Watching movies on Netflix: How the screen size and scene type affect your movie experience

Television content, series and films are no longer restricted to the living room. They have expanded, moved out and about onto devices that can be carried out anywhere in the world. Wherever you are, you can connect a cell phone, a tablet or a laptop to the Internet and binge watch whatever movie, season or program that your heart desires. The live streaming media and VOD (Video on Demand) services of Netflix and the likes can be availed anywhere, anytime.

It seems like the size and type of the device no longer matters — or does it?

Most people state that watching movies on a bigger screen is more fun. Millions of dollars are spent per month on the advertisements of bigger screens to engage buyers and motivate them to experience what they see.

Is a big screen really worth the hype?

Truth behind the Size

Studies for some time have been focusing on how important the screen size of a device is for greater impact.

This has been difficult to measure; mainly, because immersion has had differing definitions across varying research and fields.

Therefore, research was focused for a long time towards defining immersion.

Initially, the impact of a movie on the audience was measured through a term called the “presence”. It was defined as the sense someone has of being inside a media.

Later on, immersion of a viewer was categorized into three subtypes: engagement, engrossment and total immersion. Engagement was the act of deciding to watch something; engrossment was the interest portrayed while watching it; and if someone became oblivious to the environment around them due to the media, it was termed as total immersion.

Research by the University College, London adapted the Immersive Experience Questionnaire by Jennet et al. that focuses on identifying and measuring different aspects of immersion on viewers. The questionnaire was modified because it was felt that playing a game is a “sit straight” activity that requires the complete attention of the player, while watching a movie is a “lean back” activity in which the viewer may or may not be that attentive.

The Bigger, the Better

The research chose 19 participants who each watched a movie of their choice on Netflix with a 4.5 inch cell phone, 13 inch laptop and a 30 inch monitor. While there was a considerable difference in immersion experienced when viewing a movie on a cell phone and laptop, there was almost no difference between immersions experienced by participants when watching movies on the laptop and monitor screen.

It was also noted, however, that scenes that provoked excitement or arousal are likely to produce greater results on a bigger screen.

Another research by Troscianko et al. focused on the aspect of immersion and presence that could be scientifically measured or observed. There were two parts to this research. In the first experiment, the reaction time of the group and pupil dilation while watching a movie on a bigger screen was measured.

Not only was the research focused on the reaction to a movie caused by the size of the screen, but also the type of scene that causes greater reaction. The first experiment strengthened results obtained by the University College, London.

Fig 1. summarizes the result for Experiment 1.

Scene Type

It is often a case of frustration for us to think about what to watch.

While several people may opt for a nature documentary to pass their time, research has proved that watching media that shows faces instills more sensation of presence in a person than one without faces.

In Troscianko’s et al. second experiment, landscapes and face scenes were put on for detection of immersion experienced due to the type of scene. Subjective presence of the viewer was found to be greater for face scenes, rather than for landscapes. It increased with the size of the screen, while keeping the resolution, retinal angle, and local luminance constant.

The results were displayed through graphs below:

The researches made it obvious that a bigger size definitely makes the Netflix experience better. In addition to that, watching media that portrays faces rather than landscapes is the best way to get you immersed into the movie or a documentary.

Finding movie playing on a large screen

When I was researching the market for GO2CINEMA, I interviewed people about their common pain points when going to the cinema. Accidentally booking a ticket in an auditorium with a small screen topped the list of complaints. To address this issue, I have added a LARGE SCREEN filter. The LARGE SCREEN filter shows only movie showtimes that are playing in an auditorium with a large screen.

In addition to the screen size filter, using GO2CINEMA you can search for a movie ticket by price, accessibility parameters and dozens of more location specific parameters (35MM, 70MM, IMAX, 4K, etc.).

What about you — what matters to you the most when watching the movie? Is it the screen size, being with friends? When do you prefer to go to cinema over watching from the comfort of your home?

Originally published at go2cinema.com.