Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Fathom/TCM Screenings: Horrible black levels or just my theater?

This is topic Fathom/TCM Screenings: Horrible black levels or just my theater? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 01-02-2019, 06:00 PM:

I've noticed when I go to Fathom/TCM screenings the black levels are very poor, more of a dark grey than actual black.

Regular studio releases in this same theater don't look as bad.

Is this an issue with Fathom screenings? How TCM/Fathom are preparing content? An error somewhere in the ingestion/projection process?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-02-2019, 06:12 PM:

Could be the processing to DCP by the studios using tired content.

Why we need maskings back to hide these presentation impurities.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-02-2019, 07:21 PM:

A lot of the Fathom/TCM stuff is satellite broadcast and not DCP. Are there any particular titles you recall not looking good?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-02-2019, 07:46 PM:

Ours is DCP - we haven't graduated to Satellite yet.
Some of our Fathom presentations were questionable on content production.

The Die Hard Fathom screening we had prob wasn't the best.

Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 01-03-2019, 06:01 AM:

Most of the TCM series last year; The Sound of Music had pretty grey blacks as did Die Hard. White Christmas looked a bit better.

I remember from years past North By Northwest and Vertigo looked absolutely horrible.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 01-03-2019, 12:52 PM:

I know the DCP Fathoms I've gone to look great, but the satellite ones stink due to compression, black levels, everything. The black levels I'd imagine could be solved with proper configuration of a setup for alternative content. I'd hate to think it's because of the satellite feed itself.

But compression, gross at any size especially 40 feet!

AJG