What resolution do cinema projectors have?!

[DJ Bobo]

I ask myself, which resolution do cinema projectors have. Does anybody know?
Or what resolution does a typical hollywood film have?

[diji1]

hi - i really have no idea if this is correct or not, but i remember reading a while back that reel type film resolution is equivalent to 5000 x XXX(X?).

it's really only a comparison of course as the film is not composed of pixels ... though im guessing a digital projector would be. it would be interesting to know this for certain i think.

[sonni_kuba]

I remember reading somewhere that it was 5000x5000 (Stereo Review - I think)

[mb1]

Don´t know what resolution projectors have but the film material is digitally scanned with the following resolutions:

For HD-TV and anamorphic DVD film is scanned mostly with format 2K.


Filmformat_____1K________2K________4K________6K x 4.5K________8K x 6K


1.37:1_______914 x 666__1828 x 1332__3656 x 2664___5485 x 3996
_______________________2048 x 1492


1.66:1_______914 x 550__1828 x 1100__3656 x 2200___5484 x 3300
_______________________2048 x 1233


1.85:1_______914 x 494__1828 x 988___3656 x 1976___5484 x 2964
_______________________2048 x 1107


2.35:1_______914 x 778__1828 x 1556__3656 x 3112___5484 x 4668
_______________________2048 x 1743


Super35____1024 x 778__2048 x 1556__4096 x 3112__________________6144 x 4668


VistaVision
8 perf______1024 x1536__2048 x 3072__4096 x 6144__________________8192 x 5461


65 mm
15 perf________________2048 x 1536__4096 x 3072__________________8192 x 6144


1.37:1
16 mm______855 x 625__1710 x 1249
standard


1.66:1 Super
16 mm_____1044 x 619__2087 x 1237


Hope it´s readable.
Example:
For 2.35:1 anamorphic DVD production the film is scanned with 1828x1556 or 2048x1743 for 2K usage.

[temporance]

Digital cinema resolution is 1920x1080. Indistinguishable from film witha good projector.

[diji1]

temporance : Digital cinema resolution is 1920x1080. Indistinguishable from film witha good projector.

i read and hear that it looks quite a bit better actually ;). i am guessing though that there will be some people that will resist the change to digital cinema - like some ppl still consider film photography far superior to digital, as with vinyl records vs. cd ( we'll leave cassettes out there, ewww ), valve amps vs. transistors ... sure you get the picture. thanks for the info :).

[DJ Bobo]

5000x5000 sounds huge (25 Million Pixel!) but I have always the feeling that the cinema picture is very blurry.
Even last week, Star Wars II wasn't that different from other cinema projections, the picture quality was the same (I was in the biggest room of the biggest theatre in town, the room has 635 places)
And 1920x1080 sounds very bad, I mean a 21" monitor can go this far, so what about a huge cinema projection?!

[diji1]

bobotns : Star Wars II wasn't that different from other cinema projections, the picture quality was the same.

was it digitally projected ?

And 1920x1080 sounds very bad, I mean a 21" monitor can go this far, so what about a huge cinema projection?!

just from what i read: res seems low doesn't it ? apparently the quality is awsome though - crystal clarity ( no film artifacts for a start i spose ) - but the "purists" complain of a lack of fine details. im quite looking forward to it myself.

[Latexxx]

I've red from somewhere that the vertical resoluton of film which movie is recorded on stage is something about 3000 px and when it is scanned to edit and to add special fx the resolution used is something about 2000 px and the copy used in theaters has vertical resolution of about 1000 px. The film it self is quite different from digital image. It is more like normal camera film, you can take as big picture as you wan't, but the image goes softer.

[DJ Bobo]

@ diji1
I don't know if it was digitally projected or not, the only thing I know, I was in the best room of the best theatre in town with a 25x10m projection wall :D

[WitzWolf]

All this "Digital Cinema" stuff is IMHO just at the beginning.
I saw Episode 2 some days ago (normal projection) and was disappointed how a fully digital produced picture could look so bad (all grainy and washed) out :(
And as I get it from magazines, the digital copies are at most slightly better than a normal projection, so there is no major quality improvement but a major raise in the cost of the hardware :)

BTW I would recommend to everyone to watch a screening of an 70mm (as opposed to the 'normal' 35mm) copy of a movie if you have the chance. Now that's a quality difference!! Never saw an crisper picture in a theatre (I saw The Abyss and Die Hard 2) and the technology is quite a while around (saw West Side Story (1961) as a 70mm copy and that was spectacular!)

So I think that's the quality the digital cinema has to compete with!

[LotionBoy]

A couple things. According to the latest article I read, digital projectors work at 6000x4000, which seems kinds high, but that's what it said. I'll see if I can dig it up. I know that most CG special effects are rendered at either 2k or 4k (so about 2000x2000 or 4000x4000) and that both of those resolutions are nearly inditinguishable from scanned 35mm.

I saw Episode II digitally projected, and I was amazed. It looked much better than any 35mm print I've ever seen. 35mm mastering is a very inexact science: prints can have up to 3 stops of difference from the master print and be consider acceptable, which can lead to all sorts of issues. One issue with episode II (in some 35mm prints) is that on prints that are much lighter than the master, you can see digital artifacting in the dark areas of the screen, which is invisible if the areas are as dark as they were intended up to be. I saw no digital artificating in the digital projection. In fact, the picture was so crisp, some of the special effects looked to good without the film grain I am used to seeing!
I heard Chris Wedge (founder of Blue Sky, which made Ice Age) speak about Ice Age, and he said that he can't watch it in 35mm without flinching because it is so far from what it looked like digital. Digital projection is going to catch on big time.

LotionBoy

[DJ Bobo]

@ LotionBoy
You mean, you've seen Star Wars II without any film grain?!
If it is so, than I saw an analog projection, since there was definitely film grain.
Too bad :(

[((( atom )))]

this might be quite a good thread for your actual question:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/go.shtml?read=1&msg_id=1586651&forum_id=27649&showthread=1
it is rather long and becomes rather interresting in towards the end, if i remember right.. it it in german, though. :( i'll post it anyway, since here are quite some german members around..

i saw episode II a few days ago and it was of the worst quality i could ever imagine! i was shocked - went there and expected it to rule! it was projected analog, and i will go for a digital cinema to compare..

/jc

[LotionBoy]

Originally posted by bobotns
@ LotionBoy
You mean, you've seen Star Wars II without any film grain?!


Yup, no grain. It was purrty. Definetely worth seeing it digital if there is a place around you that is projecting it that way.

LotionBoy