How do people watch their movies?

[crpto34]

I have been curious to see how people watch their movies, besides the movie theater of course.

Currently I watch them on my samsung lcd 46" tv and if I'm in my room on my laptop. If I am feeling really adventurous I will use my aaxa tech m2 portable projector and end up confusing half the old people around. It's actually pretty funny.

So what say you?

[Too-DAMN-Much]

either with photons impacting the inside of a vacuum tube, or through the energization (and coloration) of liquid crystals in a flat screen.

[crpto34]

either with photons impacting the inside of a vacuum tube, or through the energization (and coloration) of liquid crystals in a flat screen.

I don't think anyone will top that answer

[Warrior of the Light]

Crt

[rockouthippie]

I have a 50" plasma set and a 19" LCD in the bedroom. Sometimes I got to the movies. The plasma set is always hooked to a computer that is mainly a DVR. I have Netflix. I watch stuff online quite a bit and watch OTA TV. I don't have cable. I hook my laptop to the 19" bedroom TV and watch that sometimes. I have a BD player in the DVR computer.

CRT's suck. It doesn't even matter if you don't have HD programming. My HD sets are only 720p. CRT's are just no longer an option. I'm too spoiled. The difference in a 1080i picture doesn't make me get out the checkbook.... Some kind of plasma or LCD set would.

My last tube set was a really nice 39" JVC..... sent off to the thrift store....

[fc*uk]

No cable, no dvr solution of any sort. Got a 1080p iMac, which really makes DVDs and standard def look like ass, so no movies on it. Why Macs don't support BD is more than beyond me.

I have a 32'' 720p/1080i in the bedroom and living room. As roh, just can't fork over the cash for 1080p for the marginal difference. The bedroom TV is air and cheap ass dvd player. The TV in the living room is air, upscaling dvd player, and roku with hulu plus and netflix. The internet really delivers my content anymore.

I've also got the roku jacked into two tuners (one for the TV, the other supplies outside speakers for my back yard). The use of the TV tuner is obvious; the other is for shoutcast streaming when I do yard work or just want to relax outside.

Additionally, my imac running VMWare (WinXP) can privately serve my roku box (SHOUTcast server) and I have an iPad/iPhone app called iAmpRemote which gives me access to Winamp so I can control said winamp playlist while outside.

Finally, I have my ipad and iphone and the netflix/hulu plus streaming apps when I am away. Watching netflix on the iphone over 3g works, but that screen is damn small. If wireless is around, I will whip out the ipad and watch that way.

At times I think I am too connected to shit; this is one of them.

[thinktink]

16:9 17" LCD Computer monitor on my (gasp) computer while reclining like a villain in my staples bought executive chair with my feet propped up on another small computer I permanently use as a footrest.

[EDIT /]
Oops, I was a bit mistaken about my monitor, it's not 16:9, it's 16:10, get's annoying at times too.

[SSJ4 Gogitta]

15" 4:3 monitor @ 1024x768x72 Hz attached to the VGA output of my laptop (since the screen on it is dead). I'll gladly accept alms for the use of me getting a Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q888 laptop (or whatever I can find with a 1080p screen with a blu-ray drive. Because having one doesn't make sense without having the other.).

My TV is a crappy 22" 720p el-cheapo with an HD-DVR from the cable company. My roommate plans on getting a bigger TV for the living room come tax time, and said he'd take my TV plus $100 and I can have the Philips 42" 1080p TV in the living room. He wants my TV for his bedroom. I'm okay with this deal.

[Psythik]

On my 22" 1680x1050 LCD monitor.

[crpto34]

anyone using a projector or a portable projector, or am I the only one? They make pretty decent led based portable projectors that are able to do 1024x768 XGA.

[Smeggle]

wif me eyes I be watching dem...

[Psythik]

Originally Posted by crpto34

anyone using a projector or a portable projector, or am I the only one? They make pretty decent led based portable projectors that are able to do 1024x768 XGA.

I would if I could find one that was bright enough to be used in a lit room, had a 1920x1080 resolution, was available for under $2k, and didn't need a new $200 light bulb every year or two. Until then, I've got my eyes on a 47" Samsung 3D plasma (cheaper than LED and looks better).

[mike-db]

I'm a pirate.

[JPRoss]

52" plasma. love it!

also find myself watching Netflix movies through the wii a lot. the picture quality is mediocre, but it's easy and comes with our netflix account.

[swingdjted]

HD projector for movies (not mine though, I just borrow it). I keep the lights out when I use it. Otherwise, I have this 27" 1920x1200 Samsung 257T+ monitor, or a 27" CRT RCA TV.

[kingo'mountain]

size doesn't matter.... much

[Too-DAMN-Much]

Originally Posted by kingo'mountain

size doesn't matter.... much

until you have some for yourself

[swingdjted]

To me it matters more how far you sit from the screen. Sitting close means you can see a "bigger" screen, whereas sitting further away makes the screen appear smaller. Where I watch movies, my eyes are about 9-12 feet away from a projector screen that is about 8 feet in diagonal measurement. If I were to watch a fullscreen video on the computer's 27" monitor, the video appears bigger there because it covers a wider angle from my vantage point, to the point where eye and even neck movement is necessary to comfortably see the corners. In terms of perception, the much smaller monitor appears much larger than the huge projector screen.

[Too-DAMN-Much]

yeah good point, that's also how some glasses setups boast insane screen sizes, the screen is so much closer to your eye it seems like it's much larger than it really is.

for what it's worth, my computer monitor is about as large as i could say i need for watching movies, i would say it'd be cool to have four of them setup for double the screen size to watch on, but... this one almost gets into peripheral vision, not quite but close.

[cooky560]

Big-ass TV with a good sound system is still my vote

[swingdjted]

I'd sooner have great sound and not-so great screen compared to great screen and not-so-great sound.

[fc*uk]

Agreed Ted. I am amazingly picky about how things sound while I would give a rats arse about how it looks (upconverted DVD is good enough, IMHO).

[swingdjted]

DVD includes 5.1 DTS or Dolby Digital surround. That's a lot better for the experience than more pixels or a bigger screen in my opinion. So far, everyone I know that has migrated to Blu-Ray and/or HDTV has not yet picked up surround sound, not even the older Pro-Logic, and I think they're missing something worthwhile. Worse yet, they listen to sound played on built-in TV speakers...

[cooky560]

oh I love my sound too, which is why I instead of relying on the TVs sound I have it connected to a Hi-fi seperates system, sounds yummy and amazingly loud

[swingdjted]

Good quality sound seems to be less popular than it used to be. A long time ago, a lot of homes had good "hi-fi" systems that had at least decent large full range speakers. A common home would have sound reproduction quality that was a lot closer to the best-of-the-day than people have now. Although sound is a little better now in terms of availability, no one is buying it. It seems everyone wants compressed mp3's and earbuds, and quite frankly that sucks. Music suffers because of it too, because there is very little contrast in terms of timbres and dynamics and other musical aspects.

[k_rock923]

These days, mostly on Netflix. I have a pretty nice TV, although only 32 inches and no surround sound.

I find that I don't watch TV much at all, and if it weren't for sports and the occasional news program, I wouldn't even need cable.

[watadoo]

Netflix through my X-box on a 46" lcd thangee with a pair of my old studio monitors for sound. JBL 4311a's plus a custom built sub woofer, bi-amped for boomosity.

[Widdykats]

^ Happy ...er Merrry....Uh... Good Holiday Greetings, watadoo.
I watch Tv on a Tv through my cable box.

[polyphasic]

I am also using these common ways for movies. Use to download movies and then watch them on my Apple Mac