I have always been a keen early adopter of entertainment and computer technology, but I do remember the days of video recorders and VHS tapes, writes technology blogger Dr Stuart Slater.

Although cumbersome by today’s standards, they did offer consumers such as me, the opportunity to watch movies at home.

This bringing of movies into the living room, really inspired me when I was younger, and was frankly one of the only ways to watch movies at the time without queuing round the block only to be disappointed when the single screen cinema was full as I did for Star Wars in 1977.

Thankfully the cinema experience evolved with chains such as the Odeon and AMC (later to become UCI) bringing multi screen cinemas (multiplex cinemas) to our towns, and I thought at the time within a reasonable budget.

All was not rosy with these developments, because the adverse effect was that many small independent cinema’s did end up closing due to a difficulty competing with a national chain such as the Clifton in Telford.

Years later I remember going on Fridays to my local UCI to watch the latest movies and didn’t really care that I might be stuck on the front row with my head cranked backwards looking up at Bruce Willis jumping off a building in Die Hard, or Steve Martin as Ruprect in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

What I really wanted was to munch on some popcorn, forget about work and be drawn into this fabulous celluloid world. I was not disappointed.

As technologies such as Surround Sound began to be implemented into cinemas, the immersive sound experience started to match the sheer size of the image, as the cinema goer could now hear the action behind and around them thanks to the efforts of both Dolby Digital and DTS (Digital Theatre Sound).

I like to think movies became much more interesting, although it must be said, that these technologies never really replaced but more complemented good old fashioned storytelling, and plain good acting for me.

As this discussion began with the idea of watching movies at home, it is interesting to note that the home movie experience has also evolved in parallel with the previously mentioned cinema experience.

In recent years this has been accelerated with a host of digital technologies such as DVD replacing VHS as the avenue for movies in our living rooms.

At first I remember many folks being reluctant to move away from VHS as they had so many movies already and the cost of players was very expensive, but for me a movie fan it was a big WOW.

The jump in picture quality was noticeable with no more grainy movies or jammed tapes.

When I got my first DVD player many years ago, this was supported with the ability of not having to fast forward through tapes, or store rather large cases on my shelves, meaning that to me it was a worthwhile investment to my movie watching experience.

Flashing forward to 2010 and DVD’ are pretty cheap.

The experience that consumers get who cannot make it to the cinema due to work, family or just the cost of taking their family out is good.

But now as you walk into your local store to buy the latest movie on DVD, there are now these rather flashy blue cases called Blu-ray (and shortly 3D Blu-rays), that seem to be growing with each passing week.

Dr Stuart Slater is Director of the Institute of Gaming and Animation at the University of Wolverhampton. Click here for the institute’s website.

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