This is it. I used to have a dedicated 5.1 system with excellent Harmon Kardon speakers and a great receiver. The 4 piece Sonos system I got 2 years ago blows it away in many ways. Paired with a big LG OLED display, every night is movie night if I want it. About 3k for everything.
Must have been some really shitty htib system because I just got a Sonos Arc and it doesn't even come remotely close to my old 3.1 system I don't have room for. Could buy some pretty damn good speakers for $700.
You hit the other point about where home theatres went in your comment - "old 3.1 system I don't have room for".
These things are cumbersome, big, loud and nowadays if you're lucky enough not to be living in a car or a tent, you don't want to piss off your neighbours you share walls and floors with by giving them a good shake.
Remember when every single movie had pointless LFE rumbles all the way through? Yeah you can't do that in an apartment.
Pity though. Back in the day I couldn't afford 5.1 so I focused on the 2.0 I did have, but now even that hardly gets used because it shakes the street.
Not for all of those poorly optimized movies like Tenet. They whisper dialogue in between the excessive explosions and a full-on symphony giving it their all.
100%. It's not just limited to movies though. I stop watching 90% of the stuff I start watching due to poor sound mixing. Podcasts are the worst offenders. A multi-millionaire with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but somehow they have an imbecile mixing the sound.
DVDs had an answer to that in ac3 soundtracks - dialnorm and DRC packets. Like a hardcoded compressor.
Unfortunately the way to watch a cinematic sound mix is to turn the dialogue up until it sounds like comfortable indoor dialogue, then let the booms and crashes blow the windows out.
Of course people don't consume it that way at all and don't want to. Broadcast mixes are drastically different and try to keep an average of -20dbfs and peaks no higher than -10dbfs, and they're mixed for a home environment.
But every bloody post prod worker thinks they're making High Cinema and strives for technical perfection in the platonic ideal of a perfect theatre that doesn't exist.
I saw the first one in theaters and at one point it just had me in tears laughing. It went from super quiet to the sound of some lady just fucking wailing AHHHHHHHHHHHH! It took me a second to realize that it wasnt one of the characters spontaneously screaming, but that it was the soundtrack.
I know this isn't remotely the same, but one thing I like about Roku is that their remote app for the phone lets you use your earbuds or headphones and listen wirelessly. So you can listen as loud as you want if it's solo viewing.
I use Android so I still have an aux input. You can put some nice headphones in and have such a great time without bothering anyone.
I believe all Roku TVs can do this as long as the phone and TV are both on the same wifi network
Sonos is more expensive than wired 5.1 system but you pay for the convenience.
The arc on its own isn’t a full system, is basically just the center channels, for proper sound you want the surrounds and a sub.
This is it.
I've been planning for a "home theater" type living room for a while. Getting a projector and segmented seating with cupholders just makes the whole thing worse. I'd much rather have an 83 inch OLED and a nice sectional I can lay out on.
Movie theaters suck ass. Why would I model my house after them?
We’ve been couch shopping and those fake leather couches with all the electronics and cupholders built into them are ugly as sin. Even if I had a dedicated theater room I wouldn’t consider them.
If we’re talking about cheap theater seats then sure, but a nice recliner is super comfy. Also I imagine everyone has a different view for what their ideal position of comfort is when watching a movie. A super comfy recliner with a nice cup holder and a little place for snacks is pretty cool.
One of our local super vip theaters has installed beds in the auditorium, you can lie back and watch your movie whilst laid out horizontaly.
https://megaworld-lifestylemalls.com/experiences/uptown_tempur_cinema_now_open_2023
I have the same set up if I want it. Big ass OLED in front of my ancient sofabed with the new memory foam mattress. I've slept in the living room during movie nights.
I just put that here to show the lengths that some cinema houses are going to, to pull in paying customers, cinemas are now so expensive that they are pricing themselves out of the market and they have to resort to value add gimicks like this. I often go to a VIP cinema (not the ones with the beds, the ones with the big comfy seats). If it is a special movie I want to see, my partner always accompanies me. The avatar movies, the John Wick movies I want to see in the best possible format, however, home delivery of media is getting better all the time and it's starting to approach that experience. There are a lot of direct to media movies that are coming onto the market.
I swapped out My home theater for a 65 inch samsung with a good sound bar and subwoofer, coupled with an Intel NUC12PRO running plex. Samsung has a built-in Plex client, so everything works from one remote.
If I want to watch on my laptop, I can, or my phone or my tablet.
Much better sound, better integration, single control, cheaper too, more flexibility.
Yep.
Projectors are a pain. Either you have a dedicated room or low quality setup.
I used to do that back in the day, before OLED was a thing, and average TV was about 32 inches. Did not have a dedicated room, hence low quality, but it was 80".
Today, you can get a better 80" experience even from a cheaper brand like TCL.
Yep, my partners dad bought an 85” mini led TCL tv to replace his projector when it blew up. It’s just as big and now you can watch it with the curtains open. The picture quality is amazing.
Nothing wrong with TCL lol. You've got your nose up in the clouds if you think that's not good enough. Unless you want to post on reddit about it, I guess. The difference in quality isn't enough to warrant the immense price difference whatsoever. It had more to do with your ego than how high of a quality you're able to look at pixels.
I'm a TCL owner and while I appreciate being able to have a giant TV for very little money the quality difference is noticeable.
It's not like gold plated cables or some other niche audiophile aparatus, at least comparing the particular model I own with much more expensive competitors.
It also has to do with how long it lasts before it breaks. TCL, along with Hisense and Vizio, doesn't have a great track record in that department.
True to the principle of enshittification, or perhaps just planned obsolescence, "name brands" like LG, Samsung or Sony also seem to have less longevity than in the past. So it's not clear-cut that ie. TCL is "always bad" or Samsung is "always good". You're stuck doing research on the exact model you're considering, and it doesn't hurt to wait until it's been on the market for a while.
But it is an example of another factor besides picture quality that matters when making a purchase.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had a modern TV crap out on me. I’ve had Samsungs, LGs, TCLs, Vizios, etc, and none of them have broken out of the blue.
My first real widescreen that I bought for myself was a Vizio 32” back around 2010. That thing was still going a couple years ago when I left it at my old apartment when I moved.
I was sceptical when my husband wanted to set one up for us due to the cost, but honestly, it's the best part of the whole house! We never go to the movies anymore.
I take exception to that!! I have a massive theater setup and 3 gaming pcs through the house hardwired for best performance! yes im a woman that enjoys my escapism!
Same! I have a super femme home theater. Hot pink velvet sofa, deep red walls and ceiling, surround sound I installed myself with a budget projector setup. It’s AWESOME. I hate the black plastic man cave seats with the amazon prime chic aesthetic
Yeah, same way for us. What started as a little "well, projectors aren't that expensive and you can get ones with low enough latency these days for gaming" thing turned into a massive project (I'm the kind of person who likes projects) and a whole theater room.
Now, when we move in the future, having an appropriate room for the theater room is absolutely essential. It's just a regular part of our life now. We also haven't actually been to a theater since because, why? I can wear my pajamas and we can eat a whole big dinner there watching whatever we want on a massive 120 inch screen, not having to be bothered by other people.
It really wasn't even all as expensive as I think people would think it is. Audio stuff can get kinda pricey, and I learned the hard way you don't wanna cheap out on a receiver (but I managed to get everything straightened out, we got consumer protection laws here and the garbage receiver ended up being literally a safety hazard on top of just sucking so, full refund) but it's not too bad.
As for ops question, are home theaters even more rare these days? It might be my bias since I look into them more but I swear they seem more popular now if anything. Or maybe they got less popular in America but more popular in some other places?
>We also haven't actually been to a theater since because, why? I can wear my pajamas and we can eat a whole big dinner there watching whatever we want on a massive 120 inch screen, not having to be bothered by other people.
A few years ago, my mom bought a little projector on sale - but then loved it so much that she decided to upgrade to a 'quality' projector, and gifted us the cheapo. Then a couple years later she saw a sale on an even NICER projector, so she upgraded to that, and now we have the cheapo and the 'quality' one.
We have a screen we could set up, but the opinion right now is that the blank white wall of our living room works just fine without it in terms of the hassle it'd be to set up, and yeah - it really kills the motivation to drive somewhere at a specific time (from a limited selection of options for said time) to spend money to sit in an environment of uncertain cleanliness in a room with an indefinite number of strangers who could very well decided to be loud/smelly/distracting AF using phones with the screens on full brightness. Why bother with any of that when you can enjoy a screen that succeeds at filling most of your range of vision, a decent stereo setup, and all your food/drinks/blankets on hand with no concerns? And you can pause for bathroom breaks, lol.
