...to the website of the 12th annual Home Cinema Choice awards, the UK’s premiere celebration of the best in home cinema technology! The Award winners, generously sponsored by Dolby, have been selected from the hottest products reviewed over the previous year, and represent the very best in home cinema technology; products our experts are certain will bring you complete home cinema satisfaction in return for your hard-earned cash.
So how did we decide on the winners? Choosing them is a demanding process which starts with careful consideration of the categories. As technology evolves, some categories became obsolete, and new ones suggested themselves – for example, they had to reflect the emergence of Blu-ray and HD.
Then a shortlist for each category was drawn up, and the arguments began, as our hard-boiled team of reviewers debated the merits of their favourite models until they’re blue in the face. It was a difficult process, as both objective testing and subjective opinion had to be taken into account, but finally the winners were thrashed out.
So the winners knew who they were, as did the runners-up, but there was no time for moping, the bar was open. After a hard afternoon being entertained by Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire's Chris Barrie there's nothing better than unwinding over a few ales...
The award giving ceremony was held in one of the Soho-based Curzon Cinema's screens and this year it was full to the brim. So much so that a large number of attendees had to stand at the back while Chris Barrie joshed, japed and announced the winners and...
Although it is impossible to invite each and every reader of HCC to the Awards ceremony, here's the entire event in pictures to give you an idea of what happened when the consumer electronics industry descended upon the Curzon cinema in London's trendy Soho....
As Home Cinema Choice readers may know, Dolby sound technologies are present in a wide range of consumer electronics products, as well as in PCs, video games consoles, and even some in-car entertainment systems. They come in a variety of forms and flavours,...
HD Ready displays are more affordable than ever. Today even more people can enjoy high-definition entertainment in their daily lives. Whether you experience high-definition via Sky’s HD channels or through next-generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs, the picture...
Very few products get the Home Cinema Choice Reference Status badge; it guarantees that they set a standard of performance or design against which other products can be measured. Therefore, this can be seen as the prize of all prizes: Nad, Naim and...
The HCC Hall of Fame Award celebrates the work of an individual whose contribution to the home cinema arena has been outstanding in every respect. This year it goes to Laurie Fincham, who brings to THX a wealth of knowledge and expertise in consumer...
In previous years, this category was simply DVD of the year. However, the advent of Blu-ray and HD DVD has expanded its remit and, thus, has made it an even harder award to win. Nominees include Universal's excellent Extended Edition DVD of King...
Although it's not, strictly, a Starman award, HCC 's Honorary Mention goes, each year, to a home cinema install abroad that goes above and beyond what is generally expected in both cost and theme. This year there could be only one winner of such an...
While there's something rewarding in doing it yourself, the idea of dedicated install teams coming in and building your dream home cinema from the ground up is so appealing. Here's HCC 's run-down of the best in the business: DSE Digital, Musical Images,...
To qualify as innovative, each product tested must either bring something new to a traditional sector of consumer electronics or wow with ideas and aspirations otherwise untouched. The three nominees here are of the former, but boy did Logitech, Sky and...
As a category, Accessory of the year rewards the gadgets, gizmos and doohickies that are often overlooked but remain an essential part of a home entertainment set-up: Alphason's plasma and LCD stand, the APX50/4-B, PixelMagic's MB100 HD Mediabox, Microsoft's...
There's an unwritten rule that the more you invest on a receiver, the more power it will allow you to wield. The three nominees in this category, by that token, should bestow all the Grayskull has to offer. Yamaha's RX-V2700, Marantz's SR7001 and Arcam's...
No home cinema set-up is complete without an all-singing, all-dancing receiver, and a decent one can turn a flimsy soundtrack into one with more beef than a Desperate Dan cowpie. The three that impressed HCC the most in the last year were Onkyo's...
