as I recall I think the Swedish version only played at E Street, I could be wrong though. Fincher’s version though really has a great 5.1 soundmix and the 5K photography transferred to 35mm looked equally impressive. Interesting to note that the presentation of Aki Kaurismaki’s ‘Le Havre’ (one of favorite films of this year) is digital – which is odd since E Street’s projected 35mm, I’d be very curious to compare the two since the film in ‘film form’ has striking bold ‘technicolor’ look to it.
from what I understand the projection flaw you noted Howard is that digital projection systems (on the whole) have not worked out the kinks of being projected onto a curved screen, the imperfection is also noted at the Arclight Dome in LA – so until someone at DCI (Digital Cinema Inititive) can figure on how to digitally manipulate the image from the projector to the screen and now bow at the corners on large curved screens, the problem isn’t going to go away immediately.
Landmark Theater is renting out the theater and bringing back movies to the Lincoln with ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ starting Wednesday (Dec. 21)
Auditorium 6 got the conversion to feature RaveXtreme with today’s release of ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’
“Rave Cinemas is introducing a new concept in large screen entertainment, raveXtreme. This special BIG SCREEN EXPERIENCE features an enormous wall to wall and floor to ceiling curved silver screen and enhanced digital projection in both 2D and when available, 3D features. Plush seats await you as you also enjoy the enhanced digital sound system with calibrated dynamic range and surround.
Presentation and comfort are hallmarks of the Rave movie going experience, and raveXtreme is the next step.”
the surround system is able to decode/present films that are mixed in 7.1
personally I’m a bit annoyed that since ‘Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol’ is being presented on nearly every specialty large screen in and around Washington, AMC feels so compelled to book it here, when really Spielberg’s ‘Adventures of TinTin’ deserves to be experienced on the largest screen possible.
the train wreck scene in ‘Super 8’ sounded amazing on the Avalon’s soundsystem – now if that had been 7.1 lossless digital sound it would have torn a hole in the walls
speaking of ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ Landmark’s website is advertising for it’s DC theaters that the film will be opening down at the Lincoln Theater (!?!) next Wednesday: “whAAAAt?!”
the only ‘War Horse’ DC engagement I see so far is over at Landmark Bethesda. I already saw ‘Hugo’ (in 3D and in 7.1 surround sound) anyway, so it’s a moot point for me. The Avalon doesn’t need 3D conversion but it’d be nice if they get a 4K DLP / 7.1 system to really push it toward’s state of the art status.
interesting to see the theatre desperately advertising ‘Hugo’ on it’s webpage as “Projected in glorious 35mm 2D” – obviously since Scorsese shot it in 3D. 35mm 2D might seem as a letdown. Shame that the Avalon was supposed to get both ‘The Descendants’ and ‘War Horse’ but didn’t – at least they successfully booked ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’
they are also weighing in the cost/budget for the eventual digital conversion of both screens – sad but true, 35mm is on it’s last legs – and for one studio 2012 is the last year they will strike movies in film (35mm) print form
yet I’ve never had any (… any) problems with Cinemark’s Egyptian XD screen – every film I’ve seen there has been great – no issues with dodgy projection and the sound is top notch – if it just wasn’t so far away I’d frequent it a lot more. As for Henry Cavill, I think he’ll make a great Superman – can’t wait for that version of ‘Superman’
I might be a broken record on this subject but the ETX screen always seems to be problematic in one way or the other. The screening of ‘Immortals’ was downright embarrassing – for the first screening of the day on opening day, the projectionist was calibrating/ repositioning the dual projector system literally right in front of us the audience for a good fifteen minutes. For the first ten to fifteen minutes of the movie the projected image was doubling, then it was fixed by dimming the light output – eeesh, not good. The 7.1 sound flawless. Both ‘Immortals’ and ‘Hugo’ took fantastic advantage of the fact that the aspect ratio of both were 1.85 meaning that the image took up all the screen – floor to ceiling, wall to wall – one word: “wow!”. Now for ‘Hugo’ for the most part the image okay, bright, colorful, yet the bottom projector didn’t seem focused – which resulted in the image to look slightly fuzzy and less detailed – this was very evident in long distance shots. The film’s 7.1 soundmix on the other hand, again flawless – I hope the mix gets an Oscar nomination, it’s that good.
8K is closest to 70mm. 35mm is around 3.5K Personally I don’t see how 8K works on 2K systems since there are more pixels on the former than the 2K can actually produce, but that’s how it’s being shown at Seattle’s Cinerama. 4K can and does work for 70mm features, but really 6K, at the least, is adaquate to retain the resolution and clarity of 65mm photography.
