Buying AVR home theater vs watching movie in theater

[schandani]

I prefer going to the movies as it is a nice environment with the huge screen, but comfort of my couch does beat the movie theater seats.
which brings me to the point that comfort is one of the reasons people would mainly chose watching movies at home rather than going out to the movie theater.

 

[shibashis]

Movie theaters have one thing going for them which is hard to beat, it is the entire program and excitement associated with it, going out, the excitement and anticipation of catching the next POTC title or find out what the old guard of De Nero and Pacino are up to in their most recent incarnation together, meeting friends at a specified location and time, get the tickets, laughter, fun and frolic, an ever so necessary change from everyday chores and worries.
It can be great fun too for the friends to come over and catch a movie or game on the giant screen but the seemingly insignificant event of 'going out' to watch the movies is important and can not be surpassed.
If you talk of the picture or sound then HT wins out definitely.

 

[saikatbiswas82]

Movie theaters have one thing going for them which is hard to beat, it is the entire program and excitement associated with it, going out, the excitement and anticipation of catching the next POTC title or find out what the old guard of De Nero and Pacino are up to in their most recent incarnation together, meeting friends at a specified location and time, get the tickets, laughter, fun and frolic, an ever so necessary change from everyday chores and worries.
It can be great fun too for the friends to come over and catch a movie or game on the giant screen but the seemingly insignificant event of 'going out' to watch the movies is important and can not be surpassed.
If you talk of the picture or sound then HT wins out definitely.

Very well said.

Sent from a handheld device. Some typos might creep in.

 

[hydra]

I think the answer to the OP's question will vary depending on the person, his/her preferences, availability of space and privacy and context of movie viewing.

In my case, to actually watch a movie to enjoy it, I would prefer a HT by a far margin. I stay by myself (and will continue to), and I have no problems with viewing a movie of any kind, at any level of volume, at any time of the day I want to, without being concerned about anything, except the time I spend reclining. The only thing that's preventing me from investing in a full-on HT is having other higher priorities (in terms of hobbies and interests) in terms of budget allocation, and of course, availability of funds.

But, I also like going out for entertainment, and a watching a movie in a theater is a good way of spending an evening with a friend. There, the movie is not really the point, but it is just a way of spending time outside the confines of your house. This is the only context in which I would prefer to watch a movie in a theater.

I hate having to waste the time spent in traffic, in getting parking, watching advertisements and being distracted by chatty people or wailing kids in the theater. There's also how much it costs to go out for a movie if you consider the ticket cost, parking cost, inevitable snacks, and for me the time spent simply leading up to the movie and then getting back home.

I'd think that for most people, it comes down to:

- Availability of funds to invest in a HT,
- Availability of space for a HT,
- Availability of an environment where one can have the necessary privacy to watch a movie without concerns of interruptions (from non-watching movie watching members), and the ability to offer the non-movie-watching members their privacy (and peace) at the same time.

 

[sanloyn]

So an dedicated HT is a clear winner over commercial theatre setup. Simply no competition here. Its fasinating to see so many passionate ones and the love for pure sound.
Boy this is wonderful......for some who call it a hobby, its a expensive one for sure.

 

[hi-fi-enthusiast]

It's been long time since my last movie in theatre (in fact 1st movie after my setting up my HT), so I went to a movie theatre to watch "Inferno" this week, here are my impressions;

1) Immediately noticed the lack of good blacks compared to my HT setup at home.
2) Loud sound and annoying at times (most of the times).
3) Very bad picture quality, no depth in picture.
4) Projection is using Anamorphic lense I believe, I could notice the picture is stretched to fit the screen horizontally and loss of picture vertically (It is evident when movie has hard coded subtitles for foreign languages other than english, I can't see the 2nd line of subtitles).

After completing the movie, I came to understand the PQ levels my sony VPN 40 is giving, it is incomparable.

 

[kishanvkumar]

For those with a separate HT room, guess its no brainer, the overall experience surpasses the theatre. Issue only with those in Apartments doubling the living room with a HT gear. Difficult to get acoustics right and on top of that should be wary of sound next door, sound below
Constantly having remote in hand, to monitor the sound. So sort of kills the experience and cant watch in night for sure.
Envy those who have invested in HT room but 90% sure will have living room setup. In that case i think the theatre slightly gives a better experience.
Having said, the sound in theatres suck, my HT at optimal volume will beat it any day.

 

[sentinel]

I am very happy for you guys who can see an entire movie in your living room without being disturbed by life partner, children, parents, friends and neighbours. :clapping:

Also happy to know that you have full control over the remote of your TV hyeah: and nobody is waiting for your home theater movie to end so that they can watch their favourite TV programs.

