No wonder people download films illegally.
Discussion
I have pretty much given up on cinema, mostly due to cost and having a really big telly.
However, the GF and I went out to see a horror movie (can't remember!) a few years ago. I remember thinking, "they've usually dimmed the lights by now". About 20 mins into the film, it's about as dark in this room as a Greek beach at midday. I nip out to see if I can find a staff member. The reason why the room was filled with the light of a thousand suns? "Health and safety sir".
I went to the cinema many, many times as a kid and I can safely say I have no recollection of piles of screaming punters clutching their broken ankles.
However, the GF and I went out to see a horror movie (can't remember!) a few years ago. I remember thinking, "they've usually dimmed the lights by now". About 20 mins into the film, it's about as dark in this room as a Greek beach at midday. I nip out to see if I can find a staff member. The reason why the room was filled with the light of a thousand suns? "Health and safety sir".
I went to the cinema many, many times as a kid and I can safely say I have no recollection of piles of screaming punters clutching their broken ankles.
It has taken me about 10 years of upgrades and about £7.5k to put together a perfect home cinema in my front room.
Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
GhostDriver said:
It has taken me about 10 years of upgrades and about £7.5k to put together a perfect home cinema in my front room.
Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
+1 Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
For those near to Burnham on Crouch in Essex, the Rio Cinema is well worth a visit.
A proper old provincial picture house that was rescued by a local family. They have all the latest films and decent projection and sound systems. Two quid to see anything. Most of the seats are donated sofas, tickets dispensed through those old fashion metal flappy up ticket pusher things. If you want a coffee, for a quid, the bloke boils the kettle makes you a mug. Bring your own sandwiches......
Smells of damp but a great little place for no money.
A proper old provincial picture house that was rescued by a local family. They have all the latest films and decent projection and sound systems. Two quid to see anything. Most of the seats are donated sofas, tickets dispensed through those old fashion metal flappy up ticket pusher things. If you want a coffee, for a quid, the bloke boils the kettle makes you a mug. Bring your own sandwiches......
Smells of damp but a great little place for no money.
GhostDriver said:
It has taken me about 10 years of upgrades and about £7.5k to put together a perfect home cinema in my front room.
Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
Me too, only it's taken me 15 years and more money than I care to admit (mostly due to mistakes in the begining, since I buy secondhand mostly nowadays Everytime we go cinema it just reminds me that quality wise my home system sounds so much better. Even my wife who is far from an audiophille agrees.
The TV quality is also there now. Ok the screen is only 55" instead of 55 feet, but being 2 meters it seems just as large.
As for waiting for films..
Pfff, 3 months from cinema to "the bay".
OP I salute & agree with you
).I recently rewatched Skyfall at home on a smaller than Showcase (10') screen but all present said it was better than the cinema (plus we could have a bottle of wine too and pause for toilet breaks). I can turn the lights off completely (no H&S BS in my house) and when you get a fade to black...it really is black; like you've shut your eyes for 2-3 seconds, until your eyes catch up.
However, as regarding the OP I don't download films or buy dodgy pirate discs for two reasons:
1. The picture quality looks crap on a 10' screen, so it's defeating the efforts of my various upgrades.
2. I have a 3 discs at a time deal from Blockbuster (online so they are still in business) so it works out about £1.50 to rent a BluRay.
OldSkoolRS said:
Me too, only it's taken me 15 years and more money than I care to admit (mostly due to mistakes in the begining, since I buy secondhand mostly nowadays ).
I recently rewatched Skyfall at home on a smaller than Showcase (10') screen but all present said it was better than the cinema (plus we could have a bottle of wine too and pause for toilet breaks). I can turn the lights off completely (no H&S BS in my house) and when you get a fade to black...it really is black; like you've shut your eyes for 2-3 seconds, until your eyes catch up.
