While not as flashy or talked-about as TVs, the wider ecosystem of home theater tech is arguably where the most interesting tech developments happen. And the big chance I’m hoping to see this year is going to solve the perennial A/V problem of messy cable.
I’ve been covering home theater tech for years, and a problem has bugged me ever since I first tried to plug a PS2 into a TV that already had a DVD player connected. I’ve used the best soundbars to improve how I hear movies, streaming devices when I’ve wanted to use streaming services on a non-smart TV, and the best projectors to enjoy cinematic-style viewing experiences at home. And each time I use such tech, I have to unpick a huge tangle of cables.
Not any more. Wireless home theater tech is on the cusp of going mainstream, and its wider rollout is one of my big predictions for 2026. Here are the changes and advancements I’m expecting to see in the home theater space, based upon my years of testing and covering A/V kit, and what trends became notable throughout 2025.
It’s a wireless year
Perhaps one of the most promising home theater shifts I’m predicting for 2026 affects all home tech equally, so I’m going to address it first. This change is the further roll-out of wireless connectivity between home theater devices, to save you from having a mess of cables around your living room and also to add versatility to where you place gadgets.
Dolby Atmos’ FlexConnect is a wireless standard allowing your TV to connect to multiple compatible speakers around your room, all without fuss and while maintaining correct panning. While it was unveiled in 2023, we’ve barely seen any consumer products released with it… until 2026, as LG has already confirmed that it’ll show off its Sound Suite of compatible products at the CES 2026 conference in January. Expect other companies to follow suit, either at CES or afterwards.
This follows a growing trend over the last few years, of ‘wireless’ TVs. These aren’t, of course, truly wireless, as they require a mains power supply, but the general aim is to cut down on cables as much as possible. Options like the LG M3 Wireless OLED and Samsung Wireless Frame Pro require you to plug extras like games consoles and Blu-Ray players into separate boxes which beam the picture to the screen; you can therefore keep these gadgets hidden away for a clutter-free room.
Wireless TVs aren’t new but they’re still far from commonplace: the standard OLED you buy in a sale won’t magically be cable-free. However with brands moving further into the wireless territory in which the likes of FlexConnect reside, we could eventually see this kind of technology reach consumer TV sets. The question is whether that’ll happen in 2026, or later.
The soundbar split
Soundbars are some of the tech that’ll benefit from any wireless improvements best of all. Removing cables also eliminates some of the restraints that come when placing a soundbar: wall-mounting, or fitting it right against a wall, will be much easier. Beyond that, wireless tech is also pivotal for an ongoing trend in the segment.
More and more, we’re seeing multi-piece soundbars released. These are audio gadgets which have one core soundbar and also other smaller speakers, which you can place around your room. We’ve seen options with subwoofers for years now, and soundbar bundles which offer optional extra speakers, but increasingly we’re seeing soundbars which require the use of orbital extras. These all communicate with each other wirelessly, so it’s easy to place the components around your living room.
You can find options from LG, JBL and Samsung with multiple parts, but some companies have shied away. Both of Amazon’s entry-level options are single-piece soundbars, while Sonos’ beloved options are standalone too (you can pick up extra speaker bundles for both, but the default options are one-piece). I wouldn’t be surprised to see this change in 2026 though, with the prevailing winds pointing to a wider spread of wireless products in home theater tech.
Many of 2026’s soundbars have already been announced. We usually see them at CES 2026 each year, but companies like Samsung and LG chose to show off their offerings early – before the year had even begun.
Both companies have multi-piece options which are designed to be adaptable for a variety of room spaces, with advances in scanning letting them tailor the audio to the environment. We’re also seeing even bigger and pricier soundbars than before, particularly from Samsung with its HW-Q990H. This 11.1.4-channel behemoth is expected to cost a lot and take up lots of space, and points to a growing niche of ultra-premium soundbars.
The one big projector question
One of the biggest questions that projector fans will be asking of new releases in 2026 is: is this compatible with Dolby Vision 2?
Announced in September 2025, Dolby Vision 2 is an upgraded version of Dolby’s popular visual standard, bringing precision blacks, glare reduction and sports optimization to a range of TVs from mainstream brands. It was announced exclusively for TVs, but Dolby Vision itself is available on projectors, and the successor likely will be too at some point. The real question is, will this happen in 2026?
In the top-end projector market, laser projectors remain the big-ticket item, but while we’ll likely see a few more of these released, there’s no indication that the tech will be available on more affordable options through the year.
We’ll certainly see new releases, at least, and perhaps some could push the needle (and price point) down a little. That’ll likely also be true of outdoor speakers and budget ones: we’re not expecting any huge developments in terms of hardware.
If any market segment could see changes, it’s the relatively niche gaming projector one. With OLED TVs offering higher and higher refresh rates for pro gamers, we could see some projector brands try to match this with projectors.
Are streaming sticks still relevant in 2026?
The most notable trend in streaming sticks over the last few years has been consolidation. No more do companies like Amazon and Roku need or release a large collection of new smart dongles; now, they seem content only updating a handful of lines: one for HD streaming sticks and one for 4K ones, and sometimes an extra top-end one.
After all, the market segment is slowing down. Given that smart TVs are all but ubiquitous, the need for such dongles, which add smart TV skills to a ‘dumb’ TV, is all but gone.
If we do see new streaming sticks released in 2026, then, they’ll be few and far between. Amazon updated its own line with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select at the end of 2025 so a new release from the company is unlikely – though not impossible. The Select debuted a new Amazon operating system and we could see the company roll this out to its other streaming sticks.
The other prolific name is Roku, which also refreshed its line-up in 2025, and given that it doesn’t opt for annual releases, 2026 seems like it could be quiet. More likely is a new Apple TV 4K, which some rumors were suggesting could come in 2025, and the lack of it suggests the new year could be more promising.
