CinemaVerdict compares projectors and screens, soundbars and subwoofers, AV receivers and amplifiers, speakers and speaker packages, mounts, sources — and the cables, stands and adapters that get bought a week later — across fifty categories and five language editions. We are a small independent editorial operation, not a retailer, not a brand, and not a media group.
We write about what makes the image and the sound of a living room, and only about that. We do not cover televisions themselves, because a television model number is national: the same set carries a different suffix in each country, sells on separate catalogues, and a link that works in one market is dead in three others. We also leave out studio equipment — recording microphones, audio interfaces, monitor speakers, room treatment — along with computer peripherals, games consoles, mains wiring, and the subscriptions and films you watch. What is left is the equipment that puts a picture on a wall and a soundtrack in a room.
One claim runs through this subject more sharply than any other, so we state it outright. A "lumen" is not an ANSI lumen. The same projector is routinely sold as "12 000 lumens" and measured at a few hundred ANSI, and both figures can appear on the same listing. We write the unit exactly as the maker publishes it, we say when it is not ANSI, and we never convert one into the other. The same restraint applies to a contrast ratio that is dynamic rather than native, to a power figure quoted at peak rather than RMS, and to a Dolby Atmos badge, which means the format is decoded and not that anything fires at your ceiling.
Every figure here is reported from the manufacturer that published it, named on the page where it appears, and never worked out by us. We are not a testing laboratory. And one thing on this site can hurt someone if it is treated casually: a wall mount. A 65-inch television weighs 20 to 30 kg, the load a mount states describes the bracket and not your wall, and every mounting page says so and sends you to the maker's instructions for the material you are drilling into.
How the site is funded
Every "Check price" button on this site is an affiliate link to Amazon. If you buy something after following one, Amazon pays us a commission. The price you pay is identical either way.
We think you should know the shape of that incentive rather than just its existence. Amazon pays a percentage of the sale, so in principle we earn more when you buy something expensive. Three things push against that:
- Nothing is ordered by what it pays. No shelf here is ordered by commission: we never look up which reference pays best, and a shelf runs by price tier and by nothing else. Where a cheap accessory is the right answer, it goes first.
- Price and usefulness are not the same thing. Some of the things we recommend most firmly cost under twenty euros — a certified two-metre HDMI cable instead of a five-metre one that drops out, a plain 6500 K bias light, a pair of stands that put a tweeter at ear height. And moving a subwoofer a metre changes more than a hundred euros of extra amplifier does.
- Nobody pays us for placement. We have never accepted payment, product or otherwise, in exchange for a position in a ranking. If that ever changes, it will be labelled on the page, not in a footer.
What we do not do
We do not run sponsored posts. We do not publish "top 10" lists assembled from other people's reviews. We do not rank by commission value, by conversion rate, or by what is in stock this week.
We also do not sell by specification. A bigger number makes effective copy and poor advice, and a page built on the figure printed largest tends to close by recommending the most expensive thing on it. Every verdict here names what it rests on: the specifications and manuals, the standards a format actually defines, and the weight of what long-term owners consistently report. Where a judgement leans on one of those more than the others, the review says which.
Corrections
Prices move, models get replaced, ranges are renamed, and manufacturers quietly change a panel, a lamp or a licence for a streaming service. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say what changed. Every page carries the date it was last reviewed.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026