SEMINAR ON

DIGITAL CINEMA
By: Mahaveer.j.Aski 4SN06EC022 E&C Dept,SIT

OVERVIEW:
What is digital cinema? DLP Cinema technology Standards development Claims to significant events Why digital cinema? Economics Problems facing by D-cinema Conclusion References

What is Digital Cinema?

Digital Cinema is a complete system to deliver
cinema-quality programs to theaters (including consumer homes) throughout the world using digital technology.
Digital cinema covers every aspect of the movie making process, from production and post-production to distribution and projection.

 A digitally produced or digitally converted movie can

be distributed to theaters via satellite, physical media, or fiber optic networks. The digitized movie is stored by a computer/server which "serves" it to a digital projector for each screening of the movie.
Projectors based on DLP Cinema technology are currently installed in over 1,195 theaters in 30 countries worldwide - and remain the first and only commercially available digital cinema projectors.
DLP technology was invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments in 1987

DLP Cinema technology

Many Data projectors and HDTVS using DLP technology rely on a single chip configuration like the one described below

 White light passes through a color filter, causing red, green, blue and even additional primary colors such as yellow cyan, magenta and more to be shone in sequence on the surface of the DLP chip. The switching of the mirrors, and the proportion of time they are 'on' or 'off' is coordinated according to the color shining on them. Then the sequential colors blend to create a full-color image you see on the screen. These mirrors are literally capable of switching on and off thousands of times per second and are used to direct light towards, and away from, a dedicated pixel space. The duration of the on/off timing determines the level of gray seen in the pixel. Current DMD chips can produce up to 1024 shades of gray.

DLP technology enabled projectors for very high brightness applications such as cinema and large venue displays rely on a 3 chip configuration to produce stunning images, whether moving or still.

 In a 3 chip system, the white light generated by the

lamp passes through a prism that divides it into red, green and blue. Each DLP chip is identified for each of these three colors; the colored light that the micromirrors reflect is then combined and passed through the projection lens to form an image.

Standards development
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers began work on standards for digital cinema in 2001. It was clear by that point in time that HDTV did not provide a sufficient technological basis for the foundation of digital cinema playback. Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) was formed in March 2002 as a joint project of many motion picture studios (Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios) to develop a system specification for digital cinema. The primary purpose of DCI is to establish and document specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality. By establishing a common set of content requirements, distributors, studios, exhibitors, d-cinema manufacturers and vendors can be assured of interoperability and compatibility.

 In cooperation with the American Society of Cinematographers, DCI created standard evaluation material and developed tests of 2K and 4K playback and compression technologies. DCI published their specification in 2005.

Claims to significant events

The first secure encrypted digital cinema feature was Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in 1999 by Cinecomm Digital Cinema (then led by Russell J. Wintner).This first digital delivery and exhibition of a full-length feature film to paying audiences is widely considered to be the defining moment for digital cinema's commercial viability. The film was transmitted and then shown digitally in theatres both in Paramus, New Jersey and Los Angeles, California. The system functioned well but was eventually replaced because of the need to create a standard data package for D-cinema distribution.

 In August 2006, the Malayalam digital

movie Moonnamathoral, produced by Mrs. Benzy Martin, was distributed via satellite to cinemas, thus becoming the first Indian digital cinema. This was done by Emil and Eric Digital Films, a company based at Thrissur using the end-to-end digital cinema system developed by Singapore-based DG2L Technologies.

WHY DIGITAL CINEMA?

When you see a movie digitally, you see that movie the way its creators intended you to see it: with incredible clarity and detail. In a range of up to 35 trillion colors. And whether you're catching that movie on opening night or months after, it will always look its best, because digital movies are immune to the scratches, fading, pops and jitter that film is prone to with repeated screenings. Main advantage of digital movies are that, expensive film rolls and postprocessing expenses could be done away. Movie would be transmitted to computers in movie theatres, hence the movie could be released in a larger number of theatres.

 Directors -The directors vision can now actually be seen by audiences -Post-production can all be done digitally (no film transfers) Distributors -Duplication costs removed -Better piracy prevention -Larger numbers of theatres can now view simultaneously -Transportation costs can be replaced by much lower transmission costs Exhibitors -More flexible scheduling (e.g. more simultaneous screenings) Audiences -Higher quality entertainment (better picture and sound) -Easier access to screenings (more simultaneous showings)

Economics
Impact on distribution Digital distribution of movies has the potential to save money for film distributors. To print an 80-minute feature film can cost US$1,500 to $2,500, so making thousands of prints for a wide-release movie can cost millions of dollars. In contrast, at the maximum 250 megabit-per-second data rate (as defined by DCI for digital cinema), a feature-length movie can be stored on a off the shelf 300 GB hard drive for a minuscule fraction of the cost. In addition hard drives can be returned to distributors for reuse. With several hundred movies distributed every year, the industry could save billions of dollars.

 Costs On the downside, the initial costs for converting theaters to digital are high: up to $150,000 per screen or more. Theaters have been reluctant to switch without a cost-sharing arrangement with film disributors. While a theater can purchase a film projector for US$50,000 and expect an average life of 3040 years, a digital cinema playback system including server/media block/and projector can cost 34 times as much, and is at higher risk for component failures and technological obsolescence.

Problems Facing D-Cinema:

Different experience from theatre to theatre (or home to home) Not enough standardization -SMPTE DC28 trying to solve this but currently no OEM products really support DC28 for real-time applications -Interoperability between display types (e.g. DLP and ILA) still to be addressed. Huge storage and bandwidth requirements Up to 200 terabytes per film during post production stage

CONCLUSION
Digital cinema is future of cinema industry. Gradually cinema industry is moving from conventional projection to digital cinema.
Overall digital cinema has better image and sound quality than the conventional projection. Digital distribution of movies has the potential to save money for film distributors.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_projector http://www.wepapers.com/Papers/80029/Dig ital_Cinema http://www.dlp.com/cinema/dlp-cinema/ Digital cinema By Brian McKernan

THANK YOU