If you are looking inexpensive #audio for your #home theatre, you might want to read this before buying a #sound bar for your home theatre.

Sound bars are an excellent compromise between shelling out for an expensive surround-sound system and settling for the tinny sound from your TV’s built-in speakers, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. In fact, sound bars have quite a few real-world problems and limitations that are often glossed over, only to rear their heads after you’ve got one set up at home.

Here’s what you should know before you make the jump to buying a sound bar.

1. The sound bar might block your TV’s remote sensor

Glitzy product photos often show sound bars wall-mounted right below a TV, but most people place their sound bar on their TV stand. That can be problematic because larger sound bars have a tendency to block the TV’s remote-control sensor, forcing you to stand up and angle your remote to control your TV. That’s a real pain, so if you’re considering buying a sound bar

2. Many don’t come with a remote

Just about every home theatre gadget comes with its own remote (which is why your coffee table is littered with them), but sound bars are the exception. Quite a few models don’t include a remote and instead rely on you to program the sound bar to accept commands from your TV’s remote. It’s a good idea in theory (fewer remotes on the coffee table), but it doesn’t work so well in practice.

3. ‘Virtual surround’ is just wider stereo

Almost every sound bar comes with some kind of “virtual surround” mode, promising to deliver #surround sound without the hassle of rear speakers. These virtual surround modes aren’t useless, but they don’t get anywhere near surround sound. In the best-case scenario, they’ll widen the sound field so the sound bar sounds bigger than its size.

4. It might not have a front-panel display

Not having a front-panel display may look slick, but it is nice to have some visual feedback.

Manufacturers have gotten better at this recently, but there are still plenty of sound bars being sold that don’t have a front-panel display. You don’t need a lot of visual feedback from a sound bar, but it’s nice to know how high the volume is or what input you’ve selected. If your sound bar just has basic LEDs on the front, you won’t know if the volume is maxed out or you still have some headroom left.

5. Connectivity might not be as important as you think

Yes, most home theater gadgets these days use HDMI, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily need HDMI ports on your sound bar. Instead, you can connect all your home theater devices directly to your TV, then use the TV’s audio output to connect to the sound bar. That way when you switch inputs on your TV, you’ll also be switching what audio is sent to your sound bar. And it’s typically a slightly cleaner setup because you only need one cable running to the sound bar.

This arrangement does mean you’re limited to your TV’s connectivity, which may be limited if you have an older TV with only a couple of HDMI ports. In that case, you may prefer a sound bar with more connectivity options.