Movie-theater sound vs. movie-theater annoyances

December 26, 2005

To Doug Schneider,

I read your comments on the sound in movie theaters in your Mirage review, and I don’t agree. Theaters are terrible. Kids are talking, people are answering their cell phones, and I can’t hear the movie. I’d rather watch at home.

Richard Ferrell

I think we’re talking about two different things here. What you’re talking about are what one of my friend’s calls "amateur moviegoers" – people who don’t know how to behave in the theaters. Yes, they drive me crazy too, and oftentimes if I go to a movie during a crowded time I have to tell someone to "shut up," or I move away to a corner far away from the annoyances. That’s why my preference is to go to movies in the daytime, when I find the theaters the emptiest. It’s at those times when the "amateurs" are likely at work or in school and when you can appreciate just how good many well-designed movie theaters sound, and how well that sound experience can "involve" you in the movie. That’s what I was talking about….Doug Schneider

"Home-Theater Fashion Statement"

December 9, 2005

Editor,

I read your editorial back in July ("Home-Theater Fashion Statement") when I started on my family-room\home-theater remodel. It really struck me at the time and greatly affected my approach to this project. It is almost finished now, and I thought maybe there can be a middle ground between family-living space, home theaters, and fashion. My wife and I both made compromises, but in the end I think we both won. Your article had a lot more influence than you think. Keep up the good work.

Brad Westcott

"...quick to announce the death of multichannel music..."

December 5, 2005

Editor,

Please don't be so quick to announce the death of multichannel music in any of the formats (from your November 2005 editorial). As far as I'm concerned SACD could die off as long as DVD-A remains. DualDisc is also not a bad format. But as long as one of the formats survives I would be happy. I just derive so much enjoyment out of hi-rez multichannel music that it would be terrible were it not to survive in some capacity. It seems to me most audio/home-theater enthusiasts enjoy the hi-rez formats because they represent the best music reproduction we can currently get and open up our favorite music so much that we are hearing new things in it after 35 years. If these formats are to die, what will replace them? I am one who will not compromise on best available sound quality for the sake of convenience or miniaturization. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Paul Donnelly

I am with you on how good multichannel music can be. Heck, I write the "Surrounded" column on SoundStage!, so I certainly believe in it. The problem is not whether it will survive -- it will in some format -- but in what form, and what the resolution will be. Is HD-DVD or Blu-ray the answer? Both have the potential to be, but one has to win over the consumer market for that to happen. My point in the article you mention is that neither may be viable because of the other's presence. It could be DVD-A and SACD all over again. That would be a shame....Jeff Fritz

Blu-ray on display

December 2, 2005

Editor,

I just read your editorial "The Battle is Here" -- quite good, actually -- and thought I'd pass along an interesting experience. Sony recently demonstrated Blu-ray to the public at Abt, a family-owned and -operated big-box store in Glenview, Illinois, chock-full of high-end appliances and consumer electronics. Even Apple and B&O have leased in-store space. Anyway, Abt (it's a family name, not an acronym) ran a full-page ad in The Chicago Tribune, inviting the public to see for themselves what Blu-ray was all about. I expected a youngish crowd with cell phones stuck to their heads while twiddling the knobs, the kind of riff-raff you run into at Best Buy, but was surprised to find an adult crowd of several dozen men and women who were keen to have a look at the new goody -- and who were extremely knowledgeable about the current state of DVDs.

Sony brought along a Japanese Blu-ray player linked to a 60" RPTV. The company reps put on a good show, giving the crowd a thorough understanding of the pros and cons of their competitors' products, then rhapsodizing about the virtues of Blu-ray. Get on with the show, I thought. The audience is getting restless. Then suddenly we were shown spectacular movie clips from Spider-man 2 and Stealth in glorious high definition. What a system! I gotta get me one of these! Needless to say, the crowd was highly enthusiastic.

After the demo, I got into a discussion with one of the Sony reps and expressed a reservation about Blu-ray. At this point, the discs come in two flavors with either a storage capacity of 25 or 50 gigabytes, but Sony has gone beyond that, quadrupling the capacity from 100 to 200 gigs. And still counting. Yipes! Scientists, engineers and graphic designers may well appreciate that kind of storage on one disc, but what about those of us who simply want movies for home entertainment? Twenty-five or 50 gigabytes will store 15 to 30 average-length movies. Suppose you put every picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock on one Blu-ray disc. What would Sony have to sell it for? Would it be a bare-bones collector's edition, without a thick booklet, or would the company refer you to some non-functioning website for documentation and chapter headings? More importantly, will customers shell out big buckelinos for one all-inclusive high-def disc that they have been buying over and over again piecemeal? The Sony rep admitted there were still problems to be solved. Oh, there's understatement!

I spent the rest of the evening sampling the Qualia 004 front projector in the store's home theater. I could live with that. That is, until the Sony rep sat down beside me and told me about the brand-new projector with 4096x2160 pixel resolution, high contrast ratio, and twin Xenon lamps. Go to the pro section of the Sony website and look for the SRX-R105 projector. That's the smaller 5000 ANSI lumen model for screen widths up to 25 feet. After you get past the wow factor and come back down to Earth, there's always the Qualia 006 70" RPTV. I could live with that, couldn't you?

But not every Hitchcock movie! He only made a handful of great ones worth watching.

Jordan Benedict

• Go Back