 

[neelay2709]

A good HT setup over a movie theatre definitely.
Unless you are watching in Dolby Atmos or Imax.
As mentioned, you have to take into account the other expenses. If you just account for the amount spent on popcorn and coffee at PVR will set you back multiple HT systems

 

[crazycalvin]

My vote is for HT setup. And I have one very simple reason for this: my 2 yr old.
My wife and I haven't been to a movie together since our kid was born (tried once and had to return mid way). Only time we've been is if one of us baby-sits and the other one goes along with friends.
Now with a HD projector, Fire TV, DIY screen and a decent sound system we watch 2 movies over weekends while sipping wine after baby is asleep. The ease of pausing it for dinner/diaper/feeding breaks is priceless. Not to mention we avoid constant smirks from others in the theatre if the kid makes slightest of noises.

Just my $0.02

 

[efernand1]

Hi

This is an interesting thread and discussion....obvious reasons depict that a decent HT setup is a clear winner where you can decide WHEN (time) to have the show, when to PAUSE the show and how many times to RUN the show.

I remember by good old school / college days where Sterling Cinema had the best sound...action / thriller movies never sounded so great!

Today multiplexes are not that happening...SQ is definitely gone for a toss and PQ to a large extent....I think that is why most of us steer to a dedicated home setup.....

Most of us were plain Stereo users 15-20 years back and today we have HT setups...a few still have dedicated Stereo setups....space and budget is a common challenge for most of us.....not forgetting the spouse element who hounds us if we upgrade or spend on something which is for the home.....when it comes to their online clothing shopping...it seems endless! (LOL)

HT systems are expensive and yes there is cut throat competition between known brands who try to add all the gimmicks to an AVR.....most of us tend to get attracted and head for upgrades...sole requirement is to have a good cinema sound at home with good decoding.....

If you have a nice dedicated treated room, you don't need a powerful AVR, 50-100watts will do just fine and a good subwoofer will take care of the rest....get decent speakers which can truly deliver almost all (if not complete) frequencies between 20hz - 20khz. Bose speakers are tuned to deliver pleasant clear sound across a spectrum of frequencies which makes it a hot expensive product for someone who does not have the full knowledge....hence most of us experiment using different speakers and end up changing systems as time flies....

Some of us have really taken it seriously and have go to great heights and milestones to achieve the best HT setup at our homes....we beam with pride when guests or relatives or friends compliments us on the system and then give that mighty (I told u I was right) look to the spouse! (Which I keep doing justifying why my investment in Marantz etc is good).

In terms of movie content, I own a Blu Ray player for the past 5 years now and don't own a single physical BR disc. I have sourced all rips and files from the www and they are quite good.....all you need is patience and time to get proper 5.1 or DTS or DD movie files with subtitles, Director's cut etc....everything is available.....just search.....

My bottom line advice is that if anyone is investing in an HT setup at home, don't go overboard and spend too much, your aim is to get better PQ and SQ at home....audition many systems and see what interests you in connectivity, performance, placement, appearance and then head for it.....

I don't own a PJ due to space constraints....I guess a 32 / 40 inch TV does a decent job for usual Set Top Box viewing or HT performance.....unless your viewing distance is so long that you need a 50 inch.....

Well these are my views.......

 

[grunthos]

I am very happy for you guys who can see an entire movie in your living room without being disturbed by life partner, children, parents, friends and neighbours. :clapping:

Also happy to know that you have full control over the remote of your TV hyeah: and nobody is waiting for your home theater movie to end so that they can watch their favourite TV programs.

Seriously
It is one thing that HT setup costs Rs 2-3L if one goes for a projector based setup (assuming somewhat decent kit)
But how do you afford a full extra room just for HT ? In apartments in Bombay at least, that's really difficult to do

And then there is the family factor (for people who do not have dedicated HT rooms) as pointed out by @sentinel

I do not have a projector, I have a humble 40" TV in the living room
While HT sound comes close, but the sense of immersion in a movie hall with the giant screen is something else altogether. I'd pick a theatre any day. (I watch at least 2 movies a week, usually in the week of their release)

But the biggest reason for watching movies in theatres is the time factor. The bluray release happens usually months away and those cam rips are really terrible
Meanwhile, there is usually so much discussion (at least for big movies) on social media etc that you will end up hearing a lot about the movie and the newness is gone.

