I hope the cinema chain you're working for has retained film projection capabilities too ARV because that's even more interesting than the work that goes into the current video projection solutions being utilized. And if you ever find yourself doing anything in a genuine IMAX cinema then we'll all want to hear about it because there is currently nothing that comes close to 15/70 IMAX films that were shot with 15/65 IMAX cameras. Good luck with your new engineering role. Exciting times ahead. What an adventure. John.

Very kind of you thank you. This one is largely down to Simon though. He suggested it and I bit his hand off! John.

Unfortunately I don’t go to the cinema anymore because it’s not the same atmosphere I always wait until it becomes available on 4k/blu ray

@@raymondhall8629 I know what you mean Raymond but there are still cinemas out there worth supporting. I plan to visit the Courtyard in the future now I know they have people who understand cinema. There are quite a few more around such as the Prince Charles, the BFI IMAX, the RONSON THEATRE IMAX in the Science Museum and one I've not yet attended that I can think of immediately, the Manchester Printworks IMAX. All still run film as well as digital video. Lots more but we have to find them. John.

​@@moviecollector5920 Thought you might find this interesting. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d8hzpM6CtdTQf30.htmlsi=Ws6tcBUCiKlQ06LJ

Thanks for the kind words. We are planning some more 35mm soon so keep an eye on our programme! Simon

I should have been there for ALIENS last year chaps. And Godzilla now that you mention it. John.

Thank you Erik. Simon's so easy to work with it that it made this video a pleasure to shoot and put together. John.

Its great to know its appreciated!

@@simonnichollsfilm And it's great to have a comment here from you, Simon. I'm Norwegian. I worked as a 35mm projectionist from 2009 to 2011, and I've worked at several cinemas since then. In the video above, you come across as the kind of boss and/or colleague that I always wanted but never had.

Simon's great Harley. He did the two collector conventions with us last year and handled 35mm projection duties with his portable Portaccini. John.

Thank you Mr. Taylor. Hope the weather is better where you are than it is here right now! John.

@@moviecollector5920greetings from an early Autumn in Australia, weather wet today but it’s Australia always quite mild.

I should have been there for both of those Kamandi. I really do need to keep an eye on the Prince Charles programme schedules more closely. I need to get to the BFI IMAX to see DUNE TWO so maybe a couple of days in Londinium and take in a screening or two at the Prince Charles too. John.

It sounds like you have some wonderful stories to tell Peter. You worked through a time when film was mass produced and screened in cinemas all over the world. The improvements you must have lived through can only be imagined but by the time the downturn in quality started in the late 1990's I had been completely amazed by the perfection I saw achieved in the premiere houses. We only get that same quality now when the three IMAX cinemas in Britain get a genuine IMAX print to screen. Actually, it's better quality but nothing else I've seen comes up to the best of 35mm in the 1990's. I expect some would such as TOP GUN: MAVERICK but I don't bother going to see a video at the cinema any longer. I gave up after too many disappointments years ago. John.

I think cinemas need to get back to having all these things as options where possible Jeff. Cinemas here that still occasionally screen film prints get good audiences. I think that's because it appeals to the true film enthusiast and younger people who may have never or rarely seen an actual film. Masking and tabs shows patrons that the cinema actually cares about presentation but that's all been a dying art around the world in recent years. Maybe if I can do more cinema videos in the future I'll be able to encourage the return of a bit of showmanship. John.

You're welcome Craig. John.

I hoped people would like it but couldn't be sure. Simon suggested that while we were over at the Courtyard that we should cover how a DCP gets onto the screen so it was his idea and it seemed like a darned good one to me. I spent about 25 to 30 hours editing and all of that malarkey to try and trim it as much as possible and make it flow as well as I could. I was a little trepidatious when I hit the 'Publish' button. Half an hour later and it looked like it was going to do okay which was a relief. Now it's doing quite surprisingly well and currently out performing my recent 2001 A Space Odyssey in 70mm from the Prince Charles Cinema projection box. You never know what is going to do well and what isn't. John.

I'm glad you like it Peter. I was one who rather presumed video projection in today's cinemas was somewhat easier than it really is. I think I'd have an easier time with 35mm film but probably not during a film festival! John.

