Home Theater VS The Cinema (big chain theaters)

tommyt21

I always believed the coventional wisdom was that going out to watch a flick in the Theater was ideal and that when building a home theater the goal was to get as close to the theater experince as possible.

This weekend my wife and I and our children went to the movies to watch Madigascar 3. We had not gone to a movie in almost 2 years we always just wait for it to come out on Blu-Ray and watch it at home. We wish we had just waited for Blu-Ray release. Besides the comforts of watching movies at home, (like your own restroom). The actual experince of sound and picture were not near as good as my home system(IMHO). I was thinking the whole time as I was watching the movie about how washed out the picture was and how crappy the surround was. When my wife made the same comment at the end of the movie I knew it must be true.

I'm pretty proud of my system and am always looking for ways to go further down the rabbit hole, however I am very pleased at how I feel my system compares to the big boys( talkin bout you Regal).

Has anyone else felt this way about their own home theater system?

dudeinaroom

Mine is no where near high end......we went to see transformer revenge of the fallen, and I was disappointing by the sound. It just had a lot of mids, sub bass was non existent. Pq was fine though.

txcoastal1

Being able to hit pause for a restroom or snack break rocks

nooshinjohn

txcoastal1 wrote: »

Being able to hit pause for a restroom or snack break rocks

The pause button also pulls you away from the director's original intent of the film, and breaks up the continuity of the story arc. You may as well wait for it to come to network television at that point so you get the commercial breaks too.:cheesygrin:

Agreed with the rest. I find that watching a film is far more intimate and engaging (when your system is done right), at home. The Magnepan MG-20's do a far better job of bringing the sweeping scores of an epic film to life than any theater. I find it hard to listen to the sound in a conventional theater any more. My rig does ok for picture quality, but I do know that this is the weak link for me going forward. I will go with a 3d projector when we move into our house, and keep the flat panels for regular tv viewing.

txcoastal1

nooshinjohn wrote: »

The pause button also pulls you away from the director's original intent of the film, and breaks up the continuity of the story arc. You may as well wait for it to come to network television at that point so you get the commercial breaks too.:cheesygrin:

What breaks up continuity is when your kid or grand kid is doing the "wee-wee wiggle" in the best part of the movie after downing a mega soda:evil:

zane77

I really don't enjoy going to the theater anymore, they aren't very clean, picture and sound quality so-so. For the cost of two of us going to the movies I can buy the Bluray and watch it as many times as I want or share it with someone who hasn't seen it yet. I think I've got my system where I want it but would like to upgrade the subs.

nooshinjohn

txcoastal1 wrote: »

What breaks up continuity is when your kid or grand kid is doing the "wee-wee wiggle" in the best part of the movie after downing a mega soda:evil:

LMAO!!!:cheesygrin:

Yep... nothing like missing a climactic cinema moment because you have to make a dash for the loo.

playback

I would say it all depends and most likely a toss up at times. I visit my local cinema every two to three years and only to see Imax movies (the system warm up is killer) Then again after playing it at home, its just as good. Hopefully the new Dolby "Atmos" and movies shot in 4k or 8k will rekindle some love but as it stands I'll give the nudge to my setup

Rivrrat

Another vote for staying home and enjoying my HT system. However, I'll pretty much wait till the wimmen go somewhere before turning it up to where I like to watch movies at.

polkfarmboy

I only go to the cinema when I must see a movie. I do find that for best sound and 3D brightness its best to wait till a movie gets shown on the smaller theaters. That said any commercial movie theater wont be able to touch my system. In theaters they are only allowed to legally dim the theater so much and they have never been able to solve the brightness to contrast ratio problem

sucks2beme

The cost of going, especially if you buy a drink or snack, isn't cheap.
It pays for a couple months of netflix.

chumlie

The big chains are terrible IMO. They have a great independent theatre here. Serve beer, giant screen, real popped popcorn with butter. Worth a half hour drive to see classic movies projected in 70mm. '' Lawrence of Arabia '' '' Aliens '' '' Apocolypse Now ''. Otherwise i'll just stay home and watch with a few exceptions.

obieone

Other than IMAX, I have no use for the theaters....
The only thing I've ever seen in IMAX, was a doc. on the Blue Angels and naval aviation. Some of the camera shots, were so intense, I actually had to grip my arm rests.
There was one in particular, that sticks in my mind: The camera is mounted on the belly of the plane, and they're landing on a carrier.
My whole body locked up, bracing for impact.:eek:

emoxley

My system at home sounds much better than the theater. Last time we went to a local theater (about 3 yrs. ago), I was ready to make a kid eat his cell phone! There's one decent theater we've found, but it's about two hours away. We saw the LOTR Trilogy there, and it was good. The best sound of all the theaters we've been to, except the Imax. Even better than others that the same company owns. I let the company know it too. The only reason we go to the theater any more is because we want to see the movie on the huge screen. Return of the King was the last one we saw. The next one will be The Hobbit, around Christmas time. Next after that will be the second Hobbit movie, a year later.

I'm not counting the Imax in with the theaters. They don't compare. The Imax is nice! We saw Avatar in 3-D at the Imax. It was outstanding! We saw Alice in Wonderland there too, in 3-D. It was good, but the 3-D in Avatar was a lot better. We could actually hear surround effects in the Imax. Not at the other theaters though, even though they advertised Dolby and/or DTS surround.

Jstas

I have 7 theaters within a 5 mile radius of my house. 5 of those theaters have the majority of their screens in theaters with the latest and greatest sound and video equipment. The other two are artsy type of theaters.

