Digital Movie Projection

We were in Whichita, KS last weekend and had the oppertunity to catch some movies. The first was UP in 3D, which was very cool, and then we watched Star Trek. Towards the end of the Star Trek film, I started thinking about how amazing the picture was in this theater, the colors were so bright, the dark scenes were outstanding, and the film quality was perfect- no sound glitches at all, no lines, and then I starting thinking... no cigarette burns either... no scenes spliced together by hand up in the projection booth...

Then I remembered this little intro they played before each movie- something about it being a Dolby Digital Cinema Theater (which I just assumed meant it had digital audio) but now I realized that we hadn't seen a flim in the purest sense of the term. I took a peek through the window and sure enough, there was no flim, and that was not the Christy projector I'd assumed it would be.

http://www.dolby.com/professiona/motion_picture/technologies/dolby-digital-cinema.html

The result is stunning. I remember reading early reports that video in a theater would not look as "soft" or "warm" as flim. That the resolution wouldn't match film resolution. The darks won't be dark enough. I can tell you, none of these fears are justified- the picture is so perfect that you don't even think about the technology behind it. Every time I see a reel mark (and I see all of them) I miss a part of the movie because I'm waiting to see the second one, or to see if they cut a scene up between reels or managed to put the cut at the end of a reel. That may sound crazy to some of you, but I can tell you that I am not alone in this obsession!

The 3D was especially good- not as good as the polarized IMAX 3d (which can really come forward OUT of the screen) but much better than Real-D when it came to depth.

These are not the crappy video projectors that Cinemark (et al) are using for pre-show and commercials. There is no "screen door" effect. The technology is really so good that it dissappears. 

The manager at the Theather (Warren Theater) said that they had one location in Oklahoma, in Moore, that was completely digital. The Whicita location has 5 digital theaters and the rest are still film.