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Modern cinemas use speakers placed around the walls to project sound at you from all angles and give the impression that you're in the thick of the action. A home cinema system can recreate this experience in your living room.
The surround-sound information held on most DVDs and videos can be decoded with a suitable amplifier, and with a set of speakers located around your room you can pretend you're at your local multiplex. A few camcorders offer surround-sound recording, so you can also enjoy cinematic sound on your home videos.
The simplest and cheapest route to home cinema is with a kit that contains all you need: amp, six speakers, cables and, usually, a radio tuner and DVD player too.
You can access our Best Buy home cinema reviews - and hundreds more - with a 1 month trial of Which? for just £1.
Speakers
In many cases, speakers are the weakest part of home cinema systems and can limit performance. Manufacturers use cheaper speakers to keep the costs of the systems down.
But some go too far down this route; we've tested some kits where speakers can barely compete with a ghetto blaster.
Which?
Speaker systems - 2.1, 5.1, 7.1
2.1 - For the clutter conscious, these systems do away with the rear and centre speakers, leaving only the sub-woofer and two front speakers.
They attempt to pull off a pseudo surround-sound effect with a mixture of electronic processing and audio conjuring tricks.
However, we have yet to hear a 2.1 system that can successfully mimic a proper 5.1 sound. Instead they tend to produce a wall of sound, deep with bass.
5.1 - Refers to the number of speakers in a kit - five surround-sound speakers plus one bass speaker, known as a sub-woofer.
7.1 - This system means you can add extra rear speakers for an enhanced effect.
Satellite speaker
The smaller speakers placed to the rear and side of the TV.
Sub-woofer
The speaker that produces low frequency sounds - specifically the ground trembling bass. An active sub-woofer has its own power supply and amplifier and usually produces a better sound.
Wireless speakers
The downside of home cinema is the amount of speaker cable snaking round your living room. One solution is to use wireless speakers, or to buy a system with a wireless option.
Wireless kits for the most part are the same system as wired kits, but you purchase a transmitter which allows them to operate wirelessly.
Auto set-up
This extremely useful feature can take much of the pain out of getting the best sound balance out of your new home cinema system. The kit bounces sounds from each speaker to a microphone placed where you expect to sit, measuring the ideal delay and distance for each speaker.
Power output
The higher the output the louder the system can go - but bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Most claim 100 watts. One of our Best Buys has a power output of just 16 watts, yet boasts some of the best sound quality on test.
So which is the best home cinema system for you? Which experts have subjected a range ofhome cinemasystems to a battery of tests to found out exactly how much correlation there is between quality and price. Find out which ones earned Best Buy status with a 1 month trial of Which? for just £1.
Copyright Which? Ltd 2009, all rights reserved.
