quote: Bobby Henderson

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When was this theater originally built? Late 1990's?

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If it's this theater;

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/39392

Then May of 1996. Looks like a nice ol gem. I'd like to visit.
 

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Posted by Aron Toplitsky (Member # 6950) on 07-27-2016, 02:02 AM:
 
Bobby, just curious about that wall panel design. Is it supposed to enhance the picture in some way?

Buck, yes that is the theater and it was built in the mid 90s.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-27-2016, 09:39 AM:
 
If I remember correctly the stealth fighter styled angular panels on the walls and ceiling are there for acoustic purposes. I don't remember if they were meant to reduce or eliminate certain kinds of sound wave reflections or do more to direct sound waves in a more desirable way. The angled panels do serve some kind of purpose. I guess they're not cheap to make & install either otherwise we would probably see them going into all these AMC Dolby Cinema rooms.

I still haven't heard a straight answer to questions about whether other theater chains in the United States could start installing Dolby Cinema screens of their own. It would seem to be very limiting if Dolby signed some kind of exclusivity agreement with AMC on this thing. AMC plans to install 100 of these systems over the next several years. They'll be up to 25 screens before the end of this year. That's a lot for one theater chain. But 100 screens is a very small number when put up against the IMAX brand, which has over 1000 screens in theaters of at least a dozen or more theater chains.

Even though Dolby Cinema seems relatively way ahead of IMAX in terms of laser-based theater installations that premium screen concept isn't going to get all that much clout until other chains big and small start installing some Dolby Cinema screens, perhaps even with the stealth fighter wall treatment.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-27-2016, 10:34 AM:
 
Aron, you can't say the Dolby Cinema auditorium was properly projecting scope unless the screen design was common height AND it had proper masking.

Did the auditorium have masking?
 

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Posted by Aron Toplitsky (Member # 6950) on 07-27-2016, 11:00 PM:
 
Hi Brad…yes it was definitely a common height screen and it was masked. I noticed the top of the screen touched the ceiling, so it uses side masking instead of downward masking. Please correct my terminology if it's incorrect. I just don't know how else to describe it.

AMC will be adding a new Dolby Cinema screen to a theater even closer to me, at the Del Amo 18 in Torrance CA. As far as I know, all of their screens are common height with masking, the exception being the Digital IMAX of course and some of their smaller screens mask the screens downward. Again not sure what you call those?

Bobby… I wonder if those theaters you are talking about, the ones with those angular panels, also have seats with the annoying subs in them? That’s the one thing I don’t like about Dolby Cinema at AMC are those bass wired seats or whatever they are. It feels like a gimmick to me. I’m a fiend for great bass but not in my chair. As far as other chains besides AMC having Dolby Cinema, the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood has it. I saw Tomorrowland there.
 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 07-27-2016, 11:57 PM:
 
Screens with masking on the top and/or bottom are common width... as in, the width of the screen is common between the two formats; Flat and 'Scope

The good stuff screens with side-to-side masking are common height... as in, the height of the screen is common between the two formats.

And then there's screens with no movable masking at all and those can just diaf.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-28-2016, 02:50 AM:
 
Aron, let me find another way to clarify. If there was any screen visible that did not have picture content on it, then the screen was not masked.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-28-2016, 04:06 AM:
 
Be odd that the top of the screen went up to the ceiling and was masked for scope.

That would be a very high picture - way above the common form of line of sight, meaning that the front rows would have a devil of time seeing the feature with their heads craned upwards.

Bet it was a 1.85.1 screen with the scope image in the middle, thus a letterbox presentation.

This is a common form of house layouts these days. Full screen for flat, and letterbox for scope.

EDIT: Went on the Dolby Cinema website and saw the pict of the house.



Nice looking ATMOS house. Colors a bit vibrant and contrasting. Sconce lighting looks like a maintenance nightmare.

Screen is a floating screen with no masking tabs, but the screen itself is a screen cut for scope presentations. Thus, it is a common height screen.

Bet when a FLAT feature is shown on this screen, each side of the screen bordering the FLAT image will be exposed.

They're getting it closer to made the presentation look correct and proper.

Bet they will not be booking any FLAT content in this house any time soon, and prob will make certain that no FLAT content are booked in these houses.

-Monte
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-28-2016, 07:13 AM:
 
How does one do scope properly without an anamorphic lens? Note, just did another system with an anamorphic lens...NEC this time. Only needed just over 1400 watts to get a 40-foot wide curved (gain) screen lit to 14fL on Scope from edge to edge. And on an NEC, no less!
 

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Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 07-28-2016, 07:29 AM:
 
And the projector will NEVER fail, fantastic.

Back in topic, I thought Dolby Cinemas were supposed to be fully black and refusbished as per Dolby's design. That does not look like a Dolby Cinema to me. Have Dolby already relaxed the specs?
 

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-28-2016, 08:24 AM:
 
This may be an ATMOS, but not a Dolby Cinema auditorium.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-28-2016, 08:33 AM:
 
Actually that's how all the AMC screens with Dolby Cinema look. It's all the same red and black decor of a AMC Prime house. They just swapped out the projectors and maybe did some improvements to the sound system. All of AMC's Prime and ETX houses were Dolby Atmos equipped already.

