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Author Topic: dforced? Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 02:37 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson How many feature films are actually being delivered to theaters via satellite? During our last theatre convention we toured the booth at one of the Megaplex theatres in Salt Lake City (a 16-plex) and I *believe* they told us all of their movies come in by satellite. Mark G. can verify if that's true or not. That booth was IMPRESSIVE.  |  IP: Logged David Zylstra Master Film Handler Posts: 432 From: Novi, MI, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-11-2009 03:04 PM                     quote: Bobby Henderson How many feature films are actually being delivered to theaters via satellite? I have not checked the actual count but pretty much any film handled by Cinedigm is delivered via their satellite system to their customers - we still get HDs for Deluxe and Technicolor sourced content. I beleive TDC locations probably have most of Technicolor sourced content delivered with Deluxe and Cinedigm sending HDs. quote: Bobby Henderson Are the compression levels higher on movies that are downloaded via satellite? The resulting file from a satellite transfer is the same as what would be on a HD. From what I understand the satellite transfers take many hours - it is not just a factor of the raw bandwidth that affects how long it takes, but the transfer has to result in a file with no errors.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 03:14 PM                     And the error rate from this kind of transfer is ...? I'm thinking this might be a big ass problem for digital multiplexes where anywhere from 4 - 6 films are traded out every Thursday night.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 03:26 PM                        Stupid digital questions: On trailers. When a feature film comes with trailers "in the digital can," do those trailers stay in the projector to be played later? Or do they "erase" when the feature itself is deleted? And how are trailers distributed by themselves? Separate HD or DVD or what?  |  IP: Logged David Zylstra Master Film Handler Posts: 432 From: Novi, MI, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-11-2009 04:00 PM                     Trailers are separate DCPs (Digital Cinema Packages) from the film itself so "attached" trailers are simply additional peices of content to ingest and manage - they stay on the server until deleted individually (even if the movie they came with is deleted). Most of the time new trailers come on feature HDs but sometimes they are sent on DVDroms.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 04:08 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley I *believe* they told us all of their movies come in by satellite. Mark G. can verify if that's true or not. That booth was IMPRESSIVE. No, its about like what David said... they both have all the same satellite equipment. Those satellite companies do charge for those downloads too but it's slightly less then shipping a digital print or about the same depending on which company. One of them does download onto your catch server all the movies from the stuidos they distribute for though and thats what you're probably thinking of that they told you. Yes, Thats a very impressive booth! Odd without all the platter going round and round isn't it... Bobby, No they're not compressed any differently and the download times can be very long. Its all done a week or so before the release date of a given title though and the lack of a KDM is what keeps the new content secure. Mark  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-11-2009 04:28 PM                     quote: Aaron Mehocic And the error rate from this kind of transfer is ...? I don't know the particulars on how movie studios or companies like Cinedigm encrypt the data streams. But it seems obvious to me that one of these movies could be sent to theaters as a multi-part download, possibly thousands of separate files to reconstruct later when all the parts are successfully downloaded. Such a thing would seem very feasible with Motion JPEG2000 content since it's all many thousands of still images.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 05:52 PM                     So theoretically, using the Motion JPEG 2000 software as Bobby suggests and releasing content a week or so in advance of the playdate as Mark noted. I'm just curious as to how much of a hit I'm going to take economically by loosing my Thursday night if the company ever goes digital.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-11-2009 07:14 PM                     Bobby, Thats exactly how it works... if one had incliment weather or catch server problems the download will automatically resume where it left off. At least one system uses redundant satellite dishes too, but thats no guarantee of no drop out in heavy rain or snow... or an iced up dish. It's all pretty fool proof... Mark  |  IP: Logged Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 04-11-2009 11:22 PM                        The Independent Cinema Association of Australia is negotiating for dci changeover but I doubt that there will be any joy for cinemas like ours where we schedule a mix of subrun and first run with more of the former. I can’t see a film distributor wanting to pay a vpf for a subrun. So if we run six first run seasons a year the vpfs would probably only cover one month’s lease payments. No one pays vpfs for e-cinema copies. As Mike pointed out, the seasons required make first run difficult for single screens. We would love to get two week seasons; the minimum here is usually four weeks. The next Harry Potter is five. If two weeks was common we would book mostly first run. Occasionally they will allow a circuit with a 2-3 week run each but who would get a vpf in that case? We all must plan for dci or close down. Oil-based products like film will not be around forever. Film companies have to think hard if they want to lose independents business which (I am told) is 30% of their market. We used to do good business with family fare first run ($50-80K) but with those movies in 3D at a multi 10 minutes away we no longer book them. Would the multi be taking $50-80K more to make up the difference to the film company?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-12-2009 04:05 AM                     Here's a goodie to ask: You know that a lot of cinemas prescreen their movies the night before first performance. You get the USB (dongle) key after you get your HD copy of the feature so you can unlock the feature to be played.... Can you do the same with D-cinema features? Caught wind that this is impossible to do with DCinema features, but I can't believe that. The one who said this doesn't know tim from adam on booth stuff.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-12-2009 10:23 AM                     Monte...the KDM can be sent even with the movie but it isn't necessary...it can arrive first via email or any other means. The KDM will unlock its content for the player for the dates it is told to unlock it. Pre-screening is normally built into the KDM too...though sometimes just a portion of the movie and for specific times. Don't think of it like putting money in a parking meter...the time does not start when you use the KDM...the KDM specifies specifically WHEN the content may be played and on what equipment. Steve  |  IP: Logged Kevin Fairchild Expert Film Handler Posts: 125 From: Kennewick, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 04-12-2009 03:17 PM                     Our keys generally unlock the movie Thursday morning. So we can still screen the movie, although we hardly do. Steve, I don't think it's possible for only a portion of a movie to be unlocked. The entire movie is either locked or unlocked. Kevin  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-12-2009 03:41 PM                     quote: Kevin Fairchild Steve, I don't think it's possible for only a portion of a movie to be unlocked. The entire movie is either locked or unlocked. He could be referring to the fact that once-in-a-while you get a movie where a separate file is included that is the "first reel" to use for testing purposes. I know that happened with one 3D movie we received though I'm blanking on which one.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-12-2009 05:20 PM                        I saw two films during the past week in a theatre. One of them was MONSTERS VS ALIENS in IMAX 3-D and the other one was KNOWING which was not too bad. The 35mm image on the scheen was nice and sharp as usual at the Kapolei 16 and for the very first time, I had noticed the difference between a good theatrical film presentation and movies on HDTV at home. The 3-D digital IMAX image looked like my Samsung 1080p HDTV picture with a nice contrast and sharpness without the 3-D but the 35mm film presentation of KNOWING although very nice was not even as good as the up convertted to 1080p images from standard definition DVDs I have seen at home on my new HDTV. It is not my intention to be critical of the 35m format at this time but after enjoying the awesome picture quality I had experienced when I saw films like DOUBT, YESMAN, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, MARLEY & ME on Blu Ray and many Up Converted DVD image in HD, I now prefer digital over film. Up until I got HDTV, I was very happy with 35mm film because it had the edge over the standard television image I was watching at home from DVDs When a few early adapters switched over to digital still photography shortly after it was introduced, I resisted as long as I could and stuck to film but when I saw the advantage digital photography offered, I converted. When a person lilke myself who has been making a nice living selling professional images to the public can see the the difference between a good theatrical film presentation and prefer watching the same same thing on a quality HDTV in a home in Blu Ray, I feel the future of motion picture exhibition is digital. -Claude  |  IP: Logged

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