jpb07

I apologize if there's another thread around covering this...3D is too short for the search function. This topic seems like a tweener since it is about a sports event showing in theaters.

I'm curious if anyone else is going to be seeing this tonight. Looking at the list I am amazed at how many big cities are not getting it. The other shocking omission is that the closest theater to Gainesville that is showing it is 1-2 hours away. From a personal viewpoint, I am a bit disappointed that they are showing it in our town's "ghetto" theater. (I wonder if the rodents will be in 3D as well?)

Hearing the rave reviews the NFL 3D screening got, I'm kind of excited to see what it's all about. My only fears are that since it's a separate broadcast the announcers will suck and that while it's in 3D, the audio will be either 2 channel or a really crappy 5-7.1 mix. My hopes are that it goes well enough to persuade the NFL to cut a side deal with CBS for next year's Super Bowl to be covered in 3D. (I would suspect the NFL could sell tickets for $40-50 and make the deal worthwhile for CBS.

Larry C.

Who the hell wants to see a football game in a movie theater???? Can't even drink. No Booze no football.

pridesticks06

Not every theater. There's a Warren theater in Moore, OK (about 15 min from Norman, home of the Sooners) and it has a 21 and over balcony with drinks. If it's showing the game (I'm not there), then it'll be packed.

Edit: Looks like it is showing the game, but not in 3D.

Larry C.

Now that sounds good!!!

pinata242

I grew up in Moore. 15 minutes is an overestimate... 7 tops. This is exactly why I couldn't go to OU.

Now they're practically the same town and there's no way in hell I'd be caught dead near that theater tonight. It's either going to be a riot or a mass suicide (on second thought maybe I should go...)

jpb07

I am kind of seeing the whole argument that Art Modell's kid is making that this is a throwback to the first half of the 20th century when people would pack into theaters for boxing or gather around a ticker tape for baseball updates.

I forgot to ask a somewhat important question... What does everyone think about whether or not standard theater manners apply? I'm edging towards not just based on how absurd the thought sounds.

pridesticks06

I was including traffic, it'll probably be busy tonight lol

I would say no way. I would think it would be much more relaxed (and loud, of course). I've never seen a game in a theater though. Sounds like a neat idea however.

beavis69

Were trying to figure out what to do for it and this sounds like a cool idea but A)no drinking in any theaters here and B)No theaters showing it. I would assume though that you would expect a more bar type atmosphere rather than just the normal theater manners

jpb07

Yeah....I'd be shocked not to see a few flasks brought in. The theater might counter this by showing it at "trailer lighting" so that it isn't quite so easy.

PopcornTreeCt

If this was playing at a my local theatre, I'd still opt for my home television.

Go Gators!

Abob Teff

Not sure if you would consider it in the same vein, but before pay-per-view, some events used to be shown on "closed circuit" -- I recall going to Bradley University's Robertson Memorial Field House and watching the first Wrestlemania essentially on a movie screen. On a side note, my kids laugh at me since this year is apparently Wrestlemania 25.

jpb07

Yeah...I remember CC TV. For the most part it was dead by the 90s.

Here are my thoughts on the presentation tonight. I see a lot of potential but they have a ways to go. For those of us who remember what the football looked like before FOX threw 20 overlays on up the screen, this was a nice blast from the past. In short, no running clock (although they did their best to show the play clocks in their shots of the action), no yellow 1st down line, and no frills. They would flash an occasional overlay of stats and coming in and out of TV TOs they would show the score and time left on the clock. As for my fears....They had the FOX "B" crew down the game (Kenny Albert and Tim Ryan) and 7.1 sound (anyone else who saw this want to hunt down and shoot the lady that kept screaming her name in the right rear speaker the whole 2nd half?). Now for the bad. Not sure if this was national but the glasses didn't work unless you had them on upside down. Checked with management and they checked the glasses in another 3D screen and they were fine, they also said they didn't change anything with their projectors so I am left to guess that they uplinked the images in reverse. They also had A LOT of trouble in the 1st part of the 3rd Quarter with what reminded me of rain fade on the sat. We didn't have bad weather here tonight so I'm interested if it was national. Finally, whenever they'd move the cameras too fast the image would jump and almost force your eyes to cross. At times they seemed scared to move the cameras at all so a lot of punt returns were missed...and it was obviously being filmed by tech geeks who had no experience with filming football as A LOT of play action passes and draws ended up out of frame. In their defense, they were obviously using the game as an experiment since it seemed like the shots got better as the game finished up.

