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Author Topic: Best 3D for a HUGE screen Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-23-2011 01:45 AM                    quote: Kurt Zupin If there are already multiple IMAX locations in the city/area your looking. Then the odds of you getting the brand name and equipment is slim to none. A friend and I called IMAX business development about opening a location in Phoenix to see what the chances were and get a ball part price on startup. Just to see what it would cost really, and they said that IMAX is happy with the number of locations in this market and would not be willing to open more. So if they already have some in OP's market, his option for LieMAX is gone I wonder about this. IMAX would love to have more screens and even screens that compete with one another. Here in the GTA we have 5 IMAX screens that play "Hollywood" fare. The Scotiabank/AMC compete for product while the Courtney Park/Coliseum Mississauga compete for product. Vaughn and Whitby are on their own. Right now we have TRON and Green Hornet playing in either the Famous Players or the AMC. These compete for any film that is in the market.  |  IP: Logged Amanda Mundin Expert Film Handler Posts: 122 From: Belper, Derbyshire, UK Registered: Sep 2005 posted 01-24-2011 10:41 AM                     Can a 1.85:1 image be digitally squeezed and then projected using the same anamorphic used for a Scope image? I assume this would mean the 1.85 image would be lower quality because it would be using up less of the chip than it normally would, but wondered if it would make for a quicker change from 1.85 to Scope when you need to run a 1.85 pre-show/trailers etc. with a Scope feature.  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 01-24-2011 11:35 AM                        3D for a HUGE screen? The Galaxy Drive-In in Ennis, Texas just installed digital projection with Dolby 3D on one of their screens right before Christmas. Might check with them to see how it's working on a drive-in sized screen. My screens at my drive-in are 25x60, but I have no intention to convert to digital any time soon. I will at some point, but not yet.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-24-2011 02:48 PM                     Amanda, I "believe so". The scaling is done in the TI engine...it does not care what came before it (nor after it) but I strongly caution against it. You would need to be careful to specify the aspect ratio and the proper pixel count in the PCF/Screen files or it will merely crop the crap out of the height of the picture. The projectors are capable of an automatic lens change and they do so reasonably fast too. The anamorphic attachment motors are normally done by the time a Macro, Title or Channel has finished its change. A DCI requirement of all projectors with lens attachments is that they can do their thing unattended.  |  IP: Logged Todd McCracken Master Film Handler Posts: 263 From: Northridge, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 01-24-2011 04:18 PM                    Seems there is a new realD option Los Angeles, CA—Jan 20, 2011 RealD Introduces XLW Cinema System for 3D Projection in Premium Large Screen Venues 1.0 Throw Ratio Designed for Large Stadium Seating Auditoriums With Screens up to 82 Feet Wide RealD Inc. (NYSE: RLD), a leading global licensor of 3D technologies for cinema, consumer electronics and professional applications, announced today that it has developed and begun deploying to motion picture exhibition venues the XLW Cinema System. An extension of the award-winning XL Cinema System, the XLW Cinema System can accommodate a throw ratio as wide as 1.0 (projection distance divided by screen width), and is designed for use in premium large screen motion picture auditoriums, theme parks and specialty theatres with stadium seating. The XLW Cinema System is capable of delivering crisp, clear 3D images on screens up to 82 feet (25 meters) wide and maintains the industry-leading performance of the XL Cinema System by delivering to a screen twice the light of competing 3D projection technologies while utilizing a single DLP® digital cinema projector.  |  IP: Logged Amanda Mundin Expert Film Handler Posts: 122 From: Belper, Derbyshire, UK Registered: Sep 2005 posted 01-26-2011 10:31 AM                     How fast can the newer series 2 projectors/lenses do a change from 1.85 to Scope? We have an NEC NC800C series 1 projector and this seems to take about a minute to change between 1.85 and Scope, which is too long so we don't do 1.85 to Scope changes within a show, especially as any image that would be on screen during this period zooms, moves up & down beyond the masking, and moves in and out of focus, it seems strange to me that both image position and focus point has to move past where it needs to be before it moves back to the correct position.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-26-2011 10:19 PM                     That is because it is always having to find its 0,0 point. Series 2 macines are MUCH faster than series 1s. Barco's series 2s are spooky fast. Note, with an anamorphic, the prime lens does not move, typically....another plus, for you. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-27-2011 03:37 PM                     @Amanda: Are you actually using an anamorphic lens for scope on the NEC? Because that's not the usual way to do things on DCI systems. Usually there is only a zoom lens to go from 1,85 full panel to a zoomed/masked Scope image. Some people used to state that DCI does not allow anamorphic lenses or anamorphically squeezed DCPs. I can not find this strictly in the current DCI spec - aside from tables with dominant 1:1 pixel aspect ratios. True anamorphic DCP projection would need dual-inventory DCPs, since not all cinemas would have anamorphic lenses. @Todd: Interesting. Though, after reading the press-release, it seems this is just a redesigned Z-Screen-XL for use with shortthrow lenses. So the light-efficiency would be just as good as with a standard XL. It's just XL-Wide. Short-throw/wide lenses on a stadium-seating metalized-screen. Ouch. