Help center · Updated October 6, 2026
How HDIS ratings work, how to describe the system you listen on, and how to take part in the community.
Start with the task you are trying to complete. The detail stays one click away.
Find a title, pick the format you heard, and publish your first sound rating.
What you rate, what the categories mean, and why headline scores behave differently.
Describe the room and gear behind each rating, and choose what stays private.
Save titles for later, and curate rankings worth sharing.
Posts, comments, reactions, follows, and the activity feed in one place.
Sign-in, visibility, notifications, reporting, and account deletion.
Document a room or rig over time through a public or private build log.
Explore the catalog and the community, or jump straight to one thing.
How contributions are recognised and Trusted Contributor status is earned.
HDIS ratings describe the listening experience — not whether the movie itself is any good.
↑ Back to topicsSearch for a movie and open its page. Anyone can browse; rating needs an account.
Pick what your disc, app, receiver or cinema actually played — not the best format the movie was released in.
Six sliders, all optional. Leave any of them blank when your system cannot reproduce it.
A short review about standout scenes, or the system you were listening on, helps everyone reading it.
Example rating
The overall score is the average of the sliders you filled in — the server computes it, you never type it.
The sub-ratings, how your overall score is computed, and why the movie's headline number ignores most of the ratings on it.
↑ Back to topicsA rating is tied to three things together: the movie, the specific audio format you heard, and the system profile you watched it on. The same movie in the same format on a different system counts as a separate experience — a TrueHD Atmos mix on a nine-channel rig and on a soundbar are not the same event.
Each category is a 1.0–10.0 slider. Leave any of them blank when your setup cannot reproduce it — no height speakers means no Height score, and that is a first-class answer rather than a gap. Your overall score averages only the categories you completed, and the server computes it; you never enter it directly.
A movie's overall HDIS score uses ratings from the highest audio-format tier anyone has rated it in. Lower-tier ratings stay visible in the per-format breakdown but do not pull the headline number down.
| Tier | Formats |
|---|---|
| Tier 4 | Dolby TrueHD Atmos · DTS:X · Dolby Digital Plus Atmos · IMAX · Auro-3D |
| Tier 3 | Dolby TrueHD · DTS-HD Master Audio · LPCM |
| Tier 2 | Dolby Digital Plus · DTS-HD High Resolution |
| Tier 1 | Dolby Digital · DTS |
The ladder is capability, not compression: Dolby Digital Plus Atmos is Tier 4 and lossy, because it carries a height layer, while LPCM is Tier 3 and lossless, because it does not. Custom formats added through “Other” sit at Tier 1.
Example: if the Tier 1 ratings average 6.5 and the Tier 4 ratings average 9.0, the headline score is 9.0. An Atmos mix on a proper rig should not be dragged down by someone's compressed stream of the same film — the lower rating is not wrong, it is a different experience, and both stay visible.
Choose what your disc, app, receiver or cinema actually played — not the best format the movie was released in. New movies start with no formats attached; the community adds them by rating.
The same guidance is one click away while you are rating: the Which audio format should I pick? button sits beside the format picker.
Typed the name slightly wrong? You can rename a custom format afterwards and it simply goes back for review. Master-list formats cannot be renamed.
A custom format that passes review keeps the Custom label and becomes pickable by anyone rating that movie — it appears under “Custom formats on this movie” in the picker. Verified means checked, not promoted into the master list.
Trusted Contributors, Moderators and Admins can verify or reject pending formats. Editing a verified format returns it to pending, so the next reviewer re-confirms the change — a verified entry is a community endorsement, and any change deserves a fresh look.
After rating you can attach a review: written text, a video, or both — use Write a Review or Share a Video Review on the movie page. The reviews section has a Written and a Video tab; a review with both parts appears in both. Other members endorse good reviews with the Helpful reaction.
You can edit a rating later and the movie's aggregate recomputes automatically. Substantially rewriting a review, or swapping or removing its video, resets its Helpful count, so a well-endorsed review cannot be quietly swapped for something else.
A review's video can be reported on its own. If a moderator removes it, only the video goes and your written review stays; a review that was only a video is removed with its rating.
System profiles are how other listeners interpret your ratings. You decide how much of yours is public.
↑ Back to topicsA system profile describes the setup you watched on: speaker configuration, receiver, speakers, subwoofer, room details, total build cost, photos, and optionally a description and an itemised component list. You can keep up to 10 home theater profiles — useful if you have a main rig and a bedroom setup, or if you have upgraded over the years and want to re-rate old favourites on the new gear.
Each profile is public or private. Public profiles get a shareable link and appear on the Home Theaters hub and in search. Private profiles are visible only to you and stay off your public profile — the public/private toggle is the single control for how visible a rig is.
Marking a profile private does not pull it out of Equipment Stats. Those pages report anonymised, aggregated gear popularity — never who owns what — so your gear still counts toward community totals without exposing your setup.
