FUTURE SHOCK: Where Is Home Theater Headed? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin EK]

This is an interesting discussion.


I have an issue with streaming movies that goes beyond the picture and sound quality matters. Where I live, we have Time Warner Cable internet, and on many occasions, I have noted it either running slower, or not working outright. I have already had to replace a modem/router due to hardware issues that would cause the whole thing to shut down on a regular basis. In the event of internet outage, streaming becomes a moot point. And if your only means of seeing these movies or TV shows is via your internet connection, and that connection goes out, what do you have? A quiet evening spent reading.


I'm a fan of DVD, of Blu-ray and of laserdisc. Blu-ray for the Picture and Sound quality, for sure - otherwise I would not have invested in home theater equipment. But also for the supplements - which, when done correctly, have tremendously enriched my appreciation of these films. I don't see streaming accomodating the multiple audio and video options like commentaries, PIP functionality, etc. I admit I could be completely wrong on this. But I have noticed that the studios are starting to do some tricky moves even with the rental copies of some DVD titles - where the purchase copy will have a commentary and extras, but the rental copy will just have the movie on it, and that's it. And that doesn't even touch the issue of holding the rental copies back for a month as a way of pressuring people to just buy the DVD (or the stream).


One other thing - when I was younger, I used to go to the movie theater all the time. Summers in my teenage years were spent seeing the latest blockbusters when they came out on Friday night. I remember standing on long lines in Westwood waiting to get into the Mann National or the Mann Village. In the last three years, I have rarely gone to a movie theater. A big part of this is due to the advancement in home theater (and in my own equipment). Another part of this, sadly, is the expense. A friend of mine took his wife and their two nephews to see Hop at the local multiplex last month. The movie was okay, he said, but the cost was incredible. Purchasing 4 movie theater tickets, plus 4 sodas plus popcorn and candy, plus the parking fee, meant a cost of at least $90. He admitted he could have waited four months for the Blu-ray, bought that for 30 bucks, or just rented it for less than 10, and had all the same sodas, etc. for a small fraction of what he had to pay to go to the movie theater.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

I have an issue with streaming movies that goes beyond the picture and sound quality matters. Where I live, we have Time Warner Cable internet, and on many occasions, I have noted it either running slower, or not working outright. I have already had to replace a modem/router due to hardware issues that would cause the whole thing to shut down on a regular basis. In the event of internet outage, streaming becomes a moot point. And if your only means of seeing these movies or TV shows is via your internet connection, and that connection goes out, what do you have? A quiet evening spent reading.

I absolutely agree there, and while I don't have Time Warner, I have had similar experiences with any cable/internet provider I've ever had. Most of the time it works, but I haven't found it reliable enough for me to want to let that be my primary way of watching films. Cable TV, for all of its imperfections, is at least always on - I've never had a cable box or direct antenna reception hiccup the way I can count on something streaming to do. Even if something only hiccups or gets stuck buffering once in a film, or once every other film, that's just far too often for me to make it my primary movie-watching source. I love the instant gratification of streaming, and with quality improving all the time, for films that aren't "must-owns" to me, a streaming version is good enough to replace renting a physical disc most of the time. And if you share a router (even a really good router) with multiple computers in a household, like anyone who's ever had roommates has discovered, if everyone in the house is trying to use the internet at once and especially stream things all at once, the experience does suffer. And it's really not feasible to ask other people in your house to quit using high-bandwidth stuff when you're trying to watch a movie. When internet streaming is reliable in the way that cable TV is, that is, where multiple people in the house can be watching different things simultaneously without any change in quality, I'd consider streaming more and buying less -- especially with titles that don't offer any sort of bonus features beyond a trailer or two. (Also, Netflix and similar services really need to up their game in terms of selection if they want streaming to replace physical product. I find Netflix's selection decent enough that it usually beats channel surfing, but is nowhere near where it would need to be for me to consider that my primary entertainment source. In other words, I use Netflix streaming occasionally because it comes with my DVD rentals - but I wouldn't actually pay for it if it was a separate service.)

 

[Tim Hoover]

This is an absolutely great thread...


I'm not sure where everything is headed because, honestly, I've really removed myself from the HT world the past several years. I would hope that, as others have expressed, we move video towards an experience more like current audio, i.e. inexpensive lower-quality streaming versions for people that want their movies as portable background entertainment as well as high-quality physical media for people who place a higher priority on recreating an immersive experience. My wife is squarely in the former camp while I'm definitely in the latter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I know for me, as a kid growing up in the 80s, my only movie watching options were what the local video store carried - I never imagined then that it would be possible to have a Starship Enterprise computer library where everything ever made was available at the touch of a button. It not only seems possible now, it seems inevitable. I'm always gonna want high quality stuff for my favorite films - and I'm pretty sure studios will be more than happy to take my money to provide that to me - but to have most things ever released in "good enough" quality for impulse viewing? That, to me, is the holy grail of home theater.

 

[Cinescott]

Originally Posted by Josh Steinberg

I'm always gonna want high quality stuff for my favorite films - and I'm pretty sure studios will be more than happy to take my money to provide that to me - but to have most things ever released in "good enough" quality for impulse viewing? That, to me, is the holy grail of home theater.

Amen to that. Don't take my physical media or special features away from me, but for everything else, I welcome this change.

 

[AaronMK]

Availability of a large library for impulse viewing at "good enough" quality - Streaming (Check!)

High quality physical copies for ownership - Blu-ray (Check!)

High quality rental for titles that you specifically want to see - Hmm, doesn't really seem a promising future for that.


With Netflix having severely cut back on getting catalog titles as they are released on Blu-ray, we are left without that option of high quality without purchase. For the stuff I specifically want to see, I care about quality. I've tried HDX Vudu, PS3 rentals and such. Compression artifacts can be distracting, and the experience is not near what I know can be delivered, and which my display and sound system can take advantage. It makes me feel cheated (especially with the claims of "Glorious HD" made by these services), and it leaves me wanting the Blu-ray for a corrective experience.


I don't want rentals to become merely be a preview or sampling to see if buying the Blu-ray would be worth it to really see the movie. (And the movie has to be that much better since plot elements have been spoiled at that point.) Rentals that I like make me want to buy, and if the cost of a satisfactory rental experience essentially becomes the purchase price of the movie, I'll be doing a lot less of both.

 

[Sam Posten]

Everything's Amazing and nobody's happy.

--Louis CK

 

[David Wilkins]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Everything's Amazing and nobody's happy.

--Louis CK

Exactly. We're in a peculiar place I never expected to see. People seem to have lost all perspective of where we've been and what we have.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Everything's Amazing and nobody's happy.

--Louis CK

Perfect! Doug

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Everything's Amazing and nobody's happy.

--Louis CK

So long and thanks for all the fish.


-Doug Adams



I dunno, a "Hitch-hikers Guide" quote seemed to work too.