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MillimeterPretty Pictures
Nov 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
Normally, I don't get to see enough resolution and color — my home theater is the old Trinitron in our living room/playroom. We do have three gorgeous Tannoy speakers hooked up to it and a good sub — a strange case of over-engineering that foreshadows the projector to come (once we get the conduit run finished).
So it was a treat when the whole family headed to the Burbank AMC for the official debut of Sony's SXRD 4K projector as a shipping product. The starting point for any digital projection demonstration is always a beautiful picture — 2K images look great, especially with a 25000-lumen lamp behind them. But the debate remains open over what will become mainstream digital cinema — what theater owners will actually buy with real money and amortize in real business plans. As a consumer, I'm just in a hurry to watch digital pictures, even at 2K. But as someone who has observed technology (and technology marketing) for many years, I know that the long process of digital cinema development is both unavoidable and necessary — competition is ultimately good, although it inevitably delays or prevents consensus.
The SRX-R110 picture was certainly beautiful — a rough side-by-side with a 2K image demonstrated some fine points of image quality distinction. When put through the DCI paces, it appeared to perform to standard (though I am no Golden Eye), and, when given its head to show filmed and digital footage, it reminded me of what I love about digital projection. A 4K projector is a worthy bar, especially now that 4K production seems an attainable goal, at least for some. And technology does move quickly — so quickly, in fact, that Sony expects to ship a 4K projector with a 16K to 20K lamp in about a year, potentially doubling the lumens of the projector we saw at the demo — plus 12-bit processing.
Sony confirmed that the SRX-R110 meets the DCI spec on a 40ft. screen — it's a limitation of the light, not the resolution. So if you are a theater owner with a 40ft. or smaller screen, you now have a choice between a high-resolution 4K projector and a brighter 2K projector. That leaves room for buyer preference.
This 4K debut demonstrates that the evolution of digital cinema projectors is ongoing, that the bar can be higher — and that is a significant reminder. It also emphasized that, in competing against the average home theater (better than mine), the cineplex image must be powerful in order to captivate audiences and restore the dignity and leadership of the public cinema.
On that note, as I watched the SXRD translate voluptuous Imax images from Keith Melton's Mystic India and a luminous Sound of Music clip (color by FotoKem), I did come to one inescapable conclusion: If you want pretty pictures, shoot 65mm.
In other news, we were pleased to see Millimeter honored with a second consecutive Folio Eddie Award, winning the 2005 gold medal in the Entertainment business-to-business category.
