Renlund says that the theaters are also looking at installing a $5,000 "rear-window captioning" system for hearing-impaired moviegoers. With this system, a viewer can read dialogue on a 5-by-10-inch piece of smoky Plexiglas that reflects a read-out display on the theater's back wall.

Sarle had written letters to every movie chain in Utah before he got an OK from the Megaplex 12 Theatres at The Gateway to install the DVS. According to Renlund, the sister theaters at Jordan Commons might also install DVS "if we get enough call for it." Already, he says, The Gateway theater has attracted at least one blind patron who had never been to a movie before.

The system is not perfect. In "Harry Potter," for example, the narrative can't describe everything and can barely keep up with the action. After seeing the movie on Thursday with his children, Jeff Smith of Farmington said he was still confused about the plot twists and turns.

"I don't think this movie was conducive to the technology," he says, but he's excited to try it again, maybe with the latest movie scheduled for DVS: Tom Hanks in "The Terminal," which opens nationwide today.

The DVS system was developed by the Media Access Group at WGBH in Boston, which also provides the system on DVDs for home use. But going to an actual theater is more fun, Sarle says.

"Going out, not being at home," he lists as his No. 1 reason why. And then there's the communal aspect: sitting in a big room, in the dark, with other people all watching the same thing.

And, too, he says, "There's nothing like theater popcorn."

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com