The first time you mark a rating as “at a theater”, HDIS creates one non-deletable Movie Theater profile. You only ever get one, it does not count toward the ten-profile limit, and it is excluded from equipment statistics and the “Best on My System” dropdown — the gear belongs to the cinema, not to you.
Theater ratings can optionally tag a venue (“AMC IMAX Downtown”). You can save up to 20 venues and reuse them. A venue is display metadata: it shows next to the rating but does not affect uniqueness or aggregation. Two ratings of the same movie in the same format are allowed when one is on a home profile and the other is in your Movie Theater profile.
Each home theater profile can have an optional description of up to 10,000 characters: the room, the build, the calibration, what you love and what you would change. It shows under the system's name on its public page, collapsed to a few lines with “Show more”, and people can find your rig in search by the words you use. It takes the same formatting as reviews, and formatting characters count toward the limit.
Movie Theater profiles can't have a description, and a retired system's can be removed but not changed. Documenting a build as it happens fits a build log better. If a description is reported and removed, only the text goes — the rig and everything else on it stay.
Each home theater profile can show one video — a walkthrough, a demo, a build log. YouTube, Vimeo, and TikTok videos play on the system page; Instagram and Facebook videos show as a link that opens on their site. A video only loads when someone presses play.
A description of 50 to 1,000 characters is required. It tells visitors what to watch for, and it is how people find your rig in search. Movie Theater profiles can't have a video, and a retired system can't get a new one. Retiring a system keeps its video but hides it along with the rig; it shows again if you reactivate the system. If a video is reported and removed, only the video goes — the rig, its photos and its ratings stay.
Beyond the summary fields you can break a build down piece by piece — up to 100 components across electronics, speakers, video, room and support categories, each with a brand, model, quantity, unit cost and notes. The same category can appear more than once, so three subwoofer rows are fine.
HDIS totals the priced rows into an itemised total and shows it against your headline Total Build Cost. The two are independent: your Total Build Cost stays authoritative even while the itemised rows are incomplete, so you can itemise gradually without your budget looking wrong in the meantime.
A public, active profile can also be shared to the activity feed with Share to feed. It is reputation-neutral.
A watchlist tracks what you plan to watch. A list is a curated collection meant to recommend.
↑ Back to topicsAdd movies you care about to My Watchlist. New ratings, reviews and discussions about those movies then appear in the Watchlist tab of your activity feed.
Create a list with any title and description — “Best Tarantino Atmos Mixes”, “Movies That Made My Subwoofer Cry”. A custom list can be pinned to a specific system profile or left profile-agnostic. Lists default to public, with a privacy toggle when you want to hide one from search and other members. A public list joins the community feed once you add its first movie.
The HDIS differentiator. A “Best on My System” list is tied to one specific system profile and ranks your top 10 movies on that exact gear. You pick the profile first — the whole point is that the answer depends on what you watched on. It appears on your public profile and on that system's detail page.
Open a list and use the Add Movie box to search by title. New items land at the bottom; drag the handle to reorder, or reorder from the keyboard.
Each item can carry a note of up to 500 characters — “the helicopter pass at 41:20 is the whole reason this is here”. Add one when you add the movie, or use Add note / Edit note later. Editing a note never moves the item, so you can fix a typo without losing its place in the ranking.
Everything that connects members to each other: what you write, how you endorse it, and where it shows up.
↑ Back to topicsUse a Question when you want help or a recommendation (“Best Atmos demo to show off a new sub?”); use a Discussion for an open-ended topic (“Why do so many streaming mixes bury dialogue?”). Posts can carry up to three curated tags, inline images, and an optional linked movie.
Admins look after the list of tags; you pick up to three for your own post. Each tag shows on the post as a chip that opens its topic page, which lists every post with that tag, newest first.
Video Tour is for walkthroughs of a room or system, and only a post with a video can use it. Add the video link first to unlock the tag. If you remove the video, take the tag off as well. If a moderator removes the video, the tag comes off with it.
Either kind of post can carry one video — an install walkthrough, an Atmos demo clip, or the sub you want a second opinion on. Paste a YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook link; with a video attached the text is optional, but the title is not. Instagram and Facebook videos show as a link card that opens on their site.
The player only loads when someone presses play. Elsewhere, such as your profile and the feed, the post shows a small Video chip instead. Swapping or removing the video resets the post's reactions, the same as rewriting its text; changing only the start time or the description keeps them.
Posts, movie discussions and build updates all support a single level of replies — replies do not nest further. Choosing Reply inserts an @mention automatically. Mentions resolve for people already in the thread or in your follow graph, which keeps them useful without letting anyone ping a stranger out of nowhere.
