The end of cinema has often been decreed in recent times: first it was the advent of videotapes, then dvds, then again on-demand movies on TV. Yet films are still among the leading forms of entertainment, second only to videogames in individual viewing.

The secret lies in shedding its skin, like a chameleon. And it’s the way in which cinema adapts to the most innovative form of viewing today: the tablet pc, a device that from 2010 to 2012 has increased worldwide sales 5 times over, with more than 80 million units sold (source: www.Emarketer.com). And which may only be scratching the surface of consumer sales.

Many of the most successful films (the “Batman” series, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Avatar” etc.) seem to be custom made to be enjoyed on a pc, whether laptop or tablet. Extraordinary digital images, mind-boggling special effects, Dolby Surround soundtracks. Most of today’s pcs can highlight these features with a sound and image quality to rival movie theatres, but in the comfort of your own home. And there’s the ability to have a whole video collection at your fingertips, in your device’s memory. So long, plastic dvds!

But a tablet’s strongest suits are interactivity as well as convenience. It combines computing and graphics  power with an incredibly compact size and light weight.

Back to Batman and “The Dark Knight Rises”, the latest epic of the bat hero. True, on a large cinema screen it’s ultra absorbing, but what about enjoying the thrill of freezing the frame just when Brooklyn Bridge collapses, or studying blow-by-blow the monster duel between Batman and the Bad Guy? And think about doing it while travelling on a train or sitting on your girlfriend’s sofa.

This is where a tablet wins hands down, because it allows you to view high quality cinema where and how you want it.

Plus, of course, there are sundry other features that a tablet can offer which TV or cinema don’t have, or offer only partially: original dialogues, subtitles, extra content which is often very much sought after by cinephiles, storage facilities for hundreds of films. The list of the advantages of enjoying a movie on a tablet is long and interesting.

Nowadays there are tablet devices to suit most pockets: from the very latest iPad3 at £ 499, to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (which uses Android 3,0) at £ 365  to the latest Microsoft Surface RT, the first to use the Windows 8 operating system, which retails for £ 399. For smaller prices you find the new Amazon Kindle Fire 32GB at £ 199 and the Google Nexus 7 at the same price. All with touch screens, web browsing capabilities, high definition screens and battery life that beats that of an ordinary laptop.

Now that Christmas is in the air, and that a whole new series of festive movies are coming, there is no better gift for the film enthusiast than a tablet pc and a subscription to one of the major cinema channels.

This post is written by Mark Jenkins and he works at CouponAudit as a writer, where thousands of valid and working online coupons for different stores are available including but not limited to diapers.com coupon code and various other online stores.