Blu-ray won the format war fair and square (well maybe), but high definition images and sound are only the beginning. For the ultimate home cinema experience, you need a D-BOX – a device that adds movement to films. New Blu-ray movies can be coupled with D-BOX motion codes (currently 800 and going up) that connect to special D-BOX chairs in your home cinema. These look like everyday easy-chairs, but when all linked up, will add pitch, heave and roll movement to the action sequences.
LWLies tested it out with Hayden Christensen’s latest action fun-fest Jumper. As you sit watching the moody young man fight and he gets thrown to the right – so do you in the D-BOX chair. When trucks enter the scene to a deep rumble, you feel it in the chair. When the jumps through time and space take place and characters come to a crashing halt – so do you; as the chair jerks and spasms around in perfect synchronisation.
The experience is initially bizarre and the potential for motion sickness is very real, but as a “check this out” gizmo to impress your friends, this sort of technology is tremendous fun – at a price. This is very much the province of rich man’s toy, but might actually worthwhile for someone looking for a bit more from their home cinema.
Jumper is out on DVD on June 16.
