Gizmodo
IMAX and Texas Instruments announced they will be working together to transition IMAX from a film-based projection format to a DLP-based technology instead. Starting in the middle of 2008, all new IMAX projectors will include the digital DLP technology and eliminate the need for elaborate film-based projector setups currently found in IMAX Theaters. This raises the question: which billionaire will be the first to have a digital IMAX theater installed in his mega mansion?
Texas Instruments Announces IMAX Digital Projection System to be Powered by DLP Cinema® 2008 marks the 10th Anniversary of digital cinema led by DLP Cinema LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - March 11, 2008: Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE: TXN) DLP Cinema® announced today at ShoWest that IMAX® Corporation (Nasdaq: IMAX) has decided to incorporate the DLP Cinema projector solution in its IMAX digital projection systems to be deployed by commercial exhibitors around the world. "We are excited to cement this alliance with DLP Cinema, and believe their technology will help ensure that our digital projection system delivers the best cinema experience available to audiences," said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. "We've evaluated competing cinema projection technology and found DLP Cinema to be the ideal match for IMAX." IMAX's highly anticipated digital projection system integrates a suite of proprietary IMAX intellectual properties with the DLP Cinema projector solution in a way that creates The IMAX Experience in a digital format. IMAX expects its transition to digital to help to drive profitability for studios, exhibitors and IMAX theatres by virtually eliminating the need for film prints, increasing program flexibility and ultimately increasing the number of movies shown on IMAX screens. With the implementation of DLP Cinema technology, IMAX moviegoers will experience precise, lifelike images in vibrant colors, delivered through the millions of microscopic mirrors on the DLP Cinema chip. "We are proud to work with IMAX and look forward to the development and rollout of the best digital cinema experience in the market," said Nancy Fares, Business Manager for DLP Cinema Products Group. "DLP Cinema projectors are the heart of every digital 2D and 3D movie experience for traditional and now large format venues. We look forward to participating in their move to digital in the months ahead." Digital cinema installations continue to be catalyzed by the increasing release of 3D film. The 3D movie format is serving as a revenue driver for the film industry overall, and has gained a resurgence of interest by moviegoers. IMAX has been a leader in 3D content, especially since the overwhelming box office success of The Polar Express: An IMAX 3D Experience, which has grossed more than $65 million in IMAX theatres around the world since it opened in 2005. More recently, Beowulf: An IMAX 3D Experience grossed $25 million, representing a per screen average of more than $185,000. Celebrating its 10th year in the film industry, DLP Cinema projection technology is installed in over 6,000 theatres on every continent except Antarctica and is the only digital 3D single projector solution. Today there are more than 1,200 theatres in the country that offer the digital 3D experience powered by DLP Cinema technology, and this number will continue to increase as IMAX begins its rollout of digital projection systems powered by DLP Cinema. 10 Years of Digital Cinema 2008 marks the 10th Anniversary of DLP's entrance into the cinema industry, with the first fully functional and Hollywood endorsed digital DLP Cinema movie projector. After years of prototypes, DLP had delivered Hollywood's biggest image critics and cinematographers with a digital projector that met the world's highest standards on color, brightness and reliability and therefore pioneered the digital cinema concept. A year later in 1999 the studios released the first movie in digital format on DLP Cinema which was Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace. DLP Cinema honors the heritage of the ultimate viewing experience while incorporating the latest technology innovations, such as the 3D single projector solution, and cutting costs for cinema exhibitors, distributors and ultimately the consumer. About DLP Cinema DLP Cinema is a proprietary technology that delivers clear, sharp, bright and accurate images to movie theatres globally. To manufacture and market under the DLP Cinema trademark, technology licensees, including Barco, Christie and NEC, must meet stringent standards and guidelines meant to ensure the best possible performance and picture quality. This digital picture and standard of excellence ensures that a DLP Cinema movie screening looks flawless and each showing is as perfect as the first with no annoying scratches, tears or weaving that detract from the movie-going experience. For more information, or to find a DLP Cinema theatre near you, please visitwww.dlpcinema.com. About Texas Instruments DLP Products DLP display technology from Texas Instruments offers clarity down to the most minute detail, delivering pictures rich with color, contrast and brightness to large-screen HDTVs and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema (DLP Cinema®). 