Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Technicolor Digital Cinema is online

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 03-11-2001, 01:55 PM:

The Technicolor Digital Cinema website is now online at:
http://www.technicolordigital.com

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Better Projection Pays!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-12-2001, 01:27 AM:

Just for fun I read over the FAQ section of this site.

What's funny is, the questions everyone is really asking are not there! Such as, who pays? How much? (I know about the 12-cent deal, but why isn't it in here? Because it's smoke and mirrors?) Who does servicing?
Etc.

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 03-12-2001, 06:55 AM:

Their site contains very little technical or business information. It's almost all marketing blow. Nowhere do they even specify the resolution of or even what type of projectors they are using. According to posts in another thread, it's 1280x1024 DLP-based, but try finding that on their website!

I found their answer to FAQ #6 to be interesting:

quote:
What are the primary benefits of digital cinema over traditional film?
Digital cinema brings a stable and superior, non-degrading image to the silver screen, assuring audiences will experience pristine picture and audio quality showing after showing. Digital cinema picture quality remains consistent whether it's the first or 1,000th showing of a movie. In a first run showing, the average person is unlikely to notice any significant differences between the colors, contrast and image clarity of digital cinema versus traditional film.

First they say it's "superior", then they say people are unlikely to notice a difference. Hmm, so which is it?

There is a PDF that you can download, but it appears to be a three-year-old document that mainly hypothesizes on what might be possible with digital cinema. As such, it provides no specifics on the Technicolor system. Although it does have some amusingly out-of-date information, like this:

quote:
This trend is expected to continue for several years with as many as 1,000 to 2,000 new screens being added each year...

I wonder why they posted that file. Not only is it out of date, it's not all that relevant.

After reading everything on the website, there are quite a few unanswered questions. Here are a couple I thought of:

Where is the incentive for Technicolor to upgrade the projectors? For maximum profits, I would think they would just install the cheapest projectors they could find and then do matainence as needed. They would have no reason to upgrade. With the technology evolving so rapidly, any plan must have some sort of provisions for upgrades. In fact, some people are saying DLP is already obsolete. What does Technicolor plan to do about that?
Is this optional for exhibitors? Since Technicolor controls such a large amount of film distribution as it is, do theater chains even have a choice about going with this system, or can Technicolor force it on them?

They also left out what is no doubt the most troubling aspect of this system. According to posts from people who were at the ShoWest presentation, it is completely closed, and will only show data that comes from Technicolor. In other words, it will give them a 100% monopoly over movie distribution in theaters that use it. The more I think about that, the more I realize it's no wonder they're giving the first 1000 projectors away for free.

(Note, I edited this after I posted it to make it slightly less inflammatory.)