Going to the movies will never be the same again. Whether you’re aching to catch every detail of a film image, you want to be completely immersed in sonic wonderment or you just want to experience the latest and greatest motion pictures in the comfort of your own Moultonborough or Meredith private cinema, 2016 is the year to upgrade your home audio video gear. Find out how your home theater can look and sound better than ever before after the jump.

Experience the 4K Revolution

What is 4K? It’s a legitimate question, especially since you’ve heard it as the buzzword for every television that came out last year. But like any buzzword, it’s quickly beginning to lose all meaning. That’s why we’ll break it down for you.

For starters, 4K refers to the pixel density of a video display. But the moniker isn’t entirely accurate. Your television or projector will actually be Ultra HD. UHD is almost the same as 4K, but with a few vertical pixels shaved off the sides to preserve a 16:9 aspect ratio. Otherwise black bars would appear on the sides of your screen when showing no 4K Content.

While the pixel density can seem like a big deal, the truth is you’ll need a particularly big display to fully experience the difference. Unless you have the space for it – say, you’re able to sit 10 feet or more from the screen – you probably won’t get much more from it than 1080p. However, a few other additions make it an essential upgrade.

High dynamic range is one of those additions. Put simply, HDR provides deeper blacks and brighter whites in a digital image. While that might not sound like much, you have to realize that between black and white lay all of the colors on the visible spectrum. The result is an image with so much visible detail, so many gradations of color, that the image looks tangible.

Immerse Yourself in (3D) Audio

While Ultra HD has been about as the home theater buzzword, there’s another side of the equation. We’re talking about your surround sound system. And we’ve recently seen some major advancements in the realm of home audio sound.

It’s sad to say, but for decades we’ve been listening to less-than-stellar audio in our home theaters. The technology simply didn’t exist to make soundtracks truly mind blowing in your private residence. But that’s all chance with the advent of immersive audio.

Previously dubbed “3D” audio, immersive audio completely surrounds the listener in sound. Traditional surround sound systems will feature channels, or speakers, in front of, behind and to the sides of the listener. Immersive audio adds another level: speakers are placed above the listener to achieve a three- dimensional listening angle.

But while additional speakers are great, they don’t transform the way you listen to your movies. The real magic comes in the sound mixing process. Before, professional sound mixers were limited to the channel-based system, meaning each sound had to be assigned to a given speaker. Today, thanks to Dolby Atmos, sounds are treated as individual “objects” and can move freely from speaker to speaker, creating a truly realistic movement.

In commercial theaters, an immersive audio system requires 60 or more speakers. At home, it can take as little as seven. How can that work? Immersive audio takes full advantage of your room’s acoustics to create the ultimate soundscape.

Still have questions about how modern home audio video gear can change the way you experience your entertainment? Contact us now.