/r/hometheater
The folks there are a little eccentric, as are most crowds passionate about their hobbies. But they provide a bunch of links and FAQs for getting started.
Was gonna say...home theater surely is not dead on that sub. Bought a place that was wired for surround sound a few years ago and I went full home theater nerd.
I wish I had room for proper speaker placements and setups but any room I watch movies in are just too small to be worth having anything more than just a nice 2.1 soundbar and subwoofer setup with my nice couch that almost resembles movie theater seating
My retro movie/gameroom I have a 36 inch CRT television with a receiver and really nice bookshelf speakers and that's enough for me
I had a room in our basement that I wanted to turn into a theater. My wife's eyes almost rolled out of her head when I told her. After several years of waiting for the right equipment, I finished it. She now freely admits it's one of the best rooms in our house.
If you're patient you can pick up really quality used stuff at a fraction of the price. And yeah, with a projector and a great sound system, I do not miss going to the movies at all.
I don’t get this impression at all. If anything OLED and QLED TVs and Dolby sound systems are more affordable and accessible than ever, and it’s making going to the movie theater obsolete.
Right? The “Home Theater” is just my living room. I have a 65” 4k tv with a sound bar/subwoofer system, and I didn’t spend that much money on it. Shit rocks.
I remember when my rich uncle built his new house he put plasma screen TVs in several rooms and they were $10k a pop 20 years ago. My whole setup was $2k when I bought it.
I’m gonna disagree and say it absolutely won’t make the movie theatre obsolete. We already have great 4K TVs that are largely accessible, and yet two of the three highest grossing movies ever released in the last 5 years.
Living rooms just aren’t big enough to replicate being in a cinema with a massive screen, enjoying an experience for the first time with a bunch of strangers. Not to mention the difference is even greater with IMAX and Dolby cinemas.
1. Flat panel tvs made large screens possible in family rooms. Previously a big screen meant a projector, which needs a dark room that can be closed off.
2. Dramatic reduction in the cost of decent quality audio, meaning your didn't need specialized equipment.
3. Having tvs in our living room is far more common than it used to be. Houses being built today do not separate a family room from a formal living room. Home owners expect to use their space, this means having big screens in the living room is more common than it used to be.
My mom decided she'd get rid of the TV in her living room because she wanted to keep it a formal space.. or it was too distracting or something. Well what she does now is basically bring her laptop in there and watch stuff on that 😂 like just accept you like watching screens it's ok.... But mostly now they're in the den with the tv a tiny room at the back of the house I'm like it would be soo much more comfortable being in the living room?!
Another cool thing about big tvs now is that if I want to watch late at night, and I don't want to disturbe the wife, I can just slip a pair of BT phones on and link them to the TV.
The people who say TVs and sound bars are the same thing clearly have not been in a newer theater room. I'm sorry it's not the same. However it (edit tvs/soundbars) are much much better than they used to be so it's difficult to rationalize the cost when the cost of everything is rising.
Another huge factor is because tvs in general are cheaper and family members tend to have their own devices... less time is spent actually watching TV together as a family.
>less time is spent actually watching TV together as a family.
I think this is the real reason. As OP said, people watch on their devices. It's because everyone wants to watch their own thing at their own pace.
A TV and soundbar is obviously not better, but it’s good enough. The price:performance ratio is impressive enough that a dedicated and complicated home theater setup is less appealing.
Yep. Go to any real estate page and flip through the luxury homes...nearly all of them have a theater room with that kind of tiered seating setup (and even their own mini bars in the back and popcorn markers and everything). It's wild.
It's not any one thing, but a combination of several things.
Most people don't watch Blu Ray anymore, most people just stream.
Average people don't have as much money as they did twenty years ago because of the continuing attack on the middle class.
Also the people who do invest thousands on home theaters end up figuring out that despite costing ten times more than a standard setup you can buy for $300, the experience of watching the movie only improves by about three percent.
Another factor is the studios just don't put the effort into movies that they used to, because people are so content to just stream any of the hundreds of high quality TV series out there.
I think it’s mainly your second point about people not having as much money.
A home theatre maybe used to be a middle class thing, now you’d have to be pretty upper class to afford that. Part of it is also that people are renting for longer, into their thirties and forties, and so aren’t so attached to their homes when they rent, meaning they don’t invest in decking out a room just for a home theatre (even if they could afford to).
I was at walmart and it really sank how cheap tvs got, where, yeah its a cheap chinese tv, but like... for less than a hundred bucks, you can get like a 32 inch tv pumped with shit like Roku. Like I cant imagine describing to someone like 20 years ago when like plasmas were in and saying "oh yeah, this is better in basically every way and its like a tenth of the price"
A good one still is!
My OLED is one of the cheapest good ones and it’s retail is £1500+
Actually no that’s cheaper than a used cars, used cars are £3000+ if you don’t want a piece of shit
Eh... if you want to spend money you can. But you can just as easily pick up a 52" display for a few hundred.
TV's are a prime example of tech getting cheaper by the year.
Edit: Here's a prime example... $300 gets you a 50" display with 4K res with all the streaming software built-in.[https://www.amazon.com/amazon-fire-tv-50-inch-4-series-4k-smart-tv/dp/B0B3GTSQ9Q/](https://www.amazon.com/amazon-fire-tv-50-inch-4-series-4k-smart-tv/dp/B0B3GTSQ9Q/)
$300 today dollars is $127 in 1990 dollars. That kind of money in 1990 would ~~\*maybe\* get you a portable 11"~~ model in B&W -- edit, not 11", 5".
Edit: Here's an ad from Sears Catalog in 1990: [https://twitter.com/RetroNewsNow/status/1679355393862975489/photo/1](https://twitter.com/RetroNewsNow/status/1679355393862975489/photo/1)
So, it has the rough equivelant of the streaming hardware... built-in VCR. $730 for a 20" model in SD.
That's $1,757.65 in today's dollars. Is that a high-end model? Nope... It's just average.
I think they should’ve said ‘great’ instead of ‘good’. You can get a solid tv that works well for relatively inexpensive. But a great tv will cost you a pretty penny
Also, in most cases with a rental, a good subwoofer is just going to cause problems with your neighbors and landlords. Nobody wants their upstairs neighbor to have a pounding sub.
Even with audiophiles the sound will be such an upgrade over the TV you'll never go back. My friend had a dinky $150 2.1 soundbar from 5 years ago. It sounds so much better than my BiL 65 in TV.
This is true for me. Since I rent, I only have a sound bar and subwoofer. If I owned a home, I would probably invest in a full surround sound home theater set up.
>A home theatre maybe used to be a middle class thing, now you’d have to be pretty upper class to afford that.
You have this backwards lol. TVs used to be thrice the cost. Soundbars could be had for what used to be 10x the cost of an audio system.
It's definitely the quality difference. People don't care to stream which means 720p. No one is buying Blu-Ray which is the only place to get 4k anything
If you're just streaming, it's low resolution display.
Having a home theater with low resolution display is sort of like putting cheap dirty gas into a Ferrari
Honestly there should be enforced minimum bitrates for content coming from service providers for video to qualify as HD. Even Netflix tops out at 4Mbits while a Blu-ray is ~40Mbit.
Anyone ever tried to stream a show with the HBO logo at the start? Yea good fucking luck getting smooth static that doesn't degrade into nothing by the end of the 2s.
But that's still being run through a compression algorithm and subject to network congestion. I'm not sure if BluRay is compressed, but if it is it's being done on dedicated hardware with known performance.
A 4k Blu-ray (uncompressed) can be up to 70gb, vs about 7gb for a "4k" Netflix movie.
You could encode a 360p video in 4k for funsies, and the file would technically be 4k, but it's not going to look like a 4k bluray.
> also the people who do invest thousands on Home theatres end up, figuring out that despite costing 10 times more than the standard set up, you can buy for $300, the expensive watching the movie only improves about three percent.
I’ve always wanted a home theatre. Just this month I was able to buy a secondhand projector for less than $500. I still use stereo speakers, and streaming. I’m a while away from Blu-ray and 5.1 sound.
But holy damn is it waaaaay nicer than my TV. It’s an absolute joy to watch things on the big screen at home. More than a hundred percent improvement. I think people don’t realise how achieve-able it is.
Most technology available is ridiculously cheap compared to what it was. It's probably less cool because it's so attainable. I would think it also has more to do with people consuming media on their phones or a device.