@ GregF: The Cinerama’s facebook page denotes the projection at 2K. Why though Warner’s did not create a 4K DCP of ‘Ben Hur’ to take advantage of the film’s original 70mm photography is bewildering.
the only person that’s been commenting on the Uptown has been little ol' me :) Would it kill AMC to book and show the DCP of ‘Ben Hur’(recent 8K restoration) that was shown at the NYFF and Seattle Cinerama.
I assumed they were referring to the 8K restoration of the film, current digital projector are not able to output at 8K, the highest (at the moment) is 4K. Given that the Cinerama has installed a Christie Solaria (4K) projector this should look amazing.
‘Brothers Grimm’ I know was shown on MGM-HD – I didn’t see it, but I assume a film to hidef transfer been done. ZiegfeldMan: was ‘Ben Hur’ at Alice Tully Hall, DLP or actual 35mm?
that’s too bad about the audio – the only thing I noticed about the AFI Silver presentation was the dialogue in one scene veered off of the center channel – which is wasn’t supposed to do
I really really do not understand why AMC can’t book the alternate programming that other theaters seem to get – the biggest head scratcher is that the rerelease digital presentation of ‘Ghostbusters’ should be on the huge Uptown screen, since well, it’s initial DC engagement was here … and in 70mm no less.
it’s 7.1 but not Dolby. Cinemark’s XD screen is also 7.1 but also not Dolby installed/certified. I saw ‘Lion King’ (3D) on the ETX screen – and wow, what a disappointment – the 3D was mediocre, but the audio, notably the bass was practically non-existent. The presentation of ‘The Phantom of the Opera Live from Royal Albert Hall’ was another instance where the audio was terrible – not AMC’s fault – but nearly all the sound came from the left speaker – the surrounds were only used for the audience clapping and one instance where the Phantom’s voice comes from the rear.
anyone see the article in last Sunday’s Washington Post the grand reopening is set for this upcoming April
question are any of the auditoriums able to playback movies in discrete 7.1 surround sound?
as I recall I think the Swedish version only played at E Street, I could be wrong though. Fincher’s version though really has a great 5.1 soundmix and the 5K photography transferred to 35mm looked equally impressive. Interesting to note that the presentation of Aki Kaurismaki’s ‘Le Havre’ (one of favorite films of this year) is digital – which is odd since E Street’s projected 35mm, I’d be very curious to compare the two since the film in ‘film form’ has striking bold ‘technicolor’ look to it.
from what I understand the projection flaw you noted Howard is that digital projection systems (on the whole) have not worked out the kinks of being projected onto a curved screen, the imperfection is also noted at the Arclight Dome in LA – so until someone at DCI (Digital Cinema Inititive) can figure on how to digitally manipulate the image from the projector to the screen and now bow at the corners on large curved screens, the problem isn’t going to go away immediately.
Landmark Theater is renting out the theater and bringing back movies to the Lincoln with ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ starting Wednesday (Dec. 21)
Auditorium 6 got the conversion to feature RaveXtreme with today’s release of ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’
“Rave Cinemas is introducing a new concept in large screen entertainment, raveXtreme. This special BIG SCREEN EXPERIENCE features an enormous wall to wall and floor to ceiling curved silver screen and enhanced digital projection in both 2D and when available, 3D features. Plush seats await you as you also enjoy the enhanced digital sound system with calibrated dynamic range and surround. Presentation and comfort are hallmarks of the Rave movie going experience, and raveXtreme is the next step.”
the surround system is able to decode/present films that are mixed in 7.1
personally I’m a bit annoyed that since ‘Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol’ is being presented on nearly every specialty large screen in and around Washington, AMC feels so compelled to book it here, when really Spielberg’s ‘Adventures of TinTin’ deserves to be experienced on the largest screen possible.
the train wreck scene in ‘Super 8’ sounded amazing on the Avalon’s soundsystem – now if that had been 7.1 lossless digital sound it would have torn a hole in the walls
speaking of ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ Landmark’s website is advertising for it’s DC theaters that the film will be opening down at the Lincoln Theater (!?!) next Wednesday: “whAAAAt?!”
the only ‘War Horse’ DC engagement I see so far is over at Landmark Bethesda. I already saw ‘Hugo’ (in 3D and in 7.1 surround sound) anyway, so it’s a moot point for me. The Avalon doesn’t need 3D conversion but it’d be nice if they get a 4K DLP / 7.1 system to really push it toward’s state of the art status.
