Films shot in Dolby Vision?

[hajiketobu]

They will open the first Dolby Vision Theater this month in the Netherlands, temporarily using 4K laser projectors until the "Dolby Vision-capable ones are ready to ship out next spring".
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/07/d...ma-imax-rival/

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by hajiketobu

They will open the first Dolby Vision Theater this month in the Netherlands, temporarily using 4K laser projectors until the "Dolby Vision-capable ones are ready to ship out next spring".
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/07/d...ma-imax-rival/

I’m confused but that might be because I am may be dumb by your standards….

Originally Posted by hajiketobu

wasn't it confirmed that 4K Blu-ray will support 50/60fps @2160p?
It would be dumb if they not added 48fps to the standard just for the sake of it. But then again they are dumb... they did not include 25 and 29,976 nor 50 and 60 fps @1080p to standard Blu-ray. Very sad people, those people who define those standards.

Isn’t that engadget article which you linked simply “via” the original THR reporting as posted already on the last page by kristoffer? In other words, what was the point of your post in offering readers anything new.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

SMPTE Tech

SMPTE Technology committee meetings all this week on the Disney lot. Hollywood folk don’t have to travel far this time around. Although the High Dynamic Range Electro-Optical Transfer Function of Mastering Reference Displays project is finished with ST 2084 having been published as noted last September…

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

under the publication radar that is -
This standard specifies an EOTF characterizing high-dynamic-range reference displays used primarily for mastering non-broadcast content. http://www.techstreet.com/products/1883436

with regards to high dynamic range, the project involving color differencing for high luminance and wide color gamut Images (think sort of like the transform from RGB to YUV but in the XYZ color space and allowing sub-sampling of the color difference channels), has yet to be completed and will be discussed. In the other group, the document regarding mastering display color volume metadata supporting high luminance and WCG images is in the final stages of acceptance.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

tomorrow in Paris, new results from the 4Ever consortium regarding testing of HDR and HFR will be presented at 4:05 P.M. http://www.mesclado.com/wp-content/u...v6-English.pdf

"new" as in never been presented before.
"tomorrow" is now today.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Dolby is forevermore trying to compete with themselves. What else are they going to come up with!

How is this competition with themselves? They don't put together whole theatres today and this incorporates existing Dolby Atmos. However, where I do think they compete with themselves is with the numerous different implementation of surround and other formats in the consumer market. I find those numerous offerings confusing and I think they should be consolidated.

Especially during the era of 35mm digital sound when digital presentation was also being introduced, the average consumer couldn't make heads or tails out of the difference between 35mm digital audio and DCP digital presentation.

Originally Posted by MrsMiniver

And Chicago in Dolby Vision has gained almost zero traction since Dolby announced the format. Truth be told, Dolby is desperate for anything as they are no longer the relevant cinema company they once were. This Dolby Cinema is not going to work.

Dolby Cinema may or may not be a viable business (I suspect that it might not be viable in the U.S.), but to say that Dolby is not a relevant cinema company is absurd, IMO. While they are also heavily engaged in broadcast and other industries and they don't break out numbers (at least I haven't found them), their quarterly income is $227 million in the latest quarter and was only $69 million ten years ago. So they've been growing consistently, which makes them very relevant.

It may not be like the analog days where virtually every print was Dolby encoded in one form or another or the 35mm digital days when Dolby beat DTS and SDDS in the market, but they're doing quite fine and even though there aren't a tremendous number of Dolby Atmos installations as yet, it's an industry-leading technology that IMO, makes them very relevant.

And while there are certainly many questions about Dolby Cinema, I'd love to see Dolby compete with IMAX and the other upscale presentation formats, some of which optionally already contain some Dolby technology.

The problem for any cinema technology company today is the consolidation of the chains. If one of the larger chains decides they're not using you, you're screwed.

[AVinstallGuy]

I know a few people who got to see some real Dolby Vision projection and they had some info about the first theatres going in as well.

