Epson EB-L770U Compatibility

[Calin Diaconu]

Hello everyone,

I am doing volunteer work for a small film festival, and I ended up having some technical responsibilities since I am one of the most technically-inclined members of the team (I have a computer science degree, although I have no practical experience with projection equipment, much like everyone else in the team).

After many years of renting the projection equipment, we acquired a projector earlier this year, namely an Epson EB-L770U. Some films that we would like to show at our events only get sent in a DCP encrypted format, and so I tried looking into compatibilities for our projector. After doing some online research and exploring a bit the menus and manuals of the projector, I can tell that it is a rather office-oriented model, and it's probably a long shot to ask this, but is there any chance that, with a proper playback server, we would be able to show this kind of media (encrypted DCPs)?

I am also open to more general advice about the projection equipment, given our situation. After spending some hours reading about this topic, I can understand that the best we could do if we would like to show this type of content would be to either rent a team that has D-cinema equipment (the company that we were contracting would also not be able to show encrypted DCPs), or get in touch with a consultancy company to guide us on what equipment to choose, but both options exceed our budget at the moment. Previously, we would only show films that the distributors would provide in consumer-friendly formats, and so far it worked fine, but we would like to have more flexibility when it comes to the selection, in order to be able to include newer productions as well.

Also, I guess that our best bet would be to get in touch with a proper cinema, either for hosting or for advice, but the last one in our small city has been closed for more than 20 years, and the closest one is a commercial multiplex (part of a national chain), more than one hour away. This lack in our community is one of our motivations for pushing forward with the festival, but also puts us in a rather difficult position for interacting with other cinema specialists.

Thanks,
Calin

[Randy Stankey]

What is the "Mission Statement" of your film festival? Is this an occasional event, put on as a fund raiser? Is it a regular event for paying customers?

What size venue are you in? A classroom sized space? An auditorium? How big? How many people? What is the distance between the projector and screen? What size is the screen? What kind of sound system do you currently use? What equipment, beside projector, do you use to source your movies?

The answers to these questions will help you decide what to do and what equipment you should buy, if any. If you are hosting an occasional event, you might be better off keeping things as they are. If you are hoping to go into business as a regular cinema, you'll certainly want to upgrade to more professional level equipment.

It sounds, to me, like you are a modern reincarnation of the movie "Cinema Paradiso" which is set in a small village in Italy, post-WWII, has no television or other entertainment except for the local movie house, "Cinema Paradiso," which becomes the social center of the town.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend it!

If your situation is similar, it might be best to work up to the goal of building a full-sized cinema. Keep what equipment you are using, now. Raise money to buy what you need to reach your goals. Possibly even take donations from the public.

I know. I sound simplistic and reductionist. My reason is to keep a good perspective on goals. It is a common habit to start at the goal and work backward instead of starting at the beginning and working toward the goal. It's a simple change in perspective that can make a big difference. I am, often, guilty of it.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

If you HAVE to run DCP's you will either have to either buy or rent the gear. If you buy, stay away from Series 1 equipment as it is very old,and availability of parts are questionable. Even Series 2 gear is getting really old, but there is more of it around so you can get more projectors still in usable shape or use the parts to keep the stuff you purchase running. Obviously Series three or four would be the best, but most expensive bet.

I would start by getting a hold of Prevost at the info below. They may sell or rent directly, or they may want to go through another tech or Equipment Company. Either way, they built film projectors for about a hundred years, and now supposedly distribute DLP gear. I hope this helps.

update: Ihave not found a contact yet that works for them. But I will continue to research it.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Agree it all is about the intent ultimately, and budget.

Most festivals have the luxury of specifying what format the submissions need to be in. If Encrypted DCPs don't work for you technically then that should be part of the submission guidelines, people who want you to show their film will make the necessary arrangements.

If you are hoping to mix in major studio releases that is where you'll run into the DCI requirement snags.

I think you're thinking correctly in terms of cost escalating sequence:
- Partner with an existing theatre (although sounds like none are in town).
- Rent a DCI compliant projector and associated server/IMS (and probably the techs to set it up)
- Rent that plus a screen & audio, the whole package (definitely want techs to do the setup).
- Buy the equivalent, but only if you have a permanent theatre and use for it. Don't go into the temporary projector business accidentally.

A baby step towards DCP submissions with existing consumer projectors is to try using software based DCP playout solutions that can output to non-DCI projectors.

I've heard NeoDCP ( https://www.neodcp.com/ ) is a popular approach for small festivals. It's not free but it's pretty cheap relatively speaking. It will technically also play encrypted DCPs, but most major studios won't issue keys for NeoDCP knowing that the whole chain is not DCI compliant etc.