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It seems that in the not to distant future you may be receiving your movies through a digital network. Titan A.E. was recentley sent from Hollywood, California to Atlanta, Georgia. It took a total of 2 hours to get there and wast shown without a flaw. Could this mean the end of the reel,VHS,and even DVD? What will they think of next?

Digital Networking would take a ton of bandwidth, which is presently very expensive. Very strong encryption technology, and a bunch of cash for hardware, cash being something the industry is short of right now.

Also note that Titan A.E. was computer generated making it much easier to compress and transmit, it would be much harder to compress a standard film, and it would require a lot more time to transmit.

"Just one mans opinion, I could be wrong"

Greg Borr
Ready Theatre Systems

AFAIK, the Titan A.E. Digital Cinema demo at SuperComm in Atlanta was done on a dedicated fiber optic link provided by QWest Communications using state-of-the-art Cisco routers and other equipment. In effect, the data rate likely exceeded a 45 Megabits per second T-3 line, which leases for about $30,000 per month. Bandwidth is EXPENSIVE! Today, very few theatres are likely near a T-3 fiber trunk line, and many may not even be in a "backbone" city served by T-3 providers.

For comparison, a BRAND NEW 35mm print costs about $1500 to make and ship, depending upon its length. If it is shown 5 shows a day for 2 months (300 plays), the cost per showing is only about five dollars.

Every one of the thirty or so Digital Cinema prototype theatres is being heavily subsidized for both the equipment and the mastering and delivery of the digital data.

IMHO, Digital Cinema is not ready for prime time.

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John P. Pytlak
Senior Technical Specialist
EI Worldwide Technical Services
Research Labs, Building 69
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 716-477-5325
Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

[This message has been edited by John Pytlak (edited August 10, 2000).]

The back page of the issue of Variety had a Kodak ad which said it all; "A single frame of film contains over twelve million pixels of information and the full range of human emotion." Take that and stuff it in your hard drive.

I would predict this: we'll see digital projection in theatres in a while but it will be for the low grade stuff, possibly trailers, ads of course, policy, etc. and of course business, training, local advertising, etc. But movies? Not for a good long time will they be on the screen, at least not ones that people have a choice of film or digital and we do have that choice.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

Kodak has the right idea promoting film as a medium vs. digital to the filmmakers. I wonder if we'll see a Kodak campaign aimed at consumers (ie. moviegoers) about the advantages of film projection over digital projection. Digital sound and THX branding seems to have worked on consumers. Maybe Kodak should do a "The Audience is Seeing" campaign or "Let's See It On Film" or "Kodak Films - Making Movies Look Better" Or "See the Story in it's true colors"