also allows the Q700C to prove its rhythmic prowess. I also noticed the soundbar and sub integrated well with each other, ensuring cohesive playback that never once sounded muddled.

Step down to ‘regular’ music playback for songs not available in Dolby Atmos or Spatial Audio and naturally, that height is removed. The Q700C still handles music well mind you, and I’d say it’s pretty much on par with its Q800C sibling when you activate Adaptive Sound Mode. This essentially remixes stereo into multi-channel, and the effect in this instance is as it is with the Q800C. That being, songs are given extra room without sacrificing too much in the way of detail.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Design

• Gray plastic finish looks more premium than it feels
• Subwoofer isn't the most attractive thing ever
• Unobtrusive size will suit most TVs

The Samsung HW-Q700C follows a very similar design language to Samsung’s other Q-series soundbars. Namely, a main bar with angled edges, a gray metallic plastic finish complete with front grille and unobtrusive dimensions that make it easy to nestle in front of and underneath a TV. It’s the same width and depth as the Q800C, yet ever so slightly shorter in height, which only adds to its unobtrusive nature. 

It’s the perfect width for TVs 55-inches in size and greater – I was testing with it placed beneath a 65-inch LG OLED G3 – and since the top panel is covered by a perforated grille, you needn’t worry about any reflections from the screen above it, which is a good thing. There’s also a small LCD display on the right side of the bar (when you’re looking at it) that will display the source – eARC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc – and it will flash up when it’s playing a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, which provides peace of mind for the user.

On the underside of the soundbar are two recessed areas. One is solely for the power cable, while the other is where you’ll plug your HDMI cables and/or digital optical cable. One thing I have noticed is that this layout is best suited to Samsung’s own TVs, as the main bulk of connections can be found on the left of a Samsung TV (when viewed from the back) and so connecting an HDMI cable from this side of the screen to the left side of the soundbar (also when viewed from the rear) will be simple. On my LG TV, however, the HDMI inputs are on the opposite side, meaning I had to really stretch the cables as far as they’d go.

This may not be a huge deal breaker for many, but is something you might not initially consider when buying a soundbar.

The subwoofer I’m less enthusiastic about. It’s rather dinky and so won’t exactly be an eyesore in your room, but I’m not all that keen on the cloth cover on the front. In comparison to the main bar, I feel it makes it look dated. I would’ve been able to tolerate the cloth grille if it were removable, but alas, no such luck.

• Design score: 4/5

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Setup & Usability

• Controlled via app or remote
• A few issues streaming via AirPlay

I definitely expected the setup of the Samsung HW-Q700C to go off without a hitch, but I did run into a few teething problems. Firstly, the aforementioned issue of input placement meant I had to move a few things around – as a sidenote, my usual JBL Bar 1300 has its inputs in the center of the bar, which I find to be far more logical. 

I also, naively, didn’t realise there was just a single HDMI input alongside the HDMI eARC port. So, again, I had to then plug devices into my TV to have the audio sent back down to the soundbar. Once this was all done, I expected them all to work harmoniously, in the sense of, when I turned my Apple TV on, the TV and soundbar should have come on at the same time. Only this didn’t happen… initially at least. I came home one day, about a week after having it all plugged in, to find that this was all now working as it should, without any intervention from myself. Perhaps my housemate is a secret technological guru. 

I was also directed to Samsung’s SmartThings app, which mimics the soundbar’s remote control – and is also where you can group other SmartThings compatible devices you may have in your home. The initial setup of this was relatively plain sailing. It detected the Q700C was in my room, and I was able to enter my Wi-Fi password and get it on my network in next to no time.

But a few days later I went to open the app to adjust some settings, and it either kept showing me the spinning loading icon while it tried to establish a connection with the soundbar again, or it didn’t connect at all. The app would tell me the soundbar was off, when I was literally sitting in front of it and it was playing a movie.

I occasionally encountered similar issues with my JBL soundbar, in that it would regularly lose its network connection, before reconnecting again automatically. During any downtime, I’m unable to use that bar’s companion app to make any changes, either. I’m willing to accept that I just have bad luck.

But more recently when I’ve used the Q700C, I’ve had no issues at all. I did find adjusting the volume using my Apple TV remote did suffer from slight input lag, but using the included Samsung remote worked perfectly.

