Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mouse pointer visible on movie screen?

This is topic Mouse pointer visible on movie screen? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 12-20-2015, 06:02 PM:

A few days ago I went to see the new Star Wars movie (no spoilers here). About halfway through the movie I suddenly noticed a mouse pointer moving around on the theatre screen and some iTunes-style playback controls. Surely the movie wasn't just running off a simple PC or Mac? The playback controls and pointer disappeared after a few seconds though.

A friend of mine told me that he also saw the mouse pointer appear on the screen, before the actual movie started - not halfway through like me. Any ideas why the mouse pointer and playback controls appeared on the screen briefly?

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-20-2015, 06:28 PM:

If you are certain it was during the presentation of the feature and not some pre-show thing, is it possible they use a separate projector for pre-show?

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 12-20-2015, 08:17 PM:

I can't think of any digital cinema system that would put a mouse pointer
on screen. I agree with Steve that it might have come from some sort of
2nd projection system that shares the screen.

One of the screening rooms I work at has a 2nd Christie non-dcp projector
they use for powerpoint presentations and video conferences for corporate
clients. One night during a DCP press screening, I accidentally bumped into
the panel that controls the 2nd projector, and a corporate logo suddenly
popped up on screen in the middle of the movie for a few seconds before
I realized what happened and killed it. (It was superimposed over the
DCP image) So, maybye it was something like that. . .

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 12-23-2015, 05:18 AM:

Or, i know on film festivals they often use second projector for subtitles. So it is projecting picture, but only visible is titles.....maybe someone left projector ON and other pc was connected to it....

Posted by Gary Benn (Member # 7858) on 01-03-2016, 11:23 AM:

Interesting, which cinema?

You can get DCP players for Mac and Windows btw. Just can't imagine any cinemas actually using them.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-03-2016, 01:46 PM:

Well, some actually do, but no one would get a KDM to play SW7 on them, so...

- Carsten