While they aren’t as flashy or as big of a buzz as TVs, the broader ecosystem of home theater technology is arguably where the most interesting tech developments are happening. And the big opportunity I hope to see this year is solving the perennial A/V problem of tangled cables.
I’ve been into home theater technology for years, and ever since I first tried connecting a PS2 to a TV that already had a DVD player hooked up, one problem has been bothering me. I used the best soundbars to improve my movie listening quality, streaming devices when I wanted to use streaming services on a non-smart TV, and the best projectors to enjoy cinematic experiences at home. And every time I use such technology, I have to untangle a huge tangle of cables.
No longer. Wireless home theater technology is on the verge of becoming mainstream, and its wider adoption is one of my big predictions for 2026. Here are the changes and advances I expect to see in the home theater space, based on my years of testing and reporting on A/V kits, and what trends have emerged throughout 2025.
It’s a wireless year
Perhaps one of the most promising home theater changes I predict for 2026 will affect all home technology equally, so I’ll address that first. This change further introduces wireless connectivity between home theater devices to save you the clutter of cables in your living room and increase versatility in device placement.
FlexConnect by Dolby Atmos is a wireless standard that allows your TV to easily connect to multiple compatible speakers in your room while maintaining correct panning. Although it was unveiled in 2023, we’ve hardly seen any consumer products launch with it…until 2026, as LG has already confirmed that it will unveil its Sound suite of compatible products at the CES 2026 conference in January. Expect other companies to follow suit, either at CES or after.
This follows a growing trend towards “wireless” televisions in recent years. These are of course not truly wireless as they require mains power, but the general aim is to reduce cables as much as possible. Options like the LG M3 Wireless OLED and Samsung Wireless Frame Pro require you to connect extras like gaming consoles and Blu-Ray players to separate boxes that transmit the image to the screen. Therefore, you can keep these devices hidden to create a tidy space.
Wireless TVs aren’t new, but they’re still far from commonplace: The standard OLED set you buy on sale isn’t going to magically be wireless. However, as brands continue to push further into the wireless space, where companies like FlexConnect reside, we could eventually see this type of technology reach consumer TVs as well. The question is whether that will happen in 2026 or later.
The soundbar is divided
Soundbars are among the technologies that benefit most from wireless improvements. Removing the cables also eliminates some of the limitations that come with setting up a soundbar: wall mounting or mounting directly on the wall becomes much easier. Additionally, wireless technology is also crucial to a sustained trend in this segment.
Multi-part soundbars are being brought onto the market more and more frequently. These are audio devices that have a central soundbar and other smaller speakers that you can place in your room. We’ve been seeing options with subwoofers and soundbar packages that offer optional auxiliary speakers for years, but more and more we’re seeing soundbars that require the use of Orbital auxiliary devices. These all communicate with each other wirelessly, so you can easily place the components in your living room.
You can find multi-part options from LG, JBL, and Samsung, but some companies have shied away from it. Both of Amazon’s entry-level options are one-piece soundbars, while Sonos’ popular options are also standalones (you can buy additional speaker packages for both, but the standard options are one-piece). However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this change in 2026, as the prevailing winds point to greater adoption of wireless products in home theater technology.
Many of the soundbars for 2026 have already been announced. We usually see them at CES 2026 every year, but companies like Samsung and LG have decided to unveil their offerings early – before the year has even started.
Both companies have multi-part options that can be adapted to different spatial situations. Thanks to advances in scanning, they can adapt the sound to the environment. We’re also seeing even larger and more expensive 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 a lot of space, pointing to a growing niche of ultra-premium soundbars.
The one big projector question
One of the biggest questions projector fans will be asking when it comes to new releases in 2026 is: Is it compatible with Dolby Vision 2?
Announced in September 2025, Dolby Vision 2 is an updated version of the popular Dolby picture standard that brings accurate blacks, glare reduction and sports optimization to a range of popular brand TVs. It was announced exclusively for TVs, but Dolby Vision itself is available on projectors, and its successor probably will be at some point. The real question is: will this happen in 2026?
In the high-end projector market, laser projectors remain the top product, but while there are likely to be a few more of them coming to market, there is no sign that the technology will be available in cheaper options later this year.
We’ll certainly see at least new releases, and perhaps some could push the price (and price) down a bit. This probably also applies to outdoor speakers and budget speakers: We don’t expect any major developments in terms of hardware.
If there’s one market segment that could see change, it’s the relatively niche segment of gaming projectors. As OLED TVs offer increasingly higher refresh rates for pro gamers, some projector brands may try to achieve this with projectors.
Are streaming sticks still relevant in 2026?
The most notable trend in streaming sticks in recent years has been consolidation. Companies like Amazon and Roku no longer require or release large collections of new smart dongles; Meanwhile, they seem to be content with updating just a handful of lines: one for HD streaming sticks and one for 4K sticks and sometimes an additional top-end sticks.
Finally, the market segment is slowing down. Given that smart TVs are all but ubiquitous, the need for such dongles that add smart TV capabilities to a “dumb” TV has all but disappeared.
When new streaming sticks come onto the market in 2026, there will only be a few of them. Amazon updated its own line with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select in late 2025, making a new release from the company unlikely – although not impossible. The Select brought a new Amazon operating system to market and we could see the company rolling this out to its other streaming sticks.
The other prolific name is Roku, which has also renewed its range in 2025 and since it does not bet on annual releases, it seems that things could be quiet in 2026. More likely is a new Apple TV 4K, which some rumors suggested could launch in 2025, and the lack of one suggests the new year could be more promising.