• Setup & usability score: 4/5

Samsung HW-Q700C Review: Value

• The punchier Q800C doesn't cost much more
• Optional rear speakers could be beneficial, but cost extra

The Samsung HW-Q700C is an interesting proposition. On the one hand it’s a relatively inexpensive soundbar (it’s available for much less than its MSRP in most territories) that certainly ticks the box of “boost TV sound”. But the ever-so-slightly better-specced 800C, which we deemed to be the best mid-range soundbar released in 2023, is hanging over it like a fantastic-sounding bad smell. And you don’t need to spend an awful lot more money at some retailers to take ownership of the more powerful sibling. 

So, which should you get? 

In my opinion, if you only have space for a single soundbar and subwoofer combo – and can stretch your budget – I would opt for the Samsung HW-Q800C for its extra couple of drivers. But if your room layout allows for it, I would argue the HW-Q700C plus the optional rear surround speaker units would create a far more convincing Dolby Atmos soundfield in your room. 

If your budget is constrained, however, but still want to make it go as far as possible, then the Samsung HW-Q700C as a standalone unit is still an utter joy to listen to. 

• Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Samsung HW-Q700C?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung HW-Q700C review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung HW-Q700C

• Tested over two weeks
• Tested with movie and TV content streamed from Apple TV and built-in TV apps
• Music streamed via Bluetooth and from Apple TV

The Samsung HW-Q700C soundbar sat beneath a 65-inch LG G3 OLED TV on an entertainment unit, which is placed along a wall in a central position, as opposed to being in a corner. This allows the wide-angle tweeters to have space to deliver their sound. I left the subwoofer placed alongside the same wall, to the right of the soundbar when viewed from the front. I wasn't able to test the Q700C with the optional rear speakers. 

The majority of Dolby Atmos and 5.1 content came from movies and TV shows streamed on Netflix and Disney Plus via an Apple TV 4K. In particular Lightyear, Avengers: End Game and Money Heist.

For music playback, I mainly streamed tracks from Apple Music via the same Apple TV 4K. I also streamed some songs via Bluetooth from my iPhone 13 Pro. 

• Read TechRadar's review guarantee
• First reviewed December 2023

Now we’re no AV snobs here at TechRadar. Sure, we love a high-end set up as much as the next home theater fan, but home cinema is what you make it – so whether that’s a full surround sound set up and flagship telly or a soundbar and something more mid-range, there will be things you can do to make sure your system is performing at its best.

From simple settings tweaks to ways that’ll help your products work better in your room, read on for our top tips on getting the most out of your home theater set up in 2024.

Tip 1: Perfect your settings

It’s fair to say that TV menus can be pretty daunting, but if you haven’t delved into them since you fished your TV out of its box, we would really encourage you to do so.

A lot of manufacturers have tried to help here, by simplifying the options and offering more visual ways of understanding what changing a setting might do. That’s a good starting point, but there will likely be other settings hiding in the full menu that are well worth your attention.

For the most accurate picture, you will either want to look for Filmmaker Mode on more recent TVs, or Cinema/Movie mode elsewhere. To many people, who are used to poorly set up TVs, this can look quite warm to begin with, and sometimes lacking in ‘punch’ too.

Stick with it a while, and allow your eyes to adjust to the new picture. If you really can’t enjoy it as it is, steer well clear of Vivid or Dynamic settings and give the Standard mode a whirl. This will usually add the punch that some people miss without being overly saturated and cartoonish. Just be aware that pictures will be cooler in tone than is considered accurate, and you may sacrifice things like black level and contrast performance for that brighter overall picture.

Once you get past the picture mode, cast your eye over the full settings to ensure everything is configured well. As a rule, we would suggest turning off (or to low/minimum) all additional processing, and then slowly adding it back in if you spot any issues you think it could fix.

In particular, switch off any eco modes for the best picture performance, and pay close attention to motion processing, which will often be ramped up unnecessarily. The result is an overly smooth picture with a loss of detail – something that is called the “soap opera effect”. In fact, motion processing can sometimes do more harm than good, so don’t be afraid to turn it off completely if you spot distracting wiggly lines around moving objects.

