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Topic: Dolby Cinema

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 05-11-2015 06:55 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Well, if Dolby Cinema is somewhat consistent, it should end up being a 100% flat screen, so no torus and no curve and also no sucking

Marcel...no physical sucking, but no masking is still sucking. [Razz]

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Randy Pryde
Film Handler

Posts: 32
From: Casper, WY, USA
Registered: Feb 2013

posted 05-11-2015 09:57 PM

I am not familiar with MDI screens, but Harkness recommends microperf for viewing positions under 16 feet. Does AMC/Dolby Vision plan on seats that close to a 29' tall image? Or would they specify microperf to avoid possible moire patterns?

Always interesting to see how the big boys approach tech design.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 05-12-2015 04:58 AM

And what is with the 1.8 gain? There is no way to achieve SMPTE/DCI spec on brightness uniformity on a flat screen with a gain above 1.3.

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Max Biela
Film Handler

Posts: 89
From: Dortmund, Germany
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 05-12-2015 11:21 AM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Well, if Dolby Cinema is somewhat consistent, it should end up being a 100% flat screen, so no torus and no curve and also no sucking

The Dolby Cinema screen in Eindhoven is curved IIRC.

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Greg Staten
Film Handler

Posts: 6
From: Cypress, TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2015

posted 05-22-2015 09:49 PM

I headed out to the AMC Deerbrook this afternoon to watch Tomorrowland in Dolby Cinema. The biggest problem with the presentation was that the red (not blue) aisle lighting dimmed only slightly and as a result there was a very annoying red illumination of the bottom corners of the screen.

But ignoring that, the image was just spectacular. The difference was immediately evident in the first shot of the film - a head shot of Clooney where the image just popped off the screen and the shadow detail - excepting those lower corners - just went down forever.

There were several outdoor scenes with the sun backlighting the composition and it was staggeringly bright. At the same time, you had no problem making out the characters even though they were in shadow. There's no question this is a huge advancement in the way films look.

AMC needs to address this light bleed - if they can due to fire code restrictions - but otherwise the picture is just great. It is a fixed aspect screen with no masking and, with the exception of those damned red lower corners the blacks are so deep that you really don't notice the lack of masking.

Next up is Inside Out which I'll see at the second Houston-area Dolby Cinema location, the AMC Willowbrook. Hopefully the fire marshall will be more forgiving on this installation as compared to the fire marshall in Humble, TX.

-greg

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Aron Toplitsky
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 113
From: Gardena, CA, USA
Registered: May 2012

posted 05-23-2015 12:38 AM

I'm a bit disappointed that Dolby Cinema has not yet arrived to the AMC Century City 15 here in Los Angeles. I thought they were going to presented in time with the release. Oh well...

Anyhow, I'm a bit unsure what you guys mean when you talk about masking screens. I know there are screens in a lot of the large format theaters (RPX, ETX, XD) that have only one screen size and the scope images tend to have a letterbox look on the top and bottom of the screen. I prefer the screens that have the side curtains and open horizontally when the aspect ratios change from each film. So which one is a masked screen?

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-23-2015 12:53 AM

Masking is just black cloth that's placed around the screen to cover the mounting hardware. The best masking is movable (motorized) and can be adjusted to where it exactly frames the picture and covers any white screen.

The cinema you describe (where the curtains open for the wider scope picture) is the same idea, it's just using the curtains to mask the sides of the screen when necessary. That screen is probably still masked to the scope format, but the masking itself doesn't move.

There is also non-moving masking without a curtain, which is a compromise at best but it's still better than no masking at all.

Unfortunately both types seem to be an endangered species. Except here -- our screen is masked, and with any luck by the end of this year we will have our much-awaited stage curtain.

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Aron Toplitsky
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 113
From: Gardena, CA, USA
Registered: May 2012

posted 05-23-2015 03:16 AM

Got it. Thanks Mike!

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-23-2015 01:05 PM

quote: Greg Staten
I headed out to the AMC Deerbrook this afternoon to watch Tomorrowland in Dolby Cinema. The biggest problem with the presentation was that the red (not blue) aisle lighting dimmed only slightly and as a result there was a very annoying red illumination of the bottom corners of the screen.

Did AMC change any of the interior decor of the Prime screen? Your description of the theater makes it sound like all that was changed was the screen and projectors in the booth.

