Why go out???

Thanks. The video is pretty good too. Similar to the audio, the video benefits from power and other tweaks that raise performance quite a bit from what you would expect from what is really just a 1080i projector. Really wanted to get a few pictures to post. But don't want to do a shot of just the picture, and can't figure out how to get the room in there without washing out the video. Its either video looks great but the room is black, or room is there but the video is all but gone. Arrgh!

Well said. Have you seen my Home Theater Done Right thread? You could just cut and paste your second paragraph above, it would be perfect.

A great home theater.. that is, a very capable 2-channel home set-up with proper dynamic range/headroom, extension to at least 25-30Hz (preferably via separate subs), projector...

Home theater!
2-channel!
SubS PLURAL!!

Sorry. You got too many things right. Rendered speechless.

Exactly. Its like with cameras, megapixels don't matter. 

The most impressive cinema I know is the Tigard in Oregon. From far out in the parking lot it just looks like a movie theater. Not a drab concrete box. The large lobby is flanked by concessions with a grand wide and gently sweeping ramp leading up to the main theater. So none of this wandering down long dark halls searching for #11.

Inside the screen is huge, the seats comfortable, and the sound the best I've heard. The system floats a rock solid image just like the sound stage of any really good system should be. 

Here at home (Redmond, WA) we hardly ever go out to a movie. Every single time in Oregon though I look for the chance to go to Tigard. Going for the lowest common denominator the movie industry has totally missed the boat.

Jordan B Peterson is so awesome the only person who stands any chance against him at all is Jordan B Peterson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buD2RM0xChM

Jordan B Peterson is simply the greatest philosopher/intellectual of our times. So many hours of him on-line, hundreds if not thousands of hours, yet its hard to find one on any subject that's not absolutely fascinating to watch. I mean the man did a 12 lecture series on the stories of the Bible that sold out each night and has been seen millions of time on-line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w

Complex? Watch just the first 37 seconds and see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
Awesome.

There's an interview with Schroeder, widely regarded as among the best tone arm builders around, and he's asked about the difference between live and reproduced music and practically the first words out of his mouth are its anti-social. Not how hopelessly difficult it is, nothing about dynamics or sound quality at all. Oh, he does get there, eventually. But only after talking about how fundamentally anti-social it is to be sitting in a room all by yourself in the dark playing music that only you can hear. 

For the longest time, many decades, it was rare to attend any concert and not walk around checking out the sound. Steeley Dan at the Gorge ranged from poor to atrocious depending on where you were. All except for dead center one row in front of the mixing board. There the sound was perfect. And I mean perfect. Imaging, depth, you name it, and it was hard not to believe it was even better ten feet up and back where the guys on the console were sitting.

So these audiophiles, they managed to make even a live concert anti-social, by creating good sound for the few of them and them alone. Schroeder, hate to say it, was right on.

When the audience is into it there's electricity in the air. The Seattle Symphony finally cuts the crap with their PC agenda and plays the Messiah. Daniel Craig starts putting the pieces together in Knives Out. Jordan B Peterson talking about... well, anything. The Eagles. Electrifying. Whatever it is, could be anything, could be anyone, when it starts channeling that, whatever it is, we have no name for it, yet we all know what I'm talking about, when the performers doing that and we all sense it there's a cascade and its just, well... whatever it is, its why we sit and listen in the dark- and also why we put up with the crowds and the noise and all the rest as well.

Tarantino filmed The Hateful Eight in Cinemascope (? or whatever technically it is, 70mm anyway) and there was a whole big deal about it being released and projected in 70mm which really is a big deal when done right. But as it turned out not only were there not anywhere near enough projectors there were even fewer projectionists trained to operate 70mm.

Kevin Branaughs Hamlet was in 70mm and absolutely stunning. Imagine the best 40K you ever saw, only richer and smoother with better color saturation and detail so unreal the individual gold threads on the epaulets are sparking and Branaugh’s skin pores are clearly visible. My Fair Lady in 70mm, Lawrence twice on two different screens, same thing. But these were all years ago. 1990’s, 2000’s. By the time Hateful Eight came out they couldn’t even project it in focus. No kidding.

Now in fairness the norm before George Lucas, Star Wars and THX was one crappy 12" or maybe 15" speaker behind the screen. Probably no one under 50 will believe it. But that was the norm. So its not like things haven’t gotten better. Just not the last 20 years. And the last 10 seems to actually be getting worse.

Part of it is digital. Same way it killed music, which like craft ales decades after prohibition records are making a comeback. So who knows maybe home theater will save the movies by being a safe harbor for quality. Hollywood and the motion picture industry seems to be swirling down the drain lower and lower.....