Glad to see an ol' "button stomper," as we were called here in the States!

@@joelgenung2571 It's good to prove some assumptions wrong Joel. I too thought it would be more of a press the button role so humble pie being digested as I type. John.

Imagine if 35mm had technology like that to help manage it.

@@Art-is-craft I think it already does David but I don't know exactly how advanced the automation systems had become before the big downgrade in 2011. Subtitles were never possible other than one fixed language directly onto a print. John.

Thank you Chuck. John.

Thank you Joel. I had the fortune of a tour of the Able, Baker and Charlie boxes at the CineramaDome in 2011. I was there for a British classic car documentary but when I saw the CineramaDome was still there I went and banged on the doors. Got the full tour which was wonderful. I included some of the video I shot in a 2001 A Space Odyssey video about three and a half years ago. I still haven't seen video projection that matches up to the best 35mm we used to enjoy in the premiere houses in the West End of London, let alone 70mm and genuine IMAX 15/70 presentations so things have still got a way to go before they catch up to where we were years ago... with the exception of a few IMAX 70mm movies of course. John.

Thank you Tony. John.

Thank you Ryan. Glad you enjoyed it. John.

Thank you Rob. It's nice to do something different occasionally but this one was Simon's suggestion and as we were going over there to check The Courtyard out as a suitable venue for a Film Is Fabulous it was a great idea. John.

Thank you for commenting Brodda. Glad you enjoyed it and I'm sure Simon (projectionist) will be pleased too. John.

It's certainly not as interesting as projecting film Mark but it has educated me on how much work is still required and how much can go wrong. Getting a video on in foreign language but not having the subtitles for example. John.

If your grandad was projecting more than 13 years ago then he'd have been dealing with 35mm films so he'd have been ideal for a cinema like The Courtyard where they are still able to screen film. What a wonderful occupation it much have been. John.

Morning Steve. I learned a lot that day. I have an adapter on order to give the pre-amp solution into the CP500 a go so I'll let you know how the sound is after it arrives and I've had a chance to play. I'm also thinking about looping through an amplifier by going into the phono input and out through the tape outputs. That might work better but it's the little pre-amp first. And also, the PPT mag arrived yesterday and I read it all the way through. I want that VistaVision projector! John.

I will keep looking for the correct lead for the CP500. I am off to the PPT tomorrow and the VistaVision projector will come home with me if no one is looking :). Do not take any notice of my wife's articles in the PPT magazine:) @@moviecollector5920

I tended to think a movie was downloaded and then simply played through the video projector. There's much more to it so an education for me too. John.

Glad you enjoyed it Fadrique. John.

Thank you for letting me know. It seems to have done quite well and been well received overall which is rather pleasing. John.

You ought to do a video with your friend in his cinema Marty. This one seems to be popular so something similar on your channel might help to set you apart, John.

It was an education for me too Jeff. As much as I don't think video projection has done the world of cinema a world of good, it's good to know it's not just the press of a button and there is much knowledge and skill required after all. John.

You're welcome Perry. John.

Thank you Andy and you're welcome. John.

Thank you Private Hudson. I see Aliens is to be issued on 4K soon. I'll have to take a look at that but I can't imagine it will supplant my Super 8 print (actually 'prints' as I have two copies). It will be interesting to see if they've managed to make it look more suitable for a 4K. John.

@@moviecollector5920The Aliens 4K disc is getting mixed reviews from what I've seen online John, apparently some scenes are very washed out which is surprising considering Cameron was heavily involved with the transfer. The Abyss sounds ok as well as True Lies. You can't beat Super 8.

And so did I Roy. Quite an education for me too. John.

Morning Michael. I emailed the other day when that nice surprise arrived in the post. Thank you! I need to get up to see DUNE TWO. Won't go anywhere else to see it. By the way, Simon Nicholls (from this video) travels up to you and joined us for one of the screenings of INTERSTELLAR last year. He then got the train with his son for OPPENHEIMER... which then turned out to be one of the two screenings when the vacuum wasn't working so saw the digital video! The poor sod! John.

Now Stuart Little is a great film. I have the trailer on 35mm which is a lovely souvenir to have of it. John.

