digital cinema

digital cinema

(1) Refers to any aspect of movie making in the digital domain, including capture, editing, distribution and projection.

(2) The projection of movies in digital formats using digital projectors such as the DLP units from TI. Movie distribution is migrating to digital in order to eliminate the cost of making film copies. Satellite distribution of the video to theaters is increasing; however, most data transfer is done by shipping reusable, external hard drives via mail, UPS or FedEx that plug into the eSATA, USB or FireWire ports of the digital cinema servers in each projection room.

The low-cost transfer of digital movies enables distribution to small theaters that cannot justify the expense of a film copy. Digital cinema also expands a theater's offerings, allowing it to show content, such as concerts, operas and sporting events, in addition to regular movies.

Still Shot on 35mm Film
Although a low-resolution digital video image is captured simultaneously for review, as of 2008, approximately 75% of all major movies are still shot on 35mm film. Many directors have decades of experience shooting film and understand the nuances of the art. For digital cinema, the 35mm film is scanned, typically at a resolution of 6,000 pixels, and converted to a digital format. See digital intermediate.

D-Cinema
"Digital cinema" refers to digital formats in general such as MPEG, JPEG 2000 and Windows Media. For example, MPEG-2 is widely used for pre-show videos and advertising. However, "d-cinema" refers to the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) specification. DCI uses JPEG 2000 compression and the MXF packaging format. It also includes content protection and timing data. For more information about the DCI format, visit www.dcimovies.com.

The following Web sites cover the nuts and bolts of digital cinema hardware and software as well as the overall industry. See JPEG 2000, DLP, electronic cinema and 4K resolution.

 Focus               Industry Portal

 Theater Projection  www.dcinematoday.com
 Camcorders          www.digitalcinemasociety.com
 Post Production     www.digitalcinemareport.com