Ask Lemmy

Big screen. If I’m watching something on my phone I’m not enjoying it, I’m merely passing time.

Big screen. Small screens are only for short clips on sites, posts or a show I've seen 100x on repeat until I fall asleep

Big screen. When my tablet was new I watched a couple of things in bed, and then immediately went back to big screen.

I also live in a small place that I rent, the couch and TV is right outside my bedroom so it feels silly not to just go out there.

Big screen. I want to actually be able to see the details in the media I'm watching.

Also, I want to be able to put my phone down and not have to hold it the entire time I'm trying to watch a show or something.

The inconveniences of watching things on a phone far outweigh the inconvenience of just getting up to watch on the PC or TV.

I watch most stuff on an old surface4 laptop/tablet. Haven't had a big TV in years. Pc has 2x 27" Monitors but they're for gaming, work and schooling.

I save certain videos from certain creators for the computer at home. Some things I'll watch while on lunch at work, but those are the small screen things.

Big screen for me. For some reason I hate watching videos on my phone. Maybe because I'm tired of being glued to it.

I don't really like watching video on my phone, so I'll pretty much always go for the nearest bigger screen unless there's no option to do that.

I honestly think most of the time I would just not watch the video rather than watch on my phone

I have used my phone before, but I very much do not prefer it. There are literally beautiful details that a phone, even a huge one, cannot render well enough for my eyeballs.

I’ll wait. The phone screen is too fucking small and the sound is a joke. Phones are for memes and shit. I bought that fucking 4K TV for movies. I hardly use it, but that’s what it’s for.

I do, I have a magnetic phone holder next to my kitchen sink to watch stuff while doing the dishes, I have another one mounted on a microphone arm next to my bed and one with a clip that I move around.

I have some confounding factors.

First of all, my house was built in 1921 so is not designed around a big screen. We have a 70" TV in our living room, but it's over the fireplace and rough 12' away from our faces. Experts recommend something larger for that distance, but that is the biggest thing that fits between the mantle and ceiling. We could look into one of those fancy moving TV mounts for fireplaces, but they're quite expensive too and seem like a pain.

The second piece is that I had my retina re-attached a few years ago. Even with a strong prescription I still find it harder to see details from far away ever since.

So I prefer smaller screens closer to my face in general. I do a lot of my gaming on the Steam Deck. I watch a lot of stuff on my phone, and I have a 10" tablet I use sometimes too.

Sound is another thing. I find good quality headphones best anyone's fancy expensive home theater setup consistently, but the tradeoff is that headphones are usually less convenient and get uncomfortable to wear after a while. Bluetooth means less battery life for my phone, wires means I'm tethered (I have an Xperia so I have a headphone jack at least).

I wouldn't want to watch anything for more than a couple of minutes of a phone screen, too inconvenient to have to hold all the time. Laptop is the most convenient, even laying in bed - because it stands up on its own.

Depends what it is. I'm perfectly happy watching an animation spectacle with good music (say, KPop Demon Hunters) or a drama (say, Steve Jobs) on my 6.9" ~1440p iPhone screen, especially with AirPods. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is loud enough for anyone to hear, but it's not exactly clear. Hence the AirPods.

Now if I want to watch Interstellar, I'm gonna watch that on the 55" 4K TV, especially the beautiful scenes. The drama, the parts in the house or on the ship or whatever? Doesn't really matter. But the big space scenes, or the planet with the waves? Big screen all the way.

The only issue I have with the phone screen is holding it. I'd rather watch on my MacBook. 15" screen, great sound even without headphones, so it's almost big enough for watching movies on (but for epic shots, I still like watching them on the TV).

Videos for entertainment are pretty much a big screen (tablet or preferably larger) only thing for me. But when for example I'm in my bike workshop and want to watch some bike maintenance video, I'll watch that on my phone.

This is why I keep a tablet next to my bed. When I want to recline in bed but watch something, I can do it on a decent-sized screen instead of squinting at my phone.

But my couch also has two "zero-G" recliners on either end of it, which basically means they recline so far, my feet are slightly elevated over my head. So I don't really need to go to bed to lie down and watch something.

It's more about if I'm trying to settle down for the night or not. I have wireless headphones for my TV, so I can watch shows late into the night without disturbing anyone, but if I'm gonna fall asleep myself, I'd rather be in bed already so I can just set down my tablet and sleep without any more effort.

I use the big TV for stuff I watch with family, little screen is fine for just me.

This is one of the reasons I also have an iPad. That and reading ebooks. I mainly don’t like watching on the phone because I have to either hold it up the whole time, or I wind up hunched over and hurting my back.

Phone wins when (Watch time) < ( time spent to get it on big screen).

Big screen. I'm only watching anything on my phone if I'm on public transit and out of downloaded podcasts

I travel a lot, so I have a bunch of stuff downloaded onto my laptop. And a lot of that stuff I have mirrored onto my phone. And on top of that I have additional stuff loaded onto a tiny USB C drive that I can plug into both for when I want to store stuff for later loading onto my phone.

I often find myself watching an ep on my phone in an airport lounge, and doing the next ep on my laptop on the plane.

Generally, I'm not that picky in terms of screen size, I usually go for the biggest screen conveniently available. And my laptop has the additional benefit of allowing me to use my Roland headset.

EDIT: Splelign is hrad.

Just watch it on my phone or other device. My big tv gets so little use these days that I don’t know if I’d replace it if it dies

I love watching movies and series on my phone when I'm in bed! But if I'm in the living room I'm gonna use the TV

I watch on the Steam Deck, which is pretty convenient when lying in bed :-)

Excluding first setup, if it takes me longer to prep the big screen than the time I'd spend watching on it, then the phone wins. Otherwise, I'll find a bigger screen.

We have four large TV's in our house and I often find my wife watching movies in her iPhone... in portrait mode.

If it's worth watching, I'll watch it on my telly

It's hardly an "effort"

i first watched all of deadpool on my phone, posted in a facebook comment

I got rid of my big screen before small screens were even a thing. I have a laptop, but it just does work for me, it's never played a video that wasn't a tutorial. My phone is my only TV, and it's not one very often.

Normally this only comes up when I'm traveling for work. In those cases I watch on my phone.

It would be a matter of what kind of video it is and what situation I'm in.

Generally I watch almost everything on my desktop PC, but if I'm away from my computer and I also have to sit and wait for a few hours I might watch something insubstantial (not a movie or something) on my phone using an earbud. That is if I'm not using my phone to read instead.

It's not a big step to my study and decent sized displays. I don't watch much on the phone of any real duration... It's just not the same. And a fair bit of the casual watching is technical material - tiny screen sucks for that.

And then the big screen for watching movies together.

100% depends on the thing.