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Penny Arcade - Comic - Home Theater
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Home Theater
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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Any audiophiles can comment on whether audio on home systems can compete with the theater? (Tycho uses the British spelling, I just realized)
Better, or just louder?
Besides, better or not, there is the impurity of people around you continually talking over it.
The best part of the 'theatre experience' for me was that I had Wednesdays off at the time, so that's when I went and they were completely empty.
You can get soundbars and subwoofers for a few hundred bucks that are more than good enough for most, but even the most ridiculous amount you could (or even should) spend is under 10 grand, and then unless you have a massive home theater room in your house you are pissing off your neighbors most likely.
The ability to have a full blown theater experience at home that is close enough for consumer acceptance (think mp3's victory over lossless HD audio formats) has never been more accessible. For around 800 bucks, you can have a 55-65" 4K HDTV with HDR, and a great sound bar. And chances are the TV comes with the ability to run the streaming apps.
Theaters are terrified.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I would always go to theaters with a pair of headphones. Not to play anything at all through them (they were unplugged), but to dampen the sound of the movie to a comfortable level. I don't know why it was always at least 3 notches louder than it needed to be.
I mean, it's right there in your hand.
Super convenient.
Pretty big gulf from a phone to a good entry level home theater with HDR/Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and what's crazy is nowadays they kind of cost the same...
I would argue that in your home, 6-10 feet away from a 50-75" screen, with a good subwoofer and surround system, you are getting a better screen/audio experience than the theater just from the lack of distractions and you being in control of your environment. Those things offset, IMO, the diminishing returns on quality of audio or video.
What is missing is the community/communal aspect, but that is solvable by inviting friends over for a movie night.
I could also see apartment buildings leaning in on having screening rooms with 10-20 seats as an amenity as the theater industry crumbles, which you can book time for so that you and your friends/family can see it on a nicer setup than you would have in your home. Small, inexpensive value add for the building that would help move apartments.
edit: and to be clear, I love going to the movies. I have an unspent gift card in my wallet for AMC and I am annoyed that I haven't been able to use it. But the writing is on the wall.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Getting really good sound is expensive, but I bought a $300 surround system from someone who was moving last year, and outside of a weak subwoofer this shit slaps. The receiver doesn't support Atmos, but even the standard 5.1 setup is really damn good. Combined with my OLED, I'm having a really hard time seeing why I would go back to a theater, outside of some massive must-see blockbuster that everyone is raving about.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
A friend and I went to see Man of Steel at the IMAX at Navy Pier. For some reason they had the sound jacked up so high it was physically painful. We were covering our ears through then entire third act. It remains the must unpleasant movie going experience I have ever endured.
I think the biggest difference between headphones and a theater/home theater experience is the bass, especially in atmospheric or action movies. I was watching Bladerunner 2049 a few weeks ago and there's lots of scenes where the subwoofer is working overtime to produce subsonic vibrations that match the action or effects on the screen. That's something you feel more than something you actually hear, and you can't replicate it with headphones.
It also demonstrated how sad my little 10" subwoofer is.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
Basically for every MCU release, as well as Star Warses and the occasional silly trash like Warcraft movie, myself and a group of friends and friends of friends would all get tickets and go on opening night and then stand around in the parking lot and chat for like 30 minutes.
I'll miss that.
A friend and I left work early to see Kill Bill: Volume 1. Since it was early afternoon on a weekday, we were the only ones in there. It turns out that's not so great as it sounds. For one, they crank up the sound anyway. For two, human bodies are not wholly unlike sound-absorbing foam. So when you are the only two bodies, there is nothing to absorb the sound.
This was especially a problem given Tarantino's love of the Ironside siren noise. At that volume level, its use should be illegal under the Geneva convention. Eventually I left the theater with a headache and zero desire to see the sequel.
Maybe it's a matter of what you're used to. From my perspective, my earbuds are very bassy, and I can't perceive a greater enjoyment from greater bass. In any case, I don't think an expensive sound system is integral to enjoying a film, even one where a lot of shit blows up.
I find it odd how some people are talking like theaters are going to die next week. Is it a Covid thing? Because I think you're having a bit too dismal of an outlook if you think theaters are going to die out completely because of the pandemic. I think they'll find a way to restart when the time is right. If you're just thinking that it will eventually all be straight-to-streaming, then I will just assume that you assume everyone loves that idea as much as you do. Let's not forget that the current movie on the top of the unadjusted box office charts was a movie from 2019. People were still going to the theater quite a bit before Covid hit. Hell, if they released "Black Widow" in theaters and there was a theater open around here to see it I would go. Even if they released it at the same time on Disney+ I would still go to the theater. One, because I like the theater experience, and two, because they'd probably make me pay extra to watch it on Disney+ just like they did recently with "Mulan." That's the main problem with the straight-to-streaming idea. Unless AMC or somebody starts a service where all new movies are available, we're just going to be stuck with all these different companies releasing their new stuff on whatever platform is run by the company that owns them.
I guess I'm just hoping a few industries will continue to limp on for another couple decades: Movie theaters, Bookstores, Brick-and-Mortar stores, non-streaming home video (blu-rays, etc). I'm in my mid-40s and I suspect I'm part of the last generation where the majority of us will still appreciate "the old way" of doing these things. I figure in 20 years maybe I'll be lucky and be dead by then. Or at the very least I'll be old enough not to care anymore. Then the world can continue down the path to those nifty chairs they have in "Wall-E."