50 of the world's top projection and display manufacturers design, manufacture and market products based on DLP technology. DLP is the only HDTV technology built from a foundation in the digital cinema where it set the industry standard demonstrated by the deployment of DLP Cinema technology in 5,971 theatres worldwide. At the heart of every DLP chip is an array of up to 2.2 million microscopic mirrors which switch incredibly fast to create a high resolution, highly reliable, full color image. DLP technology's chip architecture and inherent speed advantage provides razor-sharp images and excellent reproduction of fast motion video. Since early 1996, more than 15.5 million DLP subsystems have been shipped. For more information, please visitwww.dlp.com. About Texas Instruments: Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through manufacturing, design and sales operations in more than 25 countries. For more information, www.ti.com. DLP and DLP Cinema are registered trademarks of Texas Instruments. About IMAX Corporation IMAX Corporation is one of the world's leading digital entertainment and technology companies. The worldwide IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event Hollywood films around the globe, with IMAX theatres delivering the world's best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX 3D, and IMAX DMR technology. IMAX DMR is the Company's groundbreaking digital remastering technology that allows it to digitally transform virtually any conventional motion picture into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience. IMAX's renowned projectors and new digital systems display crystal-clear images on the world's biggest screens. The IMAX brand is recognized throughout the world for extraordinary and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers. As of September 30, 2007, there were 296 IMAX theatres operating in 40 countries. IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR, and, IMAX MPX The IMAX Experience® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information on the Company can be found at www.imax.com.
Comments
I just saw "U2 in 3D" in Baltimore...
Great experience. I hope IMAX stays around for a while.
The screen is freakishly huge and it was an awesome cinematic experience.
This sound great..
But i know of people having the (rainbow) effect that DLP Causes on
(certain people)?
But cant wait!
Wait... Digital Digital light processing? That's almost as sweet as my NIC card. har har
Digital Digital Laser Projector Projectors?
Mark Cuban?
they should be using DILA...NASA does...but what do they know right?
They've been using film up until now?
Even my shitty little movie theater in my shitty little town has moved up to DLP.
@DJJS: The Rainbow effect is a result of the color wheel used with singlechip DLP projectors. Higher end DLP projectors, of which I would assume the IMAX projectors would be, use 3 DLP chips, one for red, green, and blue thus negating the need for a colorwheel.
@DJJS the rainbow effect is causes by a spinning color wheel on home DLP projectors. The IMAX projectors will have 3 different RBG DLP chips.
I wonder what they will do to occupy all that space that's currently used by the film projectors? I wonder what kind of computer system would store those movies and handle all that bandwidth.
Does this also affect Omni-theaters like the one in Fort Worth TX Science Museum?
@leetXcore: have you -even- seen an IMAX projector set up?
Sweet, giant rainbows!! Sounds kind of gay.
There I had to say it.
I'm curious what the light source is. If it uses multi-colored bulbs like Samsung's LED lit screens there would be no spinning wheels and thus no rainbows.
@fallenturtle: Ah yes, that would also fix the rainbow problem. Not that that's a problem.
Unless they wait on 4K chips or go with 4K LCoS) it will be a lower resolution mistake to go digital just yet. Even 4K is not up to the task of getting the full resolution out of IMAX's large format film.
Now if they can shrink the cameras into digital HD-based systems, could you imagine the footage they could get? Anyone see that movie where they lugged the IMAX cameras up Everest?
I hope they include Dramamine for the motion-sickness DLp induces...(Blechhhh)
GREAT. Now when they show standard films they wont look like shit on the giant screen. awesome. should be super sharp and crisp. pumped!
It will be Michael Bay because he only likes things that are AWESOME!
Interesting. I wonder if they've developed a new chip with more mirrors on it, or if they'll somehow use multiple chips in combination to add to the resolution? IMAX film stock is HUGE, so their existing digital cinema engine with "2.2 million mirrors" they tout in the press release (barely higher than 1080p resolution) is just not going to look very sharp on that monster theater screen.
@leetXcore: I'm a projectionist in Philadelphia and we mostly use film still because not all the new films are available in digital format on release date.
Wow, I expected a lot more bashing of that because of the advantages film has over digital...
how much exactly does an imax theater cost?
Agreed, they had better massively raise the resolution for these projectors as 70mm IMAX film is HUGE.
Leave it to US to make Canadia's cinematic masterpiece look like shit. Spend the $14 to view a digitally projected 35mm movie & then be sure to watch an IMAX film show before they're gone.
The main reason is to reduce cost, not to improve quality. The cumbersome mechanism isn't the problem. The guy sitting in the control room must go. $15 will get U a higher technology theater but only half the quality your parents got for $7.
They don't have to have ultra-high-res projectors for ultra-high-res video. One of the neat technologies out there in large-venue projection uses multiple projectors with overlapping images. You start with a very high pixel image (for example, 4096 x 2160), slice it up into sub-images, then set up four to nine (or more) projectors, with the overlap managed by dimming the edges of the image from each projector (no obvious seams in the image when done correctly). It's harder to get even luminance across the whole screen, though.
Yes, this is much like the old 35mm slide projection dissolve shows (I've run 27 slide projector setups, and have seen 36 projector shows).
You could also run a super-high-res video image by stacking images, only a fraction of a pixel offset, with each projector being fed every other pixel. Alignment is a pain, though (you need extremely fine adjustments to get the pixel alignment right). It would take four tightly-stacked projectors to do this (to double resolution in each axis), but you get the bonus of more consistent luminosity, with reduced effective resolution (pixels overlap a bit).
@leetXcore:
Film still offers much higher resolution and contrast ratios than the best digital video playback & projection systems. Your local flea-pit went DLP for cost savings not because they wanted to give you a treat.
@philipbarrett: Mostly agree with you, but many of those same flea-pits never maintained their film equipment resulting in terrifically mangled viewing experiences.
The digital DLP projector will help people with the HIV virus, with REM movement problems, see the LED diodes, rotating on UFO objects, on the front of liquid-crystal LCD displays, hooked up to their personal PC computers.
Bimbotic moment from my sister:
me: I wonder when cinemas in Malaysia are going to switch to digital projectors.
her: Eh? Isn't this digital already though?
me: I don't think so...you can see the spots on the film mah.
her: But at the beginning it said "Dolby Digital"..
(Sorry double post)
The thing I'll miss is seeing all those giant strips of film running up and down and back and forth across the projection booths though. It's kinda fun to watch all the apparatus involved.
@DJJS: The rainbow effect is a side effect only present in 1-chip DLP projectors, caused by the fact that the R,G and B primary colors are not projected at the same time (a color filter wheel spins before the chip).
DLP cinema projectors have 3 chips, so they don't need a color wheel and therefore aren't subject to rainbow effect.
This switch by IMAX from 70mm film to digital projection seems backwards to me. Unless TI has 8K chips in its sleeve, we're looking at a huge loss of definition.
So....
Since they will be so massively reducing their production costs, will we see a drop in admission price?
No?
Okay, then.... DO NOT WANT.
Actually, this is kind of interesting timing with something I wrote recently in my blog about charging more for less
Wrong question.
The right question is: "Does it mean that these IMAX movies with all that IMAX goodness would now be available for download on BitTorrent?"
@the_sidewinder: tek_nic has it right "digital light processing"
But I have to agree - Digital DLP is redundant Giz!
Finally, I can't wait till ALL magnetic tape is extinct. I am loving my blu-ray but hell, I cant wait till optical discs are gone as well. Downloading, Flash media, holographic cards, and solid state hard drives are defiantly the logical way to go. People will always want a physical copy. For me, simply downloading it and knowing it is in my hard drive is not enough. I want a physical copy of it, plain and simply. I bet movies will come on small flash discs like Nintendo DS games...eventually. This IMAX is simply a step in that process. Soon all theatres will use DLP's, Optical discs will be history, and OLED TV's are going to be immensely impressive and accurate in every way.
I should volunteer at my local science center when they get this tech, I can see me now: Playing Wii on an IMAX screen...
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