Audio Video News

We don't know about your family, but ever since we set up our big-screen HDTV and surround-sound speakers a couple years ago, we've been to the movies exactly . . . once.

There's something about enjoying a film with all settings (picture quality, volume, lighting) just the way you like them, a couch to stretch out on and an absence of throngs of people with ringing cell phones that makes the movie theater seem like a headache.

But man do those theater owners want us back. And they'll spend whatever it takes to get us there. On Tuesday, Access Integrated Technologies said it struck a deal with four studios - Disney, Fox, Paramount and Universal - to convert 10,000 theater screens to digital 3-D technology at a cost of $700 million over the next three years.

According to the Associated Press, "Theaters owners and studios hope the offerings will help bring people back to multiplexes for an experience that cannot be matched by increasingly sophisticated home theater systems."

But what is this hope based on? It is difficult to find evidence that suggests home theater buffs are tempted by in-theater 3-D movies. First there's the problem of getting moviegoers to accept the discomfort of 3D glasses. Even the gory action-adventure epic Beowulf (above) failed to draw multitudes of guys out of their living rooms: The film was the least-attended Mid-November movie in 14 years.

Another problem? Tech-oriented home-theater owners know that 3D technologies will eventually make it into their fortresses of solitude. Once the 3D discs are available for home viewing, sets like Samsung's newest will be the obvious answer -Rachel Rosmarin