Digital Movie Projection — Coming Soon (Perhaps) to a Theatre near You

Instead of watching a movie mechanically projected from 35mm film, cinephiles may soon be able to watch a movie retrieved in the real-time from a hard disk similar to those in existing desktop computers.   The digital projection technology has arrived and is being tested in several countries.   The technical benefits are substantial:   the picture is clear, sharp and steady, and gone are the traces of dust and scratches in the projected image. Some movie theatre owners who are testing digital projection systems have reported a 40% increase in attendance at screenings advertised as digitally projected.   In addition, staffing can be reduced because no splicing is required to insert trailers - these are easily inserted digitally. Movie studios are able to realize substantial duplication and transportation costs.   With the wide distribution of movies and the number of copies required, the duplication and distribution of a typical feature film today costs over $2 million.   On the other hand, digitized movies can be transmitted over the existing telecommunication infrastructure (e.g. phone line, Internet), or sent in the form of a portable recording medium such as a hard drive or DVD, at far less cost. However, the full rollout for digital projection is being delayed, in part due to differing views of who should pay for the new technology – the movie studios, the distributors, the theatre owners, or the viewing public.   Currently, fewer than 200 cinemas worldwide use digital projection technology, and often it has been the new equipment manufacturers who have paid for the installations, in order to generate test market data. For a recent article appearing in The New York Times, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/13/business/media/13projector.html?th. Summary by:   Sue Diaz