Vote
These musings lead me to wonder, how much have you invested in your home theater, including display, sound system, and source devices? If you've built a dedicated room, please include furniture, acoustic treatments, ambient-light control, décor, and construction as well. What proportion of your budget has gone for video, audio, and environment?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
On the other hand, I do consider myself a videophile—I spend hours calibrating my displays to meet the standards established by the industry, and I can't help noticing the smallest faults in a visual image. Of course, I also want my surround system to sound as good as possible—audio is at least half the home-theater experience, after all—so I carefully select and set up the audio components as well. But home theater is a fundamentally different experience than 2-channel music with no accompanying video.
What about you? Are you more of a 2-channel audiophile or home-theater videophile? Or do you pursue both hobbies about equally?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
If this technology was available to you, would you want to play around with the mix, or would you prefer to simply sit back and enjoy the audio passively? Do you think many content creators will opt to allow consumers that much control over their material?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
But I don't really know, so I'm asking you—is your flat-panel TV wall-mounted? If so, is it close to seated eye height, or do you have it mounted higher—say, above the fireplace? Did you do it yourself, or did you hire someone to do it? How did you hide the cables? Let us know in the comments.
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Which leads me to ask, what is the downstream bandwidth in your home? If you don't know, there are several websites that let you measure it, both downstream and upstream; I use speedtest.net, which yielded the results shown above at my home, where Charter Cable provides my Internet access. If you know how much bandwidth you're paying for, you might want to verify it. Also, I'd love to know if your broadband Internet access is provided by DSL, cable, or another service—my impression is that cable is generally faster than DSL—so please leave a comment about that if you would be so kind.
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Also, Guttenberg maintains that the tester's ears are psychophysiologically biased by the sound of one product while listening to the next product. Finally, the conditions under which the test is conducted are rarely the same as those in any given consumer's room, so the results mean nothing in terms of deciding what to buy.
Do you agree? Are blind comparisons of audio products valuable? On what do you base your position?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
However, in a pre-recorded demo in the Christie booth (which I describe here), James Cameron made a compelling argument that increasing the frame rate at which movies are shot and displayed from 24 to 48 or even 60 frames per second does more to sharpen perceived detail—especially in moving objects—than increasing the spatial resolution. In fact, all the demo material was 1920x1080 on a 15-foot-wide screen.
As the demo clearly illustrated, shooting and displaying movies at higher frame rates dramatically sharpens motion detail—so much so that it no longer looks like film, but more like video, which many people object to. So my question to you is, what's more important, the higher spatial resolution of 4K at film's traditional 24fps or the greater temporal resolution of higher frame rates at 2K? (BTW, Peter Jackson is hedging all bets by shooting The Hobbit at 48fps, 4K, and 3D!)
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
How do you feel about converting existing 2D movies to 3D (assuming it's done well)? Is it worthwhile? If so, what movies would you like to see converted? Or do you think this is an abomination and all existing movies should be left alone?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
How about you? Have you cut the cord to cable and/or satellite service in favor of online delivery (and perhaps free over-the-air terrestrial broadcasts for local channels)? Or does cable/satellite still provide something you can't get online? What led you to the decision you've made in this regard?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
This news leads me to wonder about where you buy your home-theater gear—online or at brick-and-mortar stores? Why do you shop online or in-store?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
This is much closer than most people sit from their video display. How about you? To vote in this poll, follow these steps:
1. Measure your viewing distance in inches;
2. Divide your viewing distance by your screen's diagonal size in inches;
3. The result is the relationship between your viewing distance and screen size.
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Have you used Digital Copy with titles you've purchased? If so, do you find it to be a useful feature?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
How about you? Do you have carte blanche to do whatever you want in your home theater, subject only to budgetary considerations? If you have no spouse, the answer is obvious. But if you do—be it a legal marriage or domestic partnership—have they placed limits on what you can do in that room?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Do you use your audio system more for movies (and TV) or music? How have you balanced the system's performance as a result? For example, if you mostly listen to music, did you get full-range front left and right speakers to use without a subwoofer? Or are you lucky enough to have two separate systems, one for movies and TV and the other for music?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Now, of course, the replacement rate for TVs is much faster, because performance improves, screens get bigger, and cool new features are added while prices drop every year. This leads me to ask, how often have you replaced your main TV in the last 10 years? Has your pace of replacement increased over that time?
Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.
Site Map / Direct Links| Displays Speakers |  |
HT Systems Sources Electronics | |
Other Gear Software AV Interiors | |
Top Picks
|
|
Community Show Reports | |
Blogs
|
|
Shop Resources Subscriptions |