I have no idea what you theater haters are talking about.

Airplay355

Went to see Prometheus on Friday night in IMAX 3D. IMO that sort of experience cannot be replicated at home no matter how advanced your HT is. I rarely go to the movies, so $30 (gotta take the GF too) is perfectly acceptable to mefor the experience you get. I also find that people who have fronted more money are generally really into whatever movie they are seeing and are thus less likely to talk, have screaming children with them or talk on their phones.

BTW, Prometheus might not be the most well written movie but the visual effects were :biggrin:

polkfarmboy

Jstas wrote: »

I have no idea what you theater haters are talking about.

Thats because you don't have a proper HT of your own yet. Maybe once you do you will have similar findings. It does not matter if theaters have the latest video equipment because they legally cant black out the environment and the commercial projectors cant touch the HT ones for punchy vibrant contrast. My speakers in my room are better than the theater. I would not say I'm a theater hater, I would say I know true value and don,t think its worth spending $75 to go see a 3D movie with my nephews like I did last week

mantis

I basically only go to Imax but our theaters around here are all up to date and basically new. They all sound excellent and have very good picture quality. I have no complaints when going except the high prices of a family night out. Even then it's not that bad , everyone is happy and it's a night out.

On a side note , our theaters around here like lots of wall cracking bass.

tommyt21

I am talking of course about standard cinema theater and not IMAX which is a different animal.

Jstas

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Thats because you don't have a proper HT of your own yet. Maybe once you do you will have similar findings. It does not matter if theaters have the latest video equipment because they legally cant black out the environment and the commercial projectors cant touch the HT ones for punchy vibrant contrast. My speakers in my room are better than the theater. I would not say I'm a theater hater, I would say I know true value and don,t think its worth spending $75 to go see a 3D movie with my nephews like I did last week

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!


Shut up, fool.

EndersShadow

polkfarmboy wrote: »

because they legally cant black out the environment...

That would be so that people dont trip and fall... something you'd be familiar with . The theater cant keep replacing screens because people fall into them :razz:

BlueFox

I will take my HT over a theater for any movie. The sound is always better, and the recliner is more comfortable. A theater has two advantages. One is a bigger screen, and the other is you can look at the attractive women before the movie starts. However, neither of those advantages is worth the admission price.

grimmace19

I love my setup but movies like prometheus in the imax 3d like I saw today was well worth it. And wasn't everyone just raving about the avengers in 3d about a week ago? Somebody must be going to see movies if they keep making them for the theater

polkfarmboy

Jstas wrote: »

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!


Shut up, fool.

So I am a fool for stating facts and having an opinion on HT vs Cinema?

leroyjr1

polkfarmboy wrote: »

That said any commercial movie theater wont be able to touch my system.

I'd bet there system cost more than some folks house. Your system caters to 3 or so people while the theaters has to cater to hundreds.

codyc1ark

Jstas wrote: »

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!


Shut up, fool.

Nail, head. :loneranger:

nooshinjohn

polkfarmboy wrote: »

So I am a fool for stating facts and having an opinion on HT vs Cinema?

I pity the FOOL that mess wit the Jstas!

Jstas

polkfarmboy wrote: »

So I am a fool for stating facts and having an opinion on HT vs Cinema?

What "facts" did you state?

'Cause all I saw was your assumptions about me and comments about the gear you assume I have that you know nothing about.

You're a fool because rather than keeping your mouth shut and letting everyone wonder, you opened your mouth and proved it.

Fool.

Syndil

Everything in moderation. My HT is nice, but I still enjoy going to the theater for films I really want to see. The theaters in my area are all fairly new and are very well built. Digital projectors in every one of them. Sound is almost always too loud for my sensitive ears, but I always have a set of musician's earplugs with me (keep them on my keychain) so it works out fine.

Usually though I only go when it's something I want to see in IMAX or 3D or both. Otherwise it's hard for me to justify the expense of going out vs. waiting for it on Netflix.

That said, if you missed Avatar in IMAX 3D at the movie theaters... I would equate that to missing Star Wars when it first hit theaters. It was epic. Unless you have an IMAX 3D projector at home, I don't care how nice your HT is, it just can't compare.

ohskigod

I'm kind of in Jstas camp here, but understand that it is because of this area. Cinemas are very competitive here and there are alot of them. they upgrade very often and there sound quality is pretty good (if its a new realease in one of the bigger theaters as opposed to the smaller ones in the same cinema)

I have a full LSi set up, so this is coming from a guy that i would say has a more than decent theater set up at home.

what makes me avoid the cinema unless its really a movie I want to see (recently the Avengers) is the people, the drive, the parking and what others here mentioned (not being able to pause, not comfort of own home)

that said, if its a good movie, sometimes a dinner and movie night with the wifey is in order and it does happen, home theater in my house that literally shake my home's brick facade be damned,

to me its not a debate, I have the option to do either and I do whatever my mood dictates. Options make for a happy life.

polkfarmboy

Although a conventional cinema sounds better than mine would catering to hundreds of people my speakers provide more clarity in a small enviroment. Same goes for the picture, a big cinema is way brighter than mine but in a small environment my setup would hammer the cinema for black levels and 3d viewing. These are the facts that I am making clear so if they are wrong then I am for sure a fool

Jstas you have been rood to me in many posts, Now if you got your lazy **** down to your basement and finished up your HT room then maybe you would feel differently about HT vs cinema? I am not making assumptions on your gear as you have already posted here before you have not gotten a pj and screen yet, neither am I saying your gear is not up to par?