Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Regal's RPX system

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-20-2012, 02:01 PM:

The Regal Dole Cannery 18 in Honolulu converted one of it's large auditoriums with a projection and sound system the chain call RPX (Regal Premium Experience) and opened today with THE LUCKY ONE. I was at the Dole last week to see TITANIC in Digital IMAX and went into the RPX auditorium to see the screen. The screen is very large but not as big as their IMAX but it looked impressive. Along with special seats and improved sound, it also features dual projection RealD 3-D. Has anyone seen a movie at a Regal theatre in RPX and what did you think of the presentation? By the way, the screen I saw had almost the same dimension as digital IMAX but it did not look like it had any kind of masking for scope movies.

By the way, TITANIC was fantastic in 3-D Digital IMAX, but I have to agree with the substandard picture quality. As we all know , there is a severe limitation with movies that has been scanned in 1K. The sound however was great.

-Claude

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 04-20-2012, 02:16 PM:

Claude it was scanned at 4k.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-20-2012, 02:31 PM:

i had read digital IMAX is a 1k scanned process but i must have been misinformed. Thanks for setting me straight, victor. Now, lets discuss the Regal's RPX system.

-Claude

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-20-2012, 04:02 PM:

Dual Christies and 25k potential watts with a lot more speakers in the auditoria than what IMAX had.

Other big box cinemas also have their own versions of the same basic, large screen presentation methods.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-20-2012, 10:21 PM:

Didn't Cinemark get sued by IMAX for their XD system because it used dual projectors? But it's OK if Regal does it?

Yes, Titanic was scanned at 1k. Actually I think they just used the DVD. 1K is closer to DVD resolution than it is to Blu-ray.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 04-22-2012, 02:25 PM:

Cinemark XD does not use dual projectors.....

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-22-2012, 03:24 PM:

1K rez..can see why with that large sized screen.

Be like 800x600 against 1064x768 on a CRT monitor.

One can almost feel ripped off seeing a lower res picture and paying more for the experience.

(..and what's 15/70 res-even with DMR prints-supposed to be,outside of being tonnage higher than digital?)

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 04-22-2012, 09:11 PM:

I have to say I think the Cinemark XD system at the Egyptian (Hanover Maryland) is the best I've seen in colors, brightness, excellent dark levels and superb 7.1 surround sound - and as I understand it is a single Barco projector.

...

sorry that had nothing to do with Regal RPX

(I now return you to your normally scheduled topic)

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 04-23-2012, 11:44 AM:

Format: 70 mm / 15 perf IMAX(R)
Film Dimensions, Horizontal (mm): 69.6
Film Dimensions, Vertical (mm): 48.5
Film Dimensions, Area (mm^2): 3376
Pixels (Horizontal): 11136
Pixels (Vertical): 7760
Total Pixels (HxV): 86.4 M
Viewable Pixels (Horizontal): 5568
Viewable Pixels (Vertical): 3880
Total Viewable Pixels (HxV): 21.6 M
Field/Frame rate/sec: 24
Bandwidth (Mbytes/sec): 1555
Percentage of IMAX HD: 50%

Taken from Appendix 1 of SMPTE Preprint No. 135-22: IMAX HD -- A High Definition Motion Picture System (1993).

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-28-2012, 09:19 PM:

The Regal Dole Cannery here in. Honolulu played THE LUCKY ONE as their opening feature with their RPX system and I was not impressed at all. As I had mentioned in my original thread, there were no masking and the scope picture look like I was watching a scope movie on BLu Ray on a HD screen with pach of blank screen on the top and bottom or a trailer in a scope ratio shown on a flat screen in a theatre. Regal made a big deal about RPX's sound when they advertised "Hear your movie" but the sound sounded very ordinary and there was nothing special about it. I can see and hear the difference when I see a movie in their digital IMAX auditorium but the thrill of hearing and seeing something exciting in RPX was missing when I saw their first presentation in that format. I suspect, the biggest problem was the movie Regal selected to show as their first movie in the format. If they waited two weeks for Marvel's THE AVENGERS, That would have made a tremendous difference.

-Claude

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-28-2012, 09:42 PM:

quote: Jonathan Althaus
Cinemark XD does not use dual projectors.....

Well, maybe they used to before they got sued. Someone at Regal told me that Cinemark got sued by IMAX for copying LIEMAX almost to the letter.

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 04-29-2012, 10:55 AM:

Just Google cinemark imax lawsuit and read all the muckity muck for yourself.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-29-2012, 03:26 PM:

Some noise on the RPX system.

Looks like Cinemark and IMAX shook hands and made up.

But, who is really going to fork over the extra dough just to see a crappy movie on a larger screen with more sound?

Can't see the logic.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-29-2012, 03:42 PM:

I do not mind paying more to see a specially presented movie such as 3-D movies like HUGO and AVATAR or 15-70 IMAX and digital with the right kind of movie but so far I have been very displeased with large screen theatre chain's presentations such as our local Consolidated's Titan XC or Regal's RPX. They are not worth more than a bucket full of spit.

-Claude

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 04-29-2012, 05:14 PM:

I'd gladly pay for a guarantee of bright, sharp, clear picture and a finely tuned sound system. Sadly, none of these clowns seem to know how to offer these features.

AJG