Ten years ago I was going to see movies in public theaters about 60-65 times per year. By 2003 that had dropped to 5. I've not been to the theater in three years now. This didn't take Blu-ray, but rather a cost analysis of a dinner and a movie.
Being able to present a better picture and sound experience without the annoyances of other people with their cell phones, pagers, laser pointers, chatting, etc., etc., etc. The move by the wife and myself really had less to do with HD than being able to better control the overall experience.
Allow for a zoo in ambiance and the non-animals will stop coming (like me).
Everything you just said is spot on for me too. Because of ever-rising prices and increasingly lackluster experiences, I was all but forced to create my own theater if I was going to continue to enjoy the experience. HD just puts me that much closer to the experience I used to get from the theater, but you're right I started building my own theaters long before I could afford any HD electronics.
There was at least one distracting technical glitch during almost every movie I saw this year (i.e. Out of focus, Green Line down the side, Surround speakers cut in and out.) Even the brand new "digital" theater a few towns over couldn't get it right when I saw Indiana Jones.
For me to go to a theater one of the following must be true: 1) I really, really can't wait 3 months for the DVD release. 2) There is some sort of gimmick only available in the theater (like IMAX format or 3D glasses)
They should add an audience track to DVDs that imitates the Cheering/Laughing/Children-Screaming/Cell-Phone-Ringing you get in a theater. Then you could really bring the experience home.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Ten years ago I was going to see movies in public theaters about 60-65 times per year. By 2003 that had dropped to 5. I've not been to the theater in three years now. This didn't take Blu-ray, but rather a cost analysis of a dinner and a movie.
Being able to present a better picture and sound experience without the annoyances of other people with their cell phones, pagers, laser pointers, chatting, etc., etc., etc. The move by the wife and myself really had less to do with HD than being able to better control the overall experience.
Allow for a zoo in ambiance and the non-animals will stop coming (like me).
Everything you just said is spot on for me too. Because of ever-rising prices and increasingly lackluster experiences, I was all but forced to create my own theater if I was going to continue to enjoy the experience. HD just puts me that much closer to the experience I used to get from the theater, but you're right I started building my own theaters long before I could afford any HD electronics.
There was at least one distracting technical glitch during almost every movie I saw this year (i.e. Out of focus, Green Line down the side, Surround speakers cut in and out.) Even the brand new "digital" theater a few towns over couldn't get it right when I saw Indiana Jones.
For me to go to a theater one of the following must be true:
1) I really, really can't wait 3 months for the DVD release.
2) There is some sort of gimmick only available in the theater (like IMAX format or 3D glasses)
They should add an audience track to DVDs that imitates the Cheering/Laughing/Children-Screaming/Cell-Phone-Ringing you get in a theater. Then you could really bring the experience home.
Me too. But I blame having kids. :D