Can you imagine watching a movie with no sound? That is like asking about the days the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Saying that things have come a long way is the understatement of the decade.

With amazing clarity and resolution, high definition or HD has shaken up the film industry and has become a force to be reckoned with.

Theater Quality in the Comfort of Your Own Home

It used to be that whenever a new movie came out, theaters would be packed for days with multiple showings of the new movie. Everyone had to see it. The urgency has gone away. Of course, movie theater popcorn may be better than the microwave kind and the sound may be bigger, but with HD quality available at home fewer people are going to the theater. Enjoying the movie in the comfort of your own home in your favorite pair of bunny slippers has become too attractive to pass up? So goes the thinking. Big time theaters are no longer the only ones to boast of high definition quality. The same quality is available right in your own home. That's the impact of high definition, very close to home.

Theater Quality in the Palm of Your Hand

Video is everywhere. It has been for a while. But now, HD video is going everywhere? Would you believe that HD video is now available on YouTube? High definition video quality is ubiquitous, and that leaves theaters with little claim for exclusive quality. People are watching high definition movies on the netbooks, iPods, and smartphones to name a few. That does a great deal to injure the pride of the big boy status that theaters used to have, especially when a 2.A 5 inch screen offers the same quality as the silver screen. Now the impact of high definition is as close as your mobile phone.

Theater Quality... Losing Appeal

The film industry is undergoing a metamorphosis. Box office sales are still high enough to keep the industry afloat, but how long is that going to last? Now, it's not an issue of quality that keeps people coming back to the theater. It's an issue of chronology. People by nature are impatient. No one wants to wait months until the movie becomes available on DVD.

Those who are patient enough to not see the movie on opening weekend are being rewarded. With avant-garde boldness, many film industry moguls are launching DVD releases way before the nine or ten month delay that used to be standard.

Huge movie theaters may end up as monuments to passing time as HD continues to evolve and technology for home theaters advance...before the advent of this wonderful invention we call "HD."