The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Circuit Is Up For Sale

[Geoff Jones]

I've had a hard time following parts of this thread.

Can someone explain to me what problem an LED cinema screen is meant to solve? In what way will it benefit the moviegoer?


Also, it seemed like there was some discussion about replacing individual LEDs when they go bad. I'm sure nobody here actually expects theater chains to expend any effort toward replacing individual LEDs, so I'm curious... was that just a thought experiment or a writing exercise or something?

[Ryan Gallagher]

I've had a hard time following parts of this thread.

Can someone explain to me what problem an LED cinema screen is meant to solve? In what way will it benefit the moviegoer?


Also, it seemed like there was some discussion about replacing individual LEDs when they go bad. I'm sure nobody here actually expects theater chains to expend any effort toward replacing individual LEDs, so I'm curious... was that just a thought experiment or a writing exercise or something?

The main benefits of LED or "direct view" displays to the moviegoer are brightness and contrast (black levels). Meeting various HDR specs will be easier etc. The main downside to the moviegoer currently is that there is yet to be an acoustically transparent system that permits audio channels to be placed behind the screen, that and maybe higher ticket prices to fund such displays.

LEDs do go bad (or arrive bad), and the main method for repairing them at this time is a LED module swap... module being a dimensional sub-panel of a certain size, smaller than the structural sections that contain the processor typically.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It seems to me that a direct view LED screen was installed on one screen of a Vegas Multiplex a couple of years ago. If that was just for a CinemaCon demo, I don't know... But I'd like to know if it's permanent or not.

Edit: It was a Samsung direct view, and it was just temporary.