Ektachrome 64T

[John_Pytlak]

I saw the Kodak DC pre-show for the first time yesterday.

It is certainly the best looking pre-show I have seen, but it wasn't perfect.

For one thing, the content was of varying quality. The true high-def content looked quite nice, the scaled SD content looked terrible.

I was sitting there thinking about how, if all of the content was high-def, it might rival a film print.......... but I was wrong. After the pre-show, the 35mm trailers exploded onto the screen and I quickly forgot any thoughts of high-def projection. Seeing digital and film back to back like that was a good reminder of the impressive detail and latitude that 35 has. Those qualities aren't simply a technical concern -- they make an audience sit up, pay attention, and get lost in the films.

Kodak encourages advertisers to provide the highest quality content possible, and certainly hopes for better than rescaled SD material from television ads.

Even though the Kodak pre-show material is usually projected using a 3-chip HD projector, it certainly is NOT intended to match the quality of the Kodak Digital Cinema System used for feature presentation, usually at 2K resolution and JPEG2000 encoding.

The Cinemark Tinseltown theatre in Rochester has a Kodak 2K Digital Cinema system showing feature films on its largest screen (#9). Very impressive quality.

[mattias]

The media chosen for distribution of the Digital Cinema Distribution Masters (DCDM) is decided by the SMPTE DC28 Digital Cinema Committee

that's the problem. who needs proprietary standards when it's just digital data? as you may have noticed very few of us here are worldwide theatrical distributors of feature films, but surely we must be able to use these systems for festival screenings, corporate events, playing computer games or whatever as well? or for the kodak pre-shows for that matter? is a firewire host controller too much to ask for? just something that allows the upload or streaming of of arbitrary image data.

/matt

[John_Pytlak]

The media chosen for distribution of the Digital Cinema Distribution Masters (DCDM) is decided by the SMPTE DC28 Digital Cinema Committee

that's the problem. who needs proprietary standards when it's just digital data? as you may have noticed very few of us here are worldwide theatrical distributors of feature films, but surely we must be able to use these systems for festival screenings, corporate events, playing computer games or whatever as well? or for the kodak pre-shows for that matter? is a firewire host controller too much to ask for? just something that allows the upload or streaming of of arbitrary image data.

/matt

The SMPTE standards are needed for "interoperability". The systems also need to have proprietary encryption and security.

[mattias]

john, you don't have to talk to me like i'm a child. i know that perfectly well and you know perfectly well that i do. i suggest you drop the corporate talk, read the posts properly and try responding with then intention of actually answering and not just evading. try it for once. you might like it.

/matt

[Justin Lovell]

what are you exactly are you expecting him to say mattias? And do you think it will have any impact if he were to give you the answer that you want to hear?

[mattias]

i'd rather hear nothing rather than a nonsense reply. i wrote a long question with an explanation which he chose to ignore, as well as a parenthetical rhetorical question that he chose to answer. only corpororate people and people with asperger's syndrome do that. if somebody asks if you can pass the salt do you pass it or do you answer that you can? and i just explained that none of us here are feature film distributors so we couldn't care less about interoperability. i just want the damn thing to show my film. :-)

sorry john if i'm a bit offensive. i like you and your participation here but you do represent kodak and thus you're just a natural target for any frustration. especially since you so skillfully dodge any comments coming from that frustration.

/matt

[Justin Lovell]

do you want me to answer that, or tell you that I can?

understood.

[John_Pytlak]

Most of the Digital Cinema systems will accept other data sources for presentation (e.g., for pre-show), with the proper interface. But feature film distribution will need to meet the standards being developed by the SMPTE DC28 Committee. If you have specific questions, you need to ask someone who is working on the SMPTE DC28 Committee, not me:

http://www.smpte.org/engineering_committees/

The Digital Cinema projector vendors (Barco, Christie, NEC and Sony) should be able to tell you what interfaces are necessary for a given data source.

[etimh]

So far off the original topic but in line with the direction of the thread, I guess. :?

Question: can anyone recommend a definitive source (popular, industrial, academic--I don't care) that comprehensively discusses the current "divide" between digital and film projection systems?

I'm interested in learning it all from the technical to the aesthetic, the practical to the theoretical, objective material analyses to the most subjective experiential evaluations.

I'm considering doing a research study into the viewing experience of film audiences and I need some hard data and serious discussions on the topic.

All you guys have varied experiences in the field so I hope you can help with some references. Thanks in advance for your time.

Tim

[kentbulza]

i do think you're going to the wrong theater, but in any case: it's not perfect but the point is it's been a long time since i saw a perfect 35mm print too.

/matt

It was a little sarcastic actually. I think Arclightis probably the best theatre in the country, although I hear that Drafthouse won a poll and Arclight came in second. I guess any theater with a brew pub gets extra points!

[kentbulza]

So far off the original topic but in line with the direction of the thread, I guess. :?

Question: can anyone recommend a definitive source (popular, industrial, academic--I don't care) that comprehensively discusses the current "divide" between digital and film projection systems?

I'm interested in learning it all from the technical to the aesthetic, the practical to the theoretical, objective material analyses to the most subjective experiential evaluations.

I'm considering doing a research study into the viewing experience of film audiences and I need some hard data and serious discussions on the topic.

All you guys have varied experiences in the field so I hope you can help with some references. Thanks in advance for your time.

Tim

I'm sure John has info on this demo Kodak did about 1.5 years ago where they compared on screen every popular format today. Super 16 to 35mm, 35mm via DI, contact (I think 4 generation), etc. I don't know if it was a one time thing, or if it traveled around the country. And I think it was only for industry -- maybe they didn't show it to the public. They didn't have a 70mm (I know 65mm) comparison.

Even the movies filmed on 70mm (like Lawrence of Arabia) on those old stocks still make 35mm look like television. And Baraka is amazing in 70mm. But even those stocks are over 10 years old. Can you imagine something on the stocks in 70mm?????

I've often thought it might be interesting to put random people into a theatre and ask them to say what they preferred. But it has to be a good presentation of both. I see too many theatres where the projection quality is poor. We need a Zagat's guide to theatres so we can stay away from the greasy spoons.

[S8 Booster]

is it just me or has this thread become boring out of death?

"i wonder, what became of Mary..."

[filmamigo]

is it just me or has this thread become boring out of death?

**shrugs**

That's a community for ya.

Once you get interesting, like-minded people together, who knows where the topic will go.

I know that "thread discipline" is important, but sometimes it's nice to not break up a party that's going along nicely!