AMC Tysons Corner 16
7850 Tysons Corner Center,
McLean,
VA
22102
7850 Tysons Corner Center,
McLean,
VA
22102
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 160 comments
that’s too bad about your experience and it seems to be very prevailent problem – the dual projector and the projectionist(s) don’t know how to calibrate it right when they keep switching from 2D to 3D features. The Barco (single projector) systems over at the Egyptian ‘XD’ and ‘Xtreme’ screens (at Rave Fairfax) are top notch and consistently display flawless digital projection (dark inky blacks notably). AMC should have gone with the Christie Solaria systems that are single projectors – the dual systems have nothing been a problem here on the ETX screen from day one. Proper masking?? you’re never going to get that on any of the speciality large screens – even in IMAX (15/70 and digital) any and all scope films will have black borders above and below the image.
I finally had a chance to check out the ETX screen this weekend with The Hunger Games. Based on this experience, I will not return (I wouldn’t go back even if this was a normal price auditorium). The picture quality at this showing was awful; before the show the projectionist spent 5 min or so with a test pattern aligning the two projectors. When the trailers finally started, the images were very far out of alignment and incredibly blurry. I complained to management, and just as I walked back into the auditorium the trailer paused and the test pattern came back up. A few minutes later and the trailers resumed, the image was much better than earlier but still wasn’t very sharp. The movie was in scope, and sure enough they no longer have masking in this room. This is a deal breaker, I absolutely refuse to go to an auditorium that doesn’t have proper masking; I still can’t believe they charge extra for this. The image quality during the movie was pretty bad, really poor blacks and very washed out looking; I’m not sure whether I should blame the theater or the movie though, based on the trailers I’m guessing a little of both. Sound was decent; I like the 7.1 availability, but overall not much improvement on what was there previously. I still like the sound better at some other theaters I’ve been to.
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’
Face it Giles, everywhere you go there seems to be some problem with sound and or picture. Hehehe. I’m kidding. :)
I’ve pretty much enjoyed the ETX shows but I only go for those bigger movies. Other than that, its not worth the price as its about the same as the IMAX-lite movies. I saw Immortals in 3D on a smallish screen @ Annapolis Harbour in Digital 3D. There were great surrounds and the experience was immersive. The FX reminded me a lot of the Matrix though. Henry Cavill, or whatever his name is, will make a great Superman. I’m looking forward to that movie but maybe I’m expecting too much of Chris Reeve’s humanism in the character now since its been imbedded in my mind for the the last 33 years or so.
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.
My friend and I saw ‘Puss N Boots’ in IMAX-lite 3D.. Very enjoyable movie worth a repeat viewing..maybe not at the IMAX-lite price, unless someone else is paying. Film had decent 3D wow effects such as the usual first person chase scenes. Sound was very good, too. What was really cool was the camera planing at ground level in the beginning. It made you feel you were really traveling. Nice.
After 3 showings, we’ve passed the $100 mark and am getting $10 back with the AMC Stubbs program. Is it worth it? I suppose so, if you share expenses with a friend.
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.
If I’m not mistaken, the ETX screen has Dolby Surround 7.1 installed. Although Dolby doesn’t say so in their website, I could have sworn I’ve heard sounds coming in four different directions behind me when I saw Transformers 3 there.
My friend and I saw the final Harry Potter in the ETX theater. The previews and preshow videos were awfully dark and the volume awfully low. The theater didn’t really come to life until midway through the AMC trailer. Had this not happened, I was going to get up and complain. Overall, the movie’s louder sound system made the movie quite enjoyable. Its still more palatable to see movies with the ETX surcharge then the IMAX-lite auditoriums given that the screen sizes are almost the same.
Not being into the Harry Potter phenom, or the movies until the previous two films, I can’t say there was any emotional resonance given everything that happens up to the end. I think the ending, to me, reminded me too much of the Star Wars ‘Sith’ and Star Trek First Contact scenes; with the dueling Potter and Voldemort (like Yoda and Sidious) and Voldemort’s demise looking almost exactly the same as the Borg Queen’s.
I wanted to see the movie at BowTie’s Annapolis #1 but the person who answered the phone couldn’t tell me if its in 3D Digital or not. The two Annapolis venues are all digital now.
