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Forums - Movies & TV - Do you prefer your TV over a cinema screen?

 

I prefer...

Cinema 9 30.00%
 
Home TV 17 56.67%
 
Home projector 0 0%
 
Any screen, even my phone 1 3.33%
 
Imax 2 6.67%
 
4DX 1 3.33%
 
Total:30

The novelty wears off. My kids have free roam to use my projector for gaming. My oldest did for a while, and sometimes still does, yet his preferred way of gaming is on his bed, with phone and laptop next to him, playing on a 42" TV.

Movies we watch in the living room, closer to the kitchen lol. Only when visitors come over that haven't been here before there's interest in the projector.

I used it for nearly a decade before I got bored of it, so did get lots of use out of it. Actually the release of PSVR had me no longer turn on the projector. Also with HDR, playing games on a projector you see so much less detail due to crushed/grey-ish blacks. The bigger screen is cool, but there's so much more shadow detail on a good TV.

Actually last game I played on it fully was Horizon Forbidden West as its HDR implementation and sharpened detail at release was so over the top it gave me migraines on TV. Playing it at 1080p SDR was a lot more comfortable, so I used the projector to play it on.



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SvennoJ said:

The novelty wears off. My kids have free roam to use my projector for gaming. My oldest did for a while, and sometimes still does, yet his preferred way of gaming is on his bed, with phone and laptop next to him, playing on a 42" TV.

Movies we watch in the living room, closer to the kitchen lol. Only when visitors come over that haven't been here before there's interest in the projector.

I used it for nearly a decade before I got bored of it, so did get lots of use out of it. Actually the release of PSVR had me no longer turn on the projector. Also with HDR, playing games on a projector you see so much less detail due to crushed/grey-ish blacks. The bigger screen is cool, but there's so much more shadow detail on a good TV.

Actually last game I played on it fully was Horizon Forbidden West as its HDR implementation and sharpened detail at release was so over the top it gave me migraines on TV. Playing it at 1080p SDR was a lot more comfortable, so I used the projector to play it on.

This exactly.  Contrast is what provides detail and a 3D look. 

And "cheap: projectors (3k or less) don't support 4k/120hz...  or VRR and tend to have poor upscaling.

Quality will always trump size.  

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_305LSP7T/Samsung-The-Premiere-LSP7T.html?cc=07&tp=164

Above is an example.  Terrible contrast and doesn't support VRR or 4k/120hz but is still $2,000.

Buying a TV based on size is like buying an amplifier based on watts pers speaker.  

Last edited by Chrkeller - on 17 October 2024

Soundwave said:
LegitHyperbole said:

Same. If I had the money. A 98" would do just fine for granduer in my perfect imagined theater room and perhaps I'd even go 8k if it doesn't have some soap opera like effect with that much detail and the upscaling doesn't have some disastrous effect on quality. Hell, if you're rich enough you could get a costume screen installed I'm sure that'd beat any TV on the market or one of those concept slTVs from trade shows that are like 8 foot. I'd love to see if these high end projectors actually produce colour and black levels even close to OLED, I have to doubt it but I'm not financially blessed so I may never know. 

You're not going to get equal blacks, but the black levels on a modern laser home projector are very good and 98 inches is a tiny ass screen size for a projector. Once you turn the lights down, you really don't sit there going "oh but the black level is XYZ", you can also go with a gray screen/ALR screen for greater black level. 

I have a setup similar to this with a floor rising screen (Vividstorm mine was a larger one):

You can go 150-300 inches even on consumer grade projectors (obviously prosumer is going to be even bigger than that) which is way bigger than a 98 inch TV, like it's a magnitude of a different kind of experience altogether. 

150 inch OLED I don't think even exists and if it did it would cost like $80,000. 

