E Unit

Of all the theaters in Austin - and we have 6 Drafthouses - not one has Atmos. I'd love to hear a movie with it, but I'd love it even more watching it in something like this.

Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater

As anyone who reads my articles on AVS Forum knows, I’m a big fan of Dolby Cinema, which combines Dolby Vision HDR projection, Dolby Atmos immersive sound, and several design elements in commercial theaters. When a movie graded in Dolby Vision and mixed in Dolby Atmos is presented in a Dolby Cinema, it’s the finest movie-going experience available anywhere. (For a list of Dolby Cinema locations around the world, click here; for a list of Dolby Vision-graded movies that have been or will be shown in Dolby Cinemas, click here.)



The company’s vision of a Dolby Cinema theater is very specific in terms of equipment and design. Along with dual Dolby Vision laser-illuminated projectors, an Atmos sound system, stadium seating, and a curved video-wall entrance, the design calls for a blue color scheme with the surround and overhead speakers completely hidden behind acoustically transparent cloth that forms large, flat facets reminiscent of a cut gemstone.



In this rendering, you can see Dolby’s design vision for a Dolby Cinema auditorium.

However, AMC—the exclusive host of Dolby Cinemas in the US—went a slightly different way. Of course, they have Dolby Vision projectors, Atmos sound, stadium seating, and a curved video-wall entrance, but the surround and overhead speakers are fully visible—in fact, they are backlit with bright red lighting until the movie starts.


AMC uses a red color scheme with highlighted surround and overhead speakers in its Dolby Cinema at Prime auditoriums.

Dolby’s original design can be found in the European Dolby Cinemas, but not in the US—with one exception. Located near the famous corner of Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood, CA, Dolby calls it the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater. Its purpose is to demonstrate the concept to producers, directors, exhibitors, and other Hollywood big shots as well as provide a place where movies can be graded in Dolby Vision, which means it’s not open to the public.

Dolby purchased the old Vine Theater on Hollywood Blvd. and began renovations in October, 2014. The entire space was gutted, removing the concession stand and projection booth in the process. The building is 150 feet long, and the original auditorium was 120 feet long, but the new room is only 54.5 feet long, with 40 feet behind the screen/baffle wall and a new projection booth.

There are 70 seats in a curved, stadium configuration, which makes the sightlines completely unobstructed from all seats. They’re plenty comfortable but not reclining as the AMC Dolby Cinema seats are. Also unlike the AMC locations, these seats do not have tactile transducers; instead, the risers are made of wood that transmits the LFE vibrations to the seats (which I much prefer over buttshakers).



With only 70 seats, the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater is more intimate than most commercial cinemas.

The curved screen is a 35-foot-wide, 1.85:1 aspect-ratio, matte-white, unity-gain, perfed material from Harkness, which supports the Dolby-specified peak-luminance level of 31 foot-lamberts in 2D and 14 fL in 3D from the dual Dolby Vision projectors. Dolby claims a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 from the projectors, compared with 5000:1 to 8000:1 from other laser-illuminated projectors and 2000:1 from xenon lamp-based digital-cinema projectors. (As a point of reference, Dolby says that Vision Premier film stock exhibits a contrast ratio of 8000:1.)

The sound system was provided by Christie, which also makes the Dolby Vision projectors. (AMC uses JBL sound systems.) Called Vive, the system includes both speakers and amplification—in this case, a total of 35 speakers with six subwoofers. Five speakers are located behind the screen along with four subs that reproduce the LFE only. There are 20 side and rear surrounds, with one sub on each side for bass-managed low frequencies, and 10 speakers on the ceiling.

When I was invited to visit the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the chance. Two movies were played on consecutive evenings: The Revenant in 2D from a 4K DCP (digital cinema package) and The Martian in 3D from a 2K DCP. I was especially interested in seeing The Martian in 3D Dolby Vision, since AMC has decided to show all movies in its Dolby Cinema auditoriums in 2D—a decision I applaud, BTW. Still, this was a rare opportunity to see Dolby Vision HDR in 3D.

