The 4K Movie Theater
We
read a blog a few episodes ago about the "
Top 20 Reasons Why Home Theater Beats the Movie Theater Hands Down"
and agreed with all 20 reasons. In fact, we could probably come up
with 20 more if we tried hard enough. We prefer to watch movies at
home. There's just no compelling reason to go to the theater anymore.
Video quality is better at home, the sound is better, and the overall
experience is worlds better. If you've made the investment in even a
modest home theater, what would possibly compel you to go watch a movie
at a public theater?
A new camera called the
'Red One' can record Ultra High Definition video, sometimes called
4K, which depending on who you talk to, could equate to a resolution of
anywhere from 3840 x 2160 to 4096 x 2160. If you do the math quickly
in your head, you'll see that the resolution is twice as wide and twice
as tall as 1080p, giving it 4 times better resolution than the best
video available for your home. It equates out to about an 8 megapixel
image. But the camera can actually do better, it will record at up to
4520 x 2540, or so called 2540p video resolution.
So, we look at
that and say, great, neato burrito. Why do we care? Admittedly, we
have a slight bias. We tend to view the world through, "How does this
apply to HDTV and Home Theater" glasses. So if we come from that
perspective, this Red camera doesn't amount to much. We've talked
about television companies playing with the idea of ultra high def
sets. At this point they've all been experimental. The one we saw at
CES was running test patterns. Then we look at broadcast standards an
realize there's no way that we'll jump from 1080i to 2160p any time
soon. It's not in any spec, and we just don't have the bandwidth for
it. Add to that the fact that the new high definition disc formats
can't support it, from a storage or playback standpoint, and where does
that leave us? It leaves us thinking it will be cool in 5 or 10 years
when it breaks into the consumer market.
But wait, there's
more. What exactly was Peter Jackson doing with the camera? As it
turns out, he produced a min-drama about WWI, complete with special
effects and a full professional crew. By all accounts, the video was
awesome. As a result of the trial, he decided to order a couple of the
cameras for himself. You can read more about the short film at the
ain't it cool news
website. Doing a little more research we find that Red is also working
on a 4k projector to match the 4k camera. Then we find that Sony has
been selling a 4k SXRD projector for quite a while, but it's so cost
prohibitive that it hasn't sold very well. Of course, you have to
couple that with the fact that there's just no content for it. But
there has to be a reason for it. Maybe no one is buying yet, but Sony
has something up their sleeve.
So we know Sony sells
electronics, and they sell movies. It looks like the master plan may
be to lure you and me back to the movie theater. They recently
screened the world premier of Spider-man 3 in Tokyo in 4k. That's
right, a Sony movie on a Sony projector in a quality you've never seen
before. We know the effective resolution of film is somewhere around
4000 lines, so it's easy to see why 4k is such a natural fit for movie
theaters. Sure it may never show up at your home, or at least not for
quite some time, but that doesn't mean you can't see it. And what
better way to lure the HD fanatic like us back to the big screen.
Provide an experience I can't get at home. If you combine video
quality that's 4 times better than Blu-ray or HD-DVD with lossless HD
audio, you might have a pretty strong case.
Of course there are
still some things they need to work out, like cell phones and loud
talkers, but this might be the first step in the movie theater
renaissance. To date it looks like only four or five movie theaters in
Japan have actually purchased the Sony projector, so we're not exactly
looking at an overnight switch. Theater operator Movico has planned to
install the projector in a new 18 screen cineplex it's building in
Chicago; and if all goes well, it will install them in the rest of its
12 theaters nationwide - a total of 228 screens. Muvico will also
offer their 'Premier' service in the Chicago venue, offering adults
only theaters with reserved seating, oversized Âlove seats, complimentary valet parking and popcorn, and access to a full-service
restaurant and bar. We'll need some Chicago area listeners to check
this out when it opens in August.
Hopefully other theater operators take a hint from Movico; if they don't do something, and fast, it may just be too
late. At least we know the HD DVD and Blu-ray transfers from 4k source
should be really awesome.
Further reading:
Digital cinema at four-times HD hits Japan
Muvico Chooses Sony SXRD 4K Projectors For Conversion To Digital Technology
