With the vacation season now in full swing it’s great to get away. While you’re all out and about enjoying different places, or hanging out with distant friends, there’s plenty to keep you busy while on vacation. When it comes time to watch a movie on a normal TV at the hotel or vacation house it can become quite clear that you’re going to have to cleanse your home theater palette when you get home.

Snobs
It’s not snobbery, but rather an expectation of quality and dedication in recreating the big screen at home that allows one to be remiss at the thought of watching a movie on anything less than a home theater. That’s not to say everything has to be top class either. It can be tons of fun watching a movie on a home theater with a 27-32 inch TV with an affordable audio system connected. In fact, it can be quite amazing to see how well those affordable home theaters actually perform. It’s watching a movie cropped to 4:3 on a run-of-the-mill TV without anything but the TV speakers to guide the way that you’re suddenly reminded of all the reasons you actually have a home theater.

Some of us home theater enthusiasts have been enjoying home theater since we connected our TVs and VCRs to our stereos to enjoy hi-fi stereo sound, which later grew into Dolby Surround Sound, then Dolby Pro-Logic, and finally Dolby Digital and DTS variants. For others a bit younger, they may not know life without a home theater especially if their parents had one. These people grew up with a home theater and are likely to buy one when the move out. For the younger generation it may be that home theater is more of a way movies are meant to be enjoyed, and not really a luxury unless you get into some expensive gear.

True home theater nuts have been watching letterboxed movies since the advent of laserdisc and occasional Hi-Fi VHS tape produced by someone who gave a damn. With DVD and HDTV almost always providing widescreen nirvana, to view a movie cropped to 4:3 just plain sucks.

The audio tastes/capabilities of wherever you are may not work for you either. After getting used to a high quality home theater experience (of which the focus is on grabbing the attention of the audience through spectacular sound and picture) watching a movie with the volume set to a barely audible dull whisper so people can socialize during the movie can seem contradictory.

Be Grateful
It can also be a good time just to sit back and relax and just swell up with pride knowing what you have waiting back at home will fulfill your much needed home theater fix.

Make Do
Sometimes you just have to make do with what’s available. It can sometimes be fun and humbling to be reminded of how most of the world watches movies and TV, where the finer points of home theater finesse and tweaking are simply thrown out the window.

What’s an Audiophile/Videophile to do?
Well if you’re an ultimate ass you can point out the shortcomings of your host’s system of which should be met by your abrupt dismissal, or you can also rudely tell everyone to shut the hell up and crank up whatever speakers are available. Anyone with taste and politeness wired into them would simply hold their tongues and just sit back and enjoy your time with friends and family and hang in there.

Take a Vacation from Your Home Theater
Sometimes it may be best just to skip watching movies in any place but a movie theater on your vacation. Essentially taking a vacation from your home theater. One thing’s for certain, you’ll definitely have something to look forward to when you get back from your vacation. A vacation from your home theater may even make you appreciate it much more and realize how good you really have it.