Thank you Roland. Good to know you enjoyed it so much. John.

Good to know you liked it Dan. Thank you. John.

Thank you. It was educational for me too as I really did think it was pretty much the press of a few buttons and rather surprised to find it is a lot more than that. John.

I think having Simon in charge is The Courtyard's secret weapon. John.

Film is making a steady return here in the UK Colin so let's hope that continues now that OPPENHEIMER has proved the point so categorically well. I don't think every movie needs to be screened on film but an occasional show in every cinema should help to draw patrons back in. After all, what's the attraction if people think they can see the same thing on a telly or a phone a few months later? John.

@@moviecollector5920 I think to have a chance to save cinema as a whole 35mm with support from studios, directors and cinemas could save cinema. Then the most important aspect of the lot is to have exclusive cinema releases with a five year cinema window before home release. The first studio and cinema chain to figure this out and market it will clean up in the market place.

It was certainly an education Dominus. Digital video will never be as interesting as film though simply because there are moving parts to show on a film projector and that to me will always be cinema. I do have a new found respect for projecting video in a cinema though. So much more to it than expected. John.

Morning David. And thanks. John.

Thank you Anders. Glad you liked it. John.

I'm trying to get to the point where I only have to press PLAY too Colum. Getting wifey trained up to put the disc in the player is the stumbling block though! John.

Thank you Timothy. Simon is very good and easy going on camera which always makes the job of filming and asking questions easier for me. I was aware that I didn't show a film starting up so that was why in included that short sequence of him starting up his own 35mm in his home cinema from last year's video. Probably should have shown more of that but that's the benefit of hindsight. John.

@@moviecollector5920 did you actually see a film that day? Are you pleased with Oppenheimer's victory at the Oscars?

To be fair it was a very busy day and was difficult without disturbing the team/ audience too much..Simon

@@simonnichollsfilm Next time we'll have to arrange a 35mm film just for the benefit of the KZfaq video Simon. As for OPPENHEIMER at the US Academy Awards Timothy, it's unusual these days for the people who do the voting over there to get much right and to then pull off a ceremony without too many twits going up to receive an award and talking about politics... or giving a colleague a slap in the face... or giving the best picture award to the wrong film. I think you can probably tell that I don't take the Oscars seriously any longer. The right film won though so maybe they're coming to their senses. John.

@moviecollector5920 I don't take them seriously anymore either. I haven't even seen a broadcast in quite a few years. I do get curious enough to look at highlights though, and I agree that the right film won, particularly for Best score and cinematography.

I find aerial image cine to video transfers give superior results to scanning the tiny 8mm gauges. I wonder how good the results professional studios would be able to achieve if they aerial image transferred the larger gauges rather than scan them. I suspect the results would look a little more natural as the exacerbated film grain side effect probably wouldn't occur. John.

Thank you Stumccloy. John.

Thank you Key. Glad you liked it. John.

Excellent. I hope Simon's putting something good on while you're there! John.

Keep in touch Steve because if this video does well it might be a good idea to do something at yours and also your home cinema. The more we get out there to a reasonable audience then the greater the chance that the moron element running some cinemas today will get an education. John.

@@moviecollector5920 lol "moron element"

Simon came into his projecting career rather late Beau but he did have the advantage of growing up with Super 8 film and then progressing into collecting 35mm. I don't think I'd have had the nerves of steel required for it when I was younger but I'd probably be able to handle it today. John.

Morning Sky. Thank you as always. John.

I was tempted to see if I could pull all that black masking material out of the way to get the left hand speaker fully on camera Rick but thought better of it! There's always a screen and masking covering them so it's not really possible to get at them. John.

Thank you Mr. Cinema Bear! John.

We're on the same hymn sheet yet again Dark. The Courtyard does have similarities to The Phoenix and I think Simon and the team do correspond with them at times. Maybe Simon will see this and clarify that for us. John.

@@moviecollector5920 😊 we certainly are on the same hymn sheet. Great minds think alike.

I can only ever remember seeing two knackered film prints in cinemas but only one was of a recent release and that had been out for about two months at the time so at the end of a run and had probably been through a few other cinemas. The other print was a screening of JAWS at the NFT and it was the only 35mm print they knew about or had access to. That was the worst ever but still great fun to see JAWS on their fairly huge screen in spite of all the missing frames and other damage. John.

