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The long history of home media suggests that people just don't care all that much about "a better experience".

When I visit people's houses, I'm often appalled by the audio quality. It's usually nothing compared with good theater sound, which people have experienced frequently. The same often applies to image quality. Does it matter to people? Evidently not. They are entertained just the same, and go to theaters less and less.

And if we look back, people were absolutely entranced by TV in the black-and-white era, and it was the same going forward. The movie theater's advantage was generally more about exclusive, heavily promoted content. Once home video became common, despite its poor quality, second-run in-theater showings mostly died out.

Yes, a family of four could spend $12k on Vision headsets and then find high-tech solution to keep their media in sync. Or they could spend $250 on an adequate 50" TV and then be able to see each other's expressions. That sounds like the real no-brainer to me.




Honestly I find most theaters’ a/v quality unimpressive. Old screens with remnants of thrown sodas, poorly tuned sound systems, etc. I am sure there are some brilliant theaters with Dolby vision + atmos.

My simple 5.1 system and not so simple qd-oled display is just SO much better for me than the theater.

BUT - my wife doesn’t really care. She’ll happily watch a movie on a laptop although she does say the theater sounds no better than home. I’d guess she’s closer to the norm than me.


Consider that it’s the end times and people spend a huge amount of their precious free time binging streaming services. Birth rates are down, and “everyone gather around for family time!” is not a very frequent occurrence in most families I’ve seen.

Clearly, Apple shares my dystopic Vision and cannot wait!


Ok. So? I also think solo people don't care much about "a better experience". Indeed, bingers seem almost definitionally people who do not care about good experiences.

Regardless, if that family of four watches separately, $1k on 4 adequate TVs also seems like a perfectly fine solution. If the kids aren't just watching stuff on their phones, which seems pretty common in my experience.


Well my point was a little tongue in cheek so sorry if it offended! Was partially just lamenting our culture and what pandemic+inequality+polarization+digitization has done to it.

I guess if I had to crystallize a real point out of “family togetherness is out of style”: people definitely care about their viewing experience, just not in the super rational pragmatic way I think you do. Take retina screens, for example - Apple pushed them hard and I anecdotally know people justify their purchases with them, even tho I suspect there were and are more economical options that would give a viewer 99% of the same experience.

The kind of people who could imagine spending $3500 on any gadget are the kind of people who like cool tech backed by cool ads in cool packaging, IMO. And cmon… Sitting in your living room and feeling like you’re in a movie theater on the moon is new and fun and cool, however you slice it.


I was referencing the original post. In 10 years, it wouldn't be $12k, probably more like $1k for 4 headsets.


But the point is that people still generally won't care. You can drastically improve the sound quality of a television for $1K, and most people don't do it. You could have 3d goggles for a while there for a similar price point, and no one did it.


I don't necessarily agree with this, but let's roll with it — it doesn't change my prediction that in 10 years, 50% of people in commercial flights will be wearing a headset

...and if people buy that device for travel, many of them will use it instead of a home theater


the long history of media is also that it leads to a 50” TV that costs $250! ;)




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