hey, so anyone know when North Carolina's gonna FINALLY get a theater with at least one digital projector in it? as of right now the closest one is in Virginia or Tenessee according to http://www.dlp.com:

http://dlp.com/dlp_cinema/dlp_cinema_theater_search_region.asp

i hear the quality of the newest ones blows film away

2nd Edit: apparently Carmike is set to bring some to the area but they are only the 2k resolution ones (read: obselete already and not quite as good as film yet). i've also heard rumors that Regal is looking to put digital in the area (read: those would be the 4k ones)

2k = 2048 pixels x 1080 pixels
4k = 4096 pixels x 2160 pixels

[Edited on January 30, 2006 at 4:04 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on January 30, 2006 at 4:07 PM. Reason : ..]

1/30/2006 4:03:49 PM

The two Regals in town, Brier Creek and North Hills, have decent digital setups for that shitty "The 20" thing...it's called something else, now, but basically the commercials before the trailers start. I know that the theater in Garner did the Coachella thing last week, but I don't know what kind of projector they were running and I don't know if it was theirs or they rented it.

Anyways, I think that while there are certainly some advantages to digital projection, the technology has a LONG way to go and it's still not economically feasible for non-chain theaters to implement. Basically, it's taking a hit in quality for something that's cheaper in the long run. I do think the plan to finance the equipment with the whole print cost thing is a good idea. But, yeah, I'm against it in general.

Oh, and I've read hundreds of horror stories of equipment failure, the computers freezing, shit like that. Not to say that this doesn't happen with film, but every movie theater isn't gonna have a guy trained to, you know, hax0r the server's megahurtz or whatever for a really long time.

btw, here's the list of announced d. cinema releases for the year
Eight Below (Feb. 17)
The Shaggy Dog (Mar. 10)
Ice Age 2 (Mar. 31)
The Wild (Apr. 14)
Apocalypto (Apr. 28)
Over The Hedge (May 19)
Cars (June 9)
Monster House (July 21)
Meet The Robinsons (Dec.)

[Edited on January 30, 2006 at 4:25 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/30/2006 4:23:10 PM

^ yeah the ones at the regal are only 1024x768 resolution [HD though...thats why it looks so nice]

1/30/2006 4:31:44 PM

Yeah.

I mean, I've never seen a 2k or 4k setup. I hear that there are still problems with the contrast, regardless of resolution. Will it replace film? Probably. Will that make me sad? Probably.

Movies with an all-digital production process will definitely benefit from digital projection. I'm sure if you render Cars in 4k and put it on the best thing that's available to project digitally, it'll look better than film. But taking something shot on 35, transferring it to digital, and projecting, well, there's no real improvement there.

At the moment, as I understand it, the highest quality digital cameras shoot at 1k (HD) resolution. If you get a working 4k or higher camera, one with as good quality picture as film, then you'll have my interest.

1/30/2006 4:42:33 PM

^ according to the Wikipedia entry on it, Robert Rodriguez used a 4k for his shooting of "Sin City":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinema

1/30/2006 5:48:42 PM

According to IMDB, it was shot on a Sony HDC 950, which is a 1080i camera.

http://www.gearpreview.com/film/hd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=689&Itemid=51

[Edited on January 30, 2006 at 6:23 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/30/2006 6:16:42 PM

If I wanted to watch a DLP, I'd sit in someone's living room.

1/30/2006 6:29:01 PM

4k digital projection won't blow film away until the 4k cameras come out.. and they are far from doing so.

Movies shot on film then converted to digital projection will look like ass.. HD(or 4k) will just show off the film grain even more than film itself.

just like the numerous HD television shows that are shot on film and converted to HD broadcast. And yes you can tell which shows they are. Very few.. maybe 1/3 of the shows produced today are shot in digital.. and they are usually the sitcoms shot on soundstages that use multiple cameras per shot. The digital shooting will save $$ b/c they aren't using a lot of film that they'd be using if it were shot on 35mm. Most dramas such as the CSI's are shot on film, mainly b/c of the cost of post production and the camera affects they can achieve with film cameras.

^^ yep.. and in movie/theatre terms its a 24p camera instead of the typical 60i cameras that are used for television productions. Sin City was also the first movie to be shot in 4:4:4 RGB, meaning that all colors are sampled every pixel, whereas in 4:1:1(Consumer DV), luminance is sampled every pixel, but the two chrominance channels are sampled every 4 pixels... This is why you saw a clean edge in Sin City.. In most green-screen movies, you'd see the green-screen aliasing at all edges, since pixels share information with adjacent pixels in 4:2:2(SD/HD) mode.

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8217660071.html

[Edited on January 30, 2006 at 9:19 PM. Reason : ]

1/30/2006 8:57:36 PM

^ wow, thanks for that clarification dude

and yeah, i guess u cant trust Wikipedia on everything

1/31/2006 12:46:46 PM

you can't trust IMDb either..

1/31/2006 1:44:45 PM

So how long til we the consumer see good digital projection at movies from stuff shot digitally? And not like at a couple select theaters, but pretty much every one?

1/31/2006 2:00:35 PM

it's hard to say.. this industry is in that chicken before the egg problem.. only select movies are shown in digital.. and most studios aren't going to spend the money on digital 'prints' if no one has the projectors to show them.. and no theatre company is going to invest in new equipment if there's nothing to show on them.


I believe disney is the only studio that releases all or most of their movies in digital.. then other studios release select movies, usually digital animations and big blockbusters (Star wars, harry potter, king kong, etc.)

1/31/2006 2:28:11 PM