Tip 2: Consider speaker placement

Whether you’ve got a proper surround sound setup, a soundbar and sub, or even wireless satellite speakers, where you have your speakers in your room can make all the difference to how they sound.

While it can be tempting to tuck speakers away to keep things looking neat, they generally need a bit of space to sound their best. Place them too close to a rear wall and bass can be overemphasized to a point of boominess. Look up the manufacturer’s recommendations for how far from a back and side wall they should be placed – a general rule of thumb is 2-3 feet. Pull them out of the corners and you’ll hear the sound open up immediately.

That’s also the case with a subwoofer. Tucking an ugly black box into a corner may be preferable from an aesthetics perspective, but you will get the best performance if it is in line with your front speakers, so make room for it. Haven’t got a sub? Buy one, it’ll throw some much-needed welly behind those all-important movie action scenes.

A lot of soundbars don’t deal too well with being tucked away in TV cabinets either – particularly those with upwards-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos sound. For this reason, Atmos-capable bars in particular should be placed on top of any TV rack with no restriction, so you can hear the spatial sound effect in full.

Finally, if you have standmount speakers or wireless satellites sitting on low TV racks and tables, consider investing in proper speaker stands. These will lift your speakers to ear level, which will ensure you hear them at their very best. 

Once there, it's also worth experimenting with "toeing in", or angling your speakers inwards — just slightly — towards your main seated position. It won't be necessary for all rooms or all speakers, but it can help to improve focus and imaging. Check your speakers' user manual for any manufacturer recommendations too.

Tip 3: Rearrange your room 

How much you can lug furniture around to optimize your home theater setup will be somewhat down to the size and shape of your room. But there are a few things you could consider if you want to get the best from your kit.

Firstly, bringing your sofa away from any back wall will help with surround sound setups. If you can imagine drawing a line between your speakers, they should make a circle, with your viewing position at the center — sitting equidistant from each one if at all possible. If not, your AV receiver will help to account for this in its calibration, but not having a rear speaking blasting directly into your ear at close range is the aim here.  

The sofa should ideally be directly in front of a TV too, with as few side-on viewing positions as possible. Even the very best TVs can suffer with a loss of picture saturation and black level off-axis, so ensure as many people as possible can view it from front on.

This also matters when it comes to wall mounting your TV, which should be done at eye level. The trend for placing TVs above fireplaces has done nothing for neck aches or picture quality, so make sure you mount it lower if you want your TV looking its best. If there really is no other place for it, consider adding a tilt to your mount, to improve the viewing angle from your sitting position and relieving that front-row-at-the-cinema feeling somewhat.

These things matter more than being a specific distance from your TV, these days. As long as your TV is a 4K set, you have much more flexibility with how far you sit from it than you did with full HD, as the pixels are so small they’re almost unnoticeable. Still, a good rule of thumb is to account for a viewing distance of 1 to 1.5 times the size of your screen if you can.

Finally, moving a lamp or lighting source behind your TV will create something called bias lighting. This helps to reduce eye fatigue when watching TV in low light, without it being too distracting or creating reflections — just one of the reasons we love Ambilight TVs so much.

Tip 4: Run your calibration

Now that you've moved things around, you will want to re-run the auto-calibration process built into your AV receiver or soundbar — something you’ll want to do any time you make changes in your room or speakers. And if you didn’t do this in the first place, then it’s well overdue.

This process will usually fire a series of strange-sounding tones into the room, to understand its size and shape, and how sound reacts within it. More thorough setups will use a calibration mic as well, to pinpoint the main sitting position, and how this relates to any speakers in the room.

This is usually over and done with in a matter of minutes, with automatic tweaks being made to your kit to improve the sound afterwards.  

Now your home cinema setup is optimized, it will be ready to perform to the very best of its abilities at your next movie night. What a way to kick off 2024.

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There was once a good reason for that since the first projectors designed for home theater use in the 1990s were extremely dim compared to the current best 4K projectors. To get a picture that even approached an acceptable brightness level, you needed a room with blackout blinds and either dark gray or black walls. It was even a good idea for the room’s furniture to be black.

Back then, it was even common in higher-end systems to use a 'stacked' configuration, with two separate CRT projectors simultaneously beaming the same image to effectively double-up the light output. With a typical projector of the day putting out a mere 35 nits peak brightness with its picture properly adjusted, that second projector was a very welcome addition, even if it did double the cost.