Well Chris, if you don't already follow Clark Teddles in Australia then you've got to look at some of his projection box videos. I think he's still only 15 years old and he's now trusted in one of the two main Sydney cinemas to lace up and project a film. He only really got into physical film about two years ago so what an adventure he's on. www.youtube.com/@ClarkTeddles John.

Thank you Jeremy. Simon suggested we show the whole DCP rigmarole which was something that had never occurred to me previously. I thought it would prove to be of interest but it seems there is much more interest out there than I considered. I suppose a lot of us thought the process of getting movies on screen in most cinemas today was simply the press of a button or two. How wrong I was. John.

Well said Jonathan! John.

You're welcome Jonny. Glad you enjoyed it. John.

Not quite as interesting as when you were in the box putting films together though. But that is coming back on a small scale so it ain't finished yet. John.

@@moviecollector5920 Ha yeah def interesting times. Lots of memories. (def dropped and close called a few fully built prints on the floor.) lol

@@R3dmanactual I've had 600ft reels of Super 8 on the floor when the take-up failed but only ever had a minute or two of 35mm on the floor at the most. That was bad enough though. John.

Thank you Thiago. John.

Wot a surprise, first again.

@@moviecollector5920 😊

I'd always thought the big thing that gave film a more natural appearance to the eye was the fact that there was a film between the light source and the lens but then in the documentary 'Splice Here A Projected Odyssey' Doug Trumbull stated the bleedin' obvious when he said it's the fact that there is a mechanical shutter and that gives us the natural movement as compared to a video camera and video projector. Video is often sharper than a 35mm print but that isn't the only factor. Colour and density on film are almost always way the hell better. John.

It's made me think about installing a SAN Michael... I'm not sure I'd feel like ripping 1000's of video discs down to it though. John.

@moviecollector5920 That's what I did over the last years. If you start with the films you want to watch in the very near future it's manageable. Just don't plan on ripping EVERY disc. Step by step. Even the file name system I use is just a little bit similar to the professionals. For example my file name is like "Avatar way of water (2022 - E - D - C - kids).3D-SBS...." - that would mean the film is from 2022, it has english and a german sound (I always watch movies in the original language but have dubbed versions for guests not able to watch a film in a foreign language or doesn't want to) and is in 3D side by side. The C would stand for an audio commentary track and the "kids" for a kid friendly film. Of course Avatar doesn't have a commentary and is not a film for small kids but it's just an example. I then can use this information for filtering the database and also as information for the projector (3D or not etc.).

@@sanctanox It is a rather good idea to rip a copy of the discs just in case they pack up. I've come across five 4K discs so far that have developed faults. But it does seem to be an awful lot easier to me to just pull the disc off the shelf, put it in the player and press PLAY. John.

@@moviecollector5920 It depends on your workflow, what features you like to keep, and how particular you are about metadata. It's easy enough to grab the source M2TS files and copy them to a shared drive, but I prefer to keep things in MKV files for better seekability (the key frames are indexed). This means having to go through a re-muxing step (no re-encoding), and requires a little effort to figure out which tracks are which. The language and format of streams are all known, but you don't know if, e.g., a DTS-MA HD track followed by Dolby Digital 2.0 means you have a stereo mix of the movie, or a commentary track. Subtitles streams are particularly bothersome, as sometimes (albeit a particularly rare case) you might have separate stream for English subtitles, English captions, forced subtitles, and commentary. It's definitely a labor of love, but worth doing not only for the ordinary convenience, but for the ability to send those source files back through an encoder for mobile versions, and of course to hedge your bets for when optical drives become scarce. (Or, more likely, when the manufacturers give up and the only thing you can buy is a least-effort technically functional player with no regard given for its quality.) Anyway, maybe (and in fact, probably) you already know what it takes and how it's done. In that case, maybe some other fellow will find this useful. haha

That all sounds very interesting Ewald and would surely make for another interesting 'How Cinemas Work' KZfaq video. I expect there are some chains that don't even have experienced people on site and handle it all remotely but that would be asking for trouble... so it must be true! John.