With three paired tix purchases between the IMAX-lite and ETX shows, I’m close to the $100 mark with their AMC Stubs program to get $10 back. It helps to share expenses like this with a friend. :)
I finally got the opportunity to sample ETX seeing Green Lantern, in 3D, this past weekend. Fortunately, it was my friend’s turn to pay but I used my AMC Stubs rewards card to help with points. $16.50 is quite steep to pay including 3D…almost as much as IMAX-lite. The theater doesn’t but should have a special ETX trailer to denote the difference as well as the DP format. All that was shown was the Real D trailer and the familiar AMC plant growth trailer. Terrific directional sound booms accompanied the sound track add to the immersion aspect of the experience. I enjoyed the experience and the movie, but less so, overall, then Thor. Technically, everything was very good.
The people at the Customer Service counter were EXCEPTIONAL. I was over speeding driving across WWBridge to make it to the 8pm show and had less than 5 mins to spare. Parking was crowded. I left my cell phone in the car to charge and my friend, who bought the tix was no where to be found. He had mumbled something about leaving one for will call. CS said there was none but OFFERED me the use of their phone. How is that for customer service? I didn’t even ask.
Unfortunately, the ticket taker, a mop headed teen, did not even say hi or offer us our 3D glasses. I asked him about the glasses, as I’m sure he read the tix, and he seemed to either not hear or ignore me. Fortunately, they were laid out on the table and sealed in plastic, so I just grabbed a pair.
At the end of the movie, the very end..after the credits, this same mop headed teen and his co-workers did ‘thank’ patrons for coming, which was unexpected and a pleasant surprise.
I’m on the fence on returning but we’ll see what future bookings they have here.
in regards to the DC screenings of ‘Tree of Life’ I know that (so far) Bethesda Landmark and the AFI Silver will be playing it. As I understand it there was enough extra footage that Malik shot that it’s being complied and will be released separately as an IMAX feature unto itself.
Giles, you’re a marked man. Everyone is going to know who you are.. ;) I’m kidding..When I used to speak to someone about a projection issue, I’ll usually get someone who just gives lip. I remember going to see Superman Returns in DP @ Annapolis Mall. They showed film and it showed a scratchy print. The excuse I got was that ‘there’s no difference between film and digital projection.’ Uh huh. Yup. Refund, please.
I always thought they had one projectionist that ran the projection via computer in the newer plexes. I hope to experience ETX this weekend or sometime this summer.
There are some exciting releases coming. The one I most want to see is ‘Tree of Life’ which won the Palm D'or at Cannes. Supposedly there are some truly high quality elements in the visual fx as they hired fx vet Doug (2001*Star Trek) Trumbull to do some of them in 65mm. If they release this in IMAX or at least 4K DP, this should be quite an experience as the source master is/should not be a blown up
one.
well I spoke with a senior manager yesterday in regards to the flaws I’ve been noticing on the ETX screen, and he pointed out that the over brightening can and should be solvable – now if only the projectionist can get his/her act together and stop setting the light output to the 3D setting for non-3D features.
sorry I mean’t to state “but it’s the ETX’s ‘sound’ that is a wild trip' not Cinemark’s XD system.
saw ‘Fast Five’ on the ETX screen this morning and again, since a good majority of the film has subtitles, the same problem occurred, white lettering seems a tad soft – as I found out this is a problem inherent to the dual projector system – unlike the Barco system on the ‘XD’ at the Egyptian – switching brightness levels between 3D and non-3D films is not possible. In my opinion the Barco system ‘looks’ the best, but it’s the XD ‘sound’ that is a wild trip – the bass just kicks and the finale chase is just an exhilirating ride both visually and sonically. The prior week’s viewing of ‘Rio’ looked great, more than likely attributed to the fact that the 3D glasses darken and control the brightness level.