I'm sure the younger crowd is saying, "Oh, no WAY those things will last another 20 years." Well, we'll see. I could see some of them thinning out considerably, but I'd be willing to drive a few hours a few times a year to still have an actual theater experience or to browse through a store that has actual physical books available. Just because we can have everything shipped and/or beamed right to our homes and devices doesn't mean we should do it.
-Tycho Brahe
Before Covid my wife and I were going to the theater at least once a month and it was always fun even for "not great" movies. Strictly speaking to the theater itself, I cannot remember ever having a "bad" experience, or for that matter even an experience worth mentioning at all. Other than the cost of popcorn.
In a big theater horror movies are even better than big ticket action flicks, and honestly especially for that genre, watching the reactions of the crowd is often more entertaining than the movie itself. I'm delighted to have the stereotypical "black guy" in the audience shouting "don't go in there". It's hilarious. Having children now we yearn for this "break from the routine" even more, and Covid is the only thing stopping us from grabbing a baby sitter and escaping for the evening.
$10,000 for a home theater? We all know theater popcorn is worth a stack of gold bars these days, but wow hope you're not telling anybody you're saving on movie tickets with that level of investment. Part of the cost of the movie ticket is that you let THEM worry about upgrading their equipment. Not interested in keeping up with the resolution wars.
Everything needs to be polished to a sheen, individualized, sanitized, no rough edges.... Just relax, if a sticky floor is all it takes to "spoil your day" you're doing it wrong...
I can think of a ton more interesting things to do when out of the house than going to a theater and getting crammed into a room with a bunch of people I really don't want to be sitting near. I certainly don't see the point in paying money for that 'privilege'. Then again, I'm pretty introverted, so I find the so-called community aspect of going out to see a movie highly overrated. I don't find being around a bunch of strangers some kind of enjoyment amplifier.
And they're not going to make it anymore. Movies will become television. The fallacy here is assuming that we're gonna keep getting incredible visuals and audio after theaters are gone. We get those things at home now *because they were made for theaters to begin with*. The end of theaters isn't just the end of a collective experience; it's the end of *movies*; the end of enforced high production values. Pop music production has shifted to target people listening on iPhones propped up against the bathroom mirror instead of big "house speakers", and movie production is going to make the same type of shift if the market pressure drives it that way. That's going to be the biggest loss.
Considering television has gotten more produced and movie-like in recent years, I question this. In fact, the biggest shows have a continuous throughline, so the stories are even longer than movies. Also, I don't consider highest-quality visuals to be of great importance to film or similar media. Films haven't gotten better as the visuals have gotten sharper. All the greats in film history have been made at a lower film quality than what is put on screens today.
I think it's safe to say that most people have never owned big house speakers. Before iphones, most people listened to music on the radio or through headphones, or, at best, their car stereo. And pop music has ALWAYS been trash. ALWAYS.
In any case, people who want to make great works of art in video/film/etc aren't going to dry up and disappear just because you can't force people to see it on a gigantic screen. Artists will use any media available to them to fulfill their vision. Cameras of high quality have become, and continue to become more widely available, so does audio recording equipment, and the ability to connect people who want to create great works. At worst, the end of the movie industry will be just that- the end of the movie INDUSTRY, not the end of movies themselves.
That said, it was still kinda hard to justify for movies that weren't spectacle types like super heroes or whatever. Those are ones where I enjoy crowd reactions and will try to attend opening night for the community experience. But something like a comedy or anything with a more complex plot I prefer to watch at home. That might change if an actual Drafthouse ever opens up near us since half the enjoyment with those is the food and service.
That's in the ballpark of the US prices. It varies from place to place and time of day or day of week, and whether you're doing a 3d movie, an IMAX movie, a 3d IMAX movie, or just a normal one. Also from theater to theater.
there's a decent argument for smaller theaters that serve food/beers and such
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I had the same experience! Not the sound thing, but the headache and the negative feelings thing definitely. Just thinking about that movie makes me want to shout vulgar obscenities
Along with strict rules for distractions.
You don't need to spend even near 10k for a good home theater experience, but regarding your argument with ticket cost, I'd propose I rather use my money to improve my own equipment rather than theirs.
Color grading, HDR, and Dolby Atmos mixes have gotten drastically less expensive as it has become a commodity (the freaking iPhone 12 can film in Dolby Vision), and most streaming platforms are producing their content at 4K with HDR now.
The bigger trick is figuring out how to monetize this in a way that the general public accepts and keeps the studios wanting to maintain this, and still allows them to double dip with physical media sales and streaming services after the main release. I don't know if the 15-30 buck rental at release is something consumers will buy into, and early attempts were marred by other mitigating factors (I'm looking at you, Mulan).
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Are you saying that you somehow manage to not drink half of your soda before the previews are even over? I don't believe you.
Is it possible to learn this power?
It's easy. Get TWO sodas.
But if I drink half my soda before the previews, then if I buy two sodas I'll have finished off an entire soda! You're only making things worse!