You notice way more detail on a much larger screen, I have a large screen OLED and I have a roughly $3000 laser projector in my theater room, I prefer watching movies on the projector, have pretty much left OLED only for TV + sports viewing and some gaming but even gaming I don't game on my main TV anymore (sorry PS5). I'll be watching the new Beetlejuice 2 movie on my projector tonight that I ordered on VOD not on the OLED. 

Movies just have more impact on a larger screen and you appreciate more all the details the filmmakers put into a movie when watching it on the larger screen format as they intended. The other cool thing about a projector is it makes watching older films that you've seen before much more fun, they just feel like movies that just came out yesterday and you get the feeling of watching them as if they were new and notice more of the detail in them I find. 

Obviously most people aren't going to be able to have this kind of a setup, I get that, most people don't have the space or the money to spend and if you have a projector you kinda feel obligated to drop some serious coin on proper speakers too. But having both in the home, for movies, not just myself but other members of my family prefer the projector room. It's not really even much of a debate. I have a wall mounted 65 inch screen directly behind my 150 inch floor rising screen, 150 inch is just ridiculously larger. 

I suppose I'll never know cause I'm not going to have enough money for that. You beat the original topic though, you brought the cinema home and replaced your TV with it. 



Black levels seems to be one of the main reasons people prefer movies at home. But I actually rather have a greyish picture with higher FPS than a perfect black picture with low FPS. The stuttering in movies when i go to the cinema takes me out of the immersive experience no matter if the screen is larger than life. The stuttering also make it more tiresome for me to watch, like my brain need to work harder in order to create a moving image illusion in my head.

A home projector with higher frame rates in a completely blacked out room will probably be the ideal movie watching set up. But very few movies is shown in cinema with higher frame rates and many people do not like the smoothed out picture it provides (making very few movie creators going for it) . And for other usage like gaming the response time of the tv still wins.

One of the main reason I prefer watching movies at home is because all the picture settings, sound volume, screen distance and company is of my choosing. While at the cinema I'm left at the mercy of that setup.
And it really bothers me that the exit signs light shines. There is a very valid reason for them to, but it bothers me while watching a movie.

Edit, spelling and clarification.



Pajderman said:

Black levels seems to be one of the main reasons people prefer movies at home. But I actually rather have a greyish picture with higher FPS than a perfect black picture with low FPS. The stuttering in movies when i go to the cinema takes me out of the immersive experience no matter if the screen is larger than life. The stuttering also make it more tiresome for me to watch, like my brain need to work harder in order to create a moving image illusion in my head.

A home projector with higher frame rates in a completely blacked out room will probably be the ideal movie watching set up. But very few movies is shown in cinema with higher frame rates and many people do not like the smoothed out picture it provides (making very few movie creators going for it) . And for other usage like gaming the response time of the tv still wins.

One of the main reason I prefer watching movies at home is because all the picture settings, sound volume, screen distance and company is of my choosing. While at the cinema I'm left at the mercy of that setup.
And it really bothers me that the exit signs light shines. There is a very valid reason for them to, but it bothers me while watching a movie.

Edit, spelling and clarification.

Why settle?  LG OLED is perfect blacks and supports up to 120 fps.  Crutchfield has a 77 inch for $2500.  



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Chrkeller said:
Pajderman said:

Black levels seems to be one of the main reasons people prefer movies at home. But I actually rather have a greyish picture with higher FPS than a perfect black picture with low FPS. The stuttering in movies when i go to the cinema takes me out of the immersive experience no matter if the screen is larger than life. The stuttering also make it more tiresome for me to watch, like my brain need to work harder in order to create a moving image illusion in my head.

Why settle? LG OLED is perfect blacks and supports up to 120 fps. Crutchfield has a 77 inch for $2500.

Oh, I don't settle, it was just my way of describing just how important fps are for my viewing experience. 



Pajderman said:
Chrkeller said:

Why settle? LG OLED is perfect blacks and supports up to 120 fps. Crutchfield has a 77 inch for $2500.

Oh, I don't settle, it was just my way of describing just how important fps are for my viewing experience. 

