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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Gah! AMC Easton (Columbus, OH) "upgrades" to IMAX Digital

Author Topic: Gah! AMC Easton (Columbus, OH) "upgrades" to IMAX Digital David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-16-2009 11:30 PM                        Well, that's it for IMAX in Columbus. We went to see "Star Trek: The IMAX Experience" this afternoon. All was well until the film started. For the next two hours I sat and stewed as I watched the movie through a screen door. How is this supposed to be better than regular D Cinema (which also blows)? After the show was over, I went to the "courtesy desk" and asked if they still had the IMAX film equipment in place, to which the attendant replied, "no, we 'upgraded' to digital last week. It looks much better than what we had before." Urgh. I'm glad we got to see Dark Knight before they "upgraded". I told the guy at the counter that at least now I can start saving money by not paying a premium for IMAX any more. Just when filmmakers are actually showing interest in filming in IMAX, let alone the DMR stuff, IMAX makes the origination format moot. /me is sad. -David  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-17-2009 12:07 AM                     quote: David E. Nedrow After the show was over, I went to the "courtesy desk" That was your biggest mistake of the week. You should have gone to the Manager after just 10 min and demanded a full refund! Mark  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-17-2009 12:23 AM                        Yeah, had it just been me and my wife, I would have left early and gotten a refund. Unfortunately, we were meeting a group of people there. -David  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 05-18-2009 09:29 PM                     David, where in the theatre were you sitting?  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-18-2009 11:45 PM                        Maybe 2/3's of the way up, which I guess would put me 40-50' away from the screen.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 05-19-2009 04:46 PM                        Do you have an idea of the size of the screen? I've restarted my effort to note that on the Information Pages for theaters, since the "fake IMAX" issue has put a new spotlight on it. Information Page for AMC Easton Town Center 30 with IMAX  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-19-2009 09:04 PM                        It's a smaller screen (or at least smaller than any other IMAX theatre I've been in), and always has been -- even when they were running IMAX film. It's maybe 40' wide. The only true IMAX we had in Columbus was at the Marcus Theatre on the north side of Columbus, but they choppered out the projectors a few years ago and converted it to an "Ultra-Screen". -David  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 05-22-2009 03:32 PM                     Screen at AMC Easton is 52' wide. Using a 1.9:1 ratio, this makes the height 27. At a showing today, I did not see any of the "screen door" effect noted by others. I wonder if the projectors got just slightly out of alignment?  |  IP: Logged Julio Roberto Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 938 From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-22-2009 04:12 PM                    I haven't seen digital Imax. But if it was using two projectors, like it should do, the blank space between pixels (the "screen door") would be filled with light coming from the other projector, as the two screen doors are not going to align perfectly. I'm guessing that's one of the main points of using two projectors. Hide the screen door. It would still be noticeable sitting in the front rows on large areas of solid white color, as the light intensity, of even the "double" screen door, would leave some darker thin lines. But much less than if they were using a single projector, as virtually zero light would reach the inter-pixel areas in that case. With two projectors ever so slightly offset, the screen door effect would be reduced to roughly half by severely reducing the contrast between the black lines and the adjacent pixels using the light from the second projector to fill the empty space.  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 05-22-2009 11:15 PM                        Mark, I may just be pickier than most, but from several spots in the auditorium, it was very easy to tell this was a digital presentation. It didn't help that I also saw some jitter on anything that was moving quickly from left to right on-screen. And the credits at the end were so bad they looked out of focus. My bigger problem is that I had no idea I was paying for DMAX, rather than IMAX. Now, there's no place in or near Columbus running film-based IMAX features. The plus side of this is that now I no longer need to pay a premium to see an IMAX film. -David  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 05-23-2009 06:22 AM                     Your point is well taken. There is, indeed, no reason to pay the $5 premium for IMAX. There are plenty of other large screens around that will do. The Ultrascreens @ Marcus are almost as bright, and the large rooms at the RAVE are very good. I'll be going to Easton for the food rather then the movies.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-23-2009 08:05 AM                     quote: Mark Lensenmayer I'll be going to Easton for the food rather then the movies Easton must be a town... certainly you wouldn't go to an AMC theater for the food!  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 05-23-2009 10:15 AM                     Easton is a LARGE shopping/dining complex. Some of my favorite restaurants are out there. People come from all over Ohio to shop there. The theatre is really just a small part of the complex.  |  IP: Logged

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