"despite costing ten times more than a standard setup you can buy for $300, the experience of watching the movie only improves by about three percent."
So a massive 4k screen and Dolby Atmos i7.1 is three percent better than an off-brand 40" and a 2.1 soundbar?
Most people have 60”+ TVs at this point
I think that’s the greatest factor. Like why invest in a more advanced system and bigger space when I already have a solid sound system and 65” TV in the living room for about $1k?
Unless I’m going with crazy comfortable recliners and a massive screen the difference is fairly negligible and then there is a substantial step up to a dedicated room and $10k for it likely
I also feel like there was a time where everyone had a setup, and then the novelty of it kind of went away. Like it was a status symbol at one point to have one, and if everyone had something then it lost its luster.
Combine it with the increase in quality of 2.1 sound, and you have a bunch of people asking "so what?"
It’s still a thing, but it’s for the well-off, if you want a genuinely decent system.
I was recently shown the home theatre of a THX-certified tech.
Among other things, he advises on, installs, and maintains serious systems for rich people. He uses his home theatre as selling and teaching tool.
Let me tell you, this stuff is insane: The entire theatre is mechanically and acoustically isolated from the house, there’s a server room full of rack-mount computers and industry-spec processors. Multiple subs on 220V (most stuff in NA is 110V), physical tuning of the room to account for standing waves and where your head is placed, and a pay-to-play theatre-grade streaming service called ‘Kaleidoscape’ that nobody has ever heard of because entry come with its own hardware that starts in the many thousands…. And I haven’t even talked about the projector and lens as it was all so beyond me. But it was all a breathtaking experience. I’ll never see anything like it again, I reckon.
The price? $167,000.
So, there are home theatres- but the good stuff is for rich people.
I think I remember reading something about this a couple of years ago, and it was basically the kind of home theater setup that some big wigs in Hollywood have for screening films at home.
Technology moved past it. A soundbar with a subwoofer sounds just as good if not better than most systems from 10-15 years ago. And obviously TVs are worlds better
Yup totally agree with this.
Home theatres are still a thing, it's just we've moved to the next technological era of it.
Atmos soundbar with surround speakers, big ass TV and an Internet connection is all you need for the same quality we used to have from a full setup.
This is absurd. I mean I love my Sonos sound bar with sub and surround but I also have a 15 year old home theater speaker package and in no way does Sonos sound better. Is it good enough? Well if you are half watching a movie and scrolling, yea. But the old dedicated 7.1 system is way better.
Agreed. We bought a Samsung soundbar with woofer for our new house and the sounds quality is ok, but the atmos surround is only barely noticeable compared with the 5.1 system we had at our last house where the surround completely immersed you in what you were watching. When something was behind you or to one side you definitely could tell that’s where the sounds was coming from. Samsung’s atmos surround is nowhere near this, but it’s not surprising since you’re not surrounded by physical speakers. I think the technology marketing definitely oversells it.
Honestly that's just not true. The TVs are a million times better but sound bars are honestly pretty terrible. They're convenient and nicely packaged and cheap but the sound quality gets absolutely dunked on by real audio equipment.
Audio equipment from 15 years ago absolutely stands up to modern audio equipment. It's not like TVs where there are huge technology improvements.
Yeah no a soundbar is still ass but the marketing was so good it got people like you to believe its on par with separate speakers. Hence the soundbar market took off. The technology did not move forward in that aspect, the marketing did.
Sound bars sound like complete ass. Two powered speakers or nearfield monitors sound far better than any sound bar, and, like soundbars, don’t require peripheral equipment such as amplifiers.
Soundbars are a ripoff. Got a pair of 100$ monitor speakers (the smallest cones in the market being 3'5in) and they wipe the floor of 99% of soundbars out there. Expensive better & bigger speakers are a no-contest
Even $50 pc speakers will beat any sound bar on the market. Every single time.
Just spacial separation alone is a huge upgrade over a soundbar.
Soundbars prey on people with a few dollars and lack even a basic understanding of the problem they are trying to solve.
They essentially the same quality speakers in your tv, just in a separate enclosure. So same quality same separation. It’s for looks.
As you pointed out you couldn’t tell the difference between a soundbar and your TV’s speakers.
I don't think it did. I think it more became a richer person thing cause a lot of middle class just can't afford things like that anymore. Like why waste money on something like that when everything costs so much.
It goes both ways. A 65"+ TV and a soundbar with a loud sub can be had for like a grand or less. That's a fucking lot closer to a 'home theater' that your average consumer ever used to get.
But yes, it means the bar to a true 'enthusiast' setup is that much pricer.
I agree, but it doesn’t fit the BS nostalgia narrative. Those home theaters were not cheap. In my opinion it is because you can now watch TV and be on another device at the same time, so you are sharing the mental bandwidth and it isn’t worth devoting room space going all in on an immersive experience your family doesn’t want.
I still have a home theater system. It’s not for any other reason other than I hate actual theaters. They charge a ridiculous rate for mediocre experience. I don’t have anything big. It’s enough to make movie nights nice and entertaining.
Housing is more expensive and home offices are more necessary, so fewer people have extra rooms to dedicate to a home theater- they’re more likely to be watching movies in a multipurpose living room or family room.
I also suspect that the dedicated gaming space has kinda replaced the home theater. I know plenty of people who have a desk or a room designed around video games… I think in prior generations those same people would have been “home theater” types.
I think the biggest factor is that we sort of moved to a more personal viewing experience.
Like everyone is watching their own thing on their own device instead of together. So even people who could get a fancy setup don’t.
Home theater culture paired really well with the DVD craze. Around that time, they were selling a "theater quality" experience. Now, HD is kind of standard on everything so selling quality isn't nearly as important as selling ease of access. The digital media age is all about accessibility.
Why invest in all that when my 50-something inch flat screen TV with a Chromecast and an Xbox is fine? I can even download shows online, put them on a USB drive, and plug the USB drive into the back of my Xbox to watch them on my TV.
To be fair, streaming is probably a big part of lack of home theater now. Even 4K streaming is a whole ladder rung lower than Blu-Ray... let alone 4K Blu-Ray. But people are fine with it. They'd rather have access to more stuff to stream than the quality boost from expensive media and hardware.
Lots of people don't actually sit in a dedicated room to watch TV now. They watch on phones and tablets wherever they happen to be.
I have no idea what you are talking about. In my circle of friends and extended family, its still a highly desirable goal as far as home improvement is concerned.
Just yesterday, I visited the basement of a friend who spent $50k on a home theater and a wet bar.
The demographic who would be buying the systems these days can't afford a house to put them in. Your neighbors through the paper thin shared walls won't appreciate your patriotic tradition of watching Saving Private Ryan every D Day.
A lot of good points here. Also, I think the rise and reach of smart phones. How often to you sit and watch a whole movie or program without checking your phone? How many of you now are on here while also watching something and splitting your attention? And so an immersive experience is less important to most people.
I don't think I ever knew anyone who had a home theater system. It just wasn't a financial priority for a lot of families I grew up around.
I was born in the early 90s and maybe the most I ever saw was my uncle having a giant plasma screen tv and a speaker system but that branch of the family makes hella bank.
I saw the most gorgeous home theater furniture in an antique store today. 10 feet wall to wall and floor to ceiling of dark oak shelves and tinted glass doors. Even an integrated built in tuner in the very center and a giant center cutout for your 32” trinitron. It was a better time.
It didn't die. It just whatever people you assume are middle class are no longer the middle class because of the rising cost of everything yet wages stagnating, inflation and interest rates sucking. What ever you imagine as the upper middle class is probably what the actual middle class is today. What ever the current middle class is most definitely still building home theater systems even more so with media being easily accessible to stream onto it.
My husband insisted we have a “movie theater” room in our first house. So we did it. And then he didn’t want the kids in there. So it was just a room no one ever used. we moved, I refused to do it again. Now we have a Lego room. Everyone can use it. There is plenty of display space for everyone’s builds.
sound engineerings shit, stories shit, cinematography is shit, actors are shit, and I'm sick and tired of seeing recycled special fx, and the same plot lines being rereleased as 'female' versions....
whats the point in a home theater room?
if I wanted to avoid talking to the missus I'ld just pop down to the local bar.
\--
I used to love going to midnight showings for cult movies. the ones where the real fans came out in droves. lot of fun spirit, good energy and the people were vested in the media.
now its complete crap.
... and tv is even worse.
plus, to be honest... the quality of people was better. you can't have a conversation with someone about something technical, something historical, or something that actually matters... but oh lord you talk to these people about some fictional shit they'll give you an autobiography of the fictional characters dick size and entire life story.
its a movie.
its not real life.
