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Media of Choice?

Towen7

Towen7

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
What’s everyone’s media of choice for movies?
4K discs?
BD discs?
Streaming?

Does the preference change depending on the display (TV vs. projector) or screen size?
I’m not one to re-watch movies so spending $20 or more on a disc was never all that appealing but it was the only real option back in the day. RedBox kiosks are an option but its a bit of a hassle. Streaming is less of a hassle than buying or renting discs but the picture quality was a significant step down, especially when displayed on a large-ish sized screen. Then we added 4K TVs around the house and streaming services looked great on them. This resulted in us using the HT less and less, and eventually not at all.

After visiting a friend‘s HT I decided to get back into mine. There’s just something different about the experience with a 2X larger screen. I decided to connect a Roku Ultra to my 1080p projector and found that the picture quality was much, much better than I recalled it being a few years ago. I’d say it’s more than good enough and it’s >95% as good as the BD in my unqualified opinion.

Another drawback to streaming … I have 7.1 audio setup and it appears that the streaming services limit the audio to 5.1 when streaming to a 1080p device, which seems weird. That’s bummer but not a deal breaker.
 
I still buy BluRays but like Heeman I wait till the price drops and if possible I get the ones that also have the digital code.
Streaming is great on pretty much all my TV’s but when using the projector I prefer the disc.
Pic is almost always a little better but for me it’s the sound. Every movie I’ve streamed the audio is almost always sub par compared to a disc.
 
walls said:
I still buy BluRays but like Heeman I wait till the price drops and if possible I get the ones that also have the digital code.
Streaming is great on pretty much all my TV’s but when using the projector I prefer the disc.
Pic is almost always a little better but for me it’s the sound. Every movie I’ve streamed the audio is almost always sub par compared to a disc.
Click to expand...

Roku appears to support lossless audio but I’m seeing that 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus seems to be the default when streaming. I don’t think I’ve come across any titles with lossless audio. At least not on the services I use; Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime. Some streaming titles show to have Atmos audio but since my pre/pro is ancient it doesn’t support that format, Im essentially limited to DD+ until I upgrade my processor. And if I upgrade the processor I’ll feel compelled to add some extra speakers for Atmos. And that means I’ll need another amp. And if you’ve got a 4K source and processor it’d be silly to not upgrade to a 4K projector. None of those are things I have a budget for.
 
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Towen7 said:
Roku appears to support lossless audio but I’m seeing that 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus seems to be the default when streaming. I don’t think I’ve come across any titles with lossless audio. At least not on the services I use; Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime. Some streaming titles show to have Atmos audio but since my pre/pro is ancient it doesn’t support that format, Im essentially limited to DD+ until I upgrade my processor. And if I upgrade the processor I’ll feel compelled to add some extra speakers for Atmos. And that means I’ll need another amp. And if you’ve got a 4K source and processor it’d be silly to not upgrade to a 4K projector. None of those are things I have a budget for.
Click to expand...
Audio while streaming is almost always a tad compressed and compared to the discs even when they claim to be DD+ streamed movies still sound a little lackluster to me anyways.

I run 7.2 out in my garage “theater” and have zero to little interest in getting more speakers and such for atmos. I’m not saying it’s not a good upgrade, just not something I need or desire.
 
And I also have no real desire to upgrade my projector, I love that it’s laser so no fricking bulbs to deal with and it looks really good. Lol
 
walls said:
And I also have no real desire to upgrade my projector, I love that it’s laser so no fricking bulbs to deal with and it looks really good. Lol
Click to expand...

I don’t want to upgrade but only because I’m broke. Despite many assertions that 4K wouldn’t be perceptibly better on a 72“ or 65” screen I do believe that they’re better than what’s they replaced. I’d expect that to be even an more evident upgrade for my 12 year old projector. When mine was new 1,000 lumens was considered very bright. Now twice that is pretty much the baseline.
 
Roku for me and if I'm buying a movie it's usually thru Amazon Prime Video. We don't own too many digital copies but maybe around 10. Most recently we bought Top Gun Maverick and the pic quality is great. We also do rentals on Amazon Prime Video.
 
If I consider the content “demo” worthy I’ll buy the 4k disc every time. They always come with the 1080BD also and more often than not, a 4k digital copy. Most of the other content, we rent and stream. I did get a decent 85” Sony TV about 1.5 years ago along with a 4k Sony BD player and one of their nicer soundbars. While not my preference it’s still respectable for a smallish family room. I haven’t had a functional theater in close to 5 years but I expect to have one again someday.
 
if its not streaming i try to look it up on rental.

i still support most studios if i find them worth it. case in point, i bought and double dipped on ghostbusters afterlife and bought the 4k movie.

i still wait tho, which reminds me black friday is coming so time to buy my 4k's.
 
