Breaking News: Dish Network bought Blockbuster! Maybe there is a need for low technology home video viewers
Original Post: When faced with a need to view a movie quickly, I turned to Netflix. Unfortunately my wireless router seems to have become slower, which reduced my movie watching enjoyment. The regular pauses while the movie was "retrieving" were annoying and time consuming. Interestingly, I visited the movie theater the week before and the live theater the week before that. Are each of these a technological dinosaur of the previous? I think not. The live theater involved music, dancing, dust flying (chalk dust), and a fear of a dancer coming off the stage into my lap. The movie theater involved fat layered delicious popcorn, surround sound, a comfortable reclining-rocker, and actors on a big screen. The Netflix slow loading movie wasn't even in the ballpark of enjoyable as the other two outings. Now, the "retrieving" was annoying, but even on my 55" LCD in the comfort of my own home, a movie isn't quite the same as at the movie theater.
What of the fight for the home viewing market? Wells (2010) offered a sobering opinion based on local events in Grisham, OR. I can't even imagine leaving my house to rent a video. The idea is absurd with Netflix and DirecTv instant viewing options. My children miss trips to the video store. I have no idea why. I recall bargaining over rentals and tired kids leaning on me as we waited in line. Maybe there was a thrill to standing in a store with physical cd jackets and candy (I'm guessing it's the candy). I see online access as a definite end to the video store. Without the big screen, surround sound and fresh popcorn, it just doesn't have what the movie theater had to survive this emerging technology.
Wells, S. (2010). Has new tech killed the video store? Retrieved from http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/story.php?story_id=127120738635859500
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ReplyDeleteMy father-in-law owns a rather sophisticated sound system and demonstrated why a true audiophile prefers vinyl to CD. He sat me in a chair, had me close my eyes, and played a jazz album. I could tell where every instrument was in relation to every other. The tone quality was also impressive in a way that digital recordings cannot duplicate.
ReplyDeleteYour experience with the "retrieving" delays inherent in streaming video is a similar example of the way that watching movies via an internet connection just do not compare favorably to an outing to a movie theater, but at least the home theater duplicates some of the qualities of comfort. I agree that it is just not the same.
Even the jazz record did not fully duplicate the experience of being at a live performance.
Kimberly
While I cannot see the difference between vhs and dvd quality, I too can hear the quality difference between live, vinyl and digital.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of retrieving delays, I just sent my husband to purchase a new Cisco Linksys - E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router, http://www.consumersearch.com/wireless-routers, noted as a good buy to replace our WRT54GT. I'm hoping this solves my recent connection issues.