OT 4K Digital Projector

Gee, I must be slipping. I used to be up on all the latest and greatest, but when I read the Charlie White interview with Sony at NAB on digitalvideoediting.com, I read about the Sony 4K SXRD projector for the first time. Further checking revealed that the premiere of Spider Man 2 was held at the Hollywood Pacific Theatre last December using this projector. I was there about 2 years ago when LAFCPUG met there for some reason, but I missed the meeting at the beginning of this month. There were a number of posts on this forum afterwards remarking how they were blown away by the projected image. Was this same Sony projector used for that night?

It has been said that 35 mm film has about 4K equivalent resolution. This might be true for a still image, but when you factor in sprocket hole registration variations and moving film micro-vibrations, I bet 4K digital looks better. I'm sure that A-B comparison tests have been run, which should be of more value than my reasoning and speculation!

Actually I believe... although film is at 4K it projects at less than that. 2K maybe? In any event we did the demo using a 2K Christie projector, which Christies says is the brightest in the world. I assume they havent heard of the Sony one

:-)

Mike



Michael Horton
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It's pretty cool too when these latest 4K projectors catch fire. No joke! I wonder if an internal halon system is an option? At any rate, It'll be nice when things, "finally cool down".



Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Media Batch

I think this Sony has 4 bulbs at 2K a piece to replace. One reason why digital projection hasnt taken off like it should



Michael Horton
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Michael Horton wrote:

> I think this Sony has 4 bulbs at 2K a piece to replace. One
> reason why digital projection hasnt taken off like it should


Well shoot, I'll order 4 of these projectors! Yeah right. It'll bring new meaning to singing, "burnin' down the house!"

-grin-



Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Media Batch

The Spider Man showing was cancelled.

I had the opportunity to see The Incredibles, in 2K digital on that huge screen at the Pacific in November 2004.

The Producer was there for a hour-long Q&A after. He had some awesome things to say, like some frames were so complex, it took 40 hours of CPU time to render! I remind myself of that when FCP wants 20 mins to render something.

Some of the Q&A was about Hair and Fabric... most was about hardware and software. Yes, the projector is capable of 2K, but in 16:9 mode, the computer generating the video signal is not... do the math, it's slightly less that 2K.

The showing was invite only, and the house was filled with 35-50 yr old industry geeks, acting like teenagers at a Saturday matinee in the 50s. It was wild. I'm not usually found in the audience watching film, but that night was so inspiring.

The 4k demonstation Sony had running at NAB was very impressive indeed - but then again, so was the 3D HD stuff Panasonic was showing.

But quite frankly, around here it's hardly worth going out to the cinema due to the bad quality of film projection. I just wait for the DVD and watch it at home on my DLP projector and 80" screen - that's nice. And no noisey kids behind you, although Megan isn't always quiet, and to cope with that, the pause button!

Graeme



[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

Graeme Nattress wrote:

> But quite frankly, around here it's hardly worth going out to
> the cinema due to the bad quality of film projection. I just
> wait for the DVD and watch it at home on my DLP projector and
> 80" screen - that's nice. And no noisey kids behind you

Oh man, no kidding. I'm the same way unless I absolutely have to see something right away. Plus, DVDs are cheaper today than just a couple of years ago. Two movie tickets can buy a new DVD! But yeah, it seems like the film projection seems to be getting worse and worse every year. Or maybe it's just that home theater technology just gets better and better, which in essence is very true.

Plus paying for a $5 bottled water isn't too much fun.

- Rage against the movie theater -



Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Media Batch

Brad Theissen wrote:

> The Spider Man showing was cancelled.

Hmmmmm, lemmie guess......

The projector caught on fire!!!



Sorry, I couldn't resist.



Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Media Batch

FOUR bulbs? Let's see?that's one each for RGB and a fourth for the alpha channel!

The interesting concept to grasp with digital movies:

The Studio needs to deliver the entire computer system to the Theater!

Not a reel of film, not a hard drive, but the whole CPU in a rack!