interesting to see the theatre desperately advertising ‘Hugo’ on it’s webpage as “Projected in glorious 35mm 2D” – obviously since Scorsese shot it in 3D. 35mm 2D might seem as a letdown. Shame that the Avalon was supposed to get both ‘The Descendants’ and ‘War Horse’ but didn’t – at least they successfully booked ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’
they are also weighing in the cost/budget for the eventual digital conversion of both screens – sad but true, 35mm is on it’s last legs – and for one studio 2012 is the last year they will strike movies in film (35mm) print form
yet I’ve never had any (… any) problems with Cinemark’s Egyptian XD screen – every film I’ve seen there has been great – no issues with dodgy projection and the sound is top notch – if it just wasn’t so far away I’d frequent it a lot more. As for Henry Cavill, I think he’ll make a great Superman – can’t wait for that version of ‘Superman’
I might be a broken record on this subject but the ETX screen always seems to be problematic in one way or the other. The screening of ‘Immortals’ was downright embarrassing – for the first screening of the day on opening day, the projectionist was calibrating/ repositioning the dual projector system literally right in front of us the audience for a good fifteen minutes. For the first ten to fifteen minutes of the movie the projected image was doubling, then it was fixed by dimming the light output – eeesh, not good. The 7.1 sound flawless. Both ‘Immortals’ and ‘Hugo’ took fantastic advantage of the fact that the aspect ratio of both were 1.85 meaning that the image took up all the screen – floor to ceiling, wall to wall – one word: “wow!”. Now for ‘Hugo’ for the most part the image okay, bright, colorful, yet the bottom projector didn’t seem focused – which resulted in the image to look slightly fuzzy and less detailed – this was very evident in long distance shots. The film’s 7.1 soundmix on the other hand, again flawless – I hope the mix gets an Oscar nomination, it’s that good.
8K is closest to 70mm. 35mm is around 3.5K Personally I don’t see how 8K works on 2K systems since there are more pixels on the former than the 2K can actually produce, but that’s how it’s being shown at Seattle’s Cinerama. 4K can and does work for 70mm features, but really 6K, at the least, is adaquate to retain the resolution and clarity of 65mm photography.
I actually liked these theaters. Too bad, Landmark didn’t convert it to play the foreign, independent films that AMC doesn’t book at the Mall.
@ GregF: The Cinerama’s facebook page denotes the projection at 2K. Why though Warner’s did not create a 4K DCP of ‘Ben Hur’ to take advantage of the film’s original 70mm photography is bewildering.
the only person that’s been commenting on the Uptown has been little ol' me :) Would it kill AMC to book and show the DCP of ‘Ben Hur’(recent 8K restoration) that was shown at the NYFF and Seattle Cinerama.
I assumed they were referring to the 8K restoration of the film, current digital projector are not able to output at 8K, the highest (at the moment) is 4K. Given that the Cinerama has installed a Christie Solaria (4K) projector this should look amazing.
‘Brothers Grimm’ I know was shown on MGM-HD – I didn’t see it, but I assume a film to hidef transfer been done. ZiegfeldMan: was ‘Ben Hur’ at Alice Tully Hall, DLP or actual 35mm?
wasn’t the New York City Film Festival screening of ‘Ben Hur’ a 4K DLP digital presentation? or was it 35mm – I assumed it was the former.
a Fanthom event ?? oh those screenings looks like crap. This event should be a full blown 4K presentation like the recent ‘Taxi Driver’s’ screenings
that’s too bad about the audio – the only thing I noticed about the AFI Silver presentation was the dialogue in one scene veered off of the center channel – which is wasn’t supposed to do
I really really do not understand why AMC can’t book the alternate programming that other theaters seem to get – the biggest head scratcher is that the rerelease digital presentation of ‘Ghostbusters’ should be on the huge Uptown screen, since well, it’s initial DC engagement was here … and in 70mm no less.
it’s 7.1 but not Dolby. Cinemark’s XD screen is also 7.1 but also not Dolby installed/certified. I saw ‘Lion King’ (3D) on the ETX screen – and wow, what a disappointment – the 3D was mediocre, but the audio, notably the bass was practically non-existent. The presentation of ‘The Phantom of the Opera Live from Royal Albert Hall’ was another instance where the audio was terrible – not AMC’s fault – but nearly all the sound came from the left speaker – the surrounds were only used for the audience clapping and one instance where the Phantom’s voice comes from the rear.