Slashdot Mirror
Irish Cinema Set to Go Digital First
LocalisationDude writes "The BBC is reporting that Ireland will be the first country in the world to have their traditional 35mm film projectors replaced with digital projectors. An American company is installing digital projectors in 500 cinemas to replace the traditional film projectors. Cinemas using the technology will be able to download the latest releases to a computer server via satellite at a lower cost."
I would imagine so...however "normal" dvds probably would not have the resolution required to look "normal" on a movie screen.
mck
I'm guessing that the projector technology is probably only now getting cost effective.
If you look at most consumer grade projectors, they usually support 1024x768, or if you go for really expensive ones, maybe the next size up. I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that its currently considered at production level to edit films at 4K pixels (not sure if thats horizontal or vertical, but guessing 4K pixels vertically) so as you can see a consumer projector (which can normall costs thousands to begin with) just wouldn't cut it.
As the technology moves to LTPS (low temperature poly-silicon) - which it has already is the Asian market, the resolution will go up.
Just think of it practically: if I pixel is 0.5mm x 0.5mm on the projector, how big is that pixel going to be on the "big screen".
[ Monday is a terrible way to spend one seventh of your life. ]
What will the situation be with older films? Many excellent movies are not available in a digitised form, and we may be at the mercy of the film studios as to when, if ever, they are re-released in a format that these projectors can play.
Read Pynchon.
Well, on one hand my first thought is "great, this is a great move and I hopw the entire world follows so we can watch digital movies at any theatre".
But it is quickly followed up by the thought that "But seriously... My entertainment system is already digital. Why go elsewhere?"
Sure, a 30 foot screen is bigger than a 32", but hey, size is not everything. And I can always get a projector. By then, teh advantages of move theatres has kind agone bye bye... I have usually seen everything by the time it reaches the screen here in sweden anyways. (Sometimes up to a year after the american release)
So sure.. digital theatres are good... but only because it is cheaper to distrbute movies for th ecompanies. This way they might cut the prizes, distribute worldwide quicker, and possibly even start to gain some ground on the pirating market. But still... Just buy me a popcornmachine and I'd rather stay home - with friends.
Nah, I cant decide. What do you think.. good step or bad step, or just a completely useless step?
Actually you may not have noticed this but most cinemas are hell bent on providing the best quality sound and picture they can so as to attract more people to go to the cinema. After all the invesment in theatres they are not going to shoot themselves in the head with low quality quality video.
Bandwidth and storage are not going to be an issue for these systems.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Idealy to cut costs further the cinemas could just stream the movies from the one location each time the movies are being shown. Especially with the growth in cheap fibre across europe especially.
The over all cost savings will be more significant than just the film cases. Ive been in cinemas on several occasions where the film has screwed up and we have had to get a refund from the cinema.. Taking that out out or reducing it seriously would be a great bonus for the cinemas.
Well, I have seen one digitally projected "film" (can we even call them that anymore?) and I will never see one again. It was HORRIBLE. There I was in a friggin movie theater and I could see individual pixels even more clearly than I do when watching some crappy divx-encoded file at home.
This space available.
Film doesn't flicker - it has been projected in cinemas at 24 frames per second for over 70 years. It this was a problem for film-goers, I think it would have been noticed by now. Problems like scratches are due to poor handling on the part of projectionists. Dim and muddy-looking pictures are usually because cinema operators don't use the correct illumination from their projection bulbs (turning the illumination down makes the bulb last longer - advantageous for the cinema owner, but not for the viewers watching the film).
Film handled correctly can easily provide bright, sharp, colourful and stable images. Yes, film eventually begins to degrade after being run X number of times through a projector, but you can easily keep a print in pristine condition for a few weeks at least (more than enough for most film releases). Too few cinemas seem to care about presentation quality unfortunately.
My concern is that digital film resolution still seems to be a moving target. An improvement in film stock doesn't require new projection equipment. But what happens when digital resolution increases? That would require an upgrade of the digital projection equipment to take advantage of the improvement, and that's going to be costly.
The introduction of digital cinema will be good thing if it breaks the distribution stranglehold that keeps so many international and independent films off cinema screens.
No, the "average person," certainly can't. I can. I deal with video compression a lot, so any artifacting is very obvious to me. But, most people will look at any motion picture and not notice any problems. Most don't notice the brown dots designed to screw with pirates, or the cigarette burns, or the random motion of the frame when projected.
You see, you and I are what are called "enthusiasts." We care. We can see it. My dad just wants to watch the presentation, and wouldn't notice anything but the most horrible projection, unless it was a side-by-side comparison.
My dad thinks he is getting HiDef Satellite right now because he has an HD capable TV. He thinks it looks very good, and bragged to his friends. I don't have the heart to tell him you have to pay extra for the HD channels. I don't have the heart to teach him to spot the horrible MPEG artifacts around every crisp edge. He thinks he has great quality, and it looks good to him, and ho doesn't have to pay extra for the HD channels he wouldn't really notice...
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a FedEx package with a 400GB hard drive.