Anyone who has seen the image on the screen has been amazed. The tech demo pat just showing the raw contrast, had people gasping in Vegas. I really wanted to go this year but had other obligations in Illinois so Vegas was off the chart this year. They also ran Pixar's "Inside Out" in Dolby Vision. The "normal" part of the movie in the real world looked like a very good DCI image, but when it went inside the girl's head, the color goes out to rec 2020 with much brighter highlights and far more contrast. I took a look here hoping to see if anyone else on this list saw the Cinema Con demos in Vegas, but I have not found much. I can't wait to check out any movie in this format.

The first theatres are going to be refitted and upgraded AMC Prime sites. Most of them have already been upgraded to Dolby Atmos and have the big chairs and wall to wall screen. They are calling them Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime and as such it is a little watered down, they are not putting in the cocoon that hides all of the speakers. They are doing any updates that did not fully meet the specs for Atmos and apparently altering the lighting system to remove as much stray light from the screen as possible. I heard mention of working with the local fire marshals to allow dimming the exit signs when the room is dark during the show. This is not new, special venues like planetariums have been doing it for many years. When you are in a very dark space, the signs do not need to be near as bright to be completely visible.

"Tomorrowland" and "Inside Out" are the first 2 features being done in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for these theatres. A friend also told me that post processing an image to take advantage of this greater range seems fairly easy. A pass on a color correction system while veiwing it on the Dolby Vision projector will allow the colorist to put back the highlights and shadow blacks that had to be crushed to fit in the normal dynamic range of the current projectors. Think of it like this. When you take a picture, you have to adjust the exposure to fit the important part of the brightness range into the signal range of the camera. Now with Dolby vision in the projector, you can take a very bright image of a sun lit scene for example, and dial it in so the highlights can hit twice as bright as could be shown before, and yet the shadows can still be down in the ink black range. Also a dark scene that needed a big aperture and slow exposure to get enough light on the imager, can now be shown darker and still have details down in the deep blacks.

Even 31 FL and 1,000,000 : 1 contrast is far short of reality, but it is a huge step closer. Just aim a light meter at a parked car on an overcast day, and I bet it is more like 100 FL. Movies at 14 FL rely on your eyes opening up to make it seem bright enough, and then using the 2000:1 contrast range to convey a decent image. Having your eyes adjusted to a brighter image just gives them more room to convey a greater range of difference than could be done before.

The larger color gamut is basically that. Deeper red, green, and blue so that you can more accurately hit more of the colors you could find in real life. Current xenon lit DCI projector green can't even hit real grass, Rec 2020 can. But there is more. The greater light output of each primary, as well as the greater contrast means that the Dolby Vision projector can also maintain greater color saturation up to a higher level of light output.

The best descriptions I have heard all say the same thing, it is impossible to really understand the different until you see it for yourself. And I just can't wait for it. I will be in California soon and will see this thing first hand very soon. I am hoping to do a good compare between the new IMAX laser and the Dolby Vision, but there is no way to do any kind of A-B apples to apples comparison as they are in different buildings playing different content.

Anyone who has seen these for real, please give you opinion here.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by AVinstallGuy

I know a few people who got to see some real Dolby Vision projection and they had some info about the first theatres going in as well.

Anyone who has seen the image on the screen has been amazed. The tech demo pat just showing the raw contrast, had people gasping in Vegas. I really wanted to go this year but had other obligations in Illinois so Vegas was off the chart this year. They also ran Pixar's "Inside Out" in Dolby Vision. The "normal" part of the movie in the real world looked like a very good DCI image, but when it went inside the girl's head, the color goes out to rec 2020 with much brighter highlights and far more contrast. I took a look here hoping to see if anyone else on this list saw the Cinema Con demos in Vegas, but I have not found much. I can't wait to check out any movie in this format.

The first theatres are going to be refitted and upgraded AMC Prime sites. Most of them have already been upgraded to Dolby Atmos and have the big chairs and wall to wall screen. They are calling them Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime and as such it is a little watered down, they are not putting in the cocoon that hides all of the speakers. They are doing any updates that did not fully meet the specs for Atmos and apparently altering the lighting system to remove as much stray light from the screen as possible. I heard mention of working with the local fire marshals to allow dimming the exit signs when the room is dark during the show. This is not new, special venues like planetariums have been doing it for many years. When you are in a very dark space, the signs do not need to be near as bright to be completely visible.