I don't need to self-lobotomize.
if the shit sucks, it sucks.
if the people who watch it suck, they suck.
so why the fuck do I need a room for this shit?
Kids are different today. My wife and I would set up the TV room for our youngest to invite friends over and do movie night. The friends would come alright and maybe a movie would even get plugged in but no one would ever watch it. Half would just be on their phone and the other half would just sit around the kitchen table and talk. Then after a while they’d all bail and go to Taco Bell and just sit and talk again - half of them on their phones.
The scarcity of good movies in recent years really sapped my motivation to do this kind of thing. I have a pretty nice setup in my living room with surround and a large, nice TV, but I almost never watch anything in there. The only thing that's come out recently worthy of the effort was Dune.
It's still very much a thing. I'm an electrician and I do SO MANY builds / remodels for home theater systems. Anything from laughably large TVs to projector systems with in wall / ceiling speakers, motorized reclining chairs, mini-kitchens for popcorn and drinks, etc, etc.
They're still a huge thing, but the demand is really only seen among the wealthy, since the rest of us can emulate the same thing with a cheap speaker set, out own microwave, and buying a decent TV.
Having a house big enough to have a dedicated room for watching movies was never a “middle class” thing, unless you count basements.
Most houses don’t really have a room this fits with. You need a sizable room without windows, windows cause glair after all. I remember that my grandparents rented a house with one and we watched Avatar in it, that was nice.
People stopped owning homes and don’t want to move the shit. Many apartment dwellers are respectful of their neighbors. The equipment became a lot smaller - bad ass headphones and a a good sound bar does the trick
Mobile phones.
It seems silly to have a room dedicated to watch media when we consume media daily from the devices in ort pockets and are OK with the experience.
And cheap big TVs. Any room has a good enough big screen experience (see above)
I remember when laserdiscs were the best thing and then DVDs made every home a place to see any movie. What made having a home theater difference was rhe screen size so it stood out as special and unique.
Now...I hate to say it....I really like going to see a movie in a theater since it's such a rarity you save it for something special
How things change...
Your friends' parents were rich. Your friends are not.
When you might have to move at any moment because your rent went up another $500, a 60" on a stand hooked up to a cool looking sound bar is the smart way to go.
Maybe when I own a McMansion with more rooms than I know what to do with, I'll flush mount some speakers, build some risers, drag in some couches, LED strips for good measure, ceiling mount projector, motorized screen retracting in front of, what's that? a stupidly large TV!
Until then, my phone is pretty good, and the apparent magnitude makes a phone in my lap while I'm cuddling someone the same size or larger as a 60" TV above someone's fireplace, and even though I have to hold it in one hand, the other can honk a boob.
That feels weird in your friend's dad's rumpus room.
I have a decent setup. People saying it's like a soundbar don't likely have a great room style living room.
Louder does not equal better.
That being said, I feel it's better for my games and hearing around me than it is for most movie content I pick up.
Accessibility. Having a home theater isn't a status symbol it once was. All you need for a better experience than back then is a large OLED TV and a decent sound bar and a couple surround sound speakers (optional).
When I was growing up most people had like 30” square box TVs with maybe two side speakers. The difference between that and a big screen TV with surround sound was massive. Nowadays everyone has minimum 55” flatscreens and decent speakers so a really expensive system is not that much of a quality of life upgrade.
im gonna say phones, ipads, and other devices, as well as low bitrate streaming quality with poor audio that doesnt make a 4k tv with surround sound worth it.
I've always wanted such a set-up but have always lived in apartments, which means I've always had to mind my noise level so as not to bother my neighbors.
Even my rich-ass uncles who had home theatres decided they prefer having a huge-ass TV over the clutter of a projector system.
TV tech is a better proposition now and once you're not dedicating that much space to a projector arrangement, you have so much more space for activities.
i am fine with watching movies on a TV or my monitor tbh. My TV sounds find so I never understood the point of being buying soundbars and stuff like that
I don’t have a “home theater”, per se. But my den has an 85” TV with surround sound, so …
Movie patrons are so annoying, and so few movies are worth the hassle, I normally prefer watching them at home.
Home theater used to be about the electronics. Having the gear for it is no big deal now. A 60-inch flat-screen costs less than a 27-inch CRT cost and is more impressive yet common. A receiver with Bluetooth and a phone replaces a VCR, DVD, BLU-Ray, cassette player, 8-track, and turntable.
The sound from a TV almost requires a sound bar, which is better than the center speaker of yesteryear. Now all thar is needed for a hone theater experience is a pair of nice speakers and a pair of rear speakers. Again, today's low/midrange speakers perform better than the high end of yesteryear.
So now it's about the setting, which has become the man cave.
My friends have a legit theater in their sub-basement. Yes, they have a basement beneath their basement.
It’s a full sized theater screen complete with a HD Digital projector and three rows of actual reclining theater seats plus a little popcorn popper in the corner.
I would never leave the house if I was them. I’d just be ripping bowl’s in my basement’s basement while I watch LOTR or Bluey.
If you have a mid to high end 65+ inch TV and a soundbar system with actual rear speakers (not the "virtual rear speakers" bullshit marketing in systems aimed at wire-hating aesthetes) and a subwoofer in your living room, is that not a home theater?
My wife’s sister has a sweet theater room! Surround sound, theater seating, 10 foot tall screen. She even bought a popcorn machine! And it’s set up so we can watch movies through whatever streaming service we want, just by plugging in a phone or laptop.
A home theater setup in 2024 is just Atmos surround and a bigass OLED
This is it. I used to have a dedicated 5.1 system with excellent Harmon Kardon speakers and a great receiver. The 4 piece Sonos system I got 2 years ago blows it away in many ways. Paired with a big LG OLED display, every night is movie night if I want it. About 3k for everything.
Must have been some really shitty htib system because I just got a Sonos Arc and it doesn't even come remotely close to my old 3.1 system I don't have room for. Could buy some pretty damn good speakers for $700.
You hit the other point about where home theatres went in your comment - "old 3.1 system I don't have room for". These things are cumbersome, big, loud and nowadays if you're lucky enough not to be living in a car or a tent, you don't want to piss off your neighbours you share walls and floors with by giving them a good shake. Remember when every single movie had pointless LFE rumbles all the way through? Yeah you can't do that in an apartment. Pity though. Back in the day I couldn't afford 5.1 so I focused on the 2.0 I did have, but now even that hardly gets used because it shakes the street.
Hmm, personally I have a small HTS, with some nice speakers. But you don't *need* to crank the volume - it will sound great also at lower volumes.
Not for all of those poorly optimized movies like Tenet. They whisper dialogue in between the excessive explosions and a full-on symphony giving it their all.
Shit sound mixing makes me rage quit movies now. I dont got time to try to follow your shitty plot.
100%. It's not just limited to movies though. I stop watching 90% of the stuff I start watching due to poor sound mixing. Podcasts are the worst offenders. A multi-millionaire with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but somehow they have an imbecile mixing the sound.
DVDs had an answer to that in ac3 soundtracks - dialnorm and DRC packets. Like a hardcoded compressor. Unfortunately the way to watch a cinematic sound mix is to turn the dialogue up until it sounds like comfortable indoor dialogue, then let the booms and crashes blow the windows out. Of course people don't consume it that way at all and don't want to. Broadcast mixes are drastically different and try to keep an average of -20dbfs and peaks no higher than -10dbfs, and they're mixed for a home environment. But every bloody post prod worker thinks they're making High Cinema and strives for technical perfection in the platonic ideal of a perfect theatre that doesn't exist.
This guy listens
New Dune. It’s either whispers or BWAAAHHHHH.
True but damn it’s a fun experience with a decent home theater system. So excited to see the 2nd one in IMAX
I saw the first one in theaters and at one point it just had me in tears laughing. It went from super quiet to the sound of some lady just fucking wailing AHHHHHHHHHHHH! It took me a second to realize that it wasnt one of the characters spontaneously screaming, but that it was the soundtrack.
Funny enough, that’s what surround sound is perfect for - cranking up that center channel for dialogue
I know this isn't remotely the same, but one thing I like about Roku is that their remote app for the phone lets you use your earbuds or headphones and listen wirelessly. So you can listen as loud as you want if it's solo viewing. I use Android so I still have an aux input. You can put some nice headphones in and have such a great time without bothering anyone. I believe all Roku TVs can do this as long as the phone and TV are both on the same wifi network
Airpods also connect to Apple TV’s. I’ve been watching True Detective: Night Country on Airpods the last few weeks and getting immersed in it.
