I fondly remember the year 1999. Why ? It’s the year where I went back five times to the home audio video store to buy, return and upgrade my first home theater system.

You see, I just had purchase my first home DVD player a couple of weeks before. After learning everything about black bars and aspect ratios and overcoming the shock of not using all of my TV to watch movies (I was young and naive), I quickly realized that listening to movies on my old stereo system was not really an option. I needed to leverage the full capacity of that new player and hear the movie the way it was intended to be : in the right aspect ratio with surround sound.

The first sound system I bought one was simply a Pro Logic system, for a matter of not investing too much I imagine. I came back home, enabled Dolby Surround on my system and waited for something great to happen. And nothing great happened. I sat down, watched a couple of movies, trying to concentrate to hear surround sound coming from the tiny “home theater in a box” speakers that came with the system but could barely hear effects.

So back to the store I was, a couple of days later, big box in my hands to return the system and upgrade. I must admit that the salesman at the store did not realize the first time he was getting in a complicated relationship with me. He would see me almost every other day, with questions, looking for a potential replacement or just browsing receivers and speakers.

The second system, which was probably twice as expensive, was a Dolby Digital (no DTS support) system in a box. I came back home, eager to install everything in my small room at my parents house. After wiring for the second time five speakers and a subwoofer and reconnecting everything to the new receiver, I inserted Contact, my test movie at that time. I cranked up the volume, and the initial sequence started. Waiting to be amazed, the first sounds started and then I heard something I could not believe : all speakers were producing a hissing sound. It was not audible in the store in the technical demonstration because of the environment, but the receiver clearly produced hissing when Dolby Digital was activated and the volume of the movie was high enough.

Back to the store I was, box in hands, for a second time. Repeat this scenario two more times, with the same hissing sound in three different brands with price increasing each time. That was the early days of home theater and it seems I was asking too much when I was asking for silence when silence was needed in a movie.

This is when I finally decided to take the plunge and purchase a Harman/Kardon receiver, without DTS support to keep it still affordable. And with it I got one speaker, yes one. I started with the center channel and waited patiently over the next months to purchase a pair of fronts and then surrounds to go with them. It took two years before I finally purchased a subwoofer.

But finally I was able to hear what I wanted : the movie as it was intended, with great sound quality as I never experienced before other than in a theater. The Contact intro is still impressive to me, 15 years later, with sounds and music moving between all speakers and then pure silence finishing the sequence as we go to outer space.

For the first time, I’m as excited about a new sound technology for home theaters with the new Dolby Atmos format. Of course DTS Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD were a nice upgrade, but the audio object technology around Atmos makes me feel we’ll start experiencing really greater sound at home.

Not only did the format made me upgrade my system and install ceiling speakers (with some very useful help!), but it made me want to start a new blog and talk about those new technologies that are finally creating a real revolution in home theaters : Dolby Atmos, the soon to come DTS:X and of course 4K displays and future 4K Blu-ray players.

So on this all new NextGenHomeTheater.com, you’ll find content reviews for those new elements, thoughts and impressions about the formats and news regarding them. Feel free to add through the commenting system if you share that same passion for next generation home theater technology !