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

[Joe Ripley]

Worth noting the Barco HDR Light Steering tech can only get to 300 nits on less than 20% of the screen at any one time and 108 nits over around 50%. Dolby Cinema can achieve 108 nits full screen 100% of the time if needed so arguably more light coming from a Dolby Cinema image in some circumstances and still get the correct black level.

[James Gardiner]

I have seen Dolby, and I have had a big play with Barco.

The black levels of Barco are extremely good but yes not totally black like Dolby.
The 300 peak luminance leaves 100 behind. It does look a lot better.
For example, I did a presentation of colour graders in my city and they were all amazed.
I also hear, it was demoed to a major post house in NZ to hundreds of its staff and got a standing ovation. (And they have a Dolby projector on site and would know.)

Having 100 nits full screen is not useful, it would overwhelm viewers anyway. You are never going to project such an image.
Specular highlights are typically less than 2% of the pixels.

Barco, is using less light/power to produce a better picture. It is an amazing achievement in engineering. But so was the Dolby projector but in a different way.

Considering most cinemas are not build like black holes, as in a Dolby cinemas, so viewers can actually see the blacks going that low. Its not just the projector that has to be build to show it. Its how you build and what material you use in the actual room.
The exceptional blacks of the Barco are likely more than adequate, but at the same time can do 300 not specular highlights.

Based on the reaction of the industry people I have seen react to seeing it, it will likely become very successful for premium screen in the next few years.

It will be interesting how movie goers react to it over time. Which format they gravitate to more. I'm a 300nit man myself. I think it makes a more appreciable difference over super black levels. Barco is still a significantly blacker than DCI-SDR. Plus have a much higher peak. Over all its colour volume is bigger than Dolby.

I expect both will have a decent market share.
Though, we are still yet to see a "domestic" version of a Dolby Projector. From my understanding, as it is producing so much more light as it has to, to fill the full screen at 100nit, its burns through consumables at quite a high rate and needs regular maintenance, (But then again, so does a IMAX film/digital projectors.) I am questioning its TCO based on this. The Barco is based on current Barco projectors with a LS module to kick it up to HDR, only 20% more power. Its not going to be burning a hole in the side of the projector. And power consumption is far better.

There is also: DCI chose 300nit over 100nit for a reason.

It will be an interesting year or two, as these new technologies develop.

[Jonathan Smiles]

Is the Barco HDR projection using a white 0 gain screen?

[Steve Guttag]

White is a "1.0" gain screen. 0 would be a black screen that reflects no light.

[Jonathan Smiles]

White is a "1.0" gain screen. 0 would be a black screen that reflects no light.

Oops, multasking.

To rephrase is Barco HDR projection using white or silver screens?

.

[James Gardiner]

Oops, multasking.

To rephrase is Barco HDR projection using white or silver screens?

.

Its just a projector. You use a white or silver screen base on the desired results. Exactly the same for a DCI-SDR projector. But in general, the base projector needed is over powered for the screen if only doing SDR. But not by much. (From memory). Best to have a Barco person chime in here. I vaguely remember the projector is a base for a 20m screen but to do HDR with same projector you're limited to 16m screen. But don;t quote me on this. But makes sense. You would expect this due to the physics of the situation.

[Marco Giustini]

To rephrase is Barco HDR projection using white or silver screens?

Silver is needed for polarised 3D.

Nothing else "needs" a silver screen.

HDR might "need" high gain screens but I don't consider acceptable anything over 1.4 gain. There is no magic behind high gain screens, it's not that the screen suddenly can reflect more light: they just reflect more light at a narrower angle - which means you have a hotspot somewhere. Up to 1.4 it can be acceptable (if everything is properly built), more than that and you just get a brighter hotspot.