"Tomorrowland" and "Inside Out" are the first 2 features being done in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for these theatres. A friend also told me that post processing an image to take advantage of this greater range seems fairly easy. A pass on a color correction system while veiwing it on the Dolby Vision projector will allow the colorist to put back the highlights and shadow blacks that had to be crushed to fit in the normal dynamic range of the current projectors. Think of it like this. When you take a picture, you have to adjust the exposure to fit the important part of the brightness range into the signal range of the camera. Now with Dolby vision in the projector, you can take a very bright image of a sun lit scene for example, and dial it in so the highlights can hit twice as bright as could be shown before, and yet the shadows can still be down in the ink black range. Also a dark scene that needed a big aperture and slow exposure to get enough light on the imager, can now be shown darker and still have details down in the deep blacks.

Even 31 FL and 1,000,000 : 1 contrast is far short of reality, but it is a huge step closer. Just aim a light meter at a parked car on an overcast day, and I bet it is more like 100 FL. Movies at 14 FL rely on your eyes opening up to make it seem bright enough, and then using the 2000:1 contrast range to convey a decent image. Having your eyes adjusted to a brighter image just gives them more room to convey a greater range of difference than could be done before.

The larger color gamut is basically that. Deeper red, green, and blue so that you can more accurately hit more of the colors you could find in real life. Current xenon lit DCI projector green can't even hit real grass, Rec 2020 can. But there is more. The greater light output of each primary, as well as the greater contrast means that the Dolby Vision projector can also maintain greater color saturation up to a higher level of light output.

The best descriptions I have heard all say the same thing, it is impossible to really understand the different until you see it for yourself. And I just can't wait for it. I will be in California soon and will see this thing first hand very soon. I am hoping to do a good compare between the new IMAX laser and the Dolby Vision, but there is no way to do any kind of A-B apples to apples comparison as they are in different buildings playing different content.

Anyone who has seen these for real, please give you opinion here.

I haven't seen it yet and probably won't for some time - NYC isn't getting a Dolby Cinema theatre until "phase 2" and somehow I doubt we'll ever get a Dolby Vision theatre. "Tomorrowland" is being shown at the El Capitan in Hollywood, the AMC Burbank, the AMC BarryWoods in Kansas City, the AMC Deerbrook in Houston and the Northpoint 12 in Atlanta (which demonstrates just how much NYC has fallen of the charts as a former movie capital of primary importance. NYC didn't get Dolby Atmos first either. The first Atmos theatre in the area was in New Jersey). There's one side of me that wants to fly out and see the film at the El Capitan, but I really can't rationalize spending $1500 (or more) to see a movie, especially a movie that I don't think is going to be a great classic. It's too bad that I don't currently have any business in L.A..

I do have one fear: it needs to be more than the equivalent of turning up the contrast, brightness and saturation on one's TV (or the look of post-processing a still image into HDR). It should be more than that due to the expanded color gamut. And it still needs to look like film - a very good film with rich color, but still film. If it looks like video, I, for one, won't be very interested.

But I have seen the Dolby Monitor and the look of that is quite amazing, so if it's anything like that (or hopefully even better due to the increased gamut), it should be fantastic.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by AVinstallGuy

...will allow the colorist to put back the highlights and shadow blacks that had to be crushed to fit in the normal dynamic range of the current projectors.

Well, if a Dolby Vision version is planned by the filmmakers from the get-go, there's no real 'putting back' as the Dolby Vision master will be thee 'hero master' and then you go (down) from there (to the SDR deliverables).

Also, just to clarify, the colorist works (or should) under the supervision of the Director and/or D.P…..which is a long story in itself - https://www.academia.edu/1180733/The...Digital_Colour

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by AVinstallGuy

Anyone who has seen these for real, please give you opinion here.

