Your Home Theater Sucks

I did an inspection today at a movie treater.

The projectors are massive. About 5 feet long, 3 high and 2 wide.

They have their own duct work to remove the heat.

I asked the manager how much they cost and she didn't know but said the bulbs are $5000 each.

A bit of research and they may be $200,000 or so. Plus all the ancillary bullshit to make the movie experience, including the banks of audio equipment.

I asked how they received the movies and she said they are shipped hard drives that control everything. They put them in the machines and control them from downstairs.

I would have asked many more questions but she "had emails to answer".

I would have enjoyed getting much more information about how everything works.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mis...4089577--M.jpg

The projector unit. The duct is coming off it to remove the heat from the 4500 watt bulb.

They all had two lenses coming out of the front with some kind of deflector on the front. When I looked through the window into the theater, Indiana Jones' face was incredibly clear and I was 100 feet from the screen.

I wasn't able to take too many pictures because it was almost dark up there. The unit I was able to photograph was at the end of the projector hall and there was nothing showing in that theater.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mis...5354326--M.jpg

Infrared of the system. The bright spot in the center shows how much heat is being drawn from the projector.

I know this is not gun related and likely no one cares but I found it very interesting- one of those behind the scenes things that not very many people get to see.

What is the mechanism for the image transfer from digital signal to projected optic image? Some sort of transparent LCD/plasma/LED screen in front of the bulb?

That is crazy to see something like that, you never really think about the projectors in a theater and how they work.

What kind of inspection were you doing? I'm guessing these things need certifications for public safety and insurance coverage. Very cool!

Yep, my home theater sucks. But it's at home near the bourbon!

My first job was as a usher/ concessions worker in a large movie theater. 1234 seats. I used to help out the projectionists sometimes on my days off. Long time ago, over 50 years ago. Light was provided by carbon arc like those big search lights. Lots of other stuff goes into showing a movie. The film was 35 mm and came on reels that were loaded and threaded through sprockets and tension wheels. Just before the reel changed a bell would ring on the projector. The projectionist would fire up the light on the other projector. When the marker would show up on the screen, like a circle in the upper right corner, he would start the projector running and then a second circle would appear and he would throw a lever and a blind would close one projector window and open the window to the other projector. When done correctly the audience would never notice any difference on the screen.

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Originally Posted by .455_Hunter

What is the mechanism for the image transfer from digital signal to projected optic image? Some sort of transparent LCD/plasma/LED screen in front of the bulb?

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I don't know. That was my question as well- How does this thing work???

When I got home, I started to look it up but is very complicated- a lot odd mirrors that both reflect and allow pass through of certain colors and some prisms that refocus the images plus the intensity of the bulb...

It would make a lot more sense if it was film and a bulb.

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Originally Posted by flogger

That is crazy to see something like that, you never really think about the projectors in a theater and how they work.

What kind of inspection were you doing? I'm guessing these things need certifications for public safety and insurance coverage. Very cool!

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I have to be a bit evasive here.

I can't tell you where I did it.

But if you remember May and June, there was a lot of rain.

Leaky roofs and natural material like the brown paper backing drywall are perfect media for organic growth.

That growth can cause allergic reactions to some people.

In this case, there was a person that had symptoms of certain allergies so I was called out to test the area that had the water intrusion issues.

I doubt it?s overly complex. Probably just something like this only on steroids.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/epson-e...?skuId=6514554

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Originally Posted by ray1970

I doubt it?s overly complex. Probably just something like this only on steroids.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/epson-e...?skuId=6514554

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Or a smaller version of this:

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Bar...o_XDL-4K75.htm


Brightness: 72,600 ANSI Lumens

Resolution: 4096x2160

Aspect Ratio: 1.89:1 (4K HD)

Contrast: 2,800:1 (full on/off)

Display Type: 1.40" DLP x 3

3D Modes: Full HD 3D

Lamp Type: RGB Laser

Lamp Life: 15,000 hours

Included Lens: No

Projector Size: 27.80" x 29.30" x 56.90" (HxWxD)

Weight: 520.0 lbs

Internal Speakers: No

Power: 9,700 Watts

I have a VCR.

Very cool.

I had a friend in high school whose family owned the local theater. I got to see the projection room. Pretty much second what wctriumph described. Years later, maybe close to twenty years ago now, I helped record a drive in theater as part of an archaeological resource survey. We came across a film featuring Richard Pryor and John Candy.

I worked for AMC in the early 2000's as my college job. At the time it was one of the busiest theaters in the world. I left before everything went digital but there was some impressive things going on up in the booth. One of the ways to get the most out of a print for a huge movie on opening night was to basically string a huge leader (clear film stock) attached to the movie and run it through several projectors. I think it was Return of the King I walked up to check things out for the midnight opening. It was playing on each of our 20 screens and was sold out. To make it happen one print was running through 8 projectors. It was pretty cool to watch the movie travel through half the building.