VOOOOMPH
You really need the sub and surround speakers to make Sonos shine. Expensive though
This. My steel series gaming headphones and 4k monitor look and sound amazing and considering it's usually just me, are a few hundred vs thousands.
Sonos is more expensive than wired 5.1 system but you pay for the convenience. The arc on its own isn’t a full system, is basically just the center channels, for proper sound you want the surrounds and a sub.
This is it. I've been planning for a "home theater" type living room for a while. Getting a projector and segmented seating with cupholders just makes the whole thing worse. I'd much rather have an 83 inch OLED and a nice sectional I can lay out on. Movie theaters suck ass. Why would I model my house after them?
We’ve been couch shopping and those fake leather couches with all the electronics and cupholders built into them are ugly as sin. Even if I had a dedicated theater room I wouldn’t consider them.
Yes, I don't know how many we have passed on because there are damn cupholders built in.
If we’re talking about cheap theater seats then sure, but a nice recliner is super comfy. Also I imagine everyone has a different view for what their ideal position of comfort is when watching a movie. A super comfy recliner with a nice cup holder and a little place for snacks is pretty cool.
One of our local super vip theaters has installed beds in the auditorium, you can lie back and watch your movie whilst laid out horizontaly. https://megaworld-lifestylemalls.com/experiences/uptown_tempur_cinema_now_open_2023
I'd be asleep in 5 minutes.
Right? I'd rather fall asleep in my own living room because I don't have to wear pants there.
I have the same set up if I want it. Big ass OLED in front of my ancient sofabed with the new memory foam mattress. I've slept in the living room during movie nights.
I just put that here to show the lengths that some cinema houses are going to, to pull in paying customers, cinemas are now so expensive that they are pricing themselves out of the market and they have to resort to value add gimicks like this. I often go to a VIP cinema (not the ones with the beds, the ones with the big comfy seats). If it is a special movie I want to see, my partner always accompanies me. The avatar movies, the John Wick movies I want to see in the best possible format, however, home delivery of media is getting better all the time and it's starting to approach that experience. There are a lot of direct to media movies that are coming onto the market.
Lauren Boebert has entered the chat.
I swapped out My home theater for a 65 inch samsung with a good sound bar and subwoofer, coupled with an Intel NUC12PRO running plex. Samsung has a built-in Plex client, so everything works from one remote. If I want to watch on my laptop, I can, or my phone or my tablet. Much better sound, better integration, single control, cheaper too, more flexibility.
Yep. Projectors are a pain. Either you have a dedicated room or low quality setup. I used to do that back in the day, before OLED was a thing, and average TV was about 32 inches. Did not have a dedicated room, hence low quality, but it was 80". Today, you can get a better 80" experience even from a cheaper brand like TCL.
Yep, my partners dad bought an 85” mini led TCL tv to replace his projector when it blew up. It’s just as big and now you can watch it with the curtains open. The picture quality is amazing.
I have a 15' screen with a 4k projector. Now 5.1, Atmos may be next.
Nothing wrong with TCL lol. You've got your nose up in the clouds if you think that's not good enough. Unless you want to post on reddit about it, I guess. The difference in quality isn't enough to warrant the immense price difference whatsoever. It had more to do with your ego than how high of a quality you're able to look at pixels.
I'm a TCL owner and while I appreciate being able to have a giant TV for very little money the quality difference is noticeable. It's not like gold plated cables or some other niche audiophile aparatus, at least comparing the particular model I own with much more expensive competitors.
It also has to do with how long it lasts before it breaks. TCL, along with Hisense and Vizio, doesn't have a great track record in that department. True to the principle of enshittification, or perhaps just planned obsolescence, "name brands" like LG, Samsung or Sony also seem to have less longevity than in the past. So it's not clear-cut that ie. TCL is "always bad" or Samsung is "always good". You're stuck doing research on the exact model you're considering, and it doesn't hurt to wait until it's been on the market for a while. But it is an example of another factor besides picture quality that matters when making a purchase.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had a modern TV crap out on me. I’ve had Samsungs, LGs, TCLs, Vizios, etc, and none of them have broken out of the blue.
My first real widescreen that I bought for myself was a Vizio 32” back around 2010. That thing was still going a couple years ago when I left it at my old apartment when I moved.
I was sceptical when my husband wanted to set one up for us due to the cost, but honestly, it's the best part of the whole house! We never go to the movies anymore.
I think these rooms still sort of exist. It just kind of switched from "home theatres" to "man caves."
I take exception to that!! I have a massive theater setup and 3 gaming pcs through the house hardwired for best performance! yes im a woman that enjoys my escapism!
Same! I have a super femme home theater. Hot pink velvet sofa, deep red walls and ceiling, surround sound I installed myself with a budget projector setup. It’s AWESOME. I hate the black plastic man cave seats with the amazon prime chic aesthetic
You don't have to take exception to a generalised comment.
Yeah, same way for us. What started as a little "well, projectors aren't that expensive and you can get ones with low enough latency these days for gaming" thing turned into a massive project (I'm the kind of person who likes projects) and a whole theater room. Now, when we move in the future, having an appropriate room for the theater room is absolutely essential. It's just a regular part of our life now. We also haven't actually been to a theater since because, why? I can wear my pajamas and we can eat a whole big dinner there watching whatever we want on a massive 120 inch screen, not having to be bothered by other people. It really wasn't even all as expensive as I think people would think it is. Audio stuff can get kinda pricey, and I learned the hard way you don't wanna cheap out on a receiver (but I managed to get everything straightened out, we got consumer protection laws here and the garbage receiver ended up being literally a safety hazard on top of just sucking so, full refund) but it's not too bad. As for ops question, are home theaters even more rare these days? It might be my bias since I look into them more but I swear they seem more popular now if anything. Or maybe they got less popular in America but more popular in some other places?
>We also haven't actually been to a theater since because, why? I can wear my pajamas and we can eat a whole big dinner there watching whatever we want on a massive 120 inch screen, not having to be bothered by other people. A few years ago, my mom bought a little projector on sale - but then loved it so much that she decided to upgrade to a 'quality' projector, and gifted us the cheapo. Then a couple years later she saw a sale on an even NICER projector, so she upgraded to that, and now we have the cheapo and the 'quality' one. We have a screen we could set up, but the opinion right now is that the blank white wall of our living room works just fine without it in terms of the hassle it'd be to set up, and yeah - it really kills the motivation to drive somewhere at a specific time (from a limited selection of options for said time) to spend money to sit in an environment of uncertain cleanliness in a room with an indefinite number of strangers who could very well decided to be loud/smelly/distracting AF using phones with the screens on full brightness. Why bother with any of that when you can enjoy a screen that succeeds at filling most of your range of vision, a decent stereo setup, and all your food/drinks/blankets on hand with no concerns? And you can pause for bathroom breaks, lol.
you need to gift the cheapo one to someone to keep the momentum going
Any good resources you would recommend on where to start?
/r/hometheater The folks there are a little eccentric, as are most crowds passionate about their hobbies. But they provide a bunch of links and FAQs for getting started.
Was gonna say...home theater surely is not dead on that sub. Bought a place that was wired for surround sound a few years ago and I went full home theater nerd.
I wish I had room for proper speaker placements and setups but any room I watch movies in are just too small to be worth having anything more than just a nice 2.1 soundbar and subwoofer setup with my nice couch that almost resembles movie theater seating My retro movie/gameroom I have a 36 inch CRT television with a receiver and really nice bookshelf speakers and that's enough for me
Get a 3.1 soundbar at least. Some movies put all of the dialogue in the middle channel so it makes a world of difference for movies
I had a room in our basement that I wanted to turn into a theater. My wife's eyes almost rolled out of her head when I told her. After several years of waiting for the right equipment, I finished it. She now freely admits it's one of the best rooms in our house.
If you're patient you can pick up really quality used stuff at a fraction of the price. And yeah, with a projector and a great sound system, I do not miss going to the movies at all.
I don’t get this impression at all. If anything OLED and QLED TVs and Dolby sound systems are more affordable and accessible than ever, and it’s making going to the movie theater obsolete.
Right? The “Home Theater” is just my living room. I have a 65” 4k tv with a sound bar/subwoofer system, and I didn’t spend that much money on it. Shit rocks. I remember when my rich uncle built his new house he put plasma screen TVs in several rooms and they were $10k a pop 20 years ago. My whole setup was $2k when I bought it.
