If you ever pick up any of the home theatre magazines, and particularly "Home Theatre", their stance is very clear. In one article discussing HOME theatre design, they begin by saying "Assuming you can't afford film projection equipment and the film prints to feed it". They then compare the options CRT, LCD, DLP.

CRT- better picture, limited size, brightness and constant maintenance.

LCD- brighter and bigger picture, but high "black levels" and noticable pixel structure.

DLP- same as LCD, slightly less pixels, still high "black levels".

They continually say that none will ever match "Mann's Chinese" and film.

None on this forum like to think about poorly trained projectionists, but I think it's a bigger nightmare with digital. More expensive, less reliable (has to be, "talkie"
film is perfected for 70 years), but you'll actually have to pay a very specialized computer technician to be at the theatre at all times (that is, if you care about your patrons).

Usually when you're bankrupt, it means that you don't have money to pay your bills. Coming up with $100k per screen would probably be pretty tough, unless your banker is far stupider than mine. Also, I don't think that many people will agree that "the picture will be better".

Is this a joke that I didn't get?

 |  IP: Logged

I was told by this guy that they are going to rip it out and put in a laser disk or something. Kinda makes me sad. What they have there is PERFECTLY functional. All they need is some Film-Guard and that picture would be almost PERFECT!

Check out the park here:

http://homepage.mac.com/randystankey/VtourGCNMP.html

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

It's a little table top Elmo. It's been hooked to a remote control system. There's a cable hooled up to the lens somehow. I presume for remote focusing.

The endless loop system didn't have any labels on it. It was a tower about 3 or 4 feet tall and about 2 feet square. There was a port in the top where the film fed out of and there was a take-up port at the bottom. It seemed to be powered by the projector drive. There were some pulleys at the top that seemed to be turned as the projector pulled the film out. I presume the film was taken up on an elevtor mechanism inside. The whole show was only about 20 minutes long, so I figure that much film could be taken up inside a box of this size.

There was a Kodak Ektagraphic slide projector there too. There was a small counter that ran the width of the port, which was a full-wall size glass window.

Couldn't really tell much about the sound system but, I assume it is just an all-in-one mono box somewhere under the counter.

There were a couple of remote switches in the outer lobby. One for Start/Stop and the other for volume control. The folks there don't know much about the stuff, as you can imagine. I got as much information from them as I could, but what do you expect from Park Rangers? They've got other things to do.

What surprises me about it is that I EXPECTED it to be a video projector. When I saw that it was an actual FILM, I expected it to be one of those rear-projection cartridge loading jobs.

The place was really nice. A lot more than I expected.

They want to put in a laser disk system because they say they want to put in more programs and what they have now isn't easily changeable. I guess it's okay for the purpose but I told the Ranger that they should keep what they've got. He agreed with me, saying, "At least I can FIX this if it breaks!"

Maybe some other time I'll see if I can get them to let me in the booth. (It's Government property, so I'll probably not have much luck.)

PS: Where do you think they could put the Kelmar Media cleaner so I could talk them into a little Film-Guard?

"Film Done Right" is hard to beat. A $1500 35mm release print only costs about $5 per showing. Digital Cinema will not be competitive until the image quality is better than film, and the costs come down dramatically. IMHO, it will happen, but not soon.

Yes, it is... and I didn't explain it very well.... my fault...

My impression was/is that the cost of e-projectors will be subsidsed by advertisers. (You are right; no owner is going to fork out $100,000.)

So, now might be a good time for advertisers to go to broke theater owners and offer low terms to install e-projectors.

Advertisers could say stuff like, "Even though you are taking a loan from us, don't worry, you will start seeing a return soon because you can fire all your operators.. the picture is as good, no maintaince, etc."

Don't believe it? Just listen to the trailers.

"On November 17... Whatever Pictures presents...." etc.

I disagree. Certainly film companies want their films to make money. They know that audiences won't continue to go to theatres if prints get dirty and damaged. And having to sort and replace damaged reels in sub-runs adds to the cost of distribution.

The filmmakers themselves are very concerned about quality. When cinematographers visit Kodak, they always express concern about presentation quality in theatres --- especially having proper screen luminance (16 footlamberts), proper image size (no cropping, attention to framing) and clean, scratch-free prints.

If a print arrives in bad condition, you are justified in blaming someone else, and demanding replacement reels. But if a print leaves your theatre in worse condition than when it arrived, look in a mirror to find the likely cause. It is your responsibility to "Do Film Right" to the best of your ability.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com