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Author Topic: A new Digital cinema outsider Mattias Ohlson Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: Falun, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-02-2006 12:30 PM                     Hello Look at this company http://www.panoramalabs.com/ The basic building block of the technology is the Magneto Photonic crystal. A tiny electromagnet acts on the polarization of light. They plan to address many of the short comings of digital explored and explained in this forum. Price - Film projector comparable Robust technology with no moving parts or LC layers High resolution 4k and higher Good brightness They aim for end of 2008 introduction. What do you know of this? Is there any buzz surrounding this company?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-02-2006 02:50 PM                     Its a good idea overall but since DLP still has yet to make any profit for T.I. I don't see how this would be any different. The only place DLP has made T.I. any money is on industrial and comnsumer devices. The main problem is that its going to be a low production item when it comes to cinema. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mattias Ohlson Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: Falun, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-02-2006 07:00 PM                     Mark The difference might be that the technology is paid for by its use in the telecom industry. The basic invention is just reused and made to function as a display device. I have tried to get the company to comment on a few technical questions. Still no answers but initially they were willing to comment. I was interested in how they would describe the advantage of MPC over DLP and LCOS.  |  IP: Logged Brian Guckian Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 594 From: Dublin, Ireland Registered: Apr 2003 posted 12-03-2006 08:12 AM                     It seems to have a strong advantage in the MPCs being high-yield at low cost. But it seems to imply another fixed-grid display system. Can the MPCs be packed very close together like DMD micro-mirrors? I guess they must, since they say the active area of each pixel is just 16um x 16um. Interesting, especially as the light intensity of each pixel can be carefully controlled via rotation of the polarized light through the MPCs.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2006 09:33 AM                     Again polarized light mean light inefficiency  |  IP: Logged Mattias Ohlson Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: Falun, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-03-2006 11:59 AM                     Light efficiency could be good provided that the laser is efficient. It is not like xenons do not produce any heat.  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 12-03-2006 04:26 PM                        One thing going for them is they at least acknowledge that the exhibitor should be part of the equation. Whether they can do it or not, who knows, but I'd rather own reasonably priced equipment made with me in mind (and collect "print fees") than be force-fed content and advertising from third-party "financing" schemes.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-05-2006 04:58 AM                        Boy this may put a fly in the ointment for the chains which have committed to existing DLP technology when this new technology may be able to provide even better image quality at a much reduced cost to their competion. quote: .....fine-tuning the initial microphotonics breakthrough as it applies to the field of digital cinema. On the fast track is a development program to create the most true-to-life cinema experience possible. With Panorama Labs technology, cinema projectors will be able to deliver brighter images, higher resolution, and more intense, more accurate colors than anything the competition offers – and all at a lower cost. I sure wouldn't want to be the exec who put the final stamp of approval on the purchase of 1000 digital DLP-based projectors with this seemingly superior technology coming down the pike. I don't know what "at a lower price" means....20% less? 30%...50%? but whatever it is, it will change the DeeCinema economic model drastically, especially given the claims of much better image quality. I guess film industry guys who are used to film technology with its incredible backward compatible over the course of a century, they just can't get their brains wrapped around the fact that in the digital world, you are an idiot if you buy first generation technology.  |  IP: Logged Mattias Ohlson Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: Falun, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-05-2006 05:59 AM                     Frank I am not up to date on conversion deals. Do you know if these signed deals explicitly states that DLP is to be used? I think they are trying to target a film projector price level but I doubt they will succeed but it is a good ambitom.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-05-2006 09:11 AM                    Ahh... well, it's nice to see that what a lot of folks familiar with both computer technology and cinema technology (including myself) have been saying is coming true already. Technology is always changing. And "state of the art" today will be "junk" in a couple of years. Very nice to see. Anything that makes the decision to go digital seem like a stupid decision is ok with me.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-06-2006 05:56 AM                        quote: Mattias Ohlson I am not up to date on conversion deals. Do you know if these signed deals explicitly states that DLP is to be used? Mattias, I am not privy to how these deals are drawn, but my guess is that if Regal is committed to purchasing a slew of Christie DLPs, in two, three or five years from now when a totally different technology -- Magneto Photonic Crystal or some other technology what hasn't even been invented yet -- becomes available, the DLP equipment manufacturers aren't about to buy back those lesser DLP units so Regal can swap inferior technology for the new state-of-the-art stuff. They will be stuck with DLP, and at 2K quality. I can't imagine that the current economic model which is allowing these chains to fund a committent to DLP, somehow also includes provisions that would allow the chains to dump those $120,000 DLPs and convert them to a totally different, albeit highter quality, technology like MPC or whatever better technology comes along. Any installation of 2K DLP units surely will be stuck there for decades not matter how obsolete it becomes. After all, if you listen to any of the spokesmen for exhibitors who are installing D-Cinema, they claim 2K DLP technology is BETTER than film and that implies that it's all that audiences should ever need. The introduction of a BETTER imaging technology would be seen as superfluous, ESPECIALLY if it is going to cost them even MORE money. Mark....I am not against digital per se. In fact, my anti-digital stance has not come about because it's digital and not film. I am an exhibitor -- I don't care what technology is in the projection booth. I've always said if they come up with a digital projector that will allow me to present LAWRENCE OF ARABIA with the same impact and quality that I experienced with I saw it in 70mm, I would embrace it in a second, especially given the growing decline of good prints. But 2K DLP technology will never do that. The insidiousness of it, IMHO, is that once someone buys a $120,000 2K projector, that's what's going to stay in that booth until the building falls down around it. Because of the cost of this technology, the standard is being set in stone and it's a standard that will rob furture generations the ability to experience the power of film as we have known it. That is a very sad, unfortunate result of jumping into digital before it can REALLY match film.  |  IP: Logged Mattias Ohlson Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: Falun, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-06-2006 08:19 AM                     I was kind of asking about MPC to possibly learn if it really is something that can give a better display system than current dlp-systems. The MPC people say they can do a high brightness and high resolution picture. But what about all the other parameters. For dlp it can possibly be argued it can do one of the two first paramters I mentioned, brightness. However 2k is not the resolution of the future.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-06-2006 08:48 AM                    I'm with you on that Frank. I should amend my comment to say "Anything that makes the decision to go digital at this point in the game...." Any of the digital technologies being proposed right now will have a very hard time matching the 100,000:1 contrast ratio of Vision Premier film stock. But once someone comes up with a way to match that, AND match the resolution of 35mm, AND provide a life expectancy and support cycle of at least 20 years (or at least provide an ability to upgrade without ripping the whole thing out), I'll start getting excited.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 12-06-2006 09:24 AM                        Ah, the vitriol against Digital Cinema flows freely once again... I would be interested in attending a theater that was able to produce 100,000:1 contrast ratio on the screen. Could you point me in the right direction? While I understand the concern of exhibitors about the capital investment in Digital Cinema hardware and the speed at which improvements are being made to the technology, at some point, you just have to say "This is where we jump in" and do the deed. If you're afraid of the water, by all means, stay on the shore. If only I had a time machine so I could go back to the time when "talkies" were first introduced, and many in the industry was probably all up in arms about why anyone would want to hear what the actors were saying. What about the in-house orchestras? How will they feed their children? Who's going to pay for speakers? What happens when this new-fangled sound equipment goes down? Oh, the humanity! Bah, humbug.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-06-2006 09:40 AM                     Scott I now many theatres that there film presentation has better contrast ratio than their TV ubit has On a second note the conversion to sound did not represent near as large capital investment nor obsolescnece factor even Vitaphone disks stuck around for more years and played more film titles than the 1.2K machine have  |  IP: Logged

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