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Author Topic: D Cinema in trouble? Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-05-2007 04:51 PM                     I believe that all studios are delivering the major titles each week in a Digital Release.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-05-2007 08:27 PM                     It is becoming a rare thing for a mainstream movie release not to have a D-Cinema virtual print available. The situation is still quite a bit different for independent releases. I'm not exactly sure why since so many indie movies are videotaped rather than filmed anymore. The booking situation will continue to improve for theaters with video projection as circuits like Carmike make the screen counts more inviting for such releases.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 03-06-2007 01:27 AM                     Thus with all of this, has there been any reports of D Cinema downtime due to software/hardware issues that could be springing up anytime now since the DCinema market now had made a dent in the industry and is really spreading its wings, or is it still too new to let the D units get really broken in proving its reliability and dependibility to the masses?  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-06-2007 10:19 AM                     I lost a 1 1/2 days of shows with my digital projector because the power supply went out. Not a specific failure of the digital components. Would have lost the same amount of time had it been a 35mm projector.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-06-2007 02:49 PM                     Really? What film supply can't be changed out in that amount of time? It doesn't even need to be the same brand. If it is a brute force supply, then it is often no more than a diode away from working. What tech doesn't have a full set of those at the ready?  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-07-2007 10:10 AM                     Nope, wasn't a diode. My staff member said that some white dust or something came out of it. It was ok, as we took a auditorium that was doubled up with another print and made a full show schedule out of both. Used the 35mm that is still next to it, so I technically wasn't down a theatre.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-07-2007 03:48 PM                     If the d cinema didn't run and a 35mm did then the dcinema lost a show and I guess that is the reel number an exhibitor must budget around  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-07-2007 11:12 PM                     It isn't any different had a PS gone out on a film console that you would have had to replace the entire PS. That's getting extremely picky.  |  IP: Logged Tristan Lane Master Film Handler Posts: 444 From: Nampa, Idaho Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-08-2007 03:12 AM                     I think Gordon's point was that it really WAS a lost show since normally you wouldn't have the 35mm backup, and in the future there will not be any backup. As far as the power supply is concerned, it is the same thing. Had the power supply failed on a 35mm console, requiring a complete replacement of the power supply, you would still be down until the part arrived. Unless you happen to have a spare. The Sanrex thyristor ballast can be repaired in the field if you lose a thyristor. All SCR's are fuse protected. The boost circuit is also fuse protected. Admittedly, since the rectifier is "computer" controlled and monitored, there might be a little bit more that could go wrong than a standard high reactance power supply. This doesn't mean that one of those components couldn't be replaced in the field either. It only takes about 10 minutes to swap the whole thing and be back up and running. This applies to the thyristor unit, or the switcher.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-08-2007 08:20 AM                     The point was that to be economically viable under the virtual print fee no 35mm print would be there as a backup  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-08-2007 09:00 AM                     I see Gordon. My installation isn't a "normal" one as I have had a DLP projector since 1999 and the booth has 3 port windows. Installations happening today are that they 35mm is removed and the DLP put in its place.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 03-08-2007 09:14 AM                     Cinemeccanica D-Cinema unit has an Irem magnetic supply as an option for a switcher....like having one foot in the past and one foot in the future  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-08-2007 08:57 PM                     Of I were ever to sell a Cinemecanicca/Barco DLP I'd go with the magnetic unit for sure. Actually the old ORC magnetic supplies are some of the best and most reliable supplies ever made...except for their alumnium wire windings whose crimped connections oxidize apart. But alas these can be fixed properly so they don't do that. There are still several running in theaters that I service... I've never had to ever service them but recently took one down just to clean it out... all the original diodes are still in there and these must be from the early 70's. Mark  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 03-08-2007 10:29 PM                        One of the things I've noticed in NYC is that there are far fewer digital "prints" unless the theaters are not advertising them as such. It used to be that the Empire 25, Loews Kips Bay, UA14, Loews E-Walk, Loews Lincoln Square and a few other theaters played many released in digital. Aside from the digital presentation of Dreamgirls at the Ziegfeld, most films are playing digitial only at the Pavillion in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I have a feeling that manufacturers placed projectors in those other theaters on a trial basis and perhaps they've now been pulled. Aside from Dreamgirls, the last film I can find that played anywhere but the Pavillion was the re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, released in October 06.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-09-2007 04:00 AM                        Well, if digital is going to get its reputation from theatres like the Pavillion, then it really IS in trouble....BIG trouble. The Pavillion is the what happens when single screens are tortured into rooms that are not fit for man nor beast. I think they started as a five-plex (and even then the rooms were too small) and it kept going from there....every few months a new "cinema" was added. What are they up to now, Martin, 9 or 10? I need to go back to check as I am truly intrigued where they could possibly stick another screen. Perhaps in the john? You watch a 30in flat digital panel while sitting on the commode! These are rooms that are dark, dank, uninviting abortions that gave cinemas a bad name when they were running film; putting in digital won't save their sorry asses. It's "theatres" like these that make people say they hate going to the movies and that give them very strong incentive to wait three months so they can see the film in the comfort and warm atmosphere of their own, much more inviting home digital theatre. Aside from all that is wrong with the schlock design of this place, you first have to deal with an impossible parking situation outside in a neighborhood notorious for terrible parking. And then, when you finally get a spot, sometime after an hour of searching, you get into the theatre -- and not in the best of moods to see a movie, and are confronted with the surly help who are downright rude and obnoxious. I think someplace in another thread I recounted my experience with a concession girl and her usher friend one night at the Pavillion -- both simply ignored my obvious presence as I waited at the concession counter wanting to buy popcorn and anxious that the film was about to start. When I finally figured I had waited the appropriate amount of time that that politeness required before interrupint them, I finally cleared my throat and asked if I could get some popcorn as I didn't want to miss the start of the film. The concession girl looked at me with utter contempt and said in as nasty and sarcastic a tone as she could muster, "Well, next time I guess you'd better get here sooner." That's the Pavillion for you; repaying the second mortgage they had to take out for their digital installs is the very least of their worries.  |  IP: Logged

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