A brighter dawn 

From these primitive beginnings emerged the modern home theater. In the early 2000s, CRTs gave way to DLP, LCD and LCOS, with the new projectors that used those technologies boosting the peak brightness level viewers could expect up to the 50 nits range – basically the same brightness as commercial movie theaters. Now we’re talking! In response, a new 'custom installation' industry emerged that lifted home theaters out of their dark age by focusing on room decor, seating, automated controls and lighting, and a multitude of other amenities to literally make home theaters more theater-like.

Audio was also a big part of this wave, with in-wall and in-ceiling speakers largely replacing floor space-hogging free-standing speakers. Movie soundtracks on disc got an upgrade to Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1, which provided the same discrete surround sound effects that could be experienced in movie theater sound systems. Alongside these innovations, acoustic room treatments, some of them sold as attractive decor-friendly wall panels, helped custom installers to create spaces that sounded as good as they looked.

While this next home theater phase was undoubtedly an evolution, the space itself remained solemn and closed-off, and it still needed to be mostly dark to get the best performance from the long throw projector positioned at the back of the room.

Out of the darkness 

Today’s DLP, LCD, and LCOS projectors deliver much higher peak brightness than those earlier models – 150 nits or more can be expected from current home theater projectors – with many using a laser light engine that, unlike with conventional lamp-based projectors, can retain color accuracy while operating at or near maximum light output. Adding to their appeal, laser projectors such as the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 and JVC DLA-NZ8 have a rated 20,000 hour lifespan, which means maintenance-free operation with no need to replace lamps.

While the new breed of bright projectors provide their best image quality when used in a dark, theater-like space, they can also look good in an environment with a medium level of ambient light. Performance here is helped greatly by the use of an ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen, a type that uses a gray-toned material which enhances picture contrast in medium-bright environments and also has an optical structure that reflects light beamed at it from directly in front while absorbing light hitting it from the sides.

Another new projector type is the ultra short throw projector. These models get installed close to a wall and project images onto a 100-, 120-, or 150-inch screen. A big benefit to ultra short throw projectors is that, unlike with a regular long throw projector that beams light from the back of the room, you can walk around without worrying about casting shadows on the projected image. They also feature built-in streaming capability and modestly powerful built-in audio systems, making then an all-in-one home cinema solution.

TVs: the new projectors 

The key reason behind the popularity of projectors is that they deliver a big, theater-like image. And while the best TVs have been available for some time with screens approaching the 100-inch size of a typical projector screen, these have generally been much more expensive than a projector-plus-screen setup.

Not anymore. An LG G2 OLED TV with a 97-inch screen sells for $25,000, which isn’t exactly affordable when compared to a projector. But new ultra-large QLED models like the 98-inch TCL S5 sell for $5,000, about the same price as a budget projection system, and you’ll soon be able to buy a super-bright TCL QM8 Class mini-LED TV with the same screen size for $12,000.

A few years down the road, new MicroLED displays should also come down in price, providing an even better, and certainly brighter, option than today’s best 4K TVs. Like OLED TVs, MicroLED displays are a self-emissive tech that can completely switch off individual pixels to create deep blacks,  and they are bright enough to provide high-contrast images even in well-lit rooms. MicroLEDs are also modular, with the individual MicroLED panels capable of being scaled up or down to create a display with any desired size or aspect ratio.

Given these new, brighter display technology options, there’s no reason why a home theater room can’t simply be any room in the home where you live, work, and play. A better name for such spaces is media room, because it’s a place where you can experience movies, games, and music without having to shut a door behind you and switch off the lights. Of course, there’s always the option to do just that, and there’s nothing wrong with having a movie palace-style home theater. But given the rapid evolution of home theater tech, such an environment is no longer mandatory.

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Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a new iteration of Dolby Atmos that enables you to pair your TV's sound system with certified wireless speakers. The interesting thing here is that sound is then optimized for any room layout and speaker setup, so you don't need to agonize about perfect speaker placement anymore.

TV brand TCL will be the first to launch Dolby Atmos FlexConnect-enabled TVs, as well as a line of speakers to go with them.

How does Dolby Atmos FlexConnect work?

