Home Cinema Systems in 2010 - a retrospective

It's early 2011 and probably as good a time as any to reflect on the last years products and see if it gives us any clues as to where we might be heading in the coming twelve months with regards to home cinema systems.

The beginning of the end for DVD Home Cinema Systems

2010 saw many more Blu-ray all in one systems being introduced than DVD so it looks like manufacturers are really starting phase out DVD based systems. That said some of the DVD based systems that did come out, such as the Sony DAV-DZ330, were fantastic value for money, and appeared to sell very well indeed.

Stylish Home Theatre... at last

We've always had great looking systems here and there, but in 2010 we saw alot of good looking systems. Most of them, it has to be said were from Sony, whose 'monolith' design concept really caught peoples eyes, and translated well across their other products too.

Wireless Home Cinema Systems started to break through

We're talking about Wi-fi predominantly here, and most systems had at least an option to make it internet enabled. Sony's implementation was very good here too, and they are showing a real commitment to online content. Samsung's Internet@TV service looked promising too, but their patchy support for the BBC iPlayer and other online services was very disappointing, and many people were annoyed that the promised services and firmware updates never came.

We saw a few more home cinema systems with wireless speakers coming out too, but despite frequent complaints from customers who have to run cables around their rooms, they didn't seem to be as popular as we'd have thought. I can only presume the increased cost of them was just too much.

So, that is a little summary of the home cinema year in 2010, lets see what 2011 holds!