One link facilitator for those with geographical accessibility to a screening and care to contribute to your request…..https://elcapitantheatre.com/events/now_playing

For those whose theater-going days are pretty much over, but are still interested in HDR and viewing the home theater iteration of Dolby Vision in the comfort of their homes….wait for it - http://www.vizio.com/r-series

On a business aside, rumor has it that Vizio is looking into an initial public offering (IPO).

[Penton-Man]

ZoetMB, you around?, I’ve got a heads-up coming up for your neck of the woods.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

ZoetMB, you around?, I’ve got a heads-up coming up for your neck of the woods.

Is it that the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd street is going to eventually get Dolby Cinema as part of AMC Prime?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Is it that the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd street is going to eventually get Dolby Cinema as part of AMC Prime?

Nope, I was referring to if you have the opportunity to attend next Wed., report on what the speakers (with firsthand experience) have to say at this SMPTE meeting –
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/smpteny...on-16878825020

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by AVinstallGuy

Even 31 FL and 1,000,000 : 1 contrast is far short of reality, but it is a huge step closer. Just aim a light meter at a parked car on an overcast day, and I bet it is more like 100 FL. Movies at 14 FL rely on your eyes opening up to make it seem bright enough, and then using the 2000:1 contrast range to convey a decent image. Having your eyes adjusted to a brighter image just gives them more room to convey a greater range of difference than could be done before.

I've seen a lot of people say things along the lines of hoping HDR makes the movie look more like real life with real life levels. That is ridiculous. Real life doesn't have the nearly non-existant ambient light levels of a movie theater. Your eye has a completely different biasing. Movies also tend to jump directly from night to day, dark to light and everything in between at a moments notice. That rarely happens in real life and when it does it is typically a painful process. And I don't want them to bring up house lights to help with biasing as that also raises the black floor of the image. There are definitely a lot of things that HDR brings to the table that I'm excited about but I hope it is implemented in a way that makes sense.

On another note, I saw Tomorrowland last week (non-HDR) and one of the scenes that stood out was when the girl visited Clooney's house for the first time. She is knocked over and the scene has her perspective looking up at Clooney standing over her. The sun is clearly right over his shoulder making it nearly impossible to see his face. This was a bit annoying in the same way that scenes that are obviously shot for 3D come off looking silly and gimmicky for those watching in 2D. There is NO way this scene would have been shot that way if HDR was never intended as it looked awful in non-HDR. Thankfully there wasn't any other obvious examples in the rest of the movie that stood out as much. I just fear we'll see more of these types of examples littered thru movies that serve the four theaters in the country that have this capability but look like crap on the other 99.999999999999% of movie screens out there.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Nope, I was referring to if you have the opportunity to attend next Wed., report on what the speakers (with firsthand experience) have to say at this SMPTE meeting –
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/smpteny...on-16878825020

Thanks. I'm already registered for this. I'll be there as long as I can get out of a client's office on time.

I was at a last minute AES meeting tonight (only 6 people showed up) at the NY Dolby Screening Room and they did confirm that the AMC Empire 25 is getting Dolby Vision in mid-June. It's probably screen #6, the current Atmos screen. Since it's not a ground-up build it will be interesting to see how much of the theatre concept gets integrated and whether the NYC Fire Department lets them dim down the Exit signs (doubtful).

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Thanks. I'm already registered for this. I'll be there as long as I can get out of a client's office on time....

Let us know if Mark comes sporting proper speaking attire, e.g. at least a blazer and dress trousers, if he has an aversion to suits.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Let us know if Mark comes sporting proper speaking attire, e.g. at least a blazer and dress trousers, if he has an aversion to suits.

I doubt that much. He was at an SMPTE NAB wrap-up meeting a few weeks ago and while I don't remember precisely what he was wearing, it was probably a funny t-shirt, shorts and sandals, although nothing as blatantly obvious as what he used to wear.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I doubt that much. He was at an SMPTE NAB wrap-up meeting a few weeks ago and while I don't remember precisely what he was wearing, it was probably a funny t-shirt, shorts and sandals, although nothing as blatantly obvious as what he used to wear.

Knowing Mark, the grumpy cat he is, this even higher spatial resolution delivery news will cause even a bigger frown on his face - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/beh...aseball-801003