All of the Dolby Cinema stuff I've seen from their prototype theaters featured a lot of dark wall coverings angled to give it a strange kind of stealth fighter look. Do the Prime auditoriums have any of that treatment?

I'm also wondering if AMC has any sort of exclusive deal with Dolby on installing "Dolby Cinema" screens. It will be interesting to see if any competing theater chains install Dolby Cinema in the full configuration.

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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008

posted 05-23-2015 05:25 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
I'm also wondering if AMC has any sort of exclusive deal with Dolby on installing "Dolby Cinema" screens. It will be interesting to see if any competing theater chains install Dolby Cinema in the full configuration.

I was wondering that myself too - with AMC's planned rollout, the DC area market won't see a 'Dolby Cinema' for another year or so.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 05-25-2015 03:44 PM

quote: Max Biela
The Dolby Cinema screen in Eindhoven is curved IIRC.

I've had a close look at it today.

And well, it's almost as curved as the earth itself... There is in fact, a very slight curvature to it, but I'm not sure if that will do anything significant.

Also, like mentioned before, the screen is as naked as a baby at birth. There is no masking, nor will there ever be masking... The blue halo behind looks especially cheap, because it's uneven and generally shoddily implemented.

The screen is as a matter of fact, a micro-perf screen. I'm not sure why they choose this, it's not due to the distance to the first row I guess, maybe they went for it to minimize the chance of moire patterns? It's also very evidently a high gain screen, not sure if that's really necessary if you've got the power of two laser-fueled projectors at your disposal and the screen isn't really massive at all.

As for the hotspot, I've done my best to spot a significant hotspot, but I wasn't able to spot one. I'm usually rather sensitive to uneven lightning and I consider it to be a distraction.

They also fixed the aisle lightning, I'm pretty sure that wasn't switched on during my last visit. They were now also playing an ominous loop before the show, alongside a big Dolby Cinema logo projected on screen. The loop made some good use of the Atmos system by placing some "atmospheric sounds" in the surround field and slowly panning them around.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 05-25-2015 07:00 PM

German language, but you can see quite bit of the Eindhoven Dolby Cinema installation in this video - auditorium as well as Dolby lobby and booth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-jnd-CpfcQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=608

As it seems, they have a (tiny) Christie 2230 just for backup purposes in the booth, as well as a redundant second CP850. They also quote the cost for this auditorium to be around 2.500.000 US$. Ticket price is around 16US$.

- Carsten

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Greg Staten
Film Handler

Posts: 6
From: Cypress, TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2015

posted 05-26-2015 06:48 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Did AMC change any of the interior decor of the Prime screen? Your description of the theater makes it sound like all that was changed was the screen and projectors in the booth.

To be honest, I hadn't been to this theater (an hour from my house) before so I can't comment on what they changed. Considering they took the theater down for four weeks I'd be surprised if it was just the screen - which on close inspection appeared to be a microperf - and projector. (The theater was already Atmos, but perhaps they number of speakers was increased.)

My wife and kids wanted to see the film so I saw it again on Saturday at on a conventional Atmos screen. In this case the aisle lighting was very dim and there was no bleed onto the screen which meant a far superior even illumination. But the different was very pronounced in the illumination and contrast ratio.

As I mentioned earlier, the difference was apparent from the very first shot, a closeup of Clooney, where he didn't appear nearly as "lifelike" in the non-Dolby Cinema presentation. And the backlit shots were conventional as compared to the intense sun illumination but with much better shadow detail on the foreground actors and environment.

In about a month the second Dolby Cinema installation opens in Houston, this one only about 20 minutes away. Unfortunately they've already taken their Prime theater down for the conversion so I can't go in and see a film before the conversion to see what they are changing. I'm hopeful, though that they can fix the red light bleed onto the screen which was incredibly annoying and even more so with Dolby Cinema;s higher contrast ratio.

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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 05-26-2015 09:26 AM

Greg,

You should really send an email to AMC (and Dolby if possible) regarding the light bleed. It might be something the fire marshal made them do but there may be a solution they can come up with.

Having dealt with fire marshals, it is very possible that everything was done/calibrated and he came in complaining about aisle lighting and whoever was there turned it up but didn't notice the effect on the screen.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 05-26-2015 12:45 PM

Even so it might be possible to dump the lighting near the screen completely while having a minimal level for the rest of the theatre.

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