quote:

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Experience the new standard in digital sound! The Marcus Elgin Fox Theatre UltraScreen is the first and only screen in North America to combine new state-of-the-art Digital B-Chain™ cinema audio and the Academy Award® winning ScreenArray® Cinema System for unsurpassed cinema sound! Sound so dynamic, brilliant, and crystal clear you will have to hear it for yourself to believe it.

Can anyone explain a bit what this is?

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Let me try....it's called MARKETING BS; hype to sell tickets. Heck, I hate it, and yet even I am guilty of it. Read our copy....whenever we say anything about our sound system, you never see just the word "sound," it's always breathtakingly realistic, Six Channel Total Surround MegaSound! we use "breathtaking" so often you would think our patrons should be given oxygen tanks as they walk into the theatre. We don't just have a screen, we have a 40ft-by-nearly-2-stories high true CinemaScope Screen!. By god, yes we do! I am not even sure myself what that means anymore. I guess originally it was that we got the full aspect scope ratio rather than cropping any of the sides; get it? not just CinemaScope....true CinemaScope! And, oh yah, I don't know where we would be without the "!"
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-17-2004, 11:51 PM:
 
Its clear that Marcus still has a bunch of dorks at the helm of their engineering department! They are truely good at inventing engineering hype though.

Mark @ CLACO
 

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Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 02-18-2004, 08:45 AM:
 
I believe Marcus operates an Ultrascreen in Oakdale, here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, but it's hardly ever driven people from other parts of the metro to see a print on it.
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 02-18-2004, 09:18 AM:
 
There is nothing wrong with hype as long as one is not dishonest or misleading. It's a traditional part of showmanship in this business.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-18-2004, 07:59 PM:
 
"Digital B Chain"..... now thats hype thats so stupid it might actually be catchy. Lots of theatres have Cp500's, CP650's amnd other all digital processors in the B chains, so yes its sort of misleading..... its really nothing special at all.
Then again I'd bet that some of those Marcus guys probably drink Pabst Blue Ribbon too

Mark @ CLACO
 

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Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 02-19-2004, 03:41 PM:
 
Steve --

Marcus currently does not have an Ultrascreen at Oakdale.
 

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Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 02-20-2004, 08:33 AM:
 
My bad, they advertise as the only THX auditoriums in the North metro
 

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Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 02-20-2004, 09:28 AM:
 
Not anymore. We stopped paying for THX certification last spring.
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 06-20-2004, 08:49 PM:
 

 

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Posted by Scott Madsen (Member # 167) on 04-25-2005, 10:33 PM:
 
I have heard Marcus will be finished with the Ultrascreen addition to Oakdale here in a few weeks. I assume it will be ready for Episode 3.
 

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Posted by Paul Vollmers (Member # 927) on 04-25-2005, 10:44 PM:
 
Hey, How about some inside screen photos.......
I remember as a kid in Chicago, when I saw Ben Hur on a Micheal Todd screen in 70mm, and the curtain seemed to just keep opening and opening and opening........roadshow that was a picture sound experiance.
 

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 04-26-2005, 07:02 AM:
 
I can't speak for the other theatres, but the Ultrascreen installed in Columbus is pretty good.

They moved out the Imax booth equipment, screen and speakers. The mounting hardware for the back left/right speakers are still there. A new screen and sound system were installed. The pit that housed the bottom of the Imax screen was filled. A new screen was installed, masked with curtain material from above. They use side masking.

Sound quality is very good, and the picture is clear and bright. They claim a 75' screen, but they project a 68' image in scope. The last time I was there there was no music playing, making it eerily quiet. As from the opening of the theatre, this room is TOO DARK, making for lots of banged knees on entrance. I've stopped complaining to Marcus about this, as they seem to like it the way it is.

I've seen 3 pictures in this room, and 2 had problems. First, NATIONAL TREASURE had a bad reel (new one had not arrived) and SIN CITY had no right channel, due, according to management, to a loose wire on the amplifier.

I think converting from Imax to Ultrascreen was a smart idea. The Imax was rarely busy, especially later in the runs. More than once, there were 10 or fewer people in the theatre with me. With the Ultra Screen, they can change the pictures frequently. Lately, they have been changing pictures weekly.
 

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Posted by Larry Shaw (Member # 388) on 05-06-2005, 05:14 PM:
 
Marcus has been changing the projectors in the UltraScreen houses to Kinoton 50D's and 60D's, replacing A's, JJ's, and Simplexes with normal and hi-speed movements. I believe they are quite happy with the image quality now.

I recently visited Appleton, Madison (the largest of them I believe) and Waukesha WI. I found the picture quality quite good with Schneider test film (J=1/2 of one of the narrow center horizontal dimension lines, F= 80 LP Ctr. in 1:2.40). Of course the widely discussed dimunition in print stability shows up very obviously with this much magnification.

Subjectively, with a print of XXX, the rear half of the house provided a very exciting experience with comfortable viewing. IMHO, as one gets closer than the midpoint of the seating the image gets a bit overwhelming and the print movement becomes noticeable. This might be less of an issue in 1:1.85. Although I wasn't really paying attention to the sound systems other than the DD error numbers, the sound was subjectively very nice for this feature, with good intelligibility.

Basically, I really enjoyed the viewing experience I had, and those nearby seemed to as well.

Larry Shaw
Kinoton America
[Exclusive North American Distributor of Kinoton GmbH]
8 Goodenough Street
Boston, MA 02135-1903
Tel: 617-562-0003 x104 Fax: 617-787-4253
E-Mail: larry@kinotonamerica.com
Website:http://www.kinotonamerica.com
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-07-2005, 02:54 PM:
 
Larry,
Thats great to hear!! Now if Uncle Groege can just get his DLP to even approach that quality and image size we may all be heading someplace positive for a change. Are tjhese FP's running 5 to 1 or just 3 to 1?

Mark
 

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Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 05-09-2005, 01:21 PM:
 

quote: Larry Shaw

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Marcus has been changing the projectors in the UltraScreen houses to Kinoton 50D's and 60D's, replacing A's, JJ's, and Simplexes with normal and hi-speed movements. I believe they are quite happy with the image quality now.

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