Dolby Atmos sound is already fantastic and integrated into some of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and speakers. But it requires a very specific setup. Some rooms are small, have a strange layout, are filled with too much furniture or there simply aren't enough power outlets around. All of these factors can make it difficult, or even impossible, to set up and calibrate it accurately.

Dolby claims FlexConnect is the answer. This new technology allows you to get the convenience of the way wireless audio currently works but with Dolby Atmos sound immersion.

It doesn't require additional equipment or cables but instead uses what Dolby calls acoustic mapping. This utilizes the microphones in a compatible TV to understand where every FlexConnect speaker is in the room, regardless of the size of the room or whether there's furniture in the way.

After this quick and automatic calibration process is over, audio is then intelligently balanced between the TV and the speakers. Sounds are placed around your room accurately in a 360-degree soundscape, bringing you an Atmos experience wherever you're sitting.

We don't have an official launch date for the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect certified TVs from TCL yet, but they'll be showcased at IFA 2023. We expect that, over time, this new technology will be adopted by other TV brands. If it delivers, it could completely transform the home cinema experience but will require a new TV to benefit from it.

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The bespoke home cinemas were in fact demo rooms set up at the Epsom, England headquarters of AWE Europe, a specialist trade distributor of home technology. Both rooms made me feel like I was at my local cinema, but there was a key difference between the two – one cost double the price of the other.   

You’ll likely have seen stylish home theater setups online (or in person) before. Luxury home theaters are usually a staple in mansions and the like and you can get a peek at plenty when browsing affluent real estate sites. Nevertheless, £200,000 for an elite home theater will still make most people gasp. So, what was the difference between the two setups? I’ll detail the specifics below. 

What's inside a £50,000 home theater     

As you might have guessed, the home theater that was priced at £50,000 wasn’t as immersive as its more high powered counterpart but it still delivered a high-end cinematic experience that blew my mind. 

With four Bowers & Wilkins ISW-8 12-inch subwoofers, which were housed in the matching ISW-8 back boxes and supported by four CDA-2HD DSP amplifiers, the room was transformed into a fighter jet traveling at 2,400 km an hour while watching Top Gun: Maverick. 

The rest of the room was kitted out with 11 Bowers & Wilkins speakers – three directly behind the screen, four around the room and four in the ceiling –  a Marantz AMP 10 Reference 16 channel amplifier and the Cinema 50 9.4 channel 8K AV receiver from the same brand, as well as a high-end Epson laser projector (the EH-LS12000B 3LCD that has 2,700 lumens).

If you’re wondering if all those speakers are necessary, according to James Drummie, home cinema product manager at AWE, during their testing they noticed that’s what made the key difference in quality. “Traditionally, surround sound speakers always sit to the side or behind. But front wide speakers bridge that gap between the surround speakers and front speakers by being almost perfectly in the middle. It means that the immersive [spatial sound technology] is far more fluid when going around the room.”

What's inside a £200,000 home theater 

My first impressions of the home theater that was priced at £200,000 was the stripped back look of the room. Like the £50,000 room, everything was hidden away – there was even a control room lit up with blue neon lights that housed a tower of amplifiers for all the speakers. 

Like the ‘cheaper’ home theater, this setup had four Bowers & Wilkins CTSW15 subwoofers that were each powered by CDA-2HD DSP amplifiers. It also had three front speakers, two front wide speakers, six ceiling speakers – the Bowers & Wilkins CCM 8.5D speakers – as well as four surrounding side speakers, which were the Bowers & Wilkins CWM 8.3D and CWM 8.5D. These ran on two Rotel RMB-1585 amplifiers and four Bowers & Wilkins CDA-2HD amplifiers. 

It’s the detail in this more high specced setup that makes it really come alive. With a mountain of amplifiers, the speakers are getting lots of power. James Drummie, home cinema product manager at AWE, tells me the reason for this is “because for speakers that are further away from the listening position, we actually need more power to them to be able to achieve the same sound pressure levels”.

Then there’s the brain behind this major operation, the Marantz AV 10 processor, which can process 15 channels – its predecessor had 13 channels. Just the audio equipment alone cost a staggering £86,000, according to AWE.      

