Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: switching channels on CP2220 while running

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Posted by Laura Hicks (Member # 9365) on 08-02-2016, 05:21 PM:

I have a Blu-ray player connected to my Christie CP2220, so there are two channels I made on the Touch Panel Controller for different aspect ratios; one's 1.85:1 and the other's 2.35:1. Is it bad to switch channels (or, aspect ratios) while a movie is being projected? May seem like an odd request, but I have a film with subtitles for only ONE frame of the entire movie, but the subtitles appear within the letterboxing (the film is 2.35:1 but the subtitles appear below that). Would it be bad for the projector if I began the film in 1.85:1 to show that very first frame's subtitles, and then immediately switch to 2.35:1? (the frame is black with white text so it would not be too obvious, just didn't know if that was good for the projector)

Posted by Phil Ranucci (Member # 3820) on 08-02-2016, 06:17 PM:

It certainly won't hurt the projector, but a few things your audience will notice.
Is your machine set up to close the douser (shutter) when changing formats? Your screen might go dark briefly during the
change, also you might see the lens shifting and zooming to go to the scope format. Do you have movable masking? At what point in the movie is this subtitle?
Will you be in letterboxed mode for a long time before the title appears? Might be a bit weird to see the picture changing after 45 minutes.Only 1 minute might not be so jarring to the audience.

Also you should move this to the Digital Cinema forum.

Posted by Laura Hicks (Member # 9365) on 08-02-2016, 06:24 PM:

Yes, I believe our dowser closes briefly when changing channels. I'm getting a new Blu-ray for this particular movie, but thought I'd ask this odd question in case I ever needed to do this as a last resort! Thanks!

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 08-02-2016, 06:41 PM:

No, it won't hurt the projector.
There may be not much you can do. I had two films on blupray at a film festival
last week which each ran multiple times. The movie was definitely 'shot' for 2:35
aspect ratio. But the subtitles, and occasional supertitle at the top of the screen
were all rendered in the black, outside the picture area.

It was this way on every blu-ray player, monitor and projector I tried testing with.
It was just the way the blu-ray was authored. I had no choice but to run those two
films at a compromised (less than full width) screen size, to preserve the sub &
supertitles. In my line of work, this isn't the first time I've encountered this- -
mostly with stuff from Japan, which is where these two movies were from.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-02-2016, 09:28 PM:

Depending upon how the subtitles are encoded, some players (the Oppo is one) will allow the position of the subtitles to be adjusted. This only works with player-generated subtitles, not with "burned-in" subtitles.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-03-2016, 11:25 AM:

I feel Laura's pain - I get many titles (on BDs, files, and in some cases DCPs) that are scope within a 16:9 or 1.85 matte, with the subtitles burnt in on the bottom matte. They usually come from kids doing first-time fest entries. Why do these people go to the trouble of composing and shooting their movies in scope, only to hand over something at the end of post that can only be shown letterboxed?!