Podcast #922: Why Your Home Theaters Probably Stink (A Counterpoint)

Why Your Home Theaters Probably Stink (A Counterpoint)

We found this article over at CEPro titled Why Your Home Theaters Probably Stink which immediately put us on the defensive. We understand that CEPro is aimed at integrators and that in their context a Home Theater is not what we have in our family rooms. Regardless, we wanted to challenge the notion that our modest home theaters stink! We'll go through the article point by point:

From the article:

Let me tell you what happened. In the 1980s and 1990s, everyone in our industry was high on great music and movies and all the tech that reproduced those movies and music in an amazing way. There were tons of beards and ponytails and passion for great AV.

Then control came along… and consumed us. We shifted our focus from high-performing music and video to creating James Bond homes with control of every subsystem in the home. Our focus and our budgets shifted to the new shiny toy. For the most part, home control is not too sexy. It's convenient, it's practical, it's challenging, but at the end of the day it's functional… not emotionally moving.

But now we are in a different time. Control costs are coming down from all the usual suspects and the complexity (labor) to install these systems is getting lower. So our revenues are dropping from control and now we are shifting focus as an industry to lighting and shades. There is lots of competition in that category from guys who have been selling lighting and shades longer than us.

I think we still pursue those avenues, but we are all missing the bigger opportunity… let's get back to great AV and movies. Let's get back to our roots. Let's get back to selling stuff that electricians, window covering companies, and IT people are no good at selling, installing, or designing. Let's sell some kick-ass home theaters!

Why your home theater Sucks:

A projector by a company that also sells inkjet printers or telephone systems

This is a shot at Epson. But let's take a look at the Epson Home Cinema 3800 4K Pro UHD Projector. It has all the important features of some high end projectors including 1.62x Zoom and and lens shift which will help you get the image dialed in. It supports HDR. In fact ProjectorCentral.com gives it a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 on performance and features. Five out of five for ease of use and value. At $1,700 we know the real issue with this projector is that a 25% markup for a professional to sell it to you doesn't make them as much as a 25% markup on a $10,000 projector. Sure that $10,000 projector will be better but that doesn't mean your Epson projector sucks.

A too-small 16.9 screen that is not acoustically transparent

We all want very large screens. It wasn't too long ago we thought a 50" screen was huge! Now 65" is typical and many TVs can be had at greater than 80" and all of them at affordable prices. Ara has had a 100" screen that was not acoustically transparent. That was easily remedied by placing the center channel speaker just below the screen. He has since gone to a 90" screen because of his UST projector. Anyone who has come into his house has commented that the screen is Huge! So what is too small? We get it, for a true home theater you do need a screen greater than 100". But my brother's 75" screen is far more immersive than the 50 inch screen we marveled at ten years ago. We wouldn't say his "theater" sucks. But a pro can't make money setting up a large format TV. Even an 86" LG that goes for $2,000.

An Apple TV or Roku

Them is fightn' words! No one will argue that an AppleTV or a Roku is the highest quality audio and video. But.... Come on... sucks??? The latest AppleTV support HDR, Wide Color, and ATMOS. Did the author forget about when DVD was the pinnacle of high quality? How about Blu-ray? While not as good as a UHD Disc the AppleTV and Roku boxes have better quality than the former technologies did. These boxes should be part of any home theater for the convenience factor alone.

A non-4K cable or satellite box

Well these are just coming out and people will need to upgrade. In most cases it will be an easy swap. Lack of these doesn't mean your theater sucks. It just means it's time to upgrade.

7.2 or 5.1 In-ceiling speakers by a company that specializes in distributed audio products

Again we agree with the author here. Good speakers do make a huge difference in your experience. With that said, this is much better than what we grew up with. How about saying your audio has room for improvement.

A sad 10-inch sub sitting in the corner of the room

This depends on the size of the room. In our world where most people's home theater is in their family room, a good 10 inch sub, from say SVS, would sound great. If you have a large media room or actual theater yes this will be woefully underwhelming.

Final Thoughts

So what was the author's intent here? To keep integrators relevant? Perhaps. Integrators are not going anywhere. There will always be people who just don't have the time or desire to setup their home theaters. But we live in a great time where you can do it yourself and create a great "theater" with all the controls yourself. What we can cobble together for less than $10k would cost five times that 15 years ago. Perfect? No. Better than what you could have done 15 years ago? Without a Doubt! Does your theater Stink? Not from where we sit!