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-27-2011 05:26 PM                     There is nothing in the DCI spec regarding a theatre using an anamorphic. Using anamorphics have always been "allowed" but you are correct the source files themselves must only have "square pixels." Every DLP projector manufacturer has offered anamorphics/attachments. The means to allow for an anamorphic is built into the TI processing. It all depends on where you are and who put in the system as to the popularity of the anamorphic. What has kept them out of many theatres is their cost. They will set you back over $10K, typically once you get the motorized mount for it. Also, they only benefit theatres with side movable masking. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-28-2011 09:28 AM                     That means that using anamorphic on DCI system is only used to increase brightness. The DCPs would still contain letterboxed scope features, and the projector would 'pre-stretch' them vertically to fill the full panel with active pixels, so that the anamorphic lens would then fill the whole scope screen estate. That way it really makes little sense. Unless maybe your projector has no zoom lens. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 01-28-2011 09:52 AM                     I don't know if that has been corrected, but the Uptown theatre's (DC) new 3D DLP system is having problems since it's a curved screen, the edges are bowed (the image doesn't fill the entire screen) - someone mentioned that the same problem is prevailent on the Arclight Dome's curved screen too, Seattle's Cinerama doesn't since the screen is not as curved as either of the former theater's screens. From what I got from one of the managers (after seeing 'Tron Legacy') is that Christie is trying to resolve this, but I haven't been over to see 'The Green Hornet' yet to see if it's been corrected.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-28-2011 10:43 AM                     Oh, the Uptown is going to have problems...they are trying a dual-projector 3D on a deep curved screen. Furthermore, they are using a Silver screen without regard to the screen's curvature. It is possible to get the images to fit the Uptown screen but...DCI has a thing against scaling or "warping" as the A/V types know it. That is what is needed at the Uptown because the "proper" solution is to obtain custom ground lenses that would cost a small fortune. If warping were allowed, then they would pay a hit in resolution but will be able to represent the entire image with acceptable cropping. Without warping, all they can do is crop and they would have to crop too much. It isn't Christie's fault, its DCIs and the industry that has not matured enough to have lenses to deal with such screens...an iconic trademark of the Uptown since it was installed 5-decades ago. Film, on the other hand has/had solutions for such screens to minimize the barrel distortion caused by projecting on such a deeply curved screen. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-28-2011 03:01 PM                     From the DCI spec: 'Should electronic image resizing or scaling be used to support a constant height projection or constant width projection theater environment, then it is required that the image resizing or scaling does not introduce visible image artifacts. It is intended that the projector project the full horizontal pixel count or the full vertical pixel count of the image container.' Now, what do you make out of that? I also think that no current projector has the internal means to correct electronically for curved screens. Linear scaling, trapezoid, variable L/R/T/B masking, cropping, yes. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-29-2011 11:49 AM                     They allow the resizing but don't allow visible artifacts...define visible artifacts that are unique to the effects of resizing. I would call that "banding" and other like visible artifacts. I think that leaving an image with barrel distortion and severe cropping to "fit" the curved screen causes MUCH more of a visible artifact than the effect of warping. Getting to 4K and beyond will go a long way to allow warping and retain the resolution of the original container. If you have 4-16 times as many pixels to represent the original, you have a lot more flexibility on how you represent that pixel. Note too...DCI calls itself a voluntary set of rules. The only thing that enforces it are the studios and even then only when it comes to VPFs (beyond only supplying content that is DCI compliant...it isn't like the studios come out to the theatres to see what they are doing...they only care about if you are stealing their content). -Steve  |  IP: Logged Amanda Mundin Expert Film Handler Posts: 122 From: Belper, Derbyshire, UK Registered: Sep 2005 posted 01-31-2011 09:31 AM                     If this isn't taking the thread too far away from its original theme, we don't currently use an anamorphic but we are thinking of upgrading our projector, in an ideal world we'd like to be able to project 14 footlamberts for both Scope & 1.85 films, is this even possible with a common height screen?  |  IP: Logged

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