This is topic Gah! AMC Easton (Columbus, OH) "upgrades" to IMAX Digital in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000371

---

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 05-16-2009, 11:30 PM:
 
Well, that's it for IMAX in Columbus. We went to see "Star Trek: The IMAX Experience" this afternoon. All was well until the film started.

For the next two hours I sat and stewed as I watched the movie through a screen door. How is this supposed to be better than regular D Cinema (which also blows)?

After the show was over, I went to the "courtesy desk" and asked if they still had the IMAX film equipment in place, to which the attendant replied, "no, we 'upgraded' to digital last week. It looks much better than what we had before." Urgh.

I'm glad we got to see Dark Knight before they "upgraded".

I told the guy at the counter that at least now I can start saving money by not paying a premium for IMAX any more.

Just when filmmakers are actually showing interest in filming in IMAX, let alone the DMR stuff, IMAX makes the origination format moot.

/me is sad.

-David
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-17-2009, 12:07 AM:
 

quote: David E. Nedrow

---

After the show was over, I went to the "courtesy desk"

---

That was your biggest mistake of the week. You should have gone to the Manager after just 10 min and demanded a full refund!

Mark
 

---

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 05-17-2009, 12:23 AM:
 
Yeah, had it just been me and my wife, I would have left early and gotten a refund. Unfortunately, we were meeting a group of people there.

-David
 

---

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 05-18-2009, 09:29 PM:
 
David, where in the theatre were you sitting?
 

---

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 05-18-2009, 11:45 PM:
 
Maybe 2/3's of the way up, which I guess would put me 40-50' away from the screen.
 

---

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 05-19-2009, 04:46 PM:
 
Do you have an idea of the size of the screen?

I've restarted my effort to note that on the Information Pages for theaters, since the "fake IMAX" issue has put a new spotlight on it.

Information Page for AMC Easton Town Center 30 with IMAX
 

---

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 05-19-2009, 09:04 PM:
 
It's a smaller screen (or at least smaller than any other IMAX theatre I've been in), and always has been -- even when they were running IMAX film. It's maybe 40' wide.

The only true IMAX we had in Columbus was at the Marcus Theatre on the north side of Columbus, but they choppered out the projectors a few years ago and converted it to an "Ultra-Screen".

-David
 

---

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 05-22-2009, 03:32 PM:
 
Screen at AMC Easton is 52' wide. Using a 1.9:1 ratio, this makes the height 27.

At a showing today, I did not see any of the "screen door" effect noted by others. I wonder if the projectors got just slightly out of alignment?
 

---

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 05-22-2009, 04:12 PM:
 
I haven't seen digital Imax. But if it was using two projectors, like it should do, the blank space between pixels (the "screen door") would be filled with light coming from the other projector, as the two screen doors are not going to align perfectly.

I'm guessing that's one of the main points of using two projectors. Hide the screen door.

It would still be noticeable sitting in the front rows on large areas of solid white color, as the light intensity, of even the "double" screen door, would leave some darker thin lines. But much less than if they were using a single projector, as virtually zero light would reach the inter-pixel areas in that case.

With two projectors ever so slightly offset, the screen door effect would be reduced to roughly half by severely reducing the contrast between the black lines and the adjacent pixels using the light from the second projector to fill the empty space.
 

---

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 05-22-2009, 11:15 PM:
 
Mark,

I may just be pickier than most, but from several spots in the auditorium, it was very easy to tell this was a digital presentation. It didn't help that I also saw some jitter on anything that was moving quickly from left to right on-screen. And the credits at the end were so bad they looked out of focus.

My bigger problem is that I had no idea I was paying for DMAX, rather than IMAX. Now, there's no place in or near Columbus running film-based IMAX features.

The plus side of this is that now I no longer need to pay a premium to see an IMAX film.

-David
 

---

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 05-23-2009, 06:22 AM:
 
Your point is well taken. There is, indeed, no reason to pay the $5 premium for IMAX. There are plenty of other large screens around that will do. The Ultrascreens @ Marcus are almost as bright, and the large rooms at the RAVE are very good. I'll be going to Easton for the food rather then the movies.
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-23-2009, 08:05 AM:
 

quote: Mark Lensenmayer

---

I'll be going to Easton for the food rather then the movies

---