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Why go out???

Just returned from watching Knives Out at one of these supposedly premium theaters. Well the seats at least are premium. Big, reclining, and comfortable enough. None of the usual crammed in like cattle feel. That's it for the good news. For some unfathomable reason the theaters are numbered but without movie names. We walk down the hall, not one name or even a poster. We weren't the only ones, another couple was roaming around wondering where to go. 

The screen was (Guessing) not even 16:9 and with awful grainy coarse quality which you think well it'll be better for the feature but no, its not! Who in this millennium shows movies in pan and scan? Woodinville! Hard to believe this is the only one- let me know! 

In case you're wondering no, this isn't me being audio/videophile finicky, my wife was complaining all the way home! My projector is Sony, not even the latest, not even 4K, and no Blu-Ray I'm a Pirate Bay/RARBG scofflaw kinda guy, all movies watched off the MacBook Pro (with ECT, and the system is to die for but still....) MY WIFE was complaining! She actually thought it was worse than me! (Well I make allowances, but still...)

What gets me is, I've seen and know how good movies can be. Seen Lawrence, Hamlet, My Fair Lady etc in 70mm. Hateful Eight in 70mm too but that one the projectionist clearly didn't know what he was doing. Beside the point. Cinema should be an experience. A memorable experience. Hamlet was. My Fair Lady was. This one was memorable only in the sense that we will remember not to come back.

Time was not all that long ago no amount of money would get you to cinema quality. But now? Cinema has descended, home theater (IF you do it right!) is actually better. Not a little either. WAY better!

Is it me?Or are they killing the motion picture industry?

Why go out? 
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edcyn
1,876 posts
 
I saw the initial run of Apocalypse Now.  It was somewhere in Hollywood, perhaps at the Cinerama Dome or the Warner's on Hollywood Blvd.  It was the version with no credits.  The lights went down and the movie just started. Utterly outstanding on every level.
And yeah, to continue on the topic of my original post in this thread I have to say that a good two-thirds of the theatrical releases are indeed pretty mediocre. The last feature that really pushed my buttons was The Hateful Eight.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
There are other reasons to go out on the town than to see a film. Yeah, it’s easier when you’re in a large metropolitan area but there's great restaurants and live theater. And oh yeah -- there’s music in live performance. Uhhh, waz zat?
audiozenology
362 posts
 
A large portion of the U.S. projector base is still 2K digital, about 60% I think is 4K. There are some really awful early Barco projectors out there still with horrible contrast ratio. They would all be 16:9, but the cheap theatres will not have the necessary setup to do ~2.35:1 anamorphic properly. It is probably not the resolution though that is bad, the brightness/contrast of early or cheaper digital projectors was poor and cheap movie houses will not replace their bulbs often enough ... which fortunately newer projectors are moving away from.

The newer theater 4K HDR projectors are quite good, every bit as good as 35mm film. 8K projectors are on the horizon and will have effective image quality on par with 70mm. 8K digital cameras are already in production. 70mm has lots of raw resolution, but shake/shudder from the mechanical movement means the real useful resolution is degraded a fair amount from the single image resolution. That lack of shake/shudder is also makes 3D work better.

Having seen the best of digital cinema projectors and what are likely some of the best home projectors, I won’t say home theater is better and certainly not way better. Modern 4K cinema projectors with "laser" light sources are exceptionally good. Then again, so are the latest JVC home ones. Both need good screens, and that is one area home setups are often lacking. All black environments to minimize reflections and maximize contrast don’t have high spouse factors :-) I do believe that popping my corn in ghee may taste even better than whatever they use at movie theaters though :-)


Jordan B Peterson? ... just don’t get him started on religion, then he sounds like an uneducated zealot :-)
roxy1927
125 posts
 
My favorite movie experiences were the great NY midtown palaces in the 70s. They occasionally showed 70mm prints with 6 channel stereo which pinned you to the back wall of the theater. And there was the time Radio City showed a gorgeous Technicolor print of Singing in the Rain. Superman at the Criterion was wonderful as well before that magnificent theater was sliced up in '80.

After that in the 90s there were the great Robert Harris restorations of Spartacus and Lawrence. His recent restoration of MFL on Bluray is better than the one he did in the 90s. It is closer to the original roadshow 70mm print I saw a long time ago in the Warner Cinerama on Broadway.

Also I disagree about sound. I much prefer the 6 track stereo that existed before Dolby then but you were probably speaking about the sound of the average theater of the time. Acceptable but mono. Nothing beats Super Panavision 70 and Todd AO. Yeah it's pointless to go to movies for me today. Contemporary films are fine on bluray and a large HD TV are good enough for me. Even the clips I've seen of the new Skywalker look spectacular on my Bravia Smart.

Now if David Lean were to come back from the dead and show his films at the rebuilt Warner or Rivoli on Broadway with their large curved screens and Western Electric stereo speakers I'm there and I'd be super happy.
audiozenology
362 posts
 
If you are going to a cinema for good sound, then best to search out Imax theaters. From a sound perspective, they are significantly better than old 70mm theaters. They will also have higher end projectors, brighter images, and better screens. The only issue I have found with Imax is they are so bright, that for the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, dust from people entering/leaving the theater creates a noticeable haze in the air.

At 4K, most seating positions are beyond eye resolution. They next 8K step will push that further, but realistically contrast and color have a bigger impact on our impression of quality past a certain resolution point and 4K is there already.
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