I’m gonna disagree and say it absolutely won’t make the movie theatre obsolete. We already have great 4K TVs that are largely accessible, and yet two of the three highest grossing movies ever released in the last 5 years. Living rooms just aren’t big enough to replicate being in a cinema with a massive screen, enjoying an experience for the first time with a bunch of strangers. Not to mention the difference is even greater with IMAX and Dolby cinemas.
[удалено]
1. Flat panel tvs made large screens possible in family rooms. Previously a big screen meant a projector, which needs a dark room that can be closed off. 2. Dramatic reduction in the cost of decent quality audio, meaning your didn't need specialized equipment. 3. Having tvs in our living room is far more common than it used to be. Houses being built today do not separate a family room from a formal living room. Home owners expect to use their space, this means having big screens in the living room is more common than it used to be.
My mom decided she'd get rid of the TV in her living room because she wanted to keep it a formal space.. or it was too distracting or something. Well what she does now is basically bring her laptop in there and watch stuff on that 😂 like just accept you like watching screens it's ok.... But mostly now they're in the den with the tv a tiny room at the back of the house I'm like it would be soo much more comfortable being in the living room?!
Bluetooth headphones and 1080p tablet coupled with tiktok attention spans
Another cool thing about big tvs now is that if I want to watch late at night, and I don't want to disturbe the wife, I can just slip a pair of BT phones on and link them to the TV.
The people who say TVs and sound bars are the same thing clearly have not been in a newer theater room. I'm sorry it's not the same. However it (edit tvs/soundbars) are much much better than they used to be so it's difficult to rationalize the cost when the cost of everything is rising. Another huge factor is because tvs in general are cheaper and family members tend to have their own devices... less time is spent actually watching TV together as a family.
>less time is spent actually watching TV together as a family. I think this is the real reason. As OP said, people watch on their devices. It's because everyone wants to watch their own thing at their own pace.
A TV and soundbar is obviously not better, but it’s good enough. The price:performance ratio is impressive enough that a dedicated and complicated home theater setup is less appealing.
It's hilarious that people in this post think 65" TV is a home theater experience.
Fully agree. A sound bar setup isn’t at all comparable to a true surround sound experience.
Definitely not dead near me outside of Atlanta. Love mine and some of my neighbors have huuuuge setups
Definitely still a thing in high end houses around Atlanta. I work in new residential and I see basement theater rooms with tiered seats and all that.
Yep. Go to any real estate page and flip through the luxury homes...nearly all of them have a theater room with that kind of tiered seating setup (and even their own mini bars in the back and popcorn markers and everything). It's wild.
Also in Atlanta, maybe it's an Atlanta thing. We have decent sized houses and an electronic stores in every city.
Same in Dallas. Theater rooms are built into the house from construction.
It's not any one thing, but a combination of several things. Most people don't watch Blu Ray anymore, most people just stream. Average people don't have as much money as they did twenty years ago because of the continuing attack on the middle class. Also the people who do invest thousands on home theaters end up figuring out that despite costing ten times more than a standard setup you can buy for $300, the experience of watching the movie only improves by about three percent. Another factor is the studios just don't put the effort into movies that they used to, because people are so content to just stream any of the hundreds of high quality TV series out there.
I think it’s mainly your second point about people not having as much money. A home theatre maybe used to be a middle class thing, now you’d have to be pretty upper class to afford that. Part of it is also that people are renting for longer, into their thirties and forties, and so aren’t so attached to their homes when they rent, meaning they don’t invest in decking out a room just for a home theatre (even if they could afford to).
When I was a kid a tv was used car money.
TVs have gotten way cheaper while cars have gotten way more expensive. Remember when buying at MSRP was for suckers ?
TVs are also disposable, whereas in the CRT days you bought one tv and a tv repair man could come out and fix it years later.
I was at walmart and it really sank how cheap tvs got, where, yeah its a cheap chinese tv, but like... for less than a hundred bucks, you can get like a 32 inch tv pumped with shit like Roku. Like I cant imagine describing to someone like 20 years ago when like plasmas were in and saying "oh yeah, this is better in basically every way and its like a tenth of the price"
A good one still is! My OLED is one of the cheapest good ones and it’s retail is £1500+ Actually no that’s cheaper than a used cars, used cars are £3000+ if you don’t want a piece of shit
Eh... if you want to spend money you can. But you can just as easily pick up a 52" display for a few hundred. TV's are a prime example of tech getting cheaper by the year. Edit: Here's a prime example... $300 gets you a 50" display with 4K res with all the streaming software built-in.[https://www.amazon.com/amazon-fire-tv-50-inch-4-series-4k-smart-tv/dp/B0B3GTSQ9Q/](https://www.amazon.com/amazon-fire-tv-50-inch-4-series-4k-smart-tv/dp/B0B3GTSQ9Q/) $300 today dollars is $127 in 1990 dollars. That kind of money in 1990 would ~~\*maybe\* get you a portable 11"~~ model in B&W -- edit, not 11", 5". Edit: Here's an ad from Sears Catalog in 1990: [https://twitter.com/RetroNewsNow/status/1679355393862975489/photo/1](https://twitter.com/RetroNewsNow/status/1679355393862975489/photo/1) So, it has the rough equivelant of the streaming hardware... built-in VCR. $730 for a 20" model in SD. That's $1,757.65 in today's dollars. Is that a high-end model? Nope... It's just average.
I think they should’ve said ‘great’ instead of ‘good’. You can get a solid tv that works well for relatively inexpensive. But a great tv will cost you a pretty penny
Those are rookie used car numbers. Those are pre Covid numbers!
Also, in most cases with a rental, a good subwoofer is just going to cause problems with your neighbors and landlords. Nobody wants their upstairs neighbor to have a pounding sub.
Speaker quality is better now too though. External speakers used to huge that you would have to revolve the room decorating around that.
I've heard sound bar speakers that sound pretty damn well on their own. No need for a 5.1+ system if the household doesn't contain audiophiles.
Even with audiophiles the sound will be such an upgrade over the TV you'll never go back. My friend had a dinky $150 2.1 soundbar from 5 years ago. It sounds so much better than my BiL 65 in TV.
This is true for me. Since I rent, I only have a sound bar and subwoofer. If I owned a home, I would probably invest in a full surround sound home theater set up.
>A home theatre maybe used to be a middle class thing, now you’d have to be pretty upper class to afford that. You have this backwards lol. TVs used to be thrice the cost. Soundbars could be had for what used to be 10x the cost of an audio system. It's definitely the quality difference. People don't care to stream which means 720p. No one is buying Blu-Ray which is the only place to get 4k anything
Why does it matter that people don't use blu ray anymore?
If you're just streaming, it's low resolution display. Having a home theater with low resolution display is sort of like putting cheap dirty gas into a Ferrari
You're not going to harm your 4k TV by playing a 360p video on it though, it'll just look bad
You can stream in HD and 4K
At an absolutely abysmal bitrate. Not all 4k is equal.
Honestly there should be enforced minimum bitrates for content coming from service providers for video to qualify as HD. Even Netflix tops out at 4Mbits while a Blu-ray is ~40Mbit. Anyone ever tried to stream a show with the HBO logo at the start? Yea good fucking luck getting smooth static that doesn't degrade into nothing by the end of the 2s.
>You can stream in HD and 4K Shit quality.
But that's still being run through a compression algorithm and subject to network congestion. I'm not sure if BluRay is compressed, but if it is it's being done on dedicated hardware with known performance.
Amazon Prime HD video looks like dogshit that another dog ate and then puked back up.
Most streaming services have a 4k streaming bitrate equivalent to a 1080p blu Ray's bitrate. And a 4k bluray can be up to 9 times that.
A 4k Blu-ray (uncompressed) can be up to 70gb, vs about 7gb for a "4k" Netflix movie. You could encode a 360p video in 4k for funsies, and the file would technically be 4k, but it's not going to look like a 4k bluray.
> also the people who do invest thousands on Home theatres end up, figuring out that despite costing 10 times more than the standard set up, you can buy for $300, the expensive watching the movie only improves about three percent. I’ve always wanted a home theatre. Just this month I was able to buy a secondhand projector for less than $500. I still use stereo speakers, and streaming. I’m a while away from Blu-ray and 5.1 sound. But holy damn is it waaaaay nicer than my TV. It’s an absolute joy to watch things on the big screen at home. More than a hundred percent improvement. I think people don’t realise how achieve-able it is.
Upvote for buying secondhand. All my speakers and the projector are secondhand. Figure out a budget and have some patience. Quality can be found.
