Okay Geek Farm
D-BOX Seating: The next revolution of the movie industry or the next distraction?
Connor Scalleat
D-BOX promises to be the next big leap in movie theater technology, but is all this technology in the theater enhancing the movie or is it becoming a distraction from the real art of movie making? Some major film critics avoid 3D at all costs and D-BOX seating is next on their list of things to avoid. They say that anything in the theater that is not the movie itself is a distraction, and although major movie producers and theaters are pushing this technology as hard as they can to attract younger guests, they may just end up streaming the movie in their living rooms a couple months after it leaves the theater.
Personal Experience
D-BOX technology is new to my local theater and so far I have only seen Super-8 in these new seats. The seats themselves are beautiful, they really stick out in a theater full of normal and small seats. To begin, D-BOX seating gives you much more room and I saw many larger people facilitating the seats and I can imagin that they are using these seats for there size and comfort and not the shocking revolution of movie theater technology. In my theater, the seats were at the bottom of the theater and not in the middle which I find disappointing because I am paying double the price for a ticket and not being put in the best spot sucks. Normal movie theater tickets are $8.25 and my D-BOX ticket cost me a pretty $15.95.
Once the movie began the seats jiggled a bit and a message appeared on the screen saying something like, “If you don’t have D-BOX seats yet go get them and if you do you can adjust there response on the bottom left of your arm rest.” An older couple behind me lowered the seats to the lowest response possible while me and my friend raised them to highest response levels, of course. The first time that the seats engaged was in a car scene where when the car started the seats juggled a little bit, with the Dolby Theater on the theater basically vibrated when the old car started to, it was an absolutely great opening scene.
Throughout most of the beginning of the movie nothing much happened with the seats which made me think they were a complete waste of money, along with people around playing with their seats seeing if they were still on. Finally the next car scene came into play and this time the camera was following a car on the way to a train station, which was an amazing experience with the seats tilting to every turn of the car. It added something to the movie that 3D and 2D could never do. Once at the train station, the seats really started to show off. In the main action sequence a train was coming to the station and the seat felt exactly what a train feels like approaching a station a truly amazing experience.
As the train was passing’ and you’re finally almost getting the feeling that you’re there, the train wrecks. An extreme crash with the train completely derailing and blowing up. The seats absolutely freaked out like you were on a old wooden roller coaster, an older gentlemen to the right of me had to grip his arm wrests to maintain stationary during the action scene. It was absolutely amazing the killer sound along with a seat that was simulating everything to perfection. I was beginning to forget completely about the jacked prices, and now I’m starting to think they’re actually worth it!
Overall it was a truly amazing experience and my friend also completely agrees. In a movie with major action scenes you could never go back to 2D after D-BOX, and although the experience isn’t for everyone, you should at least try it once, especially if your local theater is having a special deal or something. Older people were definitely not as excited and the two behind me were actually rather irritated with the experience, while little kids cared more about the seats then the movie.
D-BOX at home too?
D-BOX isn’t the new kid on the block when it comes to engaging seating technology. D-BOX seating has been popular with gamers for awhile, along with home theater buffs trying to get the ultimate experience. Gamers have called the experience “the future, the most engaging experience they have had in racing games without being in an actual car”. Imagine playing Grand Theft Auto with a steering wheel in front of you and being able to run into a car right in front of you and feel the impact with more then just a jiggle on your controller. The experience is truly the coolest you can get but it just isn’t priced practically for the average gamer.
The home theater technology is more reasonably priced but not very well marketed or carried throughout retail stores. I can imagine this will take a very long time before you find it in your local Best Buy, but it is definitely something that is worth looking forward to. Whether the technology could ever catch main stream I doubt it, but for the intense gamers and home theater buffs I think we could see it become a standard.
In a nutshell
Overall I feel like the technology is a big help for the overall experience of the movie. To begin, the price point of the seats makes a psychological affect almost making you get more into the movie because you feel like you are now here for an experience, which is what a movie is really all about. Unlike 3D you are not trying to make the technology work for you, meaning trying to see things in 3D, but rather the seat literally throws you into the movie. Essentially instead of trying to play with the seat and pay attention to that, the seat makes you pay attention to the movie more by keeping you fully emerged. it’s really awesome and if you love movies (especially of the action variety), grab a D-BOX seat and tell us what you think!