As expected, The Revenant was quite brutal—so much so that I left less than halfway through the movie. Apparently, it was shot with only natural light, and the image was stunningly beautiful, with many shots that take full advantage of HDR. For example, I could see lots of dark detail in the deep twilight surrounding bright campfires, which weren’t blown out at all. There were also shots with the sun directly behind one or another character, and that person’s face was clearly visible with lots of detail while the sun was not a big blown-out blob. And as I’ve seen many times now, the black interstitials completely vanished with no hint of projector light on the screen.

In fact, the HDR image and Atmos immersive sound greatly heightened the sense of realism—which made the brutality of the bear attack and all the battles between the natives and trappers all the more intense. I can’t stomach scenes with a lot of blood and gore, so I had to leave, even though—or perhaps because—it was such a gorgeous presentation.

I had already seen The Martian in 2D at the Dolby Cinema at the AMC Burbank 16; see my writeup here. But I was curious about the 3D presentation in Dolby Vision, something I had never seen before. As you may know, Dolby Vision uses spectrum-separation glasses for 3D—each projector uses slightly different wavelengths of red, green, and blue, and the glasses filter out one or the other set of wavelengths for each eye. Also, by using two laser-illuminated projectors, Dolby Vision 3D can achieve a peak brightness at the eyes of 14 fL; by contrast, most theatrical 3D presentations have a peak brightness of around 3-4 fL at the eyes, which is why conventional 3D looks so dim.

Theoretically, this should work very well, and the 3D image of The Martian was much brighter than other commercial 3D. But there’s a big problem—the inner surfaces of the 3D lenses are highly reflective, and light bounces back and forth between those surfaces and the outer surfaces of prescription glasses, which I wear. The result is annoying ghost images floating around the field of view. I tried taking my prescription glasses off and using just the 3D glasses, which helped a lot, though of course the image was out of focus without my own glasses.

This confirmed that I much prefer Dolby Vision HDR in 2D, which is why I’m so happy that AMC decided not to use 3D in its Dolby Cinema theaters. Not only does it avoid the internal-reflection problem, but HDR 2D is much more dimensional than standard dynamic-range 2D, so 3D doesn’t add as much to the experience.

Regarding the Atmos sound in the Dolby Cinema Prototype theater, it was fully immersive with lots of sound objects throughout the hemispherical soundfield. However, as I’ve heard and written about before, the Christie Vive system sounded very bright—too bright to my ears, bordering on harsh (but not as bad as some Christie demos I’ve heard). I’m glad that AMC uses JBL equipment in its Dolby Cinema rooms; I’ve never been bothered by overly bright sound there.

The level measurements of The Martian were pretty much as I’d expect—Leq (RMS average over the whole movie) was 91.4 dBZ (flat), 90.2 dBC, and 81 dBA; Lmax (highest 1-second RMS level) was 118.6 dBZ; L10 (the level exceeded 10% of the time) was 92 dBZ; L50 (the level exceeded 50% of the time) was 83.1 dBZ. I didn’t have my measurement kit with me for The Revenant.

I was delighted to have the rare opportunity to visit the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater and actually see a couple of movies there—well, one and a half movies, anyway. It confirmed my conviction that Dolby Cinema offers the best moviegoing experience available today.

Dan

You're Scott Wilkinson?!?!?!

E Unit

Nope, but he wrote a great article. I wonder if/when these will become commonplace in the US.

Alan Smithee

A native 1.85 screen is an automatic fail. I can watch letterboxed movies at home.

Why So Blu?

Good stuff. Here's hoping Los Angeles gets one of these.

Dan

I'd definitely like to see it happen sooner than later. I like the clean aesthetic, hidden speakers, etc.

When I saw that part, I knew you were going to respond. I hate that that's the default AR for new theatres too, but, all the other benefits of a theatre like this outweigh it. Sorry.

E Unit

I just miss the days when curtains would adjust for the ratio.

Dan

Found out that there's one of these theatres in the Houston area. Hoping to see ROGUE ONE there if I can.

E Unit

You'll have to let me know how it is. Wondering if it's worth the drive. 18 million theaters in Austin and NOT ONE single Atmos theater. But Drafthouses out the ass.

