IMAX digital projection

[Vincent Sweeney]

I didn't notice recent discussion on it so I thought I'd pass this along.

 

IMAX slowly adopting digital projection.

 

http://iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/07/busi...ax-AMC-Deal.php

 

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=848

 

I'm curious if anyone has more details on these new systems. I assume a 6 to 8K resolution would be needed?

[David Mullen ASC]

You can think of it this way, if 35mm negative is like 4K and 35mm print projection is like 2K (half the horizontal resolution) then IMAX, which has three-times the width of a 35mm negative frame (70mm wide instead of 24mm wide) would need to be scanned at 12K, and the print would be more like 6K.

 

That's just a crude comparison. Personally, what I would like is for something like the Sony 4K projector except doubled in both directions, as if you stacked four 4K projectors together -- so that would be 8K projection.

 

Now how they are going to store and playback 8K files in real time, beats me.

[Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC]

35mm print project is more closely related to 2k. I didn't realize that. What would anamorphic projection be?

[David Mullen ASC]

35mm print project is more closely related to 2k. I didn't realize that. What would anamorphic projection be?

 

Well, it's a crude comparison, not a scientific statement. You hear all sorts of abysmal numbers for the number of lines of resolution in print projection. To my eyes, 2K digital projection is similar to good 35mm answer print print projection in terms of sharpness.

 

Anamorphic print projection would also be 2K in theory (it's the same width of print area as 1.85, just expanded optically to wider dimensions) but less grainy than 1.85. Although in a sense, it is being enlarged less to fill the same height screen, so it could be considered to have more resolution vertically, and thus overall, but not horizontally, as 1.85.

 

I don't know if the DCI masters for anamorphic movies screened digitally are squeezed for anamorphic projection or just shorter vertically.

[Tom Lowe]

I would think it would have to be minimum of 6K.