LIVING FOR THE SETTEE

From popcorn film nights to 3am gaming sessions, this home cinema gear is your ticket to living-room nirvana. With TVs, soundbars and even recommendations for what to watch, there's something here for every budget...

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EPSON EH-LS650

Home projectors Hhaven't always been easy to live with. While their ability to produce wall-filling images at a fraction of the price of an equivalent television set always held huge appeal, the drawbacks were legion.

The relatively dim image meant blackout blinds were mandatory. Installation was a pain due to the required distance between projector and screen (or wall). And with no audio output, you'd need to supply your own sound.

Thankfully, today's projector makers have made things much friendlier: the Epson EH-LS650's three greatest features are its high brightness, its ultra-short-throw design and its speaker, eliminating all those gripes instantly.

This 3LCD projection system outputs a searing 3600 lumens of brightness, meaning I was able to watch films and play games during the day - no blackout blinds required. That said, it did fare better in a darker room: even semi-opaque blinds resulted in a boost to colour and contrast.

The ultra-short-throw design means it can be placed right up against a wall and still deliver a big picture. I set it up less than 5in away and got a 70in image, using the lever to get it in focus. After that, some minor keystone adjustments in the settings menu were all it took to achieve a fantastic and dead-straight 4K image.

The picture supports HLG and HDR10, but I would have liked a bit more verve in the colours. Detail and sharpness are strong, but the image isn't as impactful as on some of the TVs on the following pages.

Plus there's no gaming mode (you just have to tweak the settings manually) and the two HDMI 2.0 inputs don't support 120Hz signals.

What's more, the Android TV interface is sluggish at times; and while Play Store access means many of the streaming apps are covered, there's no Netflix support.