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Friday, May 02, 2008

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Where and How Do You Prefer To Watch Your Movies?

Yesterday Apple surprised no one with their announcement that they would now make new movie releases available on iTunes the same day as the DVD release. That will certainly have an impact on NetFlix and Blockbuster, not to mention the postal service. In the continuing evolution of mobile entertainment we already have witnessed the decline of the local video store. Sooner or later we’ll see DVD releases and digital releases happening the same day as films hit the theatres. I know for some watching movies on a portable device works like a charm (I only do it when I’m traveling) and others despise watching films on a small screen. I know there are quite a few folks that are using Windows Media Center and Apple TV to watch their favorite flicks on their set at home.

So here are some questions for my curious noggin. Where do you prefer to watch your movies? How do you prefer to get your content? Digitally? Physical media? Do you buy or rent? Does having a new title available digitally affect your viewing habits?

Tags: Apple

Mobile | Entertainment | Media

5/2/2008 6:13 AM MST

Where and How Do You Prefer To Watch Your Movies? Comments [7] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Friday, May 02, 2008 8:05:05 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

The wife and I have cut out renting and are limiting trips to the movie theater this year. We have a 42" HDTV and home theater system now, so we still get a big screen experience. It's actually cheaper to buy a movie on DVD than go to the theater (even without snacks), and we can borrow DVDs for free from the public library. Our upscaling DVD player does a great job, but I'm still looking forward to upgrading to true HD (if only there was a way to possibly get a Blu-Ray upgrade for free, perhaps a contest or something). Not going to bother with pure digital until there's enough bandwidth to get uncompressed content.

Sumocat

Friday, May 02, 2008 8:36:15 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I would like to download and watch them on my Media Center PC but there is no service I can use, so DVD rental is the only option for me. I wish Microsoft would open up Xbox live movie service to Media Center

Ian Dixon

Friday, May 02, 2008 9:20:04 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Digital all the way...

Toby

Friday, May 02, 2008 11:22:56 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I watch movies either in the living room on the TV (via rented DVD), or in bed on my Fujitsu T2010 tablet (download only). If I am working late or something I'll play a movie on my desktop in a window as I go about work (also download only).

Until we get a proper home theater with a media center system, I like watching on the tablet the best. Lay down, rotate the screen from laptop mode 180 and put it right in front of your eyes (don't forget to dim the screen!) - it looks like watching on a 100+in screen.

RMathew

Friday, May 02, 2008 11:59:46 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I watch at home in my home theater room on the 120 inch screen with front projector, sitting in my comfy chair. I have an upconverting DVD player that is projecting at 1080p on a native 1080p projector. My current library is about 550 titles and I buy about 5-10 per month at Costco. I rent maybe 5 movies a year. I'm with Sumocat - given the prices for the theater, I can watch at home with better picture and sound quality for about the same price as a theater trip. As for Blu-ray, maybe, but current tests have shown that with a good upconverting DVD player (they used my model as a reference) you can get comparable quality with DVD versus Blu-ray.

My husband and I watch movies probably 4-6 nights per week. We don't watch TV (no cable service). The idea of digital download is intriguing, but it has historically not had the picture and sound quality I require.

I'm as passionate about home theater as I am about Tablet PCs. :-)

Sierra Modro

Saturday, May 03, 2008 4:10:52 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I have a dedicated home theater system....not as large as Sierra's, but with 50" plasma, blu-ray, surround and the like.

However, I find that my wife and I don't use it as much as we would desire. She has some issues with the system -- glare off the plasma, acoustics in the room needing softening, and the like -- and we watch most of our movies with a 37" LCD and a not so wonderful Bose "fake surround" system because it is convenient.

We have not been to the theater in a couple years because we watch our movies at home, either by Netflix or, more recently, AppleTV HD downloads.

Paul Harrigan

Saturday, May 03, 2008 6:16:55 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I don't quite understand why new releases "sold" at $14.99 on the iTunes store would have much of an impact on Netflix. I can rent many moves for those $14.99 from them. Renters and "buyers" are two different customer groups with some but limited overlap. If I want to see as many movies as possible in high quality, Netflix is the way to go, not iTunes.

Oliver

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