dlp cinema questions (1 Viewer)

[StephenP]

How are digital films delivered to the cinema? For example Revenge of the Sith, about what size is the file? What is used to read the file and send it to the projector? What is the resolution? Anyone work at a DLP cinema?

 

[Tim Glover]

Good questions Stephen. Not sure if your questions are coverered here, but try this:

http://www.dlp.com/

 

[Leo Kerr]

The first demonstration theaters used Pluto branded RAIDs, loaded with a boat-load of then large and fast 18GB SCSI drives, striped in a RAID-5 configuration.

Since then, however, drives have gotten a lot bigger, and RAID boxes a lot smaller (A TB in a box the size of a decent receiver/amp, anyone? That's easy..)

If I remember properly, those early demonstration copies of SW:TPM were about 400GB - video only (Audio was on a seperate Tascam MMR 8-channel unit, time-code locked.)

Compression has improved, as has through-put and all sorts of other issues. I'd be surprised if audio was still seperate, but I wouldn't be surprised if a standard two hour film was still about a half-T.

As to the mechanics of how they're distributed, there I can't help you. Transporting hard drives would be a pain in the butt. Transporting DVDs would also be a pain and a security nightmare. Sattelite distribution would probably be tedious and expensive...

Leo

 

[Mike Farrington]

Went to the Cinemark theater in Rochester, NY and saw the DLP projected version of Revenge of the Sith. It was Kodak's latest version for digital projection. I was very impressed. The picture was shown in one of the largest theaters in this multi theater house. It was brighter, clearer and more precise than film. If this is the future of how movies will be distributed and shown, I am all for it.