With a total of 10 amplifiers and a premium projector, watching The Batman was like when I went to see it at the IMAX. This starts to make a lot more sense when you realise that the projector they used – the Sony GTZ-380 – costs £85,000 on its own (the lens that AWE was using cost an additional £9,000).    

Are high-end home theaters worth the money?  

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get the best home theater system. For instance, you can certainly set up your own with one of the best TVs and one of the best soundbars, but if you want to take that extra step closer to replicating the experience of your local cinema then you’ll require more high performance audiovisual tech.  

There’s a lot that goes into it, too. A dedicated home theater will need one of the best 4K projectors, a home cinema projection screen, one of the best stereo speaker systems, subwoofers, one of the best AV receivers, one of the best streaming devices and more. 

On top of all this, there’s also the matter of the acoustics within the room, positioning and placement of speakers, as well as the furnishings – you can’t spend all your money on high-end audiovisual gear and be let down by an uncomfy couch. 

With various levels and price ranges for home entertainment gear, audiophiles or cinephiles have plenty of options to start upgrading their systems. 

The best 4K TVs now come in screen sizes that were once unthinkable. For instance, you can buy an LG G2 OLED TV with a 97-inch screen that basically closes the gap between the projection experience, where 100 inches is a typical screen size, and the flat-panel TV experience.

The reason I bring all this up is that I recently returned the LG C3 OLED TV after reviewing it. In most situations when reviewing a TV, I complete my testing and evaluation as quickly as possible and then get it out of the way so I can resume watching with a projector. This time was different, though. I left the C3 in place during the full 8 weeks I had with it, letting my projector gather dust during that time.

One impetus for leaving the LG OLED in place was that it looked better than any other TV I’ve yet had in my possession. In my pre-projector days, both OLED and LED-backlit TVs were considerably dimmer than they are now, but the C3 can hit 830 nits in its picture-perfect Filmmaker mode, which is bright enough even for daytime viewing. Viewed in dim lighting, the C3’s punchy brightness, combined with the deep, detailed shadows and rich color that OLED uniquely delivers made for an incredibly dynamic picture, one that far outperforms what you get with the vast majority of projectors.

Another reason for the C3’s extended stay in my viewing room was I wanted to see if I could go back to viewing with a 65-inch TV and be happy. The answer was no, I could not. As good as LG’s OLED looked, I missed the sense of visual immersion my 100-inch screen provided, which engages me in a way the smaller screen failed to. The result was I ended up having limited enthusiasm for watching movies, and would instead do other things like reading books (probably a good thing, come to think of it).

Supersize me 

Ultimately, the C3 OLED’s problem was that its screen was only 65 inches. Yes, LG does offer the same model in an 83-inch screen size, but I’m afraid that even an 83-inch TV wouldn’t be large enough to satisfy my movie watching needs – something my experiment proved out.

An 83-inch LG C3 OLED TV costs: $5,299 / £6,499 / around AU$7,900. But at that price, you could buy one of the best 4K projectors like the Epson Home Cinema LS12000 and still have money left over to put towards a 100-inch projection screen.

I’d instead hold out for LG’s 97-inch G2 OLED, which is priced at $25,000 in the US. LG also has a wireless 97-inch OLED in the works, but that model won’t be available until late 2024 and will presumably be priced higher than the already very expensive 97-inch G2 due to its included wireless tech.

The truth is, there’s no way I would spend $25,000 on an OLED TV even if I had that money to burn. For considerably less, I could instead buy a high-end laser projector such as the JVC DLA-NZ8, an 8K-capable model with a reference-quality picture that other consumer-grade projectors could only aspire to deliver. 

The DLA-NZ8’s 2,500 lumens peak brightness is plenty for the dim environment I prefer to view in, and, unlike many other projectors, it’s adept at handling high dynamic range programs, with features such as Frame Adapt HDR and Theatre Optimiser performing HDR tone mapping on a dynamic, frame-by-frame basis as well as customizing output for your projection screen’s size and gain.

I’ve seen the DLA-NZ8 in action a few times and it’s never failed to impress. I even once caught a demo of JVC’s projector displaying an actual 8K video source pumped out by a PC-based server. It was a jaw-dropping moment that convinced me of the viability of 8K. With the exception of YouTube, 8K video sources are still few and far between, but 8K gaming is becoming an option and will likely end up being the more common use for the format.

