This is topic Continental in Denver now "RPX" in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-11-2011, 04:49 PM:
 
The big screen at the Continental in Denver, CO has been given the digital 3D upgrade with an 8k lamp and is the 8th Regal RPX auditorium in the chain. RPX officially stands for "Real Pricey Experience". The first movie shown in the auditorium under this banner is the Justin Beeber thingy. How proud they must be. New features include:

-Heightened ticket prices for any movie in this auditorium.
-Old screen removed and replaced with "something bigger".
-102 speaker sound system using a different array of speakers. The stage channels hang from the ceiling like a concert venue (hopefully they are at least behind the screen). The auditorium is wired for 10 channels and uses matrixing to achieve said number of channels.
-All QSC amps (which it already had, but it now has more).
-Designed by Regal techs on their own.
-And most importantly: New leather seating!!!

No word yet on if the screen retains the original D150 curve or not.

This is the auditorium that companies just love to tamper with over and over and over.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-11-2011, 10:10 PM:
 
Some more info:

-20 QSC amps
-Total power 100,015 watts (extra 15 watts to power all of the LEDs on the amps to make them look pretty)
-New GIANT screen 70x30 feet scope, 50x30 feet flat (common height = awesome).
-Around 25-30 foot lamberts in 2D, 8-10 foot Lamberts in 3D
-Accepts 5.1 and 7.1 inputs and can matrix out to 9.1 using monopoints (whatever the eff monopoints are)
-Barco built their largest projector for this setup and it can project up to a 105 foot screen if needed. It can project even larger than that if the projector is moved "way back".
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-11-2011, 10:24 PM:
 
Oh fun. Now to make "Justin Bieber" more presentable .... lol
 

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 02-12-2011, 09:13 AM:
 
The old GIANT D150 screen was 78x35 feet, constant height.

Do they have any film capability at all now?

I'm also curious to know if they improved the sight-lines that they screwed up (front quarter) when they remodeled the auditorium a few years ago.
 

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Posted by Chase Pickett (Member # 5975) on 02-12-2011, 12:25 PM:
 
My theater will be the first installed with ETX in a couple of weeks. The biggest thing I'm looking forward to is a picture that will actually be closer to 35mm in brightness. A 4200 watt bulb just isn't cutting it.
 

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Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-12-2011, 12:30 PM:
 
Chase

You'll enjoy 30FL and they'll rent sunglasses at the till.
 

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Posted by Chase Pickett (Member # 5975) on 02-12-2011, 12:55 PM:
 

quote: Marco Giustini

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You'll enjoy 30FL and they'll rent sunglasses at the till.

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quote: Joe Redifer

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Fun fact: The Continental has far fewer seats now as a 10-plex than it did when it was a 6-plex.

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Less seats = more full houses.
 

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 02-12-2011, 04:54 PM:
 
I would love to check it out sometime, but first they'll have to show something worth seeing. Right now, the only thing I'm interested in this year is Cars 2. I might check out Thor or Cap'n America if the reviews are outstanding, because I've liked some of the movies from Branagh and Johnson.

But I'll won't see anything at the Continental's ArePeeEchs if I have to wear dark glasses. I only wear dark glasses outside, when it's sunny.
 

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Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-12-2011, 04:56 PM:
 
is this the same Continental theater from the 80's. The old Continental theater was a 70MM house there is no way to duplicate a 70MM film on that size of screen with Digital is there?
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-12-2011, 05:39 PM:
 
The one and the same. Well, not so much the same any more.
 

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Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-12-2011, 07:09 PM:
 
I loved that theater shame they screwed up. I worked for Commonwealth it and the Cooper were the flagships. I hated it that they added the baby theaters with them. Cooper Cameo and um whatever they called the additional screen (one i think maybe more) when I worked for them.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-12-2011, 11:37 PM:
 
Yeah, they junked the other great single screeners, the Cooper and the Mann Century 21. A Barnes and Noble stands on the Cooper's former site and they gutted the Century 21 and put an Ultimate Electronics inside (they are now going bankrupt).

