synthnut wrote:The thing with digital projection, no matter how good the projector, is that the image is going to be "dead" It might not have any weave, scratches, dust (no it probably will have some dust and some dead pixels too) and it won't go out of focus on the splices that it doesn't have. It can have 35 trillion colours and be a 2K 3-chip DLP, but the brain will allways be affected diferently by film projection as the method of delivery is totally diferent. Resolution, saturation and focus aside, the subtle (OK, not in most 8mm) grain motion caused by projecting a series of film frames creates a life in an image that digital projectors just don't. The grain motion of film may be almost subliminal, but a slide shot or freeze frame will look completely diferent if projected digitally, i.e. it will appear static and lifeless. This phenomenon has now been recognized by the digital media hardware industry and some are now developing ways of introducing noise back into the digitally generated image to try and get around this! The problem is also that if you do this, the noise has a very digital nature. With film the grain has an infinite positional freedom (ignore resolving powers, grains can be in an infinite number of differing arangements frame on frame) compared to a set X by Y matrix of a digital projectors image devices. You just can't replicate the effect with this sort of technology currently.
We use a number of quite high-end LCD projectors in my line of work and whilst they can look quite punchy and bright, watching movies on them never feels the same as seeing a film in the conventional manner. (no popcorn and noisey punters comments!)
Then there is the whole economic thing.
I had one client asking for advice on a projector for their theatre/cinema as the previous owner had removed it's 35mm Xenon unit and cake stand before they took it on. They were looking for a 6m wide screen and seemed to think that they could project from DVDs and somehow punters would be happy in the front rows! I explained that it would be cheaper and simpler to just pick up a serviced used 35mm system. They answered, but aren't they old fashioned, surely all the cinemas are digital now? :roll:
I recounted some tales of what can happen if a conventional projector breaks down and how rare this was and that fixes were usually fairly simple. I then mentioned breakdowns of digital projectors at the price bracket that they needed and how it would nearly allways mean another projector. When you think about it, you get a whole new light valve panel with every 35mm frame. How much would Christie or Barco charge for 129600 DLP chips... (OK, I know that's daft)
To quote wikipedia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinema)
"While a theater can purchase a film projector for US$50,000 and expect an average life of 30–40 years, a digital cinema playback system including server/media block/and projector can cost 3–4 times as much, and is at higher risk for component failures and technological obsolescence. Experience with computer-based media systems show that average economic lifetimes are only on the order of 5 years with some units lasting until about 10 years before they are replaced"
One can argue until your blue in the face about resolutions, but personally I think the last thing I want to watch is a totally digital workflow, way too sterile. You can see in so much production the injection of grain effects etc to try and overcome this shortcomming of the "ideal" of digital.
Now, then there's compression and all the evils that entails, but that's a whole 'nother rant!
Ben
Ben