In some ways, I was hoping that the experience of living with a 65-inch TV would work out for me. About six months back, I decided to pack away my A/V receiver and surround sound speaker system and instead rely on soundbars for home theater audio. I was dubious about that experiment as well, but have since learned that the best Dolby Atmos soundbar systems are extremely powerful, and do in fact provide a good-enough alternative to a more conventional, hardware-heavy audio setup. I’ve come to love the idea of minimizing the presence of gear in my living space, and soundbars successfully serve that goal on the audio front.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for video. I clearly need an oversized image for movie-watching, and until the day arrives when I can buy an affordable OLED TV in the 100-inch range, I’m going to stick with projectors. Sure, I’ll miss the bright highlights and rich shadow detail that the best OLED TVs deliver, but for me, the visual immersion projectors provide is the attribute that most effectively brings the movie magic.

They may hold only a tiny market share next to the best TVs in 2023, but projectors have rarely been a more attractive A/V alternative. Not only are they cheaper than ever before, but the best projectors can provide a true ultrawide movie experience. 

Getting the sort of 21:9 aspect ratio on a projector that you’d see from a movie in the cinema can be achieved in several ways. With older projectors, you can install an external anamorphic lens to recreate the correct ‘CinemaScope' aspect ratio most movies are filmed in. By contrast, certain newer projectors from the likes of Sony and JVC have these lenses built in. Many modern projectors also boast anamorphic zoom modes that let you stretch a film’s aspect ratio.

Lens pals

What exactly is an anamorphic lens, though? In short, it’s a special lens that can stretch or compress an image either horizontally or vertically to help restore an ultrawide movie’s correct, intended aspect ratio. As noted above, some projectors have these lenses built in, while companies like Panamorph also make external anamorphic lenses that can be attached to projectors. 

But let’s back up for a second to quickly talk about aspect ratios and why black bars in movies occur in the first place. The reason you’re forced to stare at those dark horizontal columns across your screen is down to the fact you’re watching 21:9 content on a 16:9 widescreen TV. To get slightly techier, the vast majority of movies have historically been filmed in 2.35:1 or slightly above; the aspect ratio that matches the dimensions of an ultrawide display. 

To ensure the entirety of a 2:35:1 or 2:4:1 image will fit on a 16:9 screen, the picture is shrunk down in a process known as ‘letterboxing’. And that’s where my mortal enemies, those dreaded black bars, come into play.  

The reason you don’t see black bars pop up on your TV screen when watching most of your favorite shows is because they were filmed in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Though it’s worth noting that for the past few years, streaming services like Netflix have released a wide variety of content in a 2.0:1 format. This aspect ratio is a more natural fit for a widescreen TV, and though black bars still appear, they’re smaller than what you’d see watching 2.35:1 content. 

Now admittedly, many TVs will let you nix black bars while watching movies. The problem is, this is always achieved in a slightly compromised way. Most modern 4K TVs will sport some sort of ‘vertical zoom’ feature that lets you increase the size of the picture, eliminating black bars but, in many cases, also cutting off the edges of the image. As I said, compromised. 

Zoom for improvement

My current solution is a little better, but it’s still less than ideal. On my LG C2 OLED, the TV’s vertical zoom feature lets you stretch the image without losing the sides of the picture. The result is a viewing experience where you get the entire image… just one where every character is stretched out to the point they look like they haven’t eaten a carb in a decade. Again, it’s a passable solution, but it’s far from ideal. 

The great thing about projectors that support anamorphic features is that they let you maintain a movie’s correct aspect ratio without compromise. This means you’re spared from looking at the stretched images I’ve long since had to make peace with on my OLED. 

A proper anamorphic projector lens will adjust the picture without compromising resolution, leading to a brighter image that doesn’t lose pixel density. And that latter point is another thing that gets me unreasonably annoyed about watching ultrawide content on a 16:9 TV. When those black bars appear, you’re losing a whole lot of pixels and screen real estate.

If I hadn’t spent a financially ruinous amount on the 77-inch OLED colossus that’s currently hugging my living room wall, I’d seriously consider buying one of the best 4K projectors.  Whether achieved through an external anamorphic lens or through anamorphic zoom features, projectors are able to provide an experience that’s far more faithful to the CinemaScope format than even the best TVs.