Reviews, comments, posts, build logs, video descriptions, your bio and list descriptions all accept a little formatting. Use the toolbar above the text box, or type it:
**bold** and *italic* (or _italic_). Shortcuts: Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I (⌘ on a Mac).[link text](https://example.com), or just paste a web address (Ctrl+K adds a link). Links to other sites open in a new tab.- for a bulleted list, 1. for a numbered list, or > for a quote.>!spoiler!< hides a plot point until a reader clicks it. Spoilers never show in previews, search results or the feed.Anything else, like headings, code or images, shows exactly as you typed it. Use Preview to check before you post. The formatting characters count toward the length limit, and bolding a word or adding a quote doesn't reset helpful votes.
Follow someone from their profile to pull their ratings, reviews and posts into your feed. Follower and following lists are public. Four tabs decide whose activity you see:
Then sort by New, Hot (gaining traction now) or Top (most engagement over a 24-hour, 7-day or 30-day window), and filter to posts, reviews, ratings, discussions, build updates or lists.
Your public profile organises contributions into Overview, Posts, Reviews, Systems and Network, and the Overview leads with your primary public system. Every profile also has a guestbook where members can leave a note; it allows one level of replies, notes and replies can be marked Helpful, it is on by default, and you can disable or re-enable it at any time from your own profile.
Helpful recognises useful reviews, posts, comments, build updates and guestbook notes. Click again to remove your reaction; you cannot react to your own content. The author earns the reputation, not the person reacting, and a reaction deliberately sends no notification — it would be noise. A major rewrite clears existing reactions.
Any contribution can be flagged for moderation. Keep replies constructive, avoid unnecessary spoilers, and address the listening experience rather than the person.
How you get in, what other people can see, and how to get help or get out.
↑ Back to topicsAnyone can browse movies, reviews, lists and public profiles. You need an account to rate, review, post, follow people, build lists or manage system profiles — and there is no password to pick, and none to forget.
There are two ways in. Enter your email address and we send you a short code to type back, or sign in with Google. Both reach the same account when they use the same address, so you can switch between them whenever you like.
Opened us from inside the Facebook or Instagram app? Use the email code there — Google sign-in may require a regular browser such as Safari or Chrome.
Code not arrived? Give it a minute, then look in your spam folder. If it still is not there, check the address you typed and ask for a new code — the newest code is the only one that works.
Security settings shows how you sign in and which devices are signed in right now, with the last time each one was used. Sign a device out if you do not recognise it or no longer have it — that device has to sign in again.
Your member profile and your contributions are public. Individual home theater profiles, lists and builds have their own privacy controls — making one private removes it from your public profile, from search, and from the browse hubs.
The bell in the header carries in-app notifications. On the notification preferences page you choose which kinds also send email and, once you turn them on in a browser, which appear as browser notifications: guestbook comments, discussion replies and mentions, post and build activity, new followers, audio-format status changes, badges, and site announcements.
The bell also shows two newer kinds. People you follow: each newly published review, question, discussion or public build update shared to the feed by someone you follow — never for edits. Helpful-vote milestones: when your review or comment reaches 1, 5, 10 or 25 helpful votes, once per level for each item, even if votes are later removed. Email and browser delivery for these kinds are optional and off until you choose them; eligible notifications still appear in your bell. Levels covered by an item’s current helpful-vote count when milestones are switched on are recorded silently.
Browser notifications are turned on one browser at a time, and only when you choose to. Your security settings show which devices have them on, and Stop notifications turns them off for one device without signing it out. On iPhone and iPad they work in the installed app: add the site to your Home Screen first.
A browser notification shows a short, general line, such as “New reply to your comment” — never the text of a comment — and clicking it opens what it is about. Delivery while the browser is closed depends on your browser and operating system, and your device's Do Not Disturb or Focus settings can hide notifications. On iPhone and iPad they need iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later. On Android or a computer you can also install the site as an app, from Install app in your notification settings when your browser offers it, or from the browser's menu.
Three things always appear in-app regardless of email settings: badge awards, the result of a build cap request, and moderation actions — content removal, strikes, suspensions and role changes.
Flag abusive content from the contribution itself, so moderators receive it with its context attached.
To delete your account, email privacy@howdoesitsound.io from the address tied to it. Deletion is done by hand today, so allow up to 30 days; the full terms are in the Privacy Policy.
A build is a timeline build log — a title, an optional description, and dated updates. Use it to document a new theater build, a treatment overhaul, or a slow upgrade path. It can link to a system profile, active or retired, but it does not have to. Publishing a build earns +3 reputation, once.
Choose Planning, In Progress, On Hold or Completed. It is a label you control and it never changes on its own, so a completed build that later gets a “swapped the sub” update stays completed until you say otherwise.
An update can carry text, up to five photos, or both — a photo-only update is fine, and so is a text-only note. The first photo of your earliest update with an image becomes the build's cover. A substantial rewrite of an update clears its Helpful reactions; small corrections do not.
