Digital Cinema: The Saving Grace of Movie Theatres?

Sorry about the long hiatus in blogging (almost 2 whole days!), but it was my birthday weekend, and my friends would not let me spend it strapped to my computer blogging, as much as I would've liked to! ;-).

Here's a question for our moviegoers out there: Does digital cinema affect your decision when you go to the movies? How about 3-D digital movies?

Personally, I thought that it wouldn't until this weekend actually. The girl and I were driving around in this behemoth of a car (Honda Element) that I had rented. We ended up by a Jordan's Furniture, which happened to be showing Harry Potter 5 in digital. I had heard great things about it, with something like the last 30 minutes (or 15) being completely in 3-D. I really wanted to go, though the idea was squashed by the girl pretty quickly, as it would entail paying for a movie, which neither of us have done in years. That was ok with me, but it really got me thinking.

The theatres that I have worked at have mainly been traditional, 35mm film based theatres. Digital projection wasn't something that was considered, as they were expensive and apparently didn't create much more traffic. As the years pressed on (I sound old right now), I noticed that more and more people began to inquire if movies would be playing in digital. When the theatre I worked for finally got a digital projector, I did notice some people asking specifically for showings in digital, and did see part of a cool 3-D movie, but there were some problems.

• It wasn't in our biggest theatre. In fact, the technology did not allow it to project onto our largest screen. It would've become too pixelated to cover the whole screen.
• Unless you were a big time cinema buff (or watching a 3-D movie), you couldn't really tell the difference between a traditional and digital movie.
• One of our movies expired halfway through, causing us to shut the particular theatre down.
• It cost way more to see a movie in digital 3-D.
  

The last one wasn't a huge issue as it only happened once. But it did bring in a problem that you might not have with traditional cinema. Of course, there are many reasons why it would be beneficial for theatres and production companies to switch to digital cinema.

• No more cost of shipping films to theatres.
• No more cost of printing films to ship out. (These first two cost nearly 1 billion in 2003)
  
• Less staff required to run the projection booths.
• No more projectors shaking through movies.

Then I read this article in Wired about how digital cinema can help prevent bootlegging of movies. (From Wired Article)Traditionally, movies are protected in a few ways (even I didn't know about this):

1. Tones in movie soundtracks that are out of traditional hearing ranges. (old school)
   
2. Speeding up the refresh rate of frames and adding in frames. Not viewable to the human eye, but it can mess up the sensors of recording devices.
3. Other encoding techniques to show what reel and movie are playing (again undetectable to human eyes)

The techniques are much more complicated than what I've stated above, but not much is written about them since part of their usefulness is lack of knowledge in how they work. Digital cinema can aid in the effectiveness of these techniques. Besides the ones used above, there are ways to encode what movie, what location, and even the time of the show onto the screen in an invisible manner, only detectable to cameras. This will make it much easier to track down where bootlegs come from.

Christie, a leader in digital cinema, plans to deliver 4000 units to theatres by the end of 2007. Who knows, your local megaplex may already have one!

This is obviously beneficial to theatres. But what about the benefits of digital cinema for the moviegoer? The images are definitely clearer and brighter. And 3-D digital cinema works much better than traditional 3-D movies. Some benefits and other things to know about digital cinema are discussed in this post from 2blowhards.com. Some good points are made here, especially about cost of transition and the feel of movies.

I know a lot of people don't go to the movies anymore. Does digital cinema create the kind of buzz people need to get out of their homes and into theatres? I think that movie quality will always matter the most, but with less cost into printing, the movies just may get better on the same budget. Only time will tell, but I think the transition into digital cinema will make the experience better for everyone.

Are Movie Theatres becoming Obsolete?

This was discussed during lunch today with some of my co-workers. Is it really possible to emulate the experience of going to the movies at home? One of them said that movie theatres would be obsolete in 5 years. In my opinion, it's not going to be. But, there are several reasons why people might think so. For example, some of the very wealthy have built theatres in their own homes! We'll do a head to head comparison here of several categories here to see why I think the way I do. Feel free to leave your own opinions here about why you think movie theatres are obsolete or not also!

