Every September, the What Hi-Fi? home cinema test room fills up with Awards contenders, from Dolby Atmos soundbars to premium ultra-short-throw projectors. All that hardware needs demanding material, and the magazine’s monthly Now Showing column, published on September 19, 2026, lists what the team has been playing. The September 2026 picks are four films and one TV series. Some push picture quality, some push sound, and one is mostly there for the love of music.
The Last Duel (2021) is Harry McKerrell’s pick. He calls Ridley Scott’s triple-perspective drama, set in 14th-century France, a modest peak in an up-and-down filmography. For testing, what matters is the grade. Gladiator sets warm oranges against imperial greys. The Last Duel sits almost entirely under a frosty blue-grey filter. That makes it a good check of how a TV or projector handles colour and contrast when there are no bright highlights to lean on.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) is Daniel Furn’s choice. The Destin Daniel Cretton film opened in US cinemas on July 31, 2026. When What Hi-Fi? wrote about it, the film had taken $2.45 billion worldwide and had become the highest-grossing film ever at the US domestic box office, ahead of Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal return in a grittier, street-level story. Furn is waiting to see how its set pieces look on 4K Blu-ray. He also wants to hear the soundtrack, including Tame Impala’s Loser, Steve Lacy’s Oh Yeah? and Michael Giacchino’s score, on a proper Atmos system.
Bumblebee (2018) is Robyn Quick’s pick and the most straightforward sound test of the five. In the opening scene, Bumblebee crashes into an army training exercise like a fiery comet. The bass gets a real workout, explosions need to land in the right places around the room, and with a capable height setup, planes should fly over the top of the screen.
- Bass: the comet landing and explosions in the opening scene
- Placement: explosions spread around the whole soundfield
- Height: aircraft passing overhead with an Atmos-capable setup
Metal Lords (2022), Alastair Stevenson’s pick, isn’t really a test disc. Peter Sollett’s story follows two school kids trying to recruit a classical cellist into their heavy metal band. Stevenson admits it is far from a technical masterpiece. He picked it for how well it captures what music means to people, and for cameos from Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Kirk Hammett and Rob Halford.
Slow Horses, Season 6 (2026) is the one TV series, chosen by Lewis Empson. The first episode, “Circle of Life”, went live on Apple TV on September 15, 2026 at 9pm ET. Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden are back. This time there is a hit out on all of the Slow Horses. It is a tough episode for any TV. Rainy London scenes are graded deliberately washed out, and much of the action happens in shadow, so a set that crushes black detail will leave you guessing who is speaking. The Dolby Atmos mix isn’t a showcase, but it makes the busy London streets feel more immersive. The six-episode season is scheduled to end on October 21, 2026.