Private builds are visible only to you — anyone else who guesses the link gets a “not found” page. Public builds appear on the Builds hub, on your profile, and in search.
A build-level publish-to-feed setting controls whether updates flow into the activity feed, and each update can override it with Always share or Never share. Changing privacy or sharing applies retroactively: making a build public adds its past updates to the feed, making it private pulls them back out.
Public updates support one level of replies, @mentions, Helpful reactions and flags, and the owner is notified when someone comments on or mentions them.
You can keep 100 builds by default. If you genuinely need more, request a higher cap from the banner on your profile's Builds tab — a moderator reviews it, and a denial starts a 30-day cooldown before you can ask again. Deleting a build frees a slot immediately.
Browse when you know the category. Search when you know the title, the person, or the phrase.
↑ Back to topicsThe Movies catalog filters by genre and by audio format, and sorts by title, highest rated, release year, or most rated. Picking an audio format switches the page to a ranking by score, so the genre and sort controls step aside while that filter is on.
When the question is simply “what sounds best in this format”, the six curated leaderboards are the shorter route. They are linked from the bottom of the Movies page:
Each one covers every format that fits its theme — the Atmos board ranks Dolby TrueHD Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus Atmos together — and reorders as new ratings land.
Home Theaters lists every public system profile. Filter by Budget (approx. USD) — under $5k, $5k–$15k, $15k–$50k, $50k+ — and by speaker configuration (5.x, 7.x, 9.x and their Atmos variants). The configuration checkboxes stack, so you can ask for “7.x or 9.x Atmos” at once, and each option shows a live count of matching rigs. Sort by cost, speaker count, recent activity, or newest.
Builds lists every public build, filtered by build status and sorted by recently updated or newest.
Results are grouped by type. The Any selector searches everything, or pick a single type to narrow it.
Each type has a minimum query length so short fragments do not return noise: movies match from 1 character; users, lists, builds and home theaters from 2; posts, reviews and discussions from 3. In Any mode the types fold in automatically as you type.
Suggestions appear under the box as you type and can be chosen with the keyboard or a click. Search opened from Movies, Home Theaters, Builds or Lists is pre-scoped to that surface until you clear the context pill.
Points accumulate automatically as you take part. Nothing here has to be claimed.
↑ Back to topics| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Submit a rating | +2 |
| Write a review | +5 |
| Publish a post or build | +3 |
| Someone reacts Helpful to your review or post | +1 |
| Submit an audio format with a rating | +3 |
| Your audio format is rejected | −3 |
| A flag is upheld against your content | −5 |
Promotion from User to Trusted Contributor is automatic and one-way, based on your reputation, how many ratings and reviews you have contributed, and how long your account has existed. It is checked after every reputation event.
Losing reputation later never demotes you, though a Trusted Contributor with enough upheld flags can still be suspended. Moderator and Admin roles are assigned by hand — there is no automatic path to them.
Badges are awarded without a claim step, trigger an in-app notification, and stay on your profile even if the underlying count later changes.
The sound. Focus on the audio experience — bass, surround use, dialogue clarity, mix quality. Your review can mention how the sound serves the film, but the score should describe what you heard.
Your personal overall score is the average of the sub-ratings you completed. A movie's headline score then uses ratings from only its highest available audio-format tier; lower tiers stay visible in the per-format breakdown but contribute nothing to the headline number.
The same mix sounds very different across rooms and equipment. Attaching the system lets other people interpret your rating, and it is what allows you to rate the same movie separately on different setups.
Yes. Open your rating from the movie page or your profile and use its edit action. The movie's aggregate recomputes automatically, and reputation is not affected by edits. Keep the audio format and system accurate if either changed.
Ratings are unique by movie + audio format + system profile, so a different format or system is a genuinely different listening experience. You cannot submit the exact same combination twice — editing replaces it.
A format appears on a movie once at least one rating exists in it. New movies start with no audio formats attached, and the community adds them by rating.
Give it a minute, then look in your spam folder. If it still is not there, check the address you typed and ask for a new code — only the newest code works. You can also sign in with Google using the same address in a regular browser, which reaches the same account.
Apps like Facebook and Instagram open links in their own built-in browser, and Google usually refuses to sign anyone in there. Use the email code instead — it works inside the app. To use Google, open the page in your regular browser: many apps offer this in their menu, or tap “Copy link to open in your browser” on the sign-in page and paste it into Safari or Chrome.
Email privacy@howdoesitsound.io from the address tied to your account. Deletion is done by hand today, so allow up to 30 days; the Privacy Policy has the complete terms.
Send a question, bug report or suggestion to the HDIS team — we read every one. Privacy and account-deletion requests should go directly to privacy@howdoesitsound.io, which reaches the privacy mailbox specifically. Every way to reach us is on the contact page.