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Movies Forum Index » Movie Technology Forum » Disappointing Digital Projection...
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| Lincoln Spector... |
 Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 3:52 pm |
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I went to see Iron Man at the AMC multiplex in Emeryville, California
yesterday. The theater was showing it digitally and on film. I picked film.
The print was scratched, but not so much as to really mar the experience.
When it was over, I snuck into the digital theater to see how it looked
there. I sat for a few minutes in the same position (2nd row, center) on an
identical screen. The image was much worse. Text was pixilated, fast motion
had ghosts, and there was a general not-quite-right look to it. After all
these years of digital projection, I was surprised how bad it was.
Why was it so bad? I don't know what kind of projector or what resolution it
was. The theater has had digital for a long time, so it's possible that it's
an older 1.4k projector. (No one at the theater could tell me. I'm going to
try and find out through AMC.)
Another possibility: The scratched print of a film that only opened eight
days before I saw it told me a good deal about how much that theater cares
about projection. Is it possible that the care that would scratch a 35mm
print would get a digital projector out of whack?
Lincoln |
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| Martin Hart... |
| Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 5:15 pm |
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In article <B1JVj.2474$ah4.321 at (no spam) flpi148.ffdc.sbc.com>,
notmyreal at (no spam) address.com says...
Quote: I went to see Iron Man at the AMC multiplex in Emeryville, California
yesterday. The theater was showing it digitally and on film. I picked film.
The print was scratched, but not so much as to really mar the experience.
When it was over, I snuck into the digital theater to see how it looked
there. I sat for a few minutes in the same position (2nd row, center) on an
identical screen. The image was much worse. Text was pixilated, fast motion
had ghosts, and there was a general not-quite-right look to it. After all
these years of digital projection, I was surprised how bad it was.
Why was it so bad? I don't know what kind of projector or what resolution it
was. The theater has had digital for a long time, so it's possible that it's
an older 1.4k projector. (No one at the theater could tell me. I'm going to
try and find out through AMC.)
Another possibility: The scratched print of a film that only opened eight
days before I saw it told me a good deal about how much that theater cares
about projection. Is it possible that the care that would scratch a 35mm
print would get a digital projector out of whack?
Lincoln
It kind of amazes me that there are still genuinely crappy digital
cinemas today. I have a decent consumer level LCD projector filling a
10' (diagonal) 16:9 screen and I consider the image quality off of DVDs
to be quite good. My son's film was shown in a private screening in L.A.
last January and the digital projection was incredible.
There's a lot about digital projection that I don't understand and
probably never will. Half of the items in the set up menu are just
Greek to me, and when I alter the settings I don't always see any
difference. But real theatres ought to have all those wrinkles ironed
out.
And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
I've lived too long.
Marty
--
The American WideScreen Museum
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/ |
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| ... |
| Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 7:04 pm |
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On Sun, 11 May 2008 17:15:30 -0500, Martin Hart
<thanksforthe at (no spam) spam.org> wrote:
Quote: And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
I realize the question was rhetorical, but...
From time to time, I used to see a supposedly brand new reel come in
scratched. That obviously didn't follow across all the reels in the
print, and I attributed it to inspectors at the exchanges being
rushed.
Having "helped out" a bit at a second run theatre last year, I'd say
that most of the scratching there came from a bad splice, brain wrap,
or other issue causing the roller arms to get pulled out of proper
alignment, and the staff not knowing how to readjust them properly
before restarting.
To be fair to the kids, the old Christie platters there probably
should have been gutted of the control circuitry and harnesses and
rebuilt. It was all second hand equipment that had been abused in a
previous life, and the theatre was operating in the red for much of
the year. |
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| Darren... |
| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:45 am |
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Quote: And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
I was at the second ever showing of a new print a while back and it was
scratched. INSIDE DEEP THROAT.
Darren |
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| in Technicolor®... |
| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:10 pm |
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"Darren" <dnemeth01 at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in message
news:yku1k.107$r95.13 at (no spam) newsfe06.lga...
Quote: And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
I was at the second ever showing of a new print a while back and it was
scratched. INSIDE DEEP THROAT.
Darren
Probably should have waxed the print. |
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| Scott Dorsey... |
| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:01 pm |
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In article <l0A1k.15041$jX.7337 at (no spam) trnddc04>,
=?iso-8859-1?Q?in_Technicolor=AE?= <cinerama at (no spam) verizon.net> wrote:
Quote:
"Darren" <dnemeth01 at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in message
news:yku1k.107$r95.13 at (no spam) newsfe06.lga...
And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
I was at the second ever showing of a new print a while back and it was
scratched. INSIDE DEEP THROAT.
Probably should have waxed the print.
Or Peerless Vacuum Process.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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| Martin Schemitsch... |
| Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:27 pm |
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On Mon, 12 May 2008 00:15:30 +0200, Martin Hart <thanksforthe at (no spam) spam.org>
wrote:
Quote: And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
That's a good question indeed! (Of course we know the answer to that;
makes me remember seeing Fellowship of the Ring on it's third day or
something and the multiplex people managed to have one act completely
scratched, blech)
Quote: I've lived too long.
Hey cheer up, Marty!
Here's hoping you live even longer (to witness true lossless IMAX digital
in glorious 20K-projection ;-)
Martin
--
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"I don't know. I'm making this up as I go!"
(Ford as Dr. Jones Jr. in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark')
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| Peter... |
| Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:33 pm |
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On 2008-06-19 11:27:30 -0700, "Martin Schemitsch"
<team8martinland at (no spam) hotmail.com> said:
Quote:
And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
That's a good question indeed! (Of course we know the answer to that;
makes me remember seeing Fellowship of the Ring on it's third day or
something and the multiplex people managed to have one act completely
scratched, blech)
At one of the multiplexed houses in Reno (10 screens, two large,
curved, eight small, flat), every room has a PTR system installed.
No scratches, ever.
Yet, this very same chain is infamous for bad projection and scratched
prints down here in the Bay Area.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com ** |
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| Scott Dorsey... |
| Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:14 pm |
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Peter <peterh5322 at (no spam) rattlebrain.comminch> wrote:
Quote: On 2008-06-19 11:27:30 -0700, "Martin Schemitsch"
team8martinland at (no spam) hotmail.com> said:
And why does a goddamn brand new 35mm print become scratched so quickly?
That's a good question indeed! (Of course we know the answer to that;
makes me remember seeing Fellowship of the Ring on it's third day or
something and the multiplex people managed to have one act completely
scratched, blech)
At one of the multiplexed houses in Reno (10 screens, two large,
curved, eight small, flat), every room has a PTR system installed.
No scratches, ever.
Yet, this very same chain is infamous for bad projection and scratched
prints down here in the Bay Area.
And THIS is what having one manager who cares can do.
If the manager doesn't care, the projectionists won't either. And these
days the distributors don't care, which makes it that much less likely the
managers will.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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