Fair enough.  And I agree, especially with gaming.  Fps is game changing.  I can't stand 30 fps.  



Pajderman said:

Black levels seems to be one of the main reasons people prefer movies at home. But I actually rather have a greyish picture with higher FPS than a perfect black picture with low FPS. The stuttering in movies when i go to the cinema takes me out of the immersive experience no matter if the screen is larger than life. The stuttering also make it more tiresome for me to watch, like my brain need to work harder in order to create a moving image illusion in my head.

A home projector with higher frame rates in a completely blacked out room will probably be the ideal movie watching set up. But very few movies is shown in cinema with higher frame rates and many people do not like the smoothed out picture it provides (making very few movie creators going for it) . And for other usage like gaming the response time of the tv still wins.

One of the main reason I prefer watching movies at home is because all the picture settings, sound volume, screen distance and company is of my choosing. While at the cinema I'm left at the mercy of that setup.
And it really bothers me that the exit signs light shines. There is a very valid reason for them to, but it bothers me while watching a movie.

Edit, spelling and clarification.

I can't stand movies where the feame rate is too high, I always turn down or off smoothing AI for films and TV shows, a little but is nice but too much and it feels like you get the "soap opera" effect which takes away from the experience. Give me 24 frames per second, slightly smoothed, no more than 30 and I'm good. The Hobbit films caused a controversy at 45fps so it's not just a few of us either, the majority feel this way but as high fps become default on TVs and no one seems to calibrate their TV settings, I expect the newer generation to accustom to 60 fps and us older folks will be forced to accustom too. 



LegitHyperbole said:

I can't stand movies where the feame rate is too high, I always turn down or off smoothing AI for films and TV shows, a little but is nice but too much and it feels like you get the "soap opera" effect which takes away from the experience. Give me 24 frames per second, slightly smoothed, no more than 30 and I'm good. The Hobbit films caused a controversy at 45fps so it's not just a few of us either, the majority feel this way but as high fps become default on TVs and no one seems to calibrate their TV settings, I expect the newer generation to accustom to 60 fps and us older folks will be forced to accustom too.

Yep, I know I'm not in a majority when it comes to this preference. Hench why cinemas and movie makers generally do not increase the framerates presented. As well as they shouldn't since most prefer it that way. And because of this I like watching movies at home more than at the cinema. 

One of the most important aspects for my when buying a new TV is the frame insertion and motion handling tech the TV provides. I want a smooth, clear, stutter free picture without washed out details around the moving objects or ugly artifacts. The best option would be if the source already had higher fps but since so few releases go for it I have to put my trust in the TV-manufacturers ability. 



Pajderman said:
LegitHyperbole said:

I can't stand movies where the feame rate is too high, I always turn down or off smoothing AI for films and TV shows, a little but is nice but too much and it feels like you get the "soap opera" effect which takes away from the experience. Give me 24 frames per second, slightly smoothed, no more than 30 and I'm good. The Hobbit films caused a controversy at 45fps so it's not just a few of us either, the majority feel this way but as high fps become default on TVs and no one seems to calibrate their TV settings, I expect the newer generation to accustom to 60 fps and us older folks will be forced to accustom too.

Yep, I know I'm not in a majority when it comes to this preference. Hench why cinemas and movie makers generally do not increase the framerates presented. As well as they shouldn't since most prefer it that way. And because of this I like watching movies at home more than at the cinema. 

One of the most important aspects for my when buying a new TV is the frame insertion and motion handling tech the TV provides. I want a smooth, clear, stutter free picture without washed out details around the moving objects or ugly artifacts. The best option would be if the source already had higher fps but since so few releases go for it I have to put my trust in the TV-manufacturers ability. 

Yep they'd really need to film at 60fps. I'd hold out hope though, I'd reckon it will change as the younger generation grow up with smooth frame rates and never experience the soap opera effect.