Alamo now rocks cutting edge digital 3D!
The day before Christmas Alamo technical guru Andrew McEathron and I got on a plane to Los Angeles for a side-by-side comparison of digital technologies. We’ve been toying around with the idea of a digital conversion for years, but frankly, we weren’t thrilled by what we had seen to date with the standard digital cinema projectors. Word in the nerd circles, however, was that Sony’s new system had been blowing the doors off the competition in side by side tests, and that’s what we were flying to LA on Christmas Eve to see.
I’m going to get a bit technical here on the details… In 2005, the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a joint venture of the six major studios published a system specification for digital cinema. Among other things, they established a minimum standard of “2K” resolution at 2048×1536 pixels, a little bit less than twice the horizontal pixel count of home HD televisions. Until this Friday, that is as crisp as you could see in Austin. Furthermore, the 3D process for 2K resolution left a little to be desired. Constrained by the native resolution of the projector, 2k digital 3D flashes a left eye image and then a right eye image to give the illusion that the images are being projected simultaneously. Some viewers have complained of a flickering quality to the light, a lack of brightness and eye strain.
Intent on being the industry technology leader, Sony developed a 4K digital cinema system with a native resolution of 4096×3072 pixels. That’s four times as many pixels as the DCI digital standard used by everyone in Austin (until this Friday!). Also, at the end of last month, Sony announced it’s partnership with RealD, the industry leader in 3D technology. This is the first digital cinema system that uses two dedicated lenses to simultaneously project the right eye and left eye images. It’s the first truly 3D digital experience and the brightness and clarity improvement are striking.
That’s it for the technical bit. Now back to Los Angeles. Within 45 minutes of landing in LA, Andrew and I were whisked into a screening room which had two projectors running simultaneously, one a top of the line 2K projector, professionally tuned by a third party installer, and the other a Sony 4K digital machine. We watched still images, movie trailers, action sequences, 2K content interpolated up to 4K, and also the Lawrence of Arabia 4K digital restoration.
The magic number for this test was “2 screen heights from the screen”. If we sat closer to the screen than that, we could see in the 2k image: pixelation, weird digital patterns in areas of complex detail and jagged edges in the quick action/motion scenes. The difference in quality with the 4k projector was stunning. All of the 2k issues disappeared. I could only see pixels if my face was immediately in front of the screen, step back 2 feet and the pixels disappeared. At several of our screens at the Alamo, “2 screen heights from the screen” comprises half of the auditorium.
After the test, our minds were made up. Sony had finally delivered a system that we could accept and could bring to our audiences with pride. We are extremely excited to be bringing to Austin the new standard in digital presentation. The new Sony 4K digital experience rolls out on all four screens this Friday at the Alamo Drafthouse Village, and one one screen, you will get to see the new standard in Digital 3D with Monsters Vs. Aliens. This is the first installation of it’s kind in Austin and only the second in Texas. We are also in the first wave of national rollout for the RealD 4K 3D system.
We will still be keeping a 35mm film projector at Village for special repertory events, but starting this Friday, all first run features at the Village will be presented digitally. And not just digitally, my friends, the best dang digital that money can buy!
Tim League
Founder
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
March 24th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Ooh, I can’t wait to see this in person. Congrats.
One question though, with the new digital projection systems how are movies distributed? Hard disk? over the “series of tubes”? Is there an industry standard yet for 4K projection? more lumens with a high contrast ratio. YeeeHaw!
March 24th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Sweet! I’ve been very unimpressed by and skeptical of 3D but I’m hoping to try out this viewing experience. Will this system be able to handle Pixar’s Up when it is released? As much as I have been looking forward to it, the prospect of having to watch it in sub-par 3D has given me mixed feelings.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
YES, we’ll be able to screen UP at its very best! This is the fanciest, top-of-the-line digital system available, so the best place to see UP will be at the Alamo. For real.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Isn’t it about time for some spaghetti?
March 25th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Wooo! yet another reason the alamo drafthouse is the only place to see movies.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Woot. I’ll be there on opening night (or soon thereafter).
March 25th, 2009 at 4:05 am
@Tim
Don’t know about 4k but most digital is still distributed by hard drive or by satellite depending on that theatre’s set up.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:52 am
so does this also mean the TV at the Alamo shows will be shown through one of these babies? if so, there is no reason to ever watch LOST at home again, can’t wait to check this out!
March 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
While at the beginning of this post I was upset, at the end I was relived to see you went with a 4k image, however…you are talking generation 1 technology with Sony piece of shit products here. Sony has failed me at every turn, is not a dedicated projector developer, and is currently in the toilet. I know that your level of Sony and my level of Sony are a little different but I hope that you don’t have the experiences I have had with them, I started my Sony boycott 3.5 years ago due to so many product failures.
Where do you get 4k content? Does each studio provide the 4k content from a film scan? Or is it 2k and upscaled by the projector? How big is a 4k “disk” how is that run?
Well I am interested to check it out. When will South lamar be getting these?
March 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Most DCPs (Digital Cinema Package) are at 2K. The only studio that has provided films at 4k are Sony (who also make the 4k projector). There is lots of debate as to if you can actually see a difference between a 2k and 4k encode and the nearly all of the proejctors out there 2k. That is also the reason the most studios haven’t started creating 4k packages.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I guarantee, you can definitely see a difference. We’ll be seeing a lot of 4K content this summer, and it’s not just limited to Sony. Warner has adopted it as well.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Finally! the moment i have been waiting for. My new 3D addiction can be fulfilled by the Alamo!
March 25th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Hey Tim,
Do we have to keep buying the 3D glasses with every ticket? I’ve got a drawer full of 3D glasses at home from other screening. Seems somewhat wasteful to keep giving glasses with every screening of the movie. The ticket prices listed are $3.25 more for a regular adult ticket for a 3D movie, I assume some of that is for the glasses. For a week of screening assuming average 250 people per screening the movie playing 9 times a day, that is 15,750 glasses a week. Thoughts?
Chris
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 am
4096×3072 is 4:3…so how does that work for a widescreen movie? Is it basically letterboxed? So, something like Watchmen that’s 2:35:1 would really be more like 4096×1743 or thereabouts?
March 26th, 2009 at 12:17 am
(I meant 2.35:1)
March 27th, 2009 at 7:49 am
just saw the midnight monsters vs. aliens and there are no words to describe the clarity. So glad I no longer have to visit the galaxy highland ever again! Just want to echo two posters 1. when is it South Lamar’s turn? 2. can we get a 3d discount if we save our glasses for next time? Thank you for enhancing our movie going experience!
March 29th, 2009 at 2:57 am
nice , keep it up great work
regards
thamara
March 31st, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I saw Monsters vs. Aliens this weekend, it was incredible. None of the eye strain that usually comes from watching modern 3-D flicks. Even during the previews, I was noticing just how incredibly clear these new projectors are. Good work! I hope you get these upgrades in the South Lamar and Ritz locations soon!
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Going to check it out with the kids this afternoon. Can’t wait.
I know Dig/3D screens are planned for the new SW Austin location. Are they going to be 4K as well?
April 6th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
The new digital projection looks awesome. I saw Adventureland at the Village over the weekend and was pretty amazed at the clarity of the picture. I can’t wait for So. Lamar to get digital projection! I wish this had been in place when Coraline was playing.
April 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
It would be killer if a 4k presentation of “Knowing” were available.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
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May 28th, 2009 at 2:19 am
I just saw Star Trek on that screen….it was AWESOME. I am not sure how I am going to go back to the old screen…when are you guys updatin ghte RITZ?
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