Digital Cinemas

[barry wilkins]

Quite a few of these are springing up around the country.
I was just wondering how they work ?
A back projection screen ,high powered hi res projector DLP , HD DVD player ?
Is the film on a disk like a DVD or is it on computer hard drive ?

Barry Wilkins

[stj]

Re: Digital Cinemas

probably harddrive.

there was talk once of distribution via encrypted sattelite feed, but given the cost combined with the falling price of fibre they may use the net.

[barry wilkins]

Re: Digital Cinemas

Yes you are probably right ,even a blue ray DVD would not have enough space on it for a hi res projector

[tom66]

Re: Digital Cinemas

Usually hard drives with encryption keys distributed on day of release. That way they cannot be played until release date.

They are horrible, IMHO. I much prefer film projectors which actually had decent image contrast. The newer digital projectors manage to be both dim, and have washed out black levels and poor colour. The local one is so bad, I wait for DVD/Bluray for all my releases now and then watch everything on my Kuro.

[Alastair E]

Re: Digital Cinemas

All Cinema in the UK is dirty-digital now. There are some sites still running 35mm in USA but they are getting less and less....

No cinema left running 35mm in UK except maybe the odd art-house, all mainstream are digi.

As Tom says--Hard-Drives are the method of film transport via UPS/Carrier, and heavily encrypted. The actual HDD is contained in a special caddy...

These HDD's are then 'Injested' into the digital projection-system at the cinema, in UK normally NEC or Cinemeccanica projectors, with the system control/cinema exhibition system made by 'Doremi', making the whole system from booking and issuing tickets at site and online, to running the shows fully automatic, most often cinemas no longer need a Projectionist on duty during normal shows--Just someone to serve popcorn.......

Site manager sometimes doubles up as 'Technician' to do the weekly changes to the shows and injest HDD's all done by computer into Doremi system.

--Most NEC are now pretty old (Ex 'UCI' Sites, now Odeon) and poor in comparison to the latest--But all digital projection is pretty Crap in comparison to a nice clean 35mm print, and well set-up Xenon light-source, with a Proper Mechanical projector, like a Kinoton (Philips) FP20/30

For Digital, the light source for the three-chip DLP projectors is either 1.6 to 2kW Xenon Bulb or the latest fad is Laser, mounted in separate box and light-coupled by Optic Fibre to the DLP 'engine' of the projector....

Usual/Average Exhibition/Cinema-Projector in yer local multiplex is '2K' resolution. (1080p can be thought of as '1K') There are some 4K Projectors around, but not that many as the cost of 'em is unbelievable, I don't know of any sites using 4K in the UK.

Cant even play movies During the release date, outside agreed times--IF the Renters (Fox, Warners etc) haven't agreed to that 'Extra' performance, then it just doesn't run.
Keys are sent via Email 10-15 minutes before agreed performance times,--and probably the only thing the site manager needs to do is input the codes....

Gone are the days where you could run the film--Just for yourself and maybe some mates at 3:00 in the morning, like I used to--Those were the days, Had a Lot of fun!

[stj]

Re: Digital Cinemas

yea, but the films are all crap now regardless of how you display them!
coming soon - "starwars7 - the revenge of the publishers"


btw, what happened to the old projectors?
those would be good for people wanting to do outdoor projection advertising/publicity by fitting an lcd over the area the film passed across.

[Alastair E]

Re: Digital Cinemas

yea, but the films are all crap now regardless of how you display them!
coming soon - "starwars7 - the revenge of the publishers"


btw, what happened to the old projectors?
those would be good for people wanting to do outdoor projection advertising/publicity by fitting an lcd over the area the film passed across.

Most went to scrap.

As to using an LCD in the film-gate, It wouldn't last more than a few seconds if that with the heat from the lamp!
2kW light-source focussed down to 24mm square is a LOT of heat--You would need that amount for anything more than a completely dark room if you want a fair size image!
Add to that--The Weight of a 35mm Cinema Projector, Soundhead, Arc-beam, Lamphouse, Rectifier and Stand--Not something you just shove around easy and bung in the back of yer van at a weight of 4-600Kg!

Very true, There's been nothing Ive seen advertised, in the way of movies that has made me want to see--for quite some years!

'Hollywood' have LOST the Art of making Movies--Its Making Money on tie-ins with toys and other memorabilia rather than making a Good Movie--Its all Unrealistic Special-Effects and crap acting by (for the most part,) Ugly woodentops!

I just Cannot believe how Ugly some so-called top-box office actors/actresses are these days!

[rhomanski]

Re: Digital Cinemas

Downtown here is on a hill. We had a theater at the top and one at the bottom. Both buildings were put up at the end of the 1800's. I went to see movies at both in the 1960's. One was that motorcycle movie where they take over a town, I forget the name of it. They fell into hard times though. Around 2000, I went to the upper one and it was gutted. The whole back wall was missing. They've rebuilt it now though. The lower one is being rebuilt now. I just read a piece on it that they wanted to keep the film projectors but were not allowed to by the distributors so it will be converted to digital projectors.

On actors I just saw an article that showed a picture of Ron Perlman I think and said he had neanderthal DNA.

[japlytic]

Re: Digital Cinemas

In my area, the only cinema (BCC) is not digital when I went there two years ago.
The National Broadband Network could come into play here in Australia...

[tom66]

Re: Digital Cinemas

Actually 1080p is just shy of 2K.

1080p FHD is 1920x1080
2K refers to a resolution of ~2048x1080 (or sometimes 2048x1152)
4K refers to a resolution of ~3840x1920

Most cinemas use 2K 3-DLP projectors. Some newer ones use 4K projectors but that's quite rare.