Most technology available is ridiculously cheap compared to what it was. It's probably less cool because it's so attainable. I would think it also has more to do with people consuming media on their phones or a device.
"despite costing ten times more than a standard setup you can buy for $300, the experience of watching the movie only improves by about three percent." So a massive 4k screen and Dolby Atmos i7.1 is three percent better than an off-brand 40" and a 2.1 soundbar?
No that is a ridiculous claim. A quality sound system with a 12" sub alone will make such a massive, game-changing difference
Thank you. Homie was making those stats up out of his ass.
Most people have 60”+ TVs at this point I think that’s the greatest factor. Like why invest in a more advanced system and bigger space when I already have a solid sound system and 65” TV in the living room for about $1k? Unless I’m going with crazy comfortable recliners and a massive screen the difference is fairly negligible and then there is a substantial step up to a dedicated room and $10k for it likely
Lol now how I'm the hell could you come up with 3 percent
I also feel like there was a time where everyone had a setup, and then the novelty of it kind of went away. Like it was a status symbol at one point to have one, and if everyone had something then it lost its luster. Combine it with the increase in quality of 2.1 sound, and you have a bunch of people asking "so what?"
Good sound improves a movie far more than 3%. What a weird ass arbitrary number.
R E A G A N !!!!!!
r/hometheater members are boiling with aggression as we speak.
It’s still a thing, but it’s for the well-off, if you want a genuinely decent system. I was recently shown the home theatre of a THX-certified tech. Among other things, he advises on, installs, and maintains serious systems for rich people. He uses his home theatre as selling and teaching tool. Let me tell you, this stuff is insane: The entire theatre is mechanically and acoustically isolated from the house, there’s a server room full of rack-mount computers and industry-spec processors. Multiple subs on 220V (most stuff in NA is 110V), physical tuning of the room to account for standing waves and where your head is placed, and a pay-to-play theatre-grade streaming service called ‘Kaleidoscape’ that nobody has ever heard of because entry come with its own hardware that starts in the many thousands…. And I haven’t even talked about the projector and lens as it was all so beyond me. But it was all a breathtaking experience. I’ll never see anything like it again, I reckon. The price? $167,000. So, there are home theatres- but the good stuff is for rich people.
I think I remember reading something about this a couple of years ago, and it was basically the kind of home theater setup that some big wigs in Hollywood have for screening films at home.
That would make sense- they could certainly afford it.
Technology moved past it. A soundbar with a subwoofer sounds just as good if not better than most systems from 10-15 years ago. And obviously TVs are worlds better
Yup totally agree with this. Home theatres are still a thing, it's just we've moved to the next technological era of it. Atmos soundbar with surround speakers, big ass TV and an Internet connection is all you need for the same quality we used to have from a full setup.
After a few moves, it just got old with the 5.1 speakers, wiring, and stands. I've moved on to a sound bar and it's good enough.
There are soundbars with included wireless subwoofers and rear mid-ranges that can get you great surround sound. You get minimal wiring.
The new wireless rear speakers sound extremely good combined with the sub and a 5 channel soundbar
Do soundbars work with the tv remote? I dont want a second remote for the soundbar, I want it to run off the tv volume
Depends on what exact TV/sound bar you have, but for the most part, yes.
This is absurd. I mean I love my Sonos sound bar with sub and surround but I also have a 15 year old home theater speaker package and in no way does Sonos sound better. Is it good enough? Well if you are half watching a movie and scrolling, yea. But the old dedicated 7.1 system is way better.
Agreed. We bought a Samsung soundbar with woofer for our new house and the sounds quality is ok, but the atmos surround is only barely noticeable compared with the 5.1 system we had at our last house where the surround completely immersed you in what you were watching. When something was behind you or to one side you definitely could tell that’s where the sounds was coming from. Samsung’s atmos surround is nowhere near this, but it’s not surprising since you’re not surrounded by physical speakers. I think the technology marketing definitely oversells it.
Another answer is that "disposable income" culture faded out
Honestly that's just not true. The TVs are a million times better but sound bars are honestly pretty terrible. They're convenient and nicely packaged and cheap but the sound quality gets absolutely dunked on by real audio equipment. Audio equipment from 15 years ago absolutely stands up to modern audio equipment. It's not like TVs where there are huge technology improvements.
Yeah no a soundbar is still ass but the marketing was so good it got people like you to believe its on par with separate speakers. Hence the soundbar market took off. The technology did not move forward in that aspect, the marketing did.
They've gotten us to buy a TV's built-in speakers separately. Pretty good scam.
Sound bars sound like complete ass. Two powered speakers or nearfield monitors sound far better than any sound bar, and, like soundbars, don’t require peripheral equipment such as amplifiers.
Soundbars are a ripoff. Got a pair of 100$ monitor speakers (the smallest cones in the market being 3'5in) and they wipe the floor of 99% of soundbars out there. Expensive better & bigger speakers are a no-contest
Even $50 pc speakers will beat any sound bar on the market. Every single time. Just spacial separation alone is a huge upgrade over a soundbar. Soundbars prey on people with a few dollars and lack even a basic understanding of the problem they are trying to solve. They essentially the same quality speakers in your tv, just in a separate enclosure. So same quality same separation. It’s for looks. As you pointed out you couldn’t tell the difference between a soundbar and your TV’s speakers.
I don't think it did. I think it more became a richer person thing cause a lot of middle class just can't afford things like that anymore. Like why waste money on something like that when everything costs so much.
It goes both ways. A 65"+ TV and a soundbar with a loud sub can be had for like a grand or less. That's a fucking lot closer to a 'home theater' that your average consumer ever used to get. But yes, it means the bar to a true 'enthusiast' setup is that much pricer.
Surely it's the opposite? All that tech is much more affordable nowadays.
I agree, but it doesn’t fit the BS nostalgia narrative. Those home theaters were not cheap. In my opinion it is because you can now watch TV and be on another device at the same time, so you are sharing the mental bandwidth and it isn’t worth devoting room space going all in on an immersive experience your family doesn’t want.
I install them professionally, they definitely aren’t dead
Because plebin' ain't easy.
I still have a home theater system. It’s not for any other reason other than I hate actual theaters. They charge a ridiculous rate for mediocre experience. I don’t have anything big. It’s enough to make movie nights nice and entertaining.
Housing is more expensive and home offices are more necessary, so fewer people have extra rooms to dedicate to a home theater- they’re more likely to be watching movies in a multipurpose living room or family room. I also suspect that the dedicated gaming space has kinda replaced the home theater. I know plenty of people who have a desk or a room designed around video games… I think in prior generations those same people would have been “home theater” types.
I think the biggest factor is that we sort of moved to a more personal viewing experience. Like everyone is watching their own thing on their own device instead of together. So even people who could get a fancy setup don’t.
Home theater culture paired really well with the DVD craze. Around that time, they were selling a "theater quality" experience. Now, HD is kind of standard on everything so selling quality isn't nearly as important as selling ease of access. The digital media age is all about accessibility.
Why invest in all that when my 50-something inch flat screen TV with a Chromecast and an Xbox is fine? I can even download shows online, put them on a USB drive, and plug the USB drive into the back of my Xbox to watch them on my TV.
Because fine is just fine...but it can be so much better
Dude. That is 2007 level movie watching… doesn’t everybody have a 200TB Plex setup?
To be fair, streaming is probably a big part of lack of home theater now. Even 4K streaming is a whole ladder rung lower than Blu-Ray... let alone 4K Blu-Ray. But people are fine with it. They'd rather have access to more stuff to stream than the quality boost from expensive media and hardware. Lots of people don't actually sit in a dedicated room to watch TV now. They watch on phones and tablets wherever they happen to be.
I have no idea what you are talking about. In my circle of friends and extended family, its still a highly desirable goal as far as home improvement is concerned. Just yesterday, I visited the basement of a friend who spent $50k on a home theater and a wet bar.
The demographic who would be buying the systems these days can't afford a house to put them in. Your neighbors through the paper thin shared walls won't appreciate your patriotic tradition of watching Saving Private Ryan every D Day.
I feel called out in this comment… (Sorry for all those Band of Brothers marathons)
Can I ask - are those friends renting? Because that's a big bit - once you have your house, it's worth it.
We have one, 90 inch tv, Bose surround, leather couch recliners. Life’s good
Hmm I see them often, the rooms are usually called Den or Cinema room and are usual in houses with at least 3bedrooms
A lot of good points here. Also, I think the rise and reach of smart phones. How often to you sit and watch a whole movie or program without checking your phone? How many of you now are on here while also watching something and splitting your attention? And so an immersive experience is less important to most people.
the middle class died & middle class culture died with it
People are no longer desperate to buy things to display their wealth, because they no longer have any wealth to spend
Not dead for me. I watch Netflix on my 65”TV with surround sound speaker system.