However, as regarding the OP I don't download films or buy dodgy pirate discs for two reasons:
1. The picture quality looks crap on a 10' screen, so it's defeating the efforts of my various upgrades.
2. I have a 3 discs at a time deal from Blockbuster (online so they are still in business) so it works out about £1.50 to rent a BluRay.
1080p rips are available ).I recently rewatched Skyfall at home on a smaller than Showcase (10') screen but all present said it was better than the cinema (plus we could have a bottle of wine too and pause for toilet breaks). I can turn the lights off completely (no H&S BS in my house) and when you get a fade to black...it really is black; like you've shut your eyes for 2-3 seconds, until your eyes catch up.
However, as regarding the OP I don't download films or buy dodgy pirate discs for two reasons:
1. The picture quality looks crap on a 10' screen, so it's defeating the efforts of my various upgrades.
2. I have a 3 discs at a time deal from Blockbuster (online so they are still in business) so it works out about £1.50 to rent a BluRay.
Silverbullet767 said:
1080p rips are available
They still won't look as good on a 10' screen since they are still compressed compared to the original disc. Anyway £1.50 per film is peanuts compared to Showcase and probably a similar amount in terms of running cots of my equipment (taking into account inevitable upgrades ). I much prefer just putting in a disc and pressing play since my HTPC was a complete PITA to use and keep working properly after various updates would mess everything up.OldSkoolRS said:
They still won't look as good on a 10' screen since they are still compressed compared to the original disc. Anyway £1.50 per film is peanuts compared to Showcase and probably a similar amount in terms of running cots of my equipment (taking into account inevitable upgrades ). I much prefer just putting in a disc and pressing play since my HTPC was a complete PITA to use and keep working properly after various updates would mess everything up.
You can get full rips, 20+ GB. Go and have a look for yourself. Many there that are 33gb+ ). I much prefer just putting in a disc and pressing play since my HTPC was a complete PITA to use and keep working properly after various updates would mess everything up.Legal ones?
In any case it's irrelevant for me since I just don't want to get into that faffing about with computers to watch a film. When I built my HTPC to record BBC HD (back before PVRs were commonly available) I spent more time messing about with codecs and reinstalling software since each update seemed to break something. While I could upgrade my Internet package from 40gb a month cap to 'unlimited' at 12-15 films a month I think that would break the 'fair use' t&cs let alone it slowing down our network since I'd be continuously having large files downloading.
Nope...I'm happy to pay £15 a month for the rental deal, if I want to watch a film again (rare in my case) I'll just add it back onto my list.
In any case it's irrelevant for me since I just don't want to get into that faffing about with computers to watch a film. When I built my HTPC to record BBC HD (back before PVRs were commonly available) I spent more time messing about with codecs and reinstalling software since each update seemed to break something. While I could upgrade my Internet package from 40gb a month cap to 'unlimited' at 12-15 films a month I think that would break the 'fair use' t&cs let alone it slowing down our network since I'd be continuously having large files downloading.
Nope...I'm happy to pay £15 a month for the rental deal, if I want to watch a film again (rare in my case) I'll just add it back onto my list.
So it's not a viable alternative for me then regardless of my Internet set up. Download speeds and capacities will have to increase massively before this can be a (legal) alternative IMHO. Otherwise I worry that we'll end up with a situation where it becomes quantity over quality due to compression like the HD version of MP3. I've used the occasional bit of BBC iPlayer when I've missed a program, but it doesn't look great even on my 40" TV, so I know that has a long way to go.
I just hope that discs remain to be available, especially as we progress to 4K eventually. We'll be looking at 100GB file sizes for a film then, which I wouldn't want compressing down to DVD quality(even if it technically still is HD) if I've gone to the expense of a 4K projector...
I just hope that discs remain to be available, especially as we progress to 4K eventually. We'll be looking at 100GB file sizes for a film then, which I wouldn't want compressing down to DVD quality(even if it technically still is HD) if I've gone to the expense of a 4K projector...
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff