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Topic: D-Cinema at the Palace cinema, Liege (Belgium)
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Lionel Fouillen
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 230
From: Belgium
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted 06-05-2004 05:15 PM
Today was the first time I attended a digital cinema projection. When the system was first installed in a Belgian theater (Kinepolis Brussels) for Attack of the Clones, I thought it didn't even deserve driving an hour to the capital to see it. But it was installed last week for the reopening of the renovated 5-plex Palace Cinema two blocks away from my flat, so this was an occasion...
The film was THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, one of the most boring films ever. Since the porthole separating the booth from the auditorium was always large, I could see that the former Kinoton FP75 projector was removed and replaced by one FP30 and one digital Kinoton with Barco head. The digital server system is the CineStore developped by the Belgian company EVS. The screen is 12x5 meters (approx. 40x17 feet). The auditorium is now a 480-seater (20 rows of 25 seats with a few ones removed to ease access near emergency exits). I was sitting in the center of the seating area.
Those who know me know I'm a maniac easily complaining about a screen being too small or too big, or the sound not being tuned adequately, or surround speakers being unproperly located, or slightly out-of-focus image. I was always an avid 70mm fan, too. But I have to say this digital projection was perfect. It is very rare that I have the opportunity to say that. As far as I remember, this is even the best non-70mm projection I ever attended in a conventional theater.
The projectionist seemed to not master the digital projector yet and the first 6-7 seconds of the THX trailer were projected with sound only but we finally got the image right in time to see the THX logo materializing. Then we had a EVS CineStore trailer. Then the DLP trailer. The feature film image was excellent. Colors, contrast, stability and focus: every aspect was satisfactory. I didn't notice any of those "MPEG artifacts". The poorer pixel resolution of digital cinema wasn't visible either, even when I had a close look at the end credits by exiting the theater using the door beside the screen. Focus was perfect but the picture was not sharper than conventional 35mm. No doubt it wasn't as sharp as some 70mm shows I saw in the past (even though they were only Panavision blowups) but digital cinema replaced 35mm for the better in this case.
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