They kept the Continental mostly intact. They didn't touch the main auditorium during the first renovation other than to add more modern speakers and sound processors, etc. The lobby was turned into auditorium #4, the smallest house in the complex. They built the other auditoriums around the main one which was rechristened as "#5". Then after many more years they added 4 more auditoriums to the east of the building as well as adding stadium seating to the other newer auditoriums, again leaving the main house alone. Then, even though they had no problems putting butts in seats when it came to the big house, they decided it needed to be stadium seating. So they retrofitted it for that, lost a whole mess of seats in the process, screwed up a lot of the sightlines and made the auditorium look like your average, generic multiplex auditorium, only now they couldn't sell as many tickets to the house, but Regal's businessmen aren't very bright. Now they have removed even more seats to add RPX. With the way they're going, soon the auditorium will have the same amount of seats as your average screening room.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 02-13-2011, 02:50 AM:
 
Ultimate Electronics is going bankrupt?
That's funny...they took over the old Circum City location here.
 

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Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 02-13-2011, 09:48 AM:
 

quote: Joe Redifer

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Accepts 5.1 and 7.1 inputs and can matrix out to 9.1 using monopoints (whatever the eff monopoints are)

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quote: Joe Redifer

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the new screen is supposedly free-floating and has been moved forward enough to remove about 70 seats.

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Does this mean it's Imax style and has no masking?
 

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 02-13-2011, 10:19 AM:
 
Does anyone know what the resolution of this new projector is?
 

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 02-14-2011, 04:47 PM:
 
Regarding moving the screen closer to the audience, didn't Imax at one point claim this is part of their patent?

For reference, the IMAX patent is # 7,106,411.

The patent is titled (no joking here): Conversion of Cinema Theatre to a Super Cinema Theatre.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-14-2011, 04:54 PM:
 
But Regal is not converting it to a Super Cinema so they can get away with it.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-14-2011, 05:29 PM:
 
I'm going to patent the "Super Duper Cinema" process whenever I can come up with an idea dumb enough to deserve the title.
 

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Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-17-2011, 12:18 PM:
 
Oh Joe leave it to the big chains to figure out a way to have few customers in a smaller theater that once held about 1000 people at a time regularly! I mean after all why not screw it up if you can! That is the name of the game right?

This is reference to Joe’s answer to my question on the other page! I got behind not all that unusual for me!

Mark how the heck can they patent the distance the audience is from the screen? That is just stupid! Well to me I have seen theaters that were really tight and not IMAX at all.
 

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 04-02-2011, 10:49 PM:
 
I saw Source Code tonight at the Continental on the RPX screen.

The screen is indeed closer and still constant height. It has a minimal curve, not the deep D150 curve. And it is "nice and new." Previously, it had some vertical streaking near the top. The screen appeared to be as big as it was before, but I left my tape measurer at home so I can't be sure.

The new placement (and possibly higher backed seats?) renders first several rows unusable. The seats in front of you block the bottom of the screen.

As for the new digital projection, I saw some jagged edges in slanted portions of text in the opening credits, but I never noticed this sort of pixelation during the film. I did see the shimmery, blotchy, "graininess" in solid blocks of color that I always see with digital projection. Brightness and contrast seemed impressively good. And of course the image was lock-solid steady.

An important note of course is that Source Code is 1.85. I wonder how a 2.4 film will hold up, since it will cover more area using less resolution.

The audio was fine, except the bass seems a bit mushy. The rumble is abundant, but just not "crisp." I don't know how to better describe it.

All of this cost $13.50 a ticket. Source Code was sure as hell not worth that... nor were any of the movies we saw trailers or posters for...
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-02-2011, 11:33 PM:
 
Goes to prove that no matter how much junk you spread on top, the cake mix still has to taste good.

These sort of presentations needs to return to roadshow quality and splendor to be either in 3D or RPX - make it worth the money spent...
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-03-2011, 12:13 AM:
 
Thanks for the review, Geoff. Did they light up the area behind the screen before the show started? I hear they do that and it is all open area behind the screen now. The speakers hang from the ceiling. No baffle wall, of course.
 

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 04-03-2011, 10:44 AM:
 

quote: Joe Redifer

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Did they light up the area behind the screen before the show started? I hear they do that and it is all open area behind the screen now

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quote: Geoff Jones

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We occupied ourselves during the pre-show screwing around on our phones because it was too loud to really talk to each other.

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