Re-release of "Avatar"

[Peter Castle]

With the upcoming re-release of 2009's "Avatar" several questions arise.
1. Does this version have improved visuals as mentioned on some sites? They do say it is HDR - what does that mean theatrically?
2. Is it 4K in both 2D and 3D versions?
3. When released in 2009, the 2D was scope and the 3D widescreen. Is it going to be the same this time?
4. Some mention has been made of some new scenes linking this movie and the sequel. Is it true that the re-release is only 3 minutes linger than the original release (165 minutes)?

[Marcel Birgelen]

With the upcoming re-release of 2009's "Avatar" several questions arise.
1. Does this version have improved visuals as mentioned on some sites? They do say it is HDR - what does that mean theatrically?
2. Is it 4K in both 2D and 3D versions?
3. When released in 2009, the 2D was scope and the 3D widescreen. Is it going to be the same this time?
4. Some mention has been made of some new scenes linking this movie and the sequel. Is it true that the re-release is only 3 minutes linger than the original release (165 minutes)?

1. HDR will be limited to a few installations that can actually play content in e.g. Dolby Vision or Rec. 2020 color space. Standard DCI compliant releases will be in DCI-P3 color space, which is much broader as Rec.709, but not HDR.
2. A 4K 3D version may be released, but cannot be played back by all hardware. Technically, a 4K 3D release would exceed DCI specifications. Dolby Vision and IMAX Laser have shown 4K content in 3D before and some more recent installs should also support it.
3. Many cinemas played the scope 3D version in 2D back then, because that fitted their screen better.
4. Let's see and wait... Remember, there has been an Avatar: Extended Collectors Edition with a runtime of no less than 174 minutes. They didn't really need to make new scenes to extend the theatrical re-release...

[Steve Guttag]

Back in the original Avatar days...if you recall...we had classifications of 3D. That is, is your projector capable of full-frame triple-flash 3D? Or, more specifically, does your [series 1] projector have an "FFIB" system, in which case you could do triple-flash processing at full 2K resolutions...or did you have an EFIB system...in which case you would have to either reduce your flash rate or reduce your resolution down to a 1920 max on width because the processing just couldn't handle it back then. It was a different time. When the .98" projectors came out in the S1 days, all of them had FFIB so one could run full-frame triple flash 3D. Christie's larger projectors, the CP2000S didn't get the FFIB system until the CP2000SB (XB). NEC did transition the 2500 over to FFIB.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Maybe it would be interesting to have something like an equipment list of hardware that could do 4K 3D, if this movie comes with an actual 4K 3D release for "normal" cinemas and not just some special premium formats like Dolby Cinema and Digital IMAX.

[Mike Blakesley]

When we first installed 3-D it was after the original Avatar release, so we played it a few months later when they re-promoted it, but we just played it in standard Scope size. I think the file was in Scope too, as I remember. Was there a "regular" scope 3D version or did I play it in the wrong setting?

[Peter Castle]

Just had a look at the 3D trailers of "Avatar:The Way of Water". The scope is the flat version cropped top and bottom - although this may vary from shot to shot. Certainly flat is not a letterboxed version. So maybe there'll be two different 3D versions of the new movie. There's only one 2D trailer in scope.
I cannot remember what the situation was in 2009 as to whether there were two 3D versions. IMDB only lists 3D flat.. For now I think I'd prefer the brightness I get from running 3D flat, while the 2D scope will benefit from the 4K.

[Carsten Kurz]

As far as I know, the re-release will also be available in a up-converted HFR using the TrueMotion technology. One would think that your Disney contact by now should be able to give you a list of available formats. I have the questionnaire and test materials for the AVATAR 2 release. You would think that both releases come in identical formats to reduce the effort to identify working equipment combinations.

- Carsten

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

As a long time photographer, HDR images are rarely if ever truthful. Think everything or certain things being over-emphasized. It's great if you like the result to look "fake"...

[Jon Dent]

As a long time photographer, HDR images are rarely if ever truthful. Think everything or certain things being over-emphasized. It's great if you like the result to look "fake"...

I think HDR means different things in photo vs. video. Every "HDR" photo I see still displays in sRGB (or whatever the iPhone uses), and generally looks horrible, especially when there's a large dynamic range in play. Video, on the other hand, actually displays brighter intensities in Rec.2020 vs Rec.709 (assuming the display can actually handle those levels).

[Marcel Birgelen]

As a long time photographer, HDR images are rarely if ever truthful. Think everything or certain things being over-emphasized. It's great if you like the result to look "fake"...

You mean the under- and over-exposed freakazoid combimatronic like this?

guide-to-hdr-photography-seascape.jpg

Like Jon indicated, that's not what I consider HDR, it's just a "neat" trick and it makes most thim. HDR is an extended dynamic range compared to Rec.709 and DCI-P3, like Rec. 2020 or Dolby Vision. Important is that both the capturing device and the display device can acutally display the full color gamut.

[Jim Gibson]

I have a question.

I work at IMAX theater in Europe. Why we recieved 2K IMAX 3D AVATAR2022 DCP? And also, we recieved Scope version in 3D, also 2K. Only 2D DCP is 4K.

Thank you

[Jim Cassedy]

From The Avatar-1 Ingest Document

AvatarSpecs.jpg

[Jim Gibson]

Looks like everyone will have 3D in 2K then.
However, why IMAX in 2K? We had Thor Love and Thunder in 4K in IMAX 3D

[Scotty Wright]

Jim, is the imax dcp 48fps? That’s the only reason that comes to mind.

[Jim Gibson]

IMG_20220921_142853.jpg