 

[dolfin]

Its the grand silver screen which differentiates experience in movie theatre vs at home. Today average AVR and speaker package can produce good quality sound when linked with good media such as BluRay. Even the picture quality has improved thanks to OLED & DLP. But nothing can match the grandness of silver screen.

Most of the time I end up watching movies at home due to convenience. But watching movie in a theater is still larger-than-life experience and a family moment.

 

[sentinel]

The ease of pausing it for dinner/diaper/feeding breaks is priceless

Isnt this disturbing and dont you feel loss in continuity when a good film is being watched.

In terms of movie content, I own a Blu Ray player for the past 5 years now and don't own a single physical BR disc. I have sourced all rips and files from the www and they are quite good.....all you need is patience and time to get proper 5.1 or DTS or DD movie files with subtitles, Director's cut etc....everything is available.....just search.....

Isnt this dangerous. And with torrents getting blocked, and kickass torrent fellow in jail and warning signs showing everywhere on www for legal action.

The inox in our vicinity, the sound was very good, but this year some company has optimised it, and made it loud and i dont like it now. Now i cannot go and tell them to revert the optimisations to previous settings.:annoyed: But one can surely hop to different auditoriums. With home theater one can change the settings with push of a button though.

I dont have problems with parking and traffic since one multiplex is 1 km from my house and other is 1km from my office, so going to theater is breeze.

I dont know why bluerays are so costly. I am of the opinion that decreasing their price to a reasonable level, will bring control over piracy. i dont know why they charge so much premium over dvd. Just imagine why would somebody download a pirated version if one is getting a blueray for reasonable amount.

There are other advantages of HT though, like if you find a film to be unbearable (eg FAN etc) you can switch it off and go to sleep immediately.hyeah:

 

[elangoas]

And with torrents getting blocked, and kickass torrent fellow in jail and warning signs showing everywhere on www for legal action.

The world's biggest is still active and for most time unstoppable.

I dont know why bluerays are so costly. I am of the opinion that decreasing their price to a reasonable level, will bring control over piracy. i dont know why they charge so much premium over dvd. Just imagine why would somebody download a pirated version if one is getting a blueray for reasonable amount.

That wont happen anytime soon, prices will still be the same if not high as ppl prefer digital files..

Grey market is an "indicator" of what ppl are ready to pay for a product.. BD are abt 80 - 100 Rs there..

 

[crazycalvin]

Isnt this disturbing and dont you feel loss in continuity when a good film is being watched.

Compared to not able to watch at all - No.
And we usually need to take one break as the kid is already asleep. So, its more like an intermission. You learn to live within the constraints .

 

[hi-fi-enthusiast]

Isnt this disturbing and dont you feel loss in continuity when a good film is being watched.







Isnt this dangerous. And with torrents getting blocked, and kickass torrent fellow in jail and warning signs showing everywhere on www for legal action.



The inox in our vicinity, the sound was very good, but this year some company has optimised it, and made it loud and i dont like it now. Now i cannot go and tell them to revert the optimisations to previous settings.:annoyed: But one can surely hop to different auditoriums. With home theater one can change the settings with push of a button though.



I dont have problems with parking and traffic since one multiplex is 1 km from my house and other is 1km from my office, so going to theater is breeze.



I dont know why bluerays are so costly. I am of the opinion that decreasing their price to a reasonable level, will bring control over piracy. i dont know why they charge so much premium over dvd. Just imagine why would somebody download a pirated version if one is getting a blueray for reasonable amount.



There are other advantages of HT though, like if you find a film to be unbearable (eg FAN etc) you can switch it off and go to sleep immediately.hyeah:

Except IMAX, I don't know see a single theatre has good picture + sound quality. HT beats theatre any day imo.

If u talk about big screen, I think it all matters about field of view where good 100" at home screen can cover more than theatre screen. Again, exception is IMAX.


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[VanessaHunteraa]

No doubt, I will choose "Buying AVR home theater". The theater is too noisy

 

[newlash09]

Being a sailor. I catch up on movies I missed during the sail, when iam back home. So a HT setup means a lot to me. Besides, in my opinion my humble HT setup of Sony str-dn 850 and qacoustics q7000i delivers excellent sound. Better than any I've heard in any theatre so far. Somehow my wooden ears could never hear any sound steering in a theatre. It's loud for sure, but there is no panning of the sound effects. With my setup , the sound is so thrilling that it adds to the visual drama. Iam so pleased with my modest setup, that iam saving up for a superior setup of atmos 5.2.4 . Iam sure it will please me more than my present setup. And being in a apartment with not much room, a 65 inch tv at 10 ft viewing distance gives the same visual immersion , once the lights are dimmed.