4K stuff at NAB

[Jeff Bernstein]

I think everyone has to keep everything in perspective. Disney’s current standard for digital projection is 1920×1080 HD. I don’t recall anyone complaining about the last Pixar release because it was too soft or they could see the pixels in the movie theater. Heck, look at the last 3 Stars Wars. Again, all 1920×1080 HD.

The fact is that 1920×1080 is damn good, especially when you compare it to a typical print that gets to the movie theater. I think someone determined the equivilant print after all the noise, dust, and other stuff gets about 700 lines of resolution.

If you look at 2K, well, I think it is a total waste of time and money. It is a 4:3 format that matches the true aperture of 35mm film. Once you crop it to a wide aspect ratio, you are usually at less than 1920×1080. Thus, one of the few benefits of using 2K would be using a log color space, which you can do with HDCAM SR.

Personally, I think “2K” is a term people latch on to and think “Wow. That must be better than HD”

Am I missing something?

4K is a different story, however. There are technical advantages in its quality. As others have mentioned, there are big technical hurdles in storage and display. For the record, you would want the Sony 4K SXRD projector. It is killer.

Jeff Bernstein

Digital Desktop Consulting
Apple Pro Video VAR
XSAN Certified

323-653-7611

[Aaron Neitz]

Point in case: we just did a 35mm filmout from 1080. They ran a proofing copy of the print side-by-side with our HD master projected on a Barco 2K DLP.

The DLP put the smackdown on the print. With all the noise from IP printing, gate chatter, film weave, and added grain…. just looked kinda, well, sloppy. The great advantage of digital projection is that ever single pixel lands exactly where it should – thus increasing the temporal resolution by a massive factor. I remember seeing much more detais in Star Wars Ep. X in DLP vs. 35.

But typically 2K won’t be cropped – it’ll be some form of anamorphic. So you’ll get those 2000 lines of horizontals resolution. So I still says it’s a great standard.

[Walter Biscardi]

[CharlieX] “I remember seeing much more detais in Star Wars Ep. X in DLP vs. 35.”

We saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 via DLP projection and have to say we were disappointed. It was way too grainy as I’m pretty sure that movie originated on film. The DLP projection was so clean and crisp, it made all the grain in the film much more noticeable.

Now for digital original material, DLP rules. We showed our short film, shot on the Varicam, via Panasonic DLP project straight off our old 1200A and it was flat out amazing.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Ramona Howard]

Charlie,

We just supplied a RaveHD unit to Barco for their yearly customer event. The 1080 looked amazing on several of the Barco DLPs. The footage was uncompressed frames from VFX studio X, several projects.

Trying to figure out how I can get one of these in my home theater 🙂

Cheers,
Ramona

Ramona Howard
SpectSoft, LLC
593 Hi-Tech Parkway Suite B
Oakdale, CA 95361
Phone: 209.847.7812 extension 104
Fax: 209.847.7859
https://www.spectsoft.com

RaveHD – Changing the way you think about HD