Heading out to watch Mission Impossible in a few hours. The choices: standard (short drive, not worth the money) and IMAX or Dolby (longer drive, same location, Flatirons Crossing). I opted Dolby.

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Image Quality

Dolby Cinema?s projection system, Dolby Vision, consists of dual, 4K laser projectors. A fair comparison would be IMAX?s 4K laser projectors.

Between these two systems, Dolby Cinema is the clear winner. Here are the reasons:

Dolby Cinema usually offers 31-foot-lambert luminance for 2D, whereas IMAX laser has 22. This creates a more vivid image with brighter colors.
IMAX Theaters typically offer 2K resolution, whereas Dolby Cinemas typically offer 4K.
Dolby Cinema has many different possible combinations of frame-per-second rates and resolutions. IMAX does, too, but the information isn?t readily available.
Dolby projectors can display a 7,500:1 contrast ratio. IMAX says only that its laser projection system offers a ?higher? contrast ratio than the 2,500:1 lamp systems.

Image Format

Here, IMAX has the advantage. While most other systems like AMC Prime, digital, ETX and Dolby Cinema use a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, IMAX uses 1.90:1. This makes IMAX movies taller than other other movie formats.

As mentioned before, you get 26% more screen space with IMAX because of this. IMAX films are the complete package when you club their big screens and the aspect ratio. Not to mention, IMAX also has IMAX Dome and IMAX Laser, which give a superb film experience.

Sound System

Dolby wins here, and as a leading audio company, I wouldn?t expect less. IMAX utilizes an excellent sound system throughout its different combinations, but Dolby Atmos is simply better, with its Dolby Vision and Atmos.

Their real-time rendering is a convenient way for Dolby Atmos to be deployed with excellent results in any installation, and any changes in loudspeaker configurations are automatically resolved.

Dolby Atmos offers 64 audio channels, whereas IMAX only has 12 on most installations.

Dolby Atmos typically uses 128 speakers, which is an impressive level of sonic detail. IMAX, on the other hand, uses only 12 channels. This means there can be 12 concurrent sounds divided over the speakers.

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FWIW I have Dolby Atmos via a Sonos sound system and Dolby Vision on my TV, so pretty darn' good. But there are some movies worth paying for at the theater.

More geekiness:

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Dolby Cinema is the clear winner when it comes to image quality. This is thanks to Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies, which are present in these movie theaters. You get four times the resolution than the standard movie format, along with an impressive 500x higher contrast ratio. As such, viewers can expect amazing pictures.

Dolby Vision’s visual technology works by expanding the dynamic range and increasing the brightness. To make things realistic, they have considered the fact that the human eye can perceive 0.001nit at the darkest and 20,000nit at the brightest. As such, they’ve developed the projection level to be close to these numbers to create a high dynamic range, contrast, and a life-like caliber to the pictures.

The brightness standard is also considered in Dolby Vision. Currently, the film industry standard for 2D brightness is 14fL. The brightness of Dolby Cinema is 31fL/14fL (Side note: fL refers to Foot-Lambert, a unit of brightness detection)

With Dolby Vision, the image quality and contrast are definitely stunning. Compared to the standard or digital format, Dolby Cinema technology presents a huge difference in resolution, color, and overall quality. The picture quality is excellent and add that to the superior sound system, viewers will enjoy the premium cinema experience.

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I’ve installed a few projectors like that in home theaters up in the Vail and Aspen Valleys over the years. Digital Projection Inc, the biggest units I put in were about the same size as the one in the OPs photo and were located in a separate projection room with the image showing through a glass port in the wall as the projector fans and light bulb made way too much noise to actually put it in the actual theater room itself. They were 3 chip projectors and used prisms and I don’t remember what the bulb technology was, it wasn’t anything that looked like a light bulb in any way but it was like a big copper coil that struck an arc which created the required light.

They sold in the $300-400k range, bulbs were closer to $10k from what I remember.

The newer ones have gone down a little bit in size and are a bit quieter as they use a laser for their light source these days. This one still sells for $250k.

https://www.digitalprojection.com/en...ser-8k-gen-ii/

After looking at the prices you guys have suggested it seems my cost estimate was off by at least half.

My old roommate has owned and ran movie theaters and drive ins. Right now they flew him to Miami to run the Oppenheimer movie because not many people still know how to really run those projectors that aren't just click the go button on a laptop.

BTW those bulbs: You'd better be wearing leather apron, gloves and a face shield when touching them. They're basically hand grenades. I remember the old arc light units when I used to help in the booth. Setting the gap between the electrodes before sending high current through...