posted 03-21-2006 03:21 PM                       

• Quvis
• Dolby Digital Cinema Server
• Christie Digital Systems
• Barco Digital Cinema
• NEC Digital Cinema
• Kodak Digital Cinema
• Sony SXRD 4k Digital Cinema Projectors

The digital cinema presentations I attended were absolutely fabulous. My seating distance ranged from near the back of the theater (probably more than 2 screen heights away) for Akeelah and the Bee to the booths near the front of the theater (approx. 1 screen height away) for Cars. The screen in the Jubilee Theater was 55' wide, according to the technician working the control station (my guess was 60'). This was where I viewed Cars, Take the Lead, Over the Hedge, and the Big Picture clips.

The clips shown during the Sony SXRD 4k presentation were also very good. They were reported to be 2k-sourced and upsampled by the projector to 4k resolution.

Granted, CGI animation is going to look very good, but the live action material also looked very good. In comparison, it felt like a bit of a letdown when viewing Take the Lead on film. I was sitting in the row just ahead of the control station, and there was a slight amount of jump in the film, but it was probably better than many 35mm presentations I've seen here in the Milwaukee area. I didn't notice much in Prairie Home Companion in the way of jump or weave. The prints were in very good condition.

While it may be true that there was a crew of technicians monitoring the digital cinema presentations (I don't know for sure), whomever was doing the 35mm projection was no slouch either.

The sound in both theaters was incredible! From what I recall, the sound systems were installed for the shows, so this was not the result of a permanent installation. I remember the montage of $100 million movies being too loud for comfort, to the point of being shrill, but the other presentations did not have that problem.

During Cars, the "NASCAR" race sequences literally vibrated the seat! If you don't have good subs in your theater, start taking up a collection for them, because you will need them to properly convey the rumble of the exhaust of race cars going around the track at 190mph!

Does anyone know the dynamic range of digital cinema LPCM vs. Dolby Digital and DTS?

I wanted very badly to walk down to the front of the theater during the $100 million montage to see if I could notice any artifacts, but the theaters were always very full, and I felt awkward about being the only such person to do so, so I chickened out.

On the showmanship front, it was nice to see curtains used again. It's been so long, I can't remember the last time I attended a theater that used curtains to begin the presentation. I miss that simple enhancement, and I wish that theaters would consider what they can add to the moviegoing experience. (It might make for a good separation between the ads and the feature, and therefore, make the ads more acceptable)

Walking the trade show gave people a chance to see the physical enclosures for the digital cinema projectors and systems. The Sony booth was the most memorable in the fact that the projector sat upon this large enclosure on wheels. It made for quite an imposing sight! I recall a comment during the SXRD presentation that the enclosure was added to comply with DCI requirements, presumably for the server equipment. While a little ungainly in appearance, the concept of having everything contained in one piece should be compelling.

NEC had a small demo in a separate room, but I wasn't very impressed by what we saw. It's not that the quality was poor, but it was just too confined a space to adequately demonstrate such a system in my opinion. I should hope a monster project can display a good 15' wide image! The digital projectors used as part of their advertising system were more impressive. I've seen these things project onto a 30' wide screen in a theater, and it made the ads I saw look better than any ads I've seen on a variety of systems in other theaters.

One theater owner I talked to said that he preferred keeping the pre-show stuff running on a smaller, less-expensive-to-operate projector. This way, he would put the hours on a cheaper bulb, and the advertising was also completely separate from digital cinema system, and the independence that provided was appealing. I would have to agree.

Many theater owners that I talked to were seriously considering digital cinema. No one was dismissing it out of hand, but most had concerns about equipment from disparate manufacturers working together properly, even though everything is supposed to be standards-compliant. That's a logical concern, and at this early stage of everything, I wouldn't purchase the parts without knowing for sure that everything was going to work properly.

Speaking of purchasing, it sounded to me that the deals were going to be structured in such a way that theaters would not have to purchase the digital cinema systems. Rather, there would be a lease agreement, where the studios would pay a leasing company a virtual print fee for each movie, which would cover the lease payments for the equipment. That's about as much detail as I got, but that makes it sound as though there are few impediments left to getting these systems installed and operating. All that's left is the paperwork!

Most importantly, I think, viewing the presentations last week made me want to see more movies on the big screen. During the montage of $100 million movies, ignoring the sound volume issue, it made me regret not seeing more of those movies in the theater. (However, I know that my enthusiasm will be dampened once I go back to reality and have to sit through what constitutes the norm in our area. The excitement I felt will not be there, and I'll probably continue making value judgements about which movies are "worth" going to the theater to see.)

Anyone have opinions to share?

posted 03-21-2006 07:24 PM                       

quote: Gordon McLeod

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Hmm but does it increase the cost for the exhibitor or is the distributor eating the cost and are they prepaired to absorb the same costs for all exhibs big and small ?

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posted 03-21-2006 07:42 PM                    

quote: Gordon McLeod

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Hmm but does it increase the cost for the exhibitor or is the distributor eating the cost and are they prepaired to absorb the same costs for all exhibs big and small ?

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posted 03-22-2006 06:04 PM                    

quote: Scott Jentsch

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The clips shown during the Sony SXRD 4k presentation were also very good. They were reported to be 2k-sourced and upsampled by the projector to 4k resolution.

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posted 03-24-2006 06:03 PM                       

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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Ultra Stereo D-Cinema Server

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quote: Aaron Haney

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Were any of the clips from Stealth or Spider-Man 2? If so, were they from effects-heavy sequences, or dialog scenes?

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posted 03-24-2006 08:58 PM                    

quote: Scott Jentsch

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I didn't get any information from them, and their web site doesn't show anything about Digital Cinema. Do you have a link to their information?

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