1. Sound Systems

This is where I think the home is really starting to catch up to movie theatres. Many home theatre systems can be THX Certified, which some of you may recognize as the sound format that was made famous by Lucasfilms, LTD. But, that's starting to become obsolete, as its not really a sound system but more of a standard. Most movie theatres nowadays use DTS sound systems or Dolby SDDS sound systems. These systems provide the stereo surround that we're so used to in movies. However, many home theatre systems are now also capable of recognizing the same DTS and SDDS sound formats that are used in movie theatres. These sound formats are often encoded on DVDs, allowing home theatre systems to generate the same kind of sound that theatres do, albeit on a small(er) scale. The problem with this is that it often require a great deal of set up time and there are many components you must buy. If you're willing to make the investment, the sound you can generate can be comparable. However, movie theatre systems are already set up and calibrated for you, and you generally don't have to worry about the quality (unless you're a true audiophile). Advantage: PUSH

2. Theatre Screen (Size, quality)

Why do a lot of people go to the movies? To see the movie on "The Big Screen". One of the theatres I worked at recently had a 62 foot screen! That is pretty enormous. Traditional TV screens are starting to get pretty large too, with the biggest right now being about 102 inches. I haven't done the math out, nor am I a whiz at determining this kind of stuff, but if you put a big screen in a smaller room as opposed to a theatre screen in a large auditorium, you can still feel like you have a bigger screen at home. With digital projectors, you can make the screens even larger! 150 in is the biggest that I could find. However, with digital projectors coming into theatres at much larger sizes than you can find at home, I still think that the size and quality of theatre screens are better. Advantage: Movie Theatres

1. Experience

This is obviously one of the most important aspects to consider. Sure, watching a movie at home means that you won't have to worry about people talking on their cell phones, annoying children (unless they're your own), sneaking in food, or ridiculous ticket and popcorn prices. However, would you get the same experience watching Snakes on a Plane at home as you would watching it at the movies? I don't think so. There are some movies that are just meant to be watched at the theatre, just so you can go out and see the people! Customer service, in my opinion, is key to the movie theatre business, so you know most theatres will go out of their way to ensure you a pleasant movie going experience. (I know I would) Advantage: Movie Theatre

WINNER:

So, as you can see, the movie theatre wins out in my view. There are other things that haven't looked at, such as drive in theatres, and maybe I will soon, but there is nothing right now that would really beat the experience of going out and seeing a movie. Watching movies at home is great, and I often buy dvds after I've seen the movie in theatres. But to be honest with you, its not really the same. If you think of anything that I haven't discussed here, please let me know and I'll be glad to write about it!

If I haven't convinced you that going to the theatre is the way to go, please let me know why you choose to watch your movies at home. Also, if you're interested in setting up your own home theatre, look at some of the components I've suggested here.

Anyway, I'll be off to work at the theatre soon tonight. Look for my update on the Simpsons movie if I do get a chance to screen it tonight! See you all at the movies!

Cars and more...

Like I've mentioned before, my main goal over the next few months is to purchase a car. I'm sure many of you out there know how much freedom having your own car can give you. Now this may be a little dumb on my part, but a lot of car shopping that I've done is more based on what I want as opposed to what I should actually be getting. That being said, I've pretty much made up my mind on what I'm going to be getting. I would like your opinions also though! Please feel free to leave a comment, so I can see what YOU think I should get.

For those of you out there who are looking to buy a car, here is a website I suggest. Awesome for those of you who have never bought a car before (like me) or even the seasoned haggler.

In tech news, those of you who are considering purchasing a new Blu-Ray player might want to check this out. I haven't jumped on the Blu-Ray revolution yet, but I do honestly think that it's going to beat out HD-DVD.

Finally, everyone's favorite old news, the iPhone! I've personally played around with it a few times at the Apple store (I'm an Apple fan, also) but I don't see the economical sense it makes to buy this phone right now. I'm currently with Sprint and I use a Treo which offers a lot of the same functionality of the iPhone (though not all) for much less per month. A lot of you out there may put Sprint towards the bottom of the major cell phone companies in the US, but if you are a good customer, they will take care of you well. No one ever mentions in the comparisons that a lot of Sprint services, especially internet, cost a lot less than AT&T's if you know the right tricks. So while the iPhone may be the hot device of the day, I'm gonna hold out for the 6G iPod and the New Mac OSX

Well, I'd better be getting back to work. I'll post another update tomorrow, after I've seen tonight's Hell's Kitchen!

EDIT: Poll has been removed, but feel free to leave a comment still!