Streaming 100%. Sadly the HT gets used very little. I mostly watch sports on the PJ. As Towen said, there is something to be said for watching sports/movie on a big ass screen. Again, like Towen I have a 1080P projector that is now somewhere in the area of 12 or probably actually 14 years old. With my son having his gaming rig down in the multi purpose HT/rec room most of my viewing is now done on the tiny 55 inch OLED upstairs.
When the kids were young we bought dvd/blurays because they were watching them repeatedly and I thought the cost was justified. I very rarely watch a movie more than once so I pretty much never buy movies anymore now that the kids are older.
Edit: I do think however sound suffers in streaming...whatever the platform
 
mcad64 said:
Edit: I do think however sound suffers in streaming...whatever the platform
Click to expand...

I remember when the lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master were all the rage for BD movies. And yeah, there was a slight but noticeable improvement with them over the "lossy" formats. But much like the reduced PQ of streaming 1080p vs. a BD, I'm not sure it's enough to detract from the experience. I do miss is using the rear surrounds.
 
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Streaming. The picture quality gap between streaming and disc is nowhere near what it once was and the convenience of streaming is hard to beat. The main problem is that it is so easy to buy movies sitting on the couch with a remote. I'll go to Vudu to watch something I own and think, "Let me just check the current sale..." Big mistake. I'm north of 1500 movies there now.
 
Towen7 said:
I don’t want to upgrade but only because I’m broke. Despite many assertions that 4K wouldn’t be perceptibly better on a 72“ or 65” screen I do believe that they’re better than what’s they replaced. I’d expect that to be even an more evident upgrade for my 12 year old projector. When mine was new 1,000 lumens was considered very bright. Now twice that is pretty much the baseline.
Click to expand...
i think thats also the hard part about our hobby too.

i cant think of the appropriate word for it, so lash out all you want...

so purist, hobbyist, enthusiast, would be saying 5.1 at least... or 1080p for your picture quality and everything... 16 gauge or go home...

nowadays? i think we've learned to 'compromise' about several things given MY current life situation. my HT is in my living room area that has 2 boys playing constantly.

my rear right speaker? crayons.

left rear speaker? still somewhat safe, but has a toy or two on top of it.

Main 'tower' speaker gets knocked over a few times, but not to the point its fallen.

my point is, ive enjoyed the hobby to a certain degree, but life has changed my perspective and compromised to an acceptable degree.

no need for toe in speakers, yes surrounds running a bit hot, subwoofer is a bit pacified due to MIL laws of compliance.

picture quality? as long as i dont pass out or its pixelated im good.
 
I’ve personally focused more on two channel music, been building a nice system and building up my vinyl collection.
Still love to fire up the theater but more times than not it’s the basement family room and music for me anymore.
 
I'm not much into movies, but I am into concerts. Still buying Blurays for them, as I watch them multiple times. I bought Chuck's Oppo disk player, and a local audio salon had their demo model for half-price, so now I have three; should last me for the remainder.
When I got my new car in 2018 I really enjoyed streaming music via SiriusXM, but I've posted elsewhere about dropping those satanic pieces of sh*t. Still have music from Amazoid Prime, which can play thru my Alexa devices, but am thinking about dropping Prime and maybe going with Apple music; I now have an iPhone and even blutooth earbuds (which I've yet to use), plus could use it in my car during longer trips.
 
I learned today RedBox also sells used copies of BDs for $5. While I still don't think I'll watch repeatedly it'd be worth the extra $2 to not bother returning it.
 
I’ll always have a slight hatred toward RedBox simply because it was sometimes a pain to return DVDs.

One time the machine just wouldn’t take my disc. But mostly it was due to sometimes running into machines where there were people browsing for something to watch. I’m sure it wasn’t this bad everywhere, but I recall one place was a grocery store that used to have its own video rental business before switching to a single RedBox. Sure was damn cheap. And yet I’d surely feel some sense of satisfaction if were allowed to just beat the shit out of that machine with a sledgehammer.
 
I had similar experiences and TBH I'm still not a fan at all. I won't use it often. I suspect I'll find myself in the same pattern of streaming most of the time and occasionally renting at Redbox for not wanting to buy a disc at full retail, then buying at full retail for not wanting to deal with RedBox,
 
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