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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Issues with Digital Projection in general
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 08-18-2018 04:38 PM
The whole KDM issue is really retarded to start with. By now, there should be infrastructure where playout servers /IMSes can automatically download the KDM for any given movie.
All it would require would be some publicly accessible licensing servers and a simple API and you would never to have load a KDM again, it would simply download itself...
Also, imagine if all studios and distributors would invest in meaningful licensing portals, where you could simply extend the license for a movie at the click of a button?
quote: Steve Guttag
Even things as simple as closed captions get overly complicated in DCinema. We've had Closed Captions in TV for decades but in DCinema they go out of their way to make it less reliable. Just this past week I've had to do updates to get things more reliable with it and even then on GDC, you might get the red "caption encoder not found" error though it will still work. We didn't used to get this error all of the time but now we do.
The way subtitling works in DCI, with one old, scewed up defacto standard and a newer, overly complicated standard that's not universally accepted is just retarded.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, they should've simply looked at how it's done with Blu-Rays and called it a day.
F.y.i.: Blu-Ray uses simple transparent PNG images as overlay per subtitle stream, so there is never an issue with fonts that won't load because they're too large or contain "incompatible" stuff or rendering issues because the subtitling engine craps out after it didn't understand the XML or some glyph in the font.
Since a PNG is just an image, subtitles can also be in any language you want, they could even be in Klingon...
quote: Steve Guttag
DCinema equipment is towards the "cheap" end of their class of equipment. Look at the cost of an equivalent Rental/Staging projector in any of the brands and the DCinema street price is considerably less.
I'd say that across the whole board prices for projectors keep dropping. One advantage nowadays is that, with the amount of graphics performance that can be had for a few hundred dollars, you can do pretty amazing things with stacks of "cheap" projectors.
DCI is its own isolated island, but the only reason for this is the type of DRM it's using. We should try to homogenize the playing field, and the industry should choose a more widely accepted form of content protection, so cinema projection and playback technology could leave the island it is right now.
It might also be beneficial for the stability of those systems. There really isn't that much difference between a movie theater playing a preprogrammed show to a performing arts theater using pre-programmed video as part of their show or an attraction using video effects and projections. Yet we keep on using different projectors and different automation tools. Those islands of technology that don't mix with each other is a lost chance at improving technology on both sides.
quote: Steve Guttag
That said, I think it is horrible the amount of "reboot it" solutions. It isn't a solution, it is overcoming a problem. This stuff should be 24/7 capable but sooner or later, it is going to bite you.
It's like you're sometimes stuck between a rock and a hard place. It probably keeps you off the street, otherwise you could use the time you spend on menial bug remedies on so much other stuff... ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-18-2018 09:12 PM
Our experience is that Sony always gives us 8 week keys, or sometimes 16 weeks, whether a movie is brand new or weeks old.
On one- or two-week bookings, Disney always gives us keys for the full run of the movie, but theirs usually open two days before the opening date, which is nice. For three-week/four week runs, they will send the first two-weeks key first, then the other weeks one at a time.
The rest of the studios, as far as I can remember, give us keys for the length of our run.
I agree it's ridiculous how complicated it is.
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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-30-2018 09:46 AM
I love film.
Just had to say that before I start.
(/Ramble on)
We have less and less shows go down with digital though. Yes, there are the physical problems: RAID drives getting old, dowsers failing, etc. But we had worse physical issues with film (brainwraps, roller wear, etc.). As with anything - Human error is the number one factor when it comes to problems.
Here is what I found: A film projection booth was only as good as the person running it. Being pro-active kept the physical issues from being a problem (inspecting rollers, checking oil levels, sound and picture checks). You were bound to have issues, it was a matter of staying out in front of them. I ran a theatre in Florida, had a former Union projectionist who was in charge of the booth, and only lost a single show in a 2 plus year period. (Shout out to Ronald Green of Broward County, Florida, one of the most professional guys I ever worked with)
With Digital it is the same. Have someone in charge, with the right knowledge, and it will keep the problems to a minimum. Yes, problems will occur. Stay ahead of the curve. Our theatres up North have their managers come in an hour earlier than normal on Fridays and run all the playlists well before show time. Once the playlists go into the feature, they stop it. They do this to check a whole bunch of things before a paying audience goes into the auditorium. That's what I call being pro-active.
As far as your question Monte: We have worked out all our issues currently, or until the next software update comes out! Which is, by the way, they way it is in the modern world with digital technology. RAID drives are going to fail, cards will need reseated, and all computers will sometimes need a reboot (just hopefully not on a Friday night at 7 p.m.). Other than that, the hardware people will try to sell you thier newest stuff and the software people will always have a new version for you to update to (eventually leading to trying sell you new hardware from thier buddies that make the hardware).
No doubt the digital transition was a great big money grab on a bunch of people's parts. But I think it overall was good for the industry as far as stability is concerned. While I LOVE FILM and I miss it, I have adapted to the change.
(/Ramble off)
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Buck Wilson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 894
From: St. Joseph MO, USA
Registered: Sep 2010
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posted 09-03-2018 01:49 AM
10 plex, digital in Aug 2012 with 7 new NECs and already had 3 handmedown Barco DP2000s
It's been kinda rough, and even more so lately. I'd say we have a pass-able(readmit) event roughly once a month or more just due to the flaky nature of IT... Artifacts/wrong colors/weird shaped image on screen, stopped or other issues with playback, wrong content playing, RAID issues, 3D issues, etc. "Reboot it" is all too often the "solution"(I agree with Steve... That's not a solution, it's a band-aid.)
We've had a handful of events taking down an auditorium for multiple shows to multiple days in the last year or so. Light engine failure, bulb/reflector explosion, "main board" or whatever in one of the NECs, drive issues, etc.
Our LMS just ate enough shit that they felt the need to completely replace it with a TMS which has been a nightmare of a process.
Lens file issues, convergence degradation, coolant issues, bad/missing content/KDMs, finicky macro problems... It's always something. You don't really ever know if a movie is going to play. I don't have much confidence in the stuff. It is annoying. I don't hate digital, it can put out a decent picture and is flexible as all get out as far as scheduling... it has it's benefits; but dear god, there is plenty of room for improvement. As someone else mentioned, seemed like there was almost always something you could do to get back on screen with film, and you could see and touch and hear the problems.
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