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Author Topic: D Cinema in trouble? Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 03-04-2007 02:46 AM                     Question: I've noticed lately that none of the two theatres around here haven't had a DCinema feature for quite the time....is DCinema in trouble...is this new format not the "magic carpet" that everyone wants to ride on? thx-Monte  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-04-2007 03:21 AM                     Nine of our twelve screens have only digital projectors. Sixteen of the Oakdale Stadium 20's screens are only digital. Etc. etc. None of us have any trouble getting digital 'prints'. Are the screens you're talking about 1.3k or 2k?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 03-04-2007 05:00 AM                     Sorry, forgot to mention the resolution size ... 2k units .. Maybe, it's just a local/regional thing since I don't work in theatres that have digtal projection. thx anywho ... Monte  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 03-04-2007 06:16 AM                     I ran the first digital screening at the Clocktower, 'Wizard of Oz', yesterday. There will be three screenings of this film. The next digital film we have booked will be six screenings of 'Inland Empire', in late April. I haven't seen the programme for May yet. It's probably not a bad thing that we have few digital screenings at present, as we still have a few technical issues, and this gives us time to resolve them. These issues are not with the digital projection system itself, which worked perfectly yesterday, but with our sound system, and with playing 'alternative content' through the system. 'Ghosts', which was run on Beta SP, would have been the first digital screening, on Wednesday and Thursday last week, had to be run on the video projector, rather than the digital one. It's early days, and these issues should be resolved soon. How fast the proportion of digital screenings will grow is unclear at present.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-04-2007 11:37 AM                     I think a key thing to watch on these early DCinema adoptors will be their financial success or failure. Ultra-Star cinemas was the first or one of the first to boast all Digital all the time...they have also gone into the RED. The rummors (and that is all they are) are that Carmike also isn't doing all that well. I maintain, that DCinema makes no financial sense for exhibitors in this year. There virtually no financial gain to be had for a substantial expense. It will also be interesting to see Christie AIXs financial developments. Mind you, I'm not wishing any ill will...just noting that from a business stand point, DCinema is a bad choice at the moment from an exhibition format...from a studio standpoint...I can definatley see its advantages.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 03-04-2007 02:04 PM                     ..and obviously, the maintenance and servicing these "D" units against film units. ...like working on a old Chevy with parts galore, to finding parts to restore a Yugo. Have to see what happens, but do agree with Steve on that the studios do reap well with D Cinema...  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 03-04-2007 04:56 PM                        I was really surprised that the new 15-screen Regal here has only 1 D-Cinema installation, with 3D. I was told their 35mm projectors are Simplex Millenium. So Regal still seems to be extremely cautious, at least in this relatively small market.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-04-2007 06:25 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer ..and obviously, the maintenance and servicing these "D" units against film units. The parts for digital projectors and server systems are more certainly more expensive than their film-based counterparts. However, the one nice thing Carmike will have going for it is identical projection systems in all the theaters. That can greatly simplify the maintenance situation.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 03-04-2007 06:44 PM                    supposedly one of the biggest issues other than money right now is supply and demand. From what I hear Christie can't ramp production up fast enough to meet the demand causing the bulk of the projectors produced to be sent to the christie/accessIT project involving Carmike and over seas comitments.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-05-2007 12:24 AM                     Coversely Bobby, when the CP2000 goes obsolete due to factors either within or beyond Christie's control, the entire chain of theatres will have an issue. I've known chains to avoid identical systems just to avoid having to potentially replace every thing at once. Ever notice that once one light bulb goes they all start to go within a complex...they all get about the same hours and same service life.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-05-2007 07:53 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag Ultra-Star cinemas was the first or one of the first to boast all Digital all the time...they have also gone into the RED. I think they were or near the red even before they adopted DC. They were months paying bills to us but finally did after threats with collections. Mark  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-05-2007 11:43 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag Ever notice that once one light bulb goes they all start to go within a complex...they all get about the same hours and same service life. But there's not much of a problem at all in getting a replacement part quickly -or even keeping some spares in stock. If you have a smörgåsbord of different makes of equipment throughout the booth you might be stuck when something breaks, especially if you have some old, odd-ball pieces of equipment. I've seen that sort of thing occur at a number of big theater chains. When the Cache 8 theater in my town was still in operation there would be times where they would have a screen or two dark for weeks because of replacement parts that were in need. I agree Carmike and Christie/AIX definitely have the potential to need to replace all their digital projection systems at once if Hollywood studios pull another stunt like they did with the 1st generation 1.2K DLP systems. How much of that equipment replacement cost will the Hollywood studios handle? Certainly one of the worst design features of every digital projector system is lack of upgrade capability. If you want to go from 2K to 4K you have to get an entirely new projector, just like what happened with the move from 1.2K to 2K. The imaging chip, lamp house and lens designs are all completely different. File server systems would seem to have more upper end capability. Doremi is boasting 4K capability in its DCP2000 server. However, those rack mount units may end up needing to be replaced even more often due to wear and tear as well as changes in data security and other issues. The one thing that may be on Carmike's side is that 2K was a big jump above the inferior 1.2K standard. It's possible that D-Cinema standard could persist for quite some time. Nearly all movies using digital intermediate methods and heavy CGI use go with the 2K standard. Even if 4K projection does manage to get heavy commercial adoption, the 4K standard itself is useless as long as movies are not being natively rendered to that format. It's nothing more than an interpolated blow-up from 2K otherwise. I'm not very optimistic that Hollywood will embrace full 4K production standards anytime soon. 4K is getting used on only a mere few projects, and I doubt if all of those movies have 4K as the standard for all digital material. The studios seem perfectly content at rendering most things in 2K and gearing their business more for home video release. It's already very feasible for Hollywood to be rendering CGI and digital intermediates in 4K, but its seems that they prefer to use increasing levels of computer horsepower to render 2K at faster and faster rates instead. Whenever Hollywood studios decide to embrace 4K as the main standard for digital work flow then Carmike and Christie/AIX can start worrying over their investment in hardware.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 03-05-2007 01:52 PM                     Barco will be showing their new DP-1500 & 2000 D-cinema projectors at ShoWest. This unit uses a smaller 0.98 chip set which should make lens design less costly. They have reported a sale of 700 units to the Chinese for this new series....maybe there will be a CP2000-A from Christie Carmike is well known for recycling and storing old hardware. I used to work for a T.V. station that was owned by WKY / Gaylord Broadcasting...they had hardware up to 50 years old sitting in a huge basement; we alway had to contact the Oklahoma City home office for possible "spares" before thinking of buying anything new  |  IP: Logged Mike Heenan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1896 From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-05-2007 02:49 PM                     Let us not forget content is important to DCinema as well... are studios providing all films in Dcinema, or just select titles?  |  IP: Logged Paul Gordon Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 580 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Aug 2005 posted 03-05-2007 03:21 PM                        Content is important and I'd like to see films that can't afford to be printed on 35mm to show up on digital screens. D cinema from the get go was touted as being an in for the art/indpendent low budget filmmaker to get on the big screen but are any being shown in this format?  |  IP: Logged

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