Information AboutDigital Cinema |
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Digital cinema refers to the use of Digital technology to distribute and project Motion Picture s. The final movie can be distributed electronically and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector. Note that digital cinema is distinct from High Definition Television and in particular, digital film is not completely dependent on using Television or HDTV standards, Aspect Ratios , or frame rates, though recent developments in HDTV have led to a resurgence of related interest in using the HD format for digital cinema, known as HD Cinema . In this article, ''2K'' and ''4K'' refer to images with 2048 and 4096 pixel resolution on their longest side, respectively. HISTORY Recent (late 2005) interest in digital 3D stereo projection has led to a new willingness on the part of theaters to co-operate in installing limited number of 2K installations to show Disney's ''Chicken Little'' in 3D. Seven more digital 3D movies are slated for 2006 or 2007 release. This will likely increase the number of 2K installations to several hundred by the end of 2006. The cost of planned target format, 4K, is much greater, and will likely remain on hold until more results for 3D are evaluated. Other digital applications such as live sports are additional incentives. HD TV and pre-recorded HD Blu-ray disks, will put greater pressure on theaters to offer something better to compete with the improved home HD experience. 2K does not actually improve on the existing film prints, except in eliminating scratches, where 4K will likely look better than 35mm film. 3D, if it proves to be a factor, will look much better in the bigger 4K format. TECHNOLOGY After editing, the images and sound are sent for projection in a theater with digital projectors or pressed straight for video in playback capacities like DVD s. In many cases though digital is transferred back to film for distribution, although this would lead to higher cost of production. Digital capture Standard HD vs. 2K and 4K formats (extra high definitions) For the time being, movies are mostly shot on film, and perhaps composited to a Digital Intermediate (DI). From the DI, they can go to film or digital release. Digital release of films may progress with 2K technology, but, on the other hand, may not. Sony has developed and released 4K projectors using their SXRD technology, with one of the major purchasers being Mark Cuban 's Landmark Theatres. 2K digital 3D only works well on fairly small screens. 4K, being four times bigger in file size, will allow much bigger and brighter 3D images. DIGITAL PROJECTION There are two types of projectors for digital cinema. The original one in the US was DLP technology. 1990s style Digital Systems, Inc. (CP2000 - 2K DCI compliant Digital Cinema Projector) and Barco are the market leader in terms of units sold and deployed internationally. Access Integrated Technologies and Technicolor have signed digital distribution agreements with the majority of Hollywood . Where Christie is the main player in the USA, Barco takes the lead in Europe and Asia, resulting in an equal share world-wide. Sony has developed a "4K SXRD" projector intended for digital cinema with 4096x2160 resolution. Digital end-to-end Finally Gaining Traction During October 23-29, 1998, '''' was distributed to digital cinemas electronically (although the latter film was projected from a DVD-style disc hooked to the projector). This ''Star Wars'' film would become the first time a film was projected digitally at a movie theatre by CineComm Digital Cinema . (CineComm founder Russell J. Wintner would go on to lead digital cinema development at Technicolor , and later at Access Integrated Technologies , Inc.) On 6 June 2000 , at the SuperComm 2000 tradeshow, the 20th Century Fox movie '' Titan AE '' was the first movie produced by a major studio and to utilise the end-to-end process as the movie was simultaneously sent (via private LAN line provided by Cisco) from the Fox production facilities in Los Angeles to a private LA movie screen and the SuperComm screen in Atlanta, Ga. Content was packaged and played back utilizing QuVIS servers. {Link without Title} Recently, with the growing interest in 3D, a re-birth of the "still-born" digital revolution has been taking place on a small but encouraging scale. '' Chicken Little '' from Disney, with its experimental release of the film in digital 3D, may lead to growth in the projection base, in 2K format. Several digital 3D films will surface in 2006 to test the concept further. By early 2006 , industry leader Access Integrated Technologies (AccessIT) had announced agreements with nearly all of the major Hollywood Studios and several Exhibitors that enable the company to roll-out its end-to-end digital cinema systems. ECONOMICS Digital cinema has some big economic advantages over film. Digital video is very cheap compared to film. For instance Rick McCallum, a producer on Attack of the Clones, said that it cost US$16,000 for 220 hours of digital tape where a comparable amount of film would have cost US$1.8 million. Obviously this matters most to low-budget films which are often shot for a few million dollars or less. Digital cinema can also reduce costs while shooting and editing. It is possible to see the video and make any necessary adustments immediately instead of having to wait until after the film is processed. Digital footage can also be edited directly, whereas with film it is usually converted to digital for editing and then re-converted to film for projection. Digital cinema has has potential for cost advantages when it comes to distribution. While making and distributing copies is cheaper, it is not necessarily faster with digital files than with film reels. The size of a digital file for a feature is in the hundreds of Gigabyte s in size, even after Compression . What this means is that a feature-length movie of around 200GB will still take anywhere from 12–20 hours to send over Satellite with speeds of 36 to 45 Mbps . Upon arrival, it must be captured in a system that can be verified. From there, it must be copied to the individual screens systems which can take another 2 or 3 hours, even over a Gigabit connection. Distribution on a Hard Drive can be completed faster, more reliably and more economically than satellite until there are sufficient numbers of digital systems to take advantage of the Bandwidth overhead. However, shipping feature-length films on hard drives would require a well-developed logistics system. Storage is not practical on DVD s given the dozens of DVDs that would be required for a file that size. 4K images will be even larger and require more time and space to manage as well as more costly in terms of bandwidth in a satellite distribution scenario. The only operational savings is cost to the studio for film prints and perhaps for the exhibitor, labor savings. Cost of the theatre system is increased not only in projection systems, but storage space for digital content. A film print can cost up to US$ 2000, so making 4000 prints or for a wide-release movie can cost up to $8 million. However, any film needing the 4000 prints would likely have an $80,000,000 budget, so the added cost would only be 10% over the production cost. To put things in perspective, any film with a production budget below $800,000 (1% of the average cost of production) would likely have no theatrical release whatsoever (go Direct To Video or cable). If it did reach the theaters, the first risk of print cost might be only 200 copies or far less. If it proves a hit in limited release, there is no problem getting more prints made. On the downside, the initial costs for converting theaters to digital are high: up to $150,000. Theaters may be reluctant to switch without a cost-sharing arrangement with Film Distributor s. Another potential downside is that digital copies may be more vulnerable to Piracy than film. The big loser in digital cinema is potentially the distributor. The studio will save on print costs and the exhibitor, if in a cost sharing arrangement for the projection system, will save on projection system and labor. However, the cost to the distributor of implementing a distribution network systems to reliably deliver digital features will be high and it is unlikely that either the studios or exhibitors will want to shift even a small portion of the potential savings to cover the new required cost of digital distribution infrastructure. DIGITAL CINEMA COMPANIES
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