I think they're running out of any existing Prime or ETX screens to convert over to Dolby Cinema. The conversions to follow after that will be more complicated since they'll have to install new Atmos sound systems along with the new projection setups.

quote: Aron Toplitsky

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Bobby… I wonder if those theaters you are talking about, the ones with those angular panels, also have seats with the annoying subs in them? That’s the one thing I don’t like about Dolby Cinema at AMC are those bass wired seats or whatever they are.

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I couldn't say for sure, but the seats in the original Dolby Cinema design (the one with the stealth fighter wall panels) look more like regular theater seats. The AMC Prime room design tends to have bigger recliner style seats with the butt subs in them.
 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 07-28-2016, 09:32 AM:
 
That's a good looking auditorium. I think the purple is a camera anomaly though. Too bad. I'm balls deep in 80's and 90's coloring. Love it.

Steve- When doing Scope with an anamorphic lens, does it use the WHOLE chip or *ALMOST* the whole chip? I know it's significantly more, just couldn't remember if it used the whole thing or not.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-28-2016, 10:47 AM:
 
If an anamorphic setup in d-cinema is using the whole chip it's doing so in an artificial way. The server is stretching the image vertically to cover the whole chip and then the 1.25x anamorphic lens would stretch it horizontally to restore the normal proportions on screen.

A better approach would be the movie studios rendering a higher resolution DI and giving the theater a pre-squeezed DCP. This would yield far better looking results and make the 'scope format respectable once again. It's just like the difference between anamorphic DVDs versus non-anamorphic. I can still watch some of my old "16x9 enhanced" DVDs on my big 65" HDTV set. But non-amamorphic ones like True Lies are just unwatchable; they look like a low-rez YouTube video.

An even better approach would be making DLP chips that were closer to square than rectangular and using traditional 2:1 anamorphics. The lens, light path, etc. is naturally spherical in shape and a square covers that better. Light efficiency would be as good as it gets. Flat movies could be pillar-boxed in this setup. It would hardly be any sort of compromise given the fact hardly any movies are made in 1.85:1 or 1.66:1 ratios anymore.
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-28-2016, 04:32 PM:
 
Technically, it is "almost" the entire chip. To avoid scaling artifacts, we use 1.25X anamorphics and appropriate scaling in the PROJECTOR (Bobby, the server doesn't scale). It should be a 1.26X system to use the entire chip but that would tend to introduce visible artifacts. But what is a couple of pixels between friends!
 

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Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 07-29-2016, 08:51 PM:
 
As I think I posted in another thread, the AMC Prime theater at the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street in NYC is also common height, but there's no masking. It looks very similar to the interior of the theater posted earlier in this thread - in fact, it's hard to tell them apart. I do wish that the butt vibrators had an on/off switch on the seats, but I find that they're usually heavily used in the trailers and then hardly used in the actual film. However, I have a friend who lives in Northern California who complained to me that a widescreen film he saw at an AMC Prime theatre (not sure which one) was not common height and was presented letterboxed.



Regardless of how they're accomplishing the full-height widescreen, it looks damned good when the film was mastered for Dolby Vision.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-29-2016, 10:05 PM:
 
Wrap screens = round corners.
 

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Posted by Aron Toplitsky (Member # 6950) on 07-30-2016, 12:44 AM:
 
So it seems like the AMC Norwalk Dolby Cinema Theater is similar to the AMC Empire 25 location, it’s a Common Height screen with no masking, but as Monte wrote, a flat presentation will probably expose the sides of the screen. Will they actually care enough not to book a Flat film in this auditorium? And I just love how big the size of the screen is at Empire 25. I used to go to this theater quite frequently when I lived in NY. I’m pretty sure I’ve been in that auditorium before it was converted. Just thought I’d also mention I’ve been to the Dolby Cinema at AMC Century City in Los Angeles and that one is definitely a Common Width screen.

Martin…I also noticed the bass in the seat is less during the feature but when they show the Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime trailer, it feels a bit ridiculous! An on/off switch would be great!
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-30-2016, 04:07 AM:
 
They could have gone on farther and done Shadowbox to really make it look good .. and to hide the floating screen install.
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-30-2016, 09:34 AM:
 
Just because it is a wrap around screen, it doesn't preclude the installer from putting up flashing that would eliminate the rounded corner/edged. Glue velour to the flashing and you'll get a very straight edge that is light weight and easy to attach. However one could even use lumber that is again, covered with a black velour to create a crisp edge. It is just like putting a face-frame on cabinets.

But without a curtain, you are a second class theatre. Without masking and a curtain, you are down to 3rd class before the picture ever hits the screen. It is the whole experience you are selling...from the purchase of the tickets until they exit the complex and are driving home...all of it adds up.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-30-2016, 05:00 PM:
 
Somehow I think the theater designers are going for what they believe is a more high tech look along with mimicking the wall to wall and floor to ceiling appearance of an IMAX screen. In the end I think they end up with something that looks more like a giant front projection TV screen. With the letterboxing that occurs on the common width screens it's very much like a TV screen.
 

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