Barco HDR laser projection with Dolby Atmos Vue "Epic" PLF offering,

[Jonathan Smiles]

Vue International chain is committing to 60 "Epic" screens installed by the end of 2027 in the UK and mainland Europe.

Has anyone here been able to compare the same content in Dolby Cinema and Barco HDR versions?

Previous thread on Barco LS4K HDR projector - https://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/...841-barco-ls4k

Sources:
Variety https://variety.com/2025/film/global...ax-1236450143/
Barco press release https://www.barco.com/en/about/press...-for-hdr-by-ba
HDR by Barco https://www.barco.com/en/solutions/cinema/hdr-by-barco
HDR by Barco Post-Production https://www.barco.com/en/inspiration...ion-solutions-

[James Gardiner]

I did a video presentation on the LS4K a while ago. I posted a YouTube video on it. Look up my channel.

The inky blacks of Dolby are cool, but the 300 over 100nit peak luminance of Barco are great.
The Barco, using the new TI-DMD, and hi contrast lenses, can get very good blacks too.
So.. considering, you have to really build a cinema like a dark hole to get the Dolby blacks to be most noticeable, and most cinemas are not built that way and are not experiential to sit in so a higher peak luminance has more impact. I think the Barco has a good market. DCI selected 300 nits over 100 nts for a reason. It looked worth the effort to push the industry to that position. (Although being really technically difficult).

They will both have a market, but the 300nit probably is more suited to how general cinemas are build in terms of return on investment in regard to lift in picture quality for the cinema already build.
But I expect it is very subjective.