I have a 55 inch Samsung and it was considerably affordable. And even a 42 inch full HD can keep up with a 20 foot screen when you factor in the different distance you will be sitting from it. And 5.1 speakers or sound-bars do not cost a fortune anymore either. Neither do full HD beamers.
I never said anything about affordability. I don't know why you and silvestrov are trying to argue that point. The fact is that most people do not have high-quality surround-sound systems in their homes, nor do they have truly large screens. Even in the home, truly large screens involve projectors.
And no, 55-inch doesn't compare with the theater. 42-inch certainly doesn't, unless you're sitting two feet away from the screen. Modern theaters have very large screens, and even considering the seating distance they are still relatively much larger than a flat-screen TV a typical family might install. A decent theater will have screens large enough to completely or almost completely fill the field of vision someone sitting in the middle of the theater. You'd have to be about 3 or 4 feet away from a 55" TV for the same effect. (Or else the theater you're going to sucks.)
