The new literalism plaguing today’s movies • Hacker News Board

Re: The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

#451

Post by mjd » Sat, Jul 19, 2025, 8:56 AM UTC

lavelganzu wrote: post #346

mjd wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eben Moglen observed that at one time people were building giant stone pyramids, then the social and technological conditions changed, and people stopped making new ones. That's OK, it's not a sad thing that there are no new pyramids, we still have the old ones and people still find them awesome. And he says maybe big-budget movies are like that too, something that culture will do for a while and then move on to some…

I for one want new giant stone pyramids. :)

Ecch, you know who would be building them? Mark Andressen.

No thanks.

Re: The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

#452

Post by asdff » Sat, Jul 19, 2025, 7:03 PM UTC

ndiddy wrote: post #402

asdff wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO actual quality components are still just as remote as 20 years ago. A proper setup is more or less the same technology as it has been for decades: good speakers, good amplifier, placed appropriately, and none of this has really seen any democratization. People buy sound bars and such but these are a far cry to what an actual sound system is like that you probably need to spend in the 4 figures to achieve. Buy eno…

I have never heard of sound bars falling apart after a couple years, is that common? Every piece of sound equipment I've ever bought has lasted at least 15 years, my sound bar is 5 years old. In general I think the sound bar audience is different from the hi-fi audio audience. I was fine with using the TV's built-in speakers until LCD TVs took over from CRTs and the built-in speakers became much tinnier and quieter b…

Kind of reminds me of the beats headphones phenomenon. People had these earbuds that lacked any bass response, so they went with headphones that overdid it just to feel it. Sound bars indeed have features like better separation than tinier TV speakers but still crumble apart in comparison to even very modest bookshelf speakers you can run actual speaker wire into. Let alone a sub or a proper surround setup. Likewise with Beats and other headphones, they crumble put against the humble studio monitors like mdrv6/mdr7506 that have great separation and more faithful response to the intents of the record producer (who might very well have been using those exact headphones themselves).

Re: The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

#453

Post by asdff » Sat, Jul 19, 2025, 7:07 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #440

jjcob wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't just go to the cinema for the image/audio quality. Most people go to meet friends.

That's kind of my point. You don't need to go for image/audio quality at all now. It's purely social, or to see something sooner. Whereas it used to be very much about image and audio quality.

I'm sorry but airpods and a 1080p screen from your couch are on a different planet compared to theater sound and even liemax or smaller formats. You can't feel sound from an airpod in your chest.

Re: The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

#454

Post by Broken_Hippo » Mon, Jul 21, 2025, 10:57 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #365

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but it was good enough for most movies. The person you replied to is correct: It was glorious at the time. We were all amazed by graphics, even on those old tvs. The "movie theater experience" wasn't worth the hassle for anything but movies with good action and graphics - things like comedies didn't get uniquely better at the theater. It didn't need to be about the same or better, it just needed to be good enough…

> No, but it was good enough for most movies. The person you replied to is correct: It was glorious at the time. We were all amazed by graphics, even on those old tvs. I genuinely don't know what you're talking about. No it wasn't. Movies on TV weren't glorious at all. They weren't "amazing." They were what you made do with. And when a classic movie played at your local arthouse theater you grabbed a ticket because i…

It wasn't that they were amazing. Good enough.

And while maybe not amazing, they were wonderful at the time. Do you remember folks being amazed at the graphics on the PS1 or heck, even the N64? Those weren't good, really, but at the time? Yeah, it was good enough. Late 90's started seeing bigger tvs and sound systems. DVDs brought options to see all that stuff on the sides if you wanted. You didn't "make do" if you are out there buying modern tech - maybe you made do with whatever brands they sold at walmart - but then again, they sold game systems so it really wasn't "store brands only" or anything like that.

I'm not sure where you lived, but absolutely no theaters around me showed classics, save for something like Star Wars or Disney movies. One played second run movies - the ones in the space between theater release and home video release. So no, no one went to things like that. I graduated high school in the mid 90s, and both local theaters were pretty run down places that treated employees badly. The ones in smaller surrounding towns, if they had it, usually only played a handful of movies and were old places. And this seemed pretty normal for Indiana, outside of perhaps Indianapolis or a few richer areas.