Now the good... I didn't think much of it at first but it really made it's mark when I got home and turned on Sportscenter....the image at home seemed small and flat. Going from 3D to home theater in an hour really eliminates any thought of "pop" to the home picture. The content of the feed when it was "on" was awesome. I think they ran one Playstation ad a half and in the quarters that ad didn't run, they had some amazing 3D surfing/beach filler. The highlight from a PQ standpoint was in the postgame. The confetti looked like you could reach out and grab it as did the crystal NC ball. If they use footage from it as a trailer for what they can do, the Nelson TD catch on the Tebow jump pass is a surefire eye-popper. You saw him make the catch and then run right at you/the camera in crystal clear clarity. (The 3D cameras were opposite the HD cameras.) One other highlight shot would be when the Sooner Schooner (or whatever the wagon is called) came out during introductions.

In short, I think they will need to work on lowering the premium of the ticket down to $5 over a standard movie ticket in order to reach the masses. Their next sporting event is NBA Sat night. If I was a fan, I'd consider going at a lower price. OTOH, I would probably pay $25 to see the MLB All-Star game (maybe $20 for the HR derby)...which since it's FOX could happen. The one question I have is whether this will be released on Blu-Ray (even if it is just with the cheapo Blue/Red 3D glasses.) If it is, I'd highly recommend those of you who are sports fans or even those of you who are curious about 3D to go out and buy it.

UPDATE: From the sounds of things over at AVS, the issue occurred at a number of theaters due to improper settings on the LOCAL level. It'll be interesting to see the fallout nationally from this...this kind of thing could be crippling for future Cinedigm projects. From the looks of it, almost all of the people at the CES event were gone by halftime.

3dneedswork

saw the bcs in 3d in hickory,nc last night.was HORRIBLE,very bad presentation for $20.I had bought 2 tickets, $40 gone.it looked like the polarity was reversed and i did not think or who wouldve thought to reverse the glasses. i asked the mananger in the beginning and he said it was a direct satellite feed and they did nothing at the projector level.more than 1/2 the crowd left at halftime,and there were many moans and yells as the cameraman tried to converge the lenses.the focus was horrible at times.I can not beleive they did not call the theaters to test what it looked like on the screen.i can understand if it was free or even the price of a regular movie but for $20?
this is a HUGE set back.i can only imagine other theaters got the same feed.i can understand the camerawork as we're all used to expert work from the networks but this was ridiculous.the graphics were insanely hard to read,you had to converge your eyes extremely to see them.and it looked like they were sunk into the field.at one point the announcer said the graphics looked like he could put his hand behind them,,thats the way its supposed to be.maybe they saw it the correct way on their monitor.the playclock that was in the background looked IN FRONT of the players,same as the banners and walls.the only thing decent was the surf footage shown so i def. know for sure the projector was set correctly.
its really a shame,,this couldve been very good.focusing and converging issues i can understand some as the action is fast but reversing the polarity? how hard would it be to call the theaters an hour before hand to check it out?
plus the glasses smudged very easily and the more you tried to clean them it was worse.
overall a total rip off,they need to get this correct before they charge people and when i got home i was so nauseated.
the confetti at the end looked like it was behind everything,VERY distracting.another tell tale sign was towards the end,their was a shot of tebow from the back and he was near a white line marker around his shoulder and the line looked like it was coming out from his shoulder,,not behind it as should be.
in the beginnning the replayted the intro 3x with alot of stutters and stops and fast/fwd ,rewind action and at times had graphics like "3d brought to yo by" etc and that was very disconcerting to see that at first.i thought this cant be this bad until i realized about the damn polarity
i want my $40 back,thats all i know and unlikely to give it another chance unless its free

jpb07

All of your complaints are 100% related to how the images were reversed. Also, I was told that 3ality/Cinedigm DID call theaters around halftime to check on things. If they don't know about the problem, it's hard to fault them. After the game I found out about them calling the theater and it was sheer laziness by the theater to not call them back when the issue was reported. I can only imagine that an alert could have been sent out to theaters to fix their lenses if one or two of these theaters had called the hotline. I've already sent in a report to Carmike's corporate office that I am also going to forward to 3ality/Cinedigm (in hopes that they may look at contracts with more competent theater chains.) As a matter of principle I always get a refill of my drink as I'm leaving the theater...last night the management decided that they would shut down the fountains before the game was over. I'll be interested to see how my demand for a full refund of ticket & beverage is handled by Carmike.

I just thought of one more thing...it seems like they were trying to get feedback from the audience itself when they kept putting up a number for people to text their comments to. I'm wondering if they did that after phone calls were made by angry customers while theater managers ignored the issue completely.