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This topic comprises 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Topic: all digital projection theatres
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-08-2007 03:32 AM
quote: Scott Norwood
And what about DLP is it that _requires_ multichannel sound? Why would an exhibitor who is presently running mono need to upgrade (other than for the benefit of his customers)? Is there any technical reason why the new equipment can't be configured to work with an existing mono sound system?
The Digital 'prints' only have the full six-channel mix on them, and there's nothing in the player to provide a Lt,Rt mixdown from it like there is with DVD players.
We ran digital for a while with only one surround channel because we didn't have our surround speakers wired in two groups, but this has been fixed some time ago; more expense for the cinema on top of the building work to provide a new port, HVAC work to provide an extract, ADSL line, connections to fire alarm system, Dolby DMA8, replacement of faulty Cat. 441 card that we didn't know about before as the fault only affected he digital input, which was previously unused. The amplifiers were also replaced with better ones, though this wasn't strictly required for digital, and has improved film sound as well.
We've had two films so far, I can't remember the titles now but I did mention them in a previous post, where only two channels, L and R, had any sound on them.
Several times there has been a film which was supposed to be supplied in digital, but for some reason wasn't available in that form, so we were supplied with a 35mm print instead. Other venues had played the same films in digital, so I don't know what the problem was. 'Pan's Labyrinth' was one of these. Another film was supplied in digital, but there was an aspect ratio problem with it, so it was run on film instead.
Staffing costs for us are unchanged; there is one projectionist, no more and no less, on duty when the cinema is open; it takes longer to load up a digital copy than it does to prepare a film print, and you cannot start showing a digital film until the entire film is loaded. If a film print arrives late I can have it on screen as soon as I can check and spool up the first reel; about ten minutes.
With digital we can show video with better picture quality than our old video projector could provide, when we bring back the same film for several runs we can keep the files loaded on the system rather than having to make up and break down a print each time, the sound quality is potentially better with digital, though this improvement isn't always realised; some films just have lousy sound however you play them. There's the possibility of showing live events, such as the Met. opera, though in our case this is unlikely.
As far as picture quality is concerned, I've seen digital look good, and I've seen it look terrible; the same with film. There's no dramatic difference between the formats.
Maintenance for film plus digital equipment is obviously going to be more expensive than for film only, and going digital only is simply not an option for anything other than a strictly mainstream venue at present, and isn't likely to be for a considerable time to come.
Other things being equal, having both film and digital installed is better than having only film, and I'm glad to have the digital available, but if the cost was coming out of my pocket then I wouldn't even consider it at present. There are almost no feature films that are not available on film; there are plenty, and if you are showing classic films a huge number, that are not available in digital. Most 'alternative content' is standard video, which can be shown on a normal video projector.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-08-2007 09:26 AM
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Well, You can let the server ingest the files while you do other work. Or you can leave the server on (prefered) and let it ingest when you leave the night before. Hopefully you don't sit and watch it ingest the whole time. Once the files are ingested actual make up of a show takes but a few moments.
This is true, but not much help if a digital 'print' is late being delivered, or there is something wrong with it, and we have to get a new copy. This has only happened once, and the replacement arrived in plenty of time, the original copy was delivered several days before the date on which we opened the film. The fact still remains that from the moment a digital copy comes in through the projection room door it's going to take a long time before it can be on screen, almost certainly over an hour, unless it's a very short film, whereas I can easily have a film print on screen in ten minutes from its arrival, and if I really wanted to I could probably do it in five minutes, however long the film. I have had to do this several times in the not too distant past. If a film print arrives just minutes before a show, no problem. If a digital copy arrives at the same time then the show would have to be cancelled. I will admit that a digital copy is less likely to arrive late, for two reasons: Firstly because the keys can be configured to not be valid until shortly before the film is due to be shown, therefore the distributors may send the films out earlier, though this is not likely to apply in our case. Secondly, with film we receive many of our prints on crossover, so we cannot get them until several hours after they have come off screen at the previous cinema. Obviously this doesn't apply with digital copies.
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