Hmm. I wonder how this theater holds up to the better THX-cert houses. I’m thinking Bow Tie Annapolis' #1. Its not DP, but the sound is killer. The $15.50 price is too steep. $10 is ok. For $15.50 they’d better include free drinks or popcorn. But hey, it may be worth checking out ONCE. ;) If only Tysons weren’t such a long drive from MD for me…
oh and the ETX system is comprised of a Christie 4K upgradable DLP projector. Like IMAX-Digital/XD systems the screen is floor to ceiling, wall to wall, a scope (2.35) film will have black borders above and below the image, a 1.85 (flat) film will fill up the entire screen (essentially there is no masking of the screen in any way).
oops, oh well, the price did go up… ten dollars for the pre-noon shows, $15.50 (regular evening pricing). So… I can’t say that ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ is a great movie, but the ETX system is also a mixed bag. Visually the system brightness needs to be tweaked – essentially it’s too bright – the white lettering throughout the movie suffers and makes them fuzzy and out of focus looking; also black levels aren’t deep. Now, aurally the ETX system is a knockout, granted that ‘Battle’ could be best described as ‘Saving Private Ryan vs. the Alien Robots’ the sound is a juggernaut – sure it’s loud, but unlike say last year’s ‘Expendables’ it doesn’t give you a migrane. The various battle guns and airships and ufo’s sounds, and their corresponding explosions vary, it never drowns out the film’s moronic script (i.e, cringe inducing cliched dialogue) the bass is tight and in several key scenes drops several octaves, so much so, the floor literally shakes – I’ve never experienced that before (okay, sans ‘Honey I Shrunk the Audience’ at Disney World). While the film never achieves the beautiful soundmix of say ‘Avatar’ – the front heavy battle scenes and aggressive as sin mix compensate the film’s myriad other flaws.
Giles, Giles, don’t remind AMC to raise their prices, ok? :P If one can get in for ETX for the usual/regular prices all the better. :D
and yes … according to Movietickets.com and AMC’s own website ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ will be on the new ETX screen beginning Friday, however tix price are on the low end, which I assume will be corrected once they note this mistake.
Auditorium 11’s getting the ETX makeover. As to what new movie will make the system’s debut won’t be known until Wednesday, I’m hoping that I’ll be ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ since there is no real big action film opening this coming weekend.
50K watts of audio power? I think that is 10K more then the Senator in Balto. The thing is with all that noise, what kind of insulation is in place so that the adjoining halls do not get two movie soundtracks for the price of one. When you’re a single screener, its no problem. On the other hand, will the movies be played to take advantage of the sound potential consistently? The problem with multiplexes is that lack of consistent audio visual playback whether there is a packed house or patron of one. I’ve noticed that the sound levels generally are higher in a packed house, then an emptier one.
They shouldn’t charge more for such ‘improvements.’ Did they charge more when we got Dolby Digital and DTS? DP? 70mm?
according to AMC’s website, 7 auditoriums have changed over to digital projection.
sorry, I’m on a stream of consciousness – since it appears that AMC now has the money and the actual effort in adding Sony 4K systems in and around it’s theaters in the DC metro area, it would behoeve them to upgrade a couple of other screens here at Tysons, so the films released in harddrive form to the digital projectors and specifically the ETX screen can move inbetween different auditoriums in the complex – it works for the Cinemark Egyptian since all the screens are digital alot of diverse films get the chance to be on the XD screen (examples being ‘The Karate Kid’, ‘Piranha 3D’ ‘Unknown’ etc,)
I’m assuming ETX is like Cinemark’s XD screens where it’s a basic 7.1 set up, but with an 12 speaker configuration (I was off by one) with most of them behind the screen doing alot of matrixing and a couple of bass speakers.
AMC’s explanation of an ETX screen:
“ETX includes a 20-percent larger screen, 3D technology, digital projection and an upgraded sound system. Specifically, the digital projection system produces images comprised of 2 million pixels, which delivers a higher resolution than HD. This eye-popping image is then showcased on a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling screen that immerses guests in the image.
The ETX auditorium also boasts 12 audio channels fueled by 50,000 watts of power, which is a major upgrade and three times the power of typical auditoriums with six audio channels. As a result of this improved sight and sound experience, guests will not simply watch a movie. They will live it in ETX."
I can’t wait to see what film debuts on the ETX screen unfortunatly the date is right inbetween ‘Battle: LA’ and ‘Suckerpunch’