That's nothin'. Drove from OKC to Dallas (about three hours, one way) to see the last two Star Wars flicks in digital.

(And it was worth it, too. But I sure wish we had a DLP theater here.)

I experianced DLP tonight.

Here is the run down....

3 minutes after 7pm start time,we get into the theater. The curtains are halfway clothed,projector is off and no audio is playing from the speakers either(they usually play still ads onscreen with commercials on the speaker system).

We wait and wait and then finally the curtains pull back and the logo for the DLP system they use flashes onscreen and it goes into a lengthy DLP commercial using Miami Vice as an example......but their is no audio!

Then we sit through three trailers with no audio,before finally someone heads out of the theater,and I decided to go complain as well,and a few others follow behind myself.

Finally the manager comes out pretty obvlious to the problem in the theater despite the first guy already telling someone at the concession stand. We complain and he says he'll get right on it.

Back in the theater some more silent trailers are playing,and occasionally they pause as they fiddle about in the projection booth.

Finally midtrailer for Flushed Away,the audio comes on!

Then the film begins.......and it looks and sounds great.

Though there are a few instances where the digital video becomes most evident. Durring scenes of fast motion like a crowd of people clapping for example(similar issue in Collateral with fast hand movement). And a couple camera pans had a jerkiness/blockinness too it which is a giveaway it's not shot on film.



After the film my brother ran into a friend of his about to see Waist Deep. And he decided to sneak into that and catch a ride home with him,so I left and went home. And he just came home and told me they had the same problem in that theater as well. Only this time the commercials were playing,then everything turned off and the lights came on.


At least we didn't get commercials this time before Superman.

When I saw Attack of the Clones in DLP, there were some digital artifacts in the climactic battle sequences. In Revenge of the Sith, the only way I could at all tell it was in digital was when Vader's helmet was being put on, the edge of the nose looked jagged.

And to whomever said film is dead. I don't see film being replaced anytime soon

There are still some bugs that need to be worked out with digital video. And I doubt it will ever resemble film no matter how hard they try to acheive that effect. But at least they are getting better at having a 'fake film look' that makes the movies tolerable to view.Compared to the headache inducing days of dv movies looking like cheap amature fake home movies failing to take you into that cinematic world of amazement,beauty and interest. Though I'm sure there are still those who love the 'video look' and will make films like that today and give me a major headache.

Did you happen to see it at the Carmike Wynnsong 15 in Moundsview? They just got the new Christie projectors there, and I caught it in the THX certified auditorium with the Giant-Screen. The blacks were a little fuzzy, and pieces of the "Miami Vice" promo were a grainy, but other than that...incredible.

Yes I did Cinema. I was alittle concerned with all the grey night time skies and clouds. But then I did notice some deep black shadows throughout the film as well. So it may have been a directorial color choice(I hope). There was one moment where the screen was 'fuzzy' looking but it was less than a minute that way. But it did stick out since the scene started out clean in the same shot then suddenly become 'fuzzy' with electronic 'grain'.

I wonder if Vice will have alot of fake grain added to give it a 'gritty' look? if so then that's intentional and I don't mind. Collateral also had a fairly 'gritty' look where the image was not perfectly clean and shiny(which would have ruined the films atmosphere). They either added fake grain to the image in post or turned the contrast or something up in production to make 'video noise' more apparant thus giving a sense of 'grain'.

even the trailers look much better with DLP... the sound is more intense and uncompressed....

There's a Hi-Res trailer/intro for theatres equipped with the Christie DLP projectors that literally jump off of the screen. I saw "Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" this afternoon at the same theatre as yesterday, and the Downtown Tokyo scenes were just insane. Movie was fun, nothing special as I suspected, but that picture is to die for.

To be perfectly honest, "F&F" looked and sounded better in DLP w/ DTS than "Superman Returns" in DLP in the THX theatre.

I find it interesting that studio support is there with the current release of DLP presentations of:

The Devil Wears Prada
Superman Returns
Click
Garfled: The Tale of Two Kitties
The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drifting
The Lake House
Cars
The Omen
The Break-Up
The DaVinci Code
X-Men III
Over the Hedge

yet with the number of theatres actually outfitted to playback DLP is surprisingly lacking and very limited.

I saw Superman Returns in DLP. It was amazing!

funny story (sort of)

I saw 'The Island' last year at Rio Gaithersburg and for reason's unknown, the projectionist and theatre folk, could not project the film properly at 2.35. They tried and tried and much to disgust of a number of paying people, a large number of whom just wanted and got their money back and left - I didn't, I stayed. To say the least, it was like watching a anamorphic 2.35 movie projected at 4:3 - to state it was distorted is an understatement. Needless to say, after that fiasco, the theatre hasn't shown a DLP presentation since.... sad really.

Here's an interesting article in Digital Cinematography:

National CineMedia Hires JPMorgan Chase to Raise $$ for D-Cinema Rollout


National CineMedia -- a joint venture of AMC Entertainment, Cinemark USA and Regal Entertainment Group -- recently hired JPMorgan Chase to raise money from hedge funds, private equity firms and banks to finance the costs of digital conversion on 13,000 screens nationwide, according to The San Jose Mercury News.

The funding effort is intended to address what historically has been the biggest hurdle in digital cinema's growth: figuring out how to pay for the state-of-the-art projection systems.

AMC, Cinemark and Regal are three of the nation's biggest movie theater chains aim to raise up to $1 billion to convert about one-third of all U.S. theater screens from film projectors.

given the high cost of these systems, I really hope this advances the number of screens upgraded to playback films in DLP.

(article snipped)

About time!! There are AMC and Regal complexes in Sacramento, CA and it would be great is many of the screens in my area switch to digital projection.

my little wish list/request:

AMC - Mazza Galleria - Screen 1 and 2 (DLP)
AMC - Uptown (DLP Sony 4K unit)
AMC- Tyson's Corner (the huge Screen 3 in glorious DLP)

Regal Gallery Place - REAL-D (DLP-3D system)

How do you know if a theatre has DLP? Will there be a sign at the front or something?

Usually a theater will display it on the screenings billboard.

"Superman Returns - 3:00, 3:45, 4:15... etc"
"Superman Returns DLP - 4:00, 4:30, etc..."

Also... Fandango will tell you if the theater you are heading to has DLP screenings.

what's up with Landmark theatres and their supposed DLP screens? are there systems already in place and just showcasing 'non-film' engagements: Saraband, Bubble, et,al? If so, they are not doing a good job promoting them or with DLP.com proper, I didn't really get the sense that smaller independent distributors/studios had the budget to release films in 'digital'/non-print form.