Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Metropolitan Opera on the big screen

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-13-2009, 08:14 PM:

I seem to recall another thread on this topic but could not find it so I thought it would not hurt to start another. I have question about the image and sound quality of the theatrical HD presentation from the Metropolita Opera. Regal's Dole Cannery 18 here in Honolulu is playing the current Opera series by the Met and they just ran Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Although it is a digital video presentation, does the image have a softer look like film or is is sharp like most video image? How is the sound? Is the surround speakers in the theatre used to pick up the ambience of that large hall at NYC's Lincoln Centre? If any of you are playing the series, are you getting a good turn out and how much does it cost for a senior adult ticket compared to a regular movie at your theatre?

-Claude

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 03-14-2009, 03:42 PM:

Although it is a digital video presentation, does the image have a softer look like film or is is sharp like most video image?"

I have not been impressed by the quality of the video presentation. The equiptment they recommended, only goes up to 1080i, so we had to get a switcher and upconverter to get it to 1080p (our barco won't do interlace). Without the upconverter I can set it to 720p, and the image looks ok, but I've seen better video in 720p off of the cable box we have in the same house. It's just not as good as it could be.

"How is the sound? Is the surround speakers in the theatre used to pick up the ambience of that large hall at NYC's Lincoln Centre?"

That I can't speak about fully, as we are currently only using Dolby SR in that house. We have a server hooked up to the digital inputs on our CP650, and it would take disconnecting them, resetting some settings in our software, and reprogramming one of the mode buttons every time we have an opera. Something it was agreed that was too much to do at this point. It sounds very nice in SR, but I'm sure you'd really get the feel of being there with Dolby digital. We have had a couple of customers comment on it, but without buying yet more equipment, we can't do it in that house.

"If any of you are playing the series, are you getting a good turn out and how much does it cost for a senior adult ticket compared to a regular movie at your theatre?"

Well without speaking about specific numbers of capacity, we started about 6 opera's ago, and numbers have been steadily climbing. They are a very devoted crowd, and we see the same people every opera. The last one was Madama Butterfly, which sold out. The next two aren't expected to go so well, but we should have a solid crowd. Seniors are $20 for the opera, our normal ticket price for seniors is $6.50, so it is quite a step up. Those who come to it have said that they have paid $200 a ticket to go to the Met in New York, but they like going to a theater better, because you get to see what is going on behind the scenes during scene changes. They also do interviews with the stars inbetween scenes.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-14-2009, 04:09 PM:

I have been a huge fan of the Met ever since I was a little boy when I used to listen to the broadcasts on radio every Saturday during their season. I still lisen but not as often as I would like. I have also tuned in to the PBS telecasts they used to do several times a year but because of the theatrical presentations now, I do not think they are airing them anymore. I also used to buy Metropolitan Opera performances on laserdiscs and DVDs as well as others by European companies.
$20.00 for a theatrical showing in my opinion would be worth it if the picture quality and sound was Great but when it is only average is a bit much when I can buy a complete opera on BD for about $30.00 from Amazon wiith great picture and sound.

-Claude

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 03-15-2009, 01:36 AM:

I think a lot of the appeal to our customers has been that it is a live simulcast. I guess it makes them feel more like they are there. They also can't edit out any mistakes. Like in Madama Butterfly last week, in the opening scene, the main character slips and nearly fell on her face. You saw the frustration on her face, but she held it together. It was before any singing began, so it would have been an easy edit on a DVD.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 03-15-2009, 07:52 PM:

Your millage may very depending on your theatre. A lot of theatres use DCN clients to show Cinemedia events. These utilize digital pre show projectors. While they are (technically) HD, the light output is often times poor compared to DCinema.

Other theatres use a digital video scaler along side a digital cinema projector. Scaled properly, the results are excellent.

They broadcast over Dish Network on a special locked channel only theatres can access. It appears that this channel is allocated more bandwidth that Dish's other HD channels, as MET broadcasts look significantly better than what I'm used to seeing on dish. The broadcasts are sent in 5.1 AC-3, however the theatre must have a DMA-8 or similar device to decode that stream properly. Otherwise, you will only hear stereo, hopefully processed via Pro Logic.

We have our Dish receiver sending out 720p connected via component video to our 8x4 Extron switcher, then output to our Barco ACS-2048 scaler where it is upconverted to 1080x2048 Dual DVI and then finally sent to our Barco DP100. The audio is processed via DMA-8+ for full 5.1. The audience allways has positive things to say about the presentation quality.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 03-15-2009, 11:51 PM:

quote: Joe Elliott
We have a server hooked up to the digital inputs on our CP650, and it would take disconnecting them, resetting some settings in our software, and reprogramming one of the mode buttons every time we have an opera.

That's what a DMA8 is for. If this is a house used for CineMedia events, it should have one. Not only does it provide D/A conversion, but it allows multiple external digital sources to share a single input on the processor.

quote: Joe Elliott
That I can't speak about fully, as we are currently only using Dolby SR in that house.

I take it you are using the second optical input and using an Odyssey P2 Card or some other method of switching the processor to the Projector 2 input? If that's the case, it would be better playing in Format 04, not SR, as the content is not encoded in SR so it is not really proper to play it back in SR.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 03-16-2009, 01:11 AM:

Sorry, I miscommunicated that, we are using NS2 Prologic with Sub. As for the DMA8, it is hard to get the company to spring for the money. They consider us a small town theater, and attendence wise, we are not top on the list for upgrade. The only reason we have a newer digital projector is that they tried it out at one of their better theaters, didn't like it, went with christies, and sent the old Barco to us to deal with. Plus that, I think they are a little gun shy when it comes to digital. We have 2 1.3k's that are setting here, and can only used for alternative content now.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-16-2009, 03:14 AM:

A bit off-topic but I can't help but chuckle every time I see an ad that gets played for the Met stuff.

The first thing it displays is a quote from some reviewer that says "High C's in High-Def... Bravo."

Yep. The sound of a high C is much more impressive when the picture is high-definition and would sound noticeably worse if the picture was reduced to DVD-quality.

[Wink]

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 11-01-2013, 11:28 PM:

It has been 1691 days since the last post.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 11-01-2013, 11:28 PM:

I think I walked in for a few minutes to an auditorium showing this. I was bored by all the pre movie ads for Capt Phillips and decided to check out the next auditorium at the local Regal Perimeter Point 10. I was actually surprised it was in the biggest auditorium in the theater (this past Wednesday, the 30th). The picture seemed very dim and more like early HD than the HD we are used to seeing recently. Maybe because of the lighting. I walked in on some opera scene where they show a bunch of russian soldiers on stage. Looked mind numbingly boring, but then again, my taste differs, so I am not a proper judge of the content. But visually, it looked awful.

There were only two people in the entire theater!!! Or maybe another couple tucked away somewhere.