Digital Cinema Projectors Information
While video projectors have existed for many years, cinema-quality digital projectors that rival the quality of traditional film are a relatively new innovation. Today, theaters around the world are upgrading to digital projectors to screen films that were shot or produced digitally and to prepare for the next generation of movies.
Digital Cinema
Today, nearly every feature film passes through a stage of digital filmmaking. Although film is still used to photograph the primary footage in the majority of films, that film is often scanned and turned into what is known as a digital intermediary: a digital version of the film that can be easily manipulated with any number of computer programs. Traditionally, this digital intermediary was enhanced, edited and then re-printed to film so that it could be projected. With the rising popularity of digital cinema projection, some films are now distributed as digital video files that are projected with a digital cinema projector.
In other cases, entire films are made without any film at all. This occurs when filmmakers shoot directly on high-definition digital video, then edit digitally and produce a digital final product. In 2002 "Star Wars: Episode II" was one of the first commercial films to be produced entirely digitally, although film prints were made of the film to be screened at the many theaters, which had yet to add digital cinema projectors to their existing line of film projectors.
Digital Projectors
Early digital cinema projectors relied on DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. The DLP system was developed by Texas Instruments in the 1980s. DLP projectors use a series of microscopic mirrors attached directly to a semiconductor computer chip. Each mirror corresponds to a single pixel of the digital image that is projected. Because of its reliance on physical mirrors, DLP projection has a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, which is below today's high-definition standard.
The next generation of digital cinema projectors were based on the Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) system developed by Sony. SXRD projectors have been manufactured since 2004. They use a silicone chip and liquid crystals (similar to those used in an LCD screen) to produce a vibrant image that can be displayed at a much higher resolution than DLP projectors are capable of.
Digital Versus Film
There are benefits to both traditional film-based and new digital methods of film production and projection. One of the more significant advantages of digital cinema is its low cost. Filmmakers with access to digital cameras are able to shoot far more footage at less expense, and there are no processing costs as there are with film.
Likewise, when a film is finished and ready to be exhibited, the cost of printing physical film reels and shipping them to theaters is enormous. Producing digital copies and distributing them either on tangible media (hard drives, discs, or memory cards) or, in some cases, through secure Internet connections, saves distributors and exhibitors many thousands of dollars. While some audience members have complained about the quality of digital cinema compared with film, the most current equipment is able to produce and project an image that is nearly indistinguishable.
Digital Cinema Initiatives
For ensuring the quality of digital cinema, six major Hollywood studios formed Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) in 2002. DCI has published its specifications for the quality of digital cinema, which are voluntarily followed by its member studios. These specifications are also used as a guide by the designers and manufacturers of digital cinema cameras and projectors.
The specifications released by DCI are continuously updated to reflect the possibilities offered by new technology. They feature minimum standards for picture quality, audio quality and file compression. DCI also suggests different standards that projectors should support so that they will be capable of playing all digital movies that follow DCI standards.
Security
Besides its technical requirements, DCI also sets standards for security so that digital cinema can be encrypted safely and then read and displayed properly when it is screened. Measures intended to keep digital movies safe from tampering or unwanted copying are among DCI's primary motives. DCI sets procedures both for the encryption of a video file as well as the corresponding process through which it is decoded by the digital cinema projector.
Despite the ease with which most digital files can be copied, digital movies following DCI's encryption standards are seen as more secure than films released on traditional prints. This is partly because the low cost of producing additional copies of a new film allows studios to perform a worldwide release. Moving a film from city to city or to new countries over time allows the movie to be pirated and sold in an unauthorized version before it is available in theaters in certain markets. Worldwide releases are seen as a key way of discouraging piracy by making the film available to all audiences at the same time.
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