"Digital movies knock out film in London screen duel."

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

Personally I think this article is full of lies and doubtful assertions, but I present it for that purpose.
clark
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Digital movies knock out film in London screen duel

New Scientist vol 179 issue 2405 - 26 July 2003, page 8

CINEMAS are finally set for their long-awaited digital revolution. That was the clear verdict after a dramatic demonstration of the latest projection technology in front of an audience of movie directors last week. It proved once and for all that digital video pictures now look better than traditional film on the big screen.
The success of the demo means it is time to say goodbye to manually handled acetate film prints and the mechanical projectors needed to show them, and it will mean the end of shaky pictures caused by worn sprocket holes in prints.
Instead, cinemas will be able to screen digital data sourced from optical discs, or cable and satellite feeds, turning them into entertainment centres capable of showing almost any film on demand - or even live events.
Going digital will also save the Hollywood movie industry $700 million a year, as it will no longer have to make prints and transport them from cinema to cinema.
New Scientist witnessed the demo at the National Film Theatre on London's South Bank, which attempted something no one has dared try before. Each movie was shown with the image split down the middle: one half was produced using synchronised digital video and the other using 35-millimetre film projectors. In every case, whether it was the fine detail of Mission Impossible: 2, the garish colours of Moulin Rouge, rapid action from Chicago, the dark night of Road to Perdition or a restored version of monochrome classic Casablanca, the digital image was consistently steadier, clearer and brighter than the conventional film projection.
Even critics of digital technology, dubbed "grain sniffers with romantic notions about sprockets" by Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh, would have been placated. The digital projector faithfully reproduced the original graininess of the film.
Today's digital projectors use micro-mirror chips, which contain row after row of minuscule hinged mirrors. Each mirror of the array represents one pixel, and depending on the signal it receives the mirror either remains flat or is flipped to reflect light. Shining a strong light onto the surface of the chip beams a bright picture through a lens and onto a screen. Standard (1k) chips have 1000 rows of mirrors, but a new breed (2k) has 2000 rows.
Comparative demonstrations of both these electronic projectors on the National Film Theatre's 8.5 metre screen showed very little discernible difference, which should quell the movie industry's fears of early obsolescence. A digital cinema system costs $100,000 - at least five times as much a 35-millimetre film projector. The 2k projectors cost around 30 per cent more than the 1k projectors, but only the largest movie screens, with widths over 24 metres, will need them.
Patrick von Sychowski of newsletter E-Cinema Alert says there is now nothing to prevent digital cinema becoming a reality. "The main problem is that cinemas will have to admit how bad current 35-millimetre projection is, ranging from the quality of the reused prints, to dim projectors," he says.

Barry

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Topic - "Digital movies knock out film in London screen duel." - clarkjohnsen 09:07:34 08/29/03 (6)

Not to worry, most theatre chains are so broke you'll be seeing analog for many years. n - albee33 10:20:46 08/30/03 (0)

Re: Yup and many thought CD's were better than records at first - russ57 10:15:11 08/29/03 (1)

Re: Yup and many thought CD's were better than records at first - Victor Khomenko 20:34:35 08/31/03 (0)

Re: And I still donÂ´t believe it... - patrickU 09:24:15 08/29/03 (2)

Hey Patrick! How much proof do you guys (hic!) need? Have you & Clark been sniffin' the (hic!) grain AGAIN? (nt) - Audiophilander 09:38:13 08/29/03 (1)

Re: The grain is Gin or Wodka or do you mean the ..film grain ? nt - patrickU 10:05:46 08/29/03 (0)

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