Dan

This is the one (there may be more, but this one's closest to me)
https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-th...nemaatamcprime

Oddly, Rogue One isn't showing up as being in the Dolby Theater yet. Hopefully that changes...


Speaking of the Drafthouse though, just found out today that one of the two in Houston is closing after Sunday. It's being replaced by a "Star Cinema Grill" whatever the fuck that is.

Alan Smithee

That's called masking, and prior to digital at least it used to be a given for any halfway-respectable theater. (Some theaters still installed bass-ackwards screens that letterboxed scope movies, but at least with the masking in place it wasn't always easy to tell.) Just further proof that digital projection isn't cinema, it's just TV in public.

T-bone22

You can head down to EVO in Kyle for Atmos in the EVX theater.

Giles

speaking of the Alamo Drafthouse - the Ashburn Virginia location is debuting a brand new auditorium this month for the opening of 'Star Wars: Rogue One' that will be it's largest screen AND feature Dolby Atmos.

Of the two Dolby Cinema screens here in the Washington DC area - AMC Georgetown's setup while having a smaller screen than Tyson's is better noticeably in that the red lights that illuminate the stairs closest to the screen don't bounce back onto the screen - it's so annoying and apparent in dark scenes or when the screen goes completely black (Dolby really messed up it's Dolby Cinema auditorium at Tysons in my opinion). I haven't heard a Dolby Atmos movie at Georgetown, but Arclight Bethesda has two screens outfitted as such, and the larger 'widescreen' screen has the best acoustically calibrated system. AMC Tyson's Dolby Cinema screen has terrible acoustics ... and don't get me started how much I hate the rumble seats, talk about distracting, Dolby should have a manual on/off button if you do or don't want that feature.

Brack

Don't know if I'd like this type of screen, but I really love the Dolby theater in West Chester, Ohio. My only gripe is that the recliner seats are pointless unless you are shorter than 6 foot. At least I can move back the seat, but I barely touch the leg recliner and my feet start to smash against the wall in front of me. The chair needs to go back further. Other than that it's a better sound and picture quality than lieMAXs in my region (don't think we have laser projection yet) with a screen just as large, and no 3D, which I'm getting tired of at this point. Hopefully one opens closer to the AMC that's just minutes from my house. I just have to really commit to seeing a movie within a week of its release because even the big event movie gets replaced weekly as opposed to IMAX with the usual 2-3 week run (depending on time of year, release schedule, etc.).

E Unit

I know, I used to set the masking at the theater I first worked at as a projectionist. But when I use the term "masking" when describing it, most just look at me blankly. People are just used to black bars on a movie screen which pisses me off.

JTH182

The Rogue One showings at the AMC Prime theater near me are listed as 3D. Do you guys think that is just an error? I wasn't aware that there were any 3D movies at Dolby Cinemas.

Giles

So far the only movies released in 3D to a select few DC screens was "The Jungle Book" - there's the rumor "Rogue One" might go out as a 3D DV release

E Unit

I'm in Round Rock, so that's a long drive, but I have pondered going there to check it out. Just funny how that's the only place in Central Texas that has it.

JTH182

Just got confirmation that Rogue One is indeed 3D at AMC Prime... Quite a shame, since I do not like 3D movies.

Alan Smithee

So go see a movie that was made in 2D.

Brack

Like hand-drawn animation?

Alan Smithee

Or "Arrival"- saw that today in 2D because that's how it was made.

JTH182

I know you're just being a smartass, but Rogue One was shot in 2D and converted.

Lt Ripley

That sucks. Had a theater here shut down for several months and reopened with the greatest jumbo electronic recliners. There is so much room between each row that you can be completely reclined and someone could walk in front of you without even needing to turn to their side. If the back of you seat is bumped, it is more than likely on purpose. It is glorious.

Have an Atmos theater 30 miles from me and I prefer the new recliners that are closer.

davidh777

Rogue One is playing near me at a Dolby Cinema, and I'm intrigued. A friend went by accident and said she may never want to go to a regular theater again.