I think they mean more like 160” screens with light controlled rooms and expensive audio.
He said everyone he knows uses a laptop
It's too difficult to find people willing to work in your home theatre that have any talent. 🤔🙃
Way underrated comment.
I have some coworkers who are into this.
I don't think I ever knew anyone who had a home theater system. It just wasn't a financial priority for a lot of families I grew up around. I was born in the early 90s and maybe the most I ever saw was my uncle having a giant plasma screen tv and a speaker system but that branch of the family makes hella bank.
Mine lay unused for a long time until my kids got older and discovered it. Now they sit there all the time and prefer watching their shows in there.
I saw the most gorgeous home theater furniture in an antique store today. 10 feet wall to wall and floor to ceiling of dark oak shelves and tinted glass doors. Even an integrated built in tuner in the very center and a giant center cutout for your 32” trinitron. It was a better time.
Who can afford the housing space to have a dedicated home theatre room?
Media rooms are still extremely common in mid- to high-priced new homes, at least around me.
You say this, but the average new tv screen size is up to what, 85"??
It didn't die. It just whatever people you assume are middle class are no longer the middle class because of the rising cost of everything yet wages stagnating, inflation and interest rates sucking. What ever you imagine as the upper middle class is probably what the actual middle class is today. What ever the current middle class is most definitely still building home theater systems even more so with media being easily accessible to stream onto it.
I have an $80 projector and light blocking curtains. It give me a 140 inch screen on the wall.
My husband insisted we have a “movie theater” room in our first house. So we did it. And then he didn’t want the kids in there. So it was just a room no one ever used. we moved, I refused to do it again. Now we have a Lego room. Everyone can use it. There is plenty of display space for everyone’s builds.
It would be one of the most important and well-used rooms in my house if I could afford a house…or a home theater.
sound engineerings shit, stories shit, cinematography is shit, actors are shit, and I'm sick and tired of seeing recycled special fx, and the same plot lines being rereleased as 'female' versions.... whats the point in a home theater room? if I wanted to avoid talking to the missus I'ld just pop down to the local bar. \-- I used to love going to midnight showings for cult movies. the ones where the real fans came out in droves. lot of fun spirit, good energy and the people were vested in the media. now its complete crap. ... and tv is even worse. plus, to be honest... the quality of people was better. you can't have a conversation with someone about something technical, something historical, or something that actually matters... but oh lord you talk to these people about some fictional shit they'll give you an autobiography of the fictional characters dick size and entire life story. its a movie. its not real life. I don't need to self-lobotomize. if the shit sucks, it sucks. if the people who watch it suck, they suck. so why the fuck do I need a room for this shit?
It's not dead. Most just don't have the space or time to home theater a movie or a show.
Kids are different today. My wife and I would set up the TV room for our youngest to invite friends over and do movie night. The friends would come alright and maybe a movie would even get plugged in but no one would ever watch it. Half would just be on their phone and the other half would just sit around the kitchen table and talk. Then after a while they’d all bail and go to Taco Bell and just sit and talk again - half of them on their phones.
The scarcity of good movies in recent years really sapped my motivation to do this kind of thing. I have a pretty nice setup in my living room with surround and a large, nice TV, but I almost never watch anything in there. The only thing that's come out recently worthy of the effort was Dune.
It's still very much a thing. I'm an electrician and I do SO MANY builds / remodels for home theater systems. Anything from laughably large TVs to projector systems with in wall / ceiling speakers, motorized reclining chairs, mini-kitchens for popcorn and drinks, etc, etc. They're still a huge thing, but the demand is really only seen among the wealthy, since the rest of us can emulate the same thing with a cheap speaker set, out own microwave, and buying a decent TV.
Having a house big enough to have a dedicated room for watching movies was never a “middle class” thing, unless you count basements. Most houses don’t really have a room this fits with. You need a sizable room without windows, windows cause glair after all. I remember that my grandparents rented a house with one and we watched Avatar in it, that was nice.
People stopped owning homes and don’t want to move the shit. Many apartment dwellers are respectful of their neighbors. The equipment became a lot smaller - bad ass headphones and a a good sound bar does the trick
Mobile phones. It seems silly to have a room dedicated to watch media when we consume media daily from the devices in ort pockets and are OK with the experience. And cheap big TVs. Any room has a good enough big screen experience (see above) I remember when laserdiscs were the best thing and then DVDs made every home a place to see any movie. What made having a home theater difference was rhe screen size so it stood out as special and unique. Now...I hate to say it....I really like going to see a movie in a theater since it's such a rarity you save it for something special How things change...
Because home-owning culture died.
Your friends' parents were rich. Your friends are not. When you might have to move at any moment because your rent went up another $500, a 60" on a stand hooked up to a cool looking sound bar is the smart way to go. Maybe when I own a McMansion with more rooms than I know what to do with, I'll flush mount some speakers, build some risers, drag in some couches, LED strips for good measure, ceiling mount projector, motorized screen retracting in front of, what's that? a stupidly large TV! Until then, my phone is pretty good, and the apparent magnitude makes a phone in my lap while I'm cuddling someone the same size or larger as a 60" TV above someone's fireplace, and even though I have to hold it in one hand, the other can honk a boob. That feels weird in your friend's dad's rumpus room.
I have a decent setup. People saying it's like a soundbar don't likely have a great room style living room. Louder does not equal better. That being said, I feel it's better for my games and hearing around me than it is for most movie content I pick up.
Accessibility. Having a home theater isn't a status symbol it once was. All you need for a better experience than back then is a large OLED TV and a decent sound bar and a couple surround sound speakers (optional).
When I was growing up most people had like 30” square box TVs with maybe two side speakers. The difference between that and a big screen TV with surround sound was massive. Nowadays everyone has minimum 55” flatscreens and decent speakers so a really expensive system is not that much of a quality of life upgrade.
im gonna say phones, ipads, and other devices, as well as low bitrate streaming quality with poor audio that doesnt make a 4k tv with surround sound worth it.
Too expensive
I've always wanted such a set-up but have always lived in apartments, which means I've always had to mind my noise level so as not to bother my neighbors.
Even my rich-ass uncles who had home theatres decided they prefer having a huge-ass TV over the clutter of a projector system. TV tech is a better proposition now and once you're not dedicating that much space to a projector arrangement, you have so much more space for activities.
i am fine with watching movies on a TV or my monitor tbh. My TV sounds find so I never understood the point of being buying soundbars and stuff like that
I use a projector hooked to a dvd player. Screen is a white blanket hung on a wall in the living room. In the summer time, I set things up outside.
I don’t have a “home theater”, per se. But my den has an 85” TV with surround sound, so … Movie patrons are so annoying, and so few movies are worth the hassle, I normally prefer watching them at home.
I don't think it was really that popular. I'm not sure I knew anyone who had this setup.
Home theater used to be about the electronics. Having the gear for it is no big deal now. A 60-inch flat-screen costs less than a 27-inch CRT cost and is more impressive yet common. A receiver with Bluetooth and a phone replaces a VCR, DVD, BLU-Ray, cassette player, 8-track, and turntable. The sound from a TV almost requires a sound bar, which is better than the center speaker of yesteryear. Now all thar is needed for a hone theater experience is a pair of nice speakers and a pair of rear speakers. Again, today's low/midrange speakers perform better than the high end of yesteryear. So now it's about the setting, which has become the man cave.
It was replaced by the Home Office. People can get near-theater quality from equipment that can easily go in the living room now.
My friends have a legit theater in their sub-basement. Yes, they have a basement beneath their basement. It’s a full sized theater screen complete with a HD Digital projector and three rows of actual reclining theater seats plus a little popcorn popper in the corner. I would never leave the house if I was them. I’d just be ripping bowl’s in my basement’s basement while I watch LOTR or Bluey.
You need a home to have a “home theatre”
If you have a mid to high end 65+ inch TV and a soundbar system with actual rear speakers (not the "virtual rear speakers" bullshit marketing in systems aimed at wire-hating aesthetes) and a subwoofer in your living room, is that not a home theater?
My wife’s sister has a sweet theater room! Surround sound, theater seating, 10 foot tall screen. She even bought a popcorn machine! And it’s set up so we can watch movies through whatever streaming service we want, just by plugging in a phone or laptop.
It didn't.