After more than a decade of talking about it, movie theaters and studios are finally rolling out digital projectors that show sharper, brighter images without cracks, pops or hisses.
This weekend, Sony Electronics will enter the field with a projector that displays the sharpest resolution envisioned under a set of standards issued for digital cinema.
Movie studios last year agreed on such technology standards, which will allow components made by different manufacturers to be interoperable.
Those components include the projector itself, the computer that stores the movie and sound, software that compresses the huge digital files and security systems that prevent piracy.
And, after years of debate about who would pay for the systems, studios and companies that sell digital cinema systems agreed to share the cost.
Studios stand to save millions each year by delivering digital versions of their films to theaters instead of the clunky film prints that get scratched and dirty after only a few weeks and have to be replaced.
But the studios agreed to forgo those savings for 10 years in order to finance the cost of replacing current 35mm film projectors with digital cinema systems.
2K for stable images
Two financing groups have been established to install projectors that display images with "2K" resolution, or about 2 million pixels -- dots of light that make up a digital image.
The main benefit of 2K projection is a more stable, consistent image, although one trade-off is that color is often not as deep and rich as that provided by film.
Both groups hope to have hundreds of systems installed by the end of this year and as many as half of the nation's 36,000 screens within the next 10 years.
This weekend, Sony will begin a test of its new "4K" projector, which displays images at 8 million pixels horizontally.
The company has installed one of the projectors at a theater in Los Angeles that will show Sony Pictures' The Da Vinci Code. Together with National CineMedia, a joint venture of AMC Entertainment Inc, Cinemark USA Inc and Regal Entertainment Group, it will install projectors in two other theaters next month in yet to be determined locations.
Movies can be distributed in one of several ways. In the current test, the Sony projector will play the movie from a computer disk. Movies can also be beamed to theaters via satellite or sent over fiber-optic cables, as is the case with a similar test in Japan being conducted by Warner Bros and Sony Pictures.
4K for richer color
The 4K projectors promise richer color and better contrast that draws moviegoers into the image. The major difference, however, will be seen by those who sit closest to the movie screen, who will see sharper images without noticing individual pixels, which can occur in a theater with 2K projection.
Sony recently tested its system using a clip from the 1965 classic The Sound of Music. When it was projected in 4K, viewers were able to pick out two hairs sticking up from Julie Andrews' head and see details of the weave in her dress.
"Anything that enhances the visual experience, that better supports the artistry, the story of the motion picture being exhibited, anything that raises the bar of higher quality is a benefit to the moviegoer," said Andrew Stucker, general manager of digital cinema systems group at Sony Electronics.
The increased quality is strongly desired by theater owners, who are looking for ways to attract business, especially as home theater systems become more sophisticated.
"There's a strong desire to differentiate cinema from home and that's where 4K comes in," according to Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting.
But in the end, Karagosian suggests, moviegoers will not base their decision to visit the local megaplex on technology alone.
"It's a social experience and at bottom line it's about the content," he said. "I may remodel my kitchen, but I still like to go out to eat once in a while."
Digital projectors are installed in about 500 US theaters today. That number is expected to rise to about 1,500 by the end of the year.
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