@@moviecollector5920 haha, well, both automation and centralization have their benefits, but they definitely cause both local colleagues as well as the head office to assume everything's taken care off... Which obviously isn't always the case and frequently needs local troubleshooting and adjusting to get everything working and/or optimized.

@@Ewld I'm not enamoured with the way the cinema industry is being run these days. I mean by that that cinema is being run by people who don't appreciate cinema and that has proved to be a disaster for the industry. But what do I know? Keep up the good work and keeping any possible showmanship going given the circumstances. John.

@@moviecollector5920 thanks so much for the kind words John, will keep pushing back whenever choices are made or suggested that I feel go against the spirit of the cinema experience. On a related note, simple things like downgrading a proper thick paper ticket to a flimsy receipt is a trivial chance according to some people, but quite a few people (like me) tend to enjoy a proper physical reminder of a memorable movie experience. Hate it when changes like that are made and tend to be (annoyingly) vocal about them as well 😅

@@Ewld Oh yes, I used to like to keep the tickets which were properly printed items on cinema branded, good quality paper. These days it's akin to a fax printout and the print usually disappears after a few years. Crap! The wrong people are running most of the cinemas today. John.

I haven't had any time to make arrangements to get to the London BFI IMAX to see DUNE TWO yet Jesse but I'd like to. I have a couple of weeks left - three I think so I must get onto it shortly. I did watch DUNE again last week and it played a whole lot better a second time and possibly because I was ready for the dark sequences which I adjusted via the HDR button on the remote. I don't know why Dennis Villeneuve doesn't shoot on film but maybe he will from now on given the lesson that OPPENHEIMER has just taught the industry. Get Hoyte Van Hoytema in and he'll have no problem shooting 65mm or even genuine IMAX. I suppose the cost of production would go up somewhat but who cares when it's much more likely to generate a significant audience? John.

Academy ratio black masking was a rare thing in the 1990's Nathan. I always remember seeing a re-release of THE JUNGLE BOOK in the early 90's with white areas showing at the side of the screen. It didn't completely destroy the film but it certainly didn't help. I screen that on Super 8 at home and close the masking right up to envelop the image. It makes a big difference. John.

Morning Dave. I didn't see your comment yesterday but this one has come through to the right area. Simon did the two film collector conventions with us last year so if you take another look at those you can see him handling the 35mm shows. Brilliant. We've probably known each other for 40 years or more without actually ever speaking because we'd have been at the same events quite often. He's been a film collector as long as I have. We were going over to see The Courtyard to check it is suitable for a FILM IS FABULOUS event and Simon suggested we make the time during the day to cover how a DCP gets on screen and I thought it was a jolly good idea. That's how this video came about - Simon's idea. I hope yo have a good weekend. We've woken up this morning to blue skies which makes a nice change from the incessant rain of recent weeks. John.

There has been a bit of a recovery owing to OPPENHEIMER Brian and the industry appears to have taken notice. Hence the 4K video to 70mm and 15/70 blow-up prints currently on exhibition. Let's hope it works and entices more and more people back into cinemas. If so, I think a lot of experienced projectionists are going to be dragged out of retirement to train up a new generation. And quite right too. John.

That's good to know, thank you. I was concerned it was too long but there was so much good information I didn't want to cut too much out. John.

Merci Alain. John.

You're a man like myself Jo. But I do think we're going to see some improvements in presentation in cinema eventually otherwise it will all come to an end. Maybe this video will help educate a few cinema executives to improve their own screens and have a better understanding of how important motorized masking is to correctly present every different aspect ratio. John.

How much is it to visit this place ?

£8 a ticket. Front couple of rows are £7 according to their web site home page: www.courtyard.org.uk/the-courtyard-cinema/ John.

Simon's glasses are great Mubai. I tried them on once but I don't think they suited me so wall. He is passing his knowledge on so the Courtyard look like they'll continue for many years as a real cinema rather than a screening area with a few seats that project an image onto a white area! They're not real cats. Battery operated things that purr and breathe so quite a good little gag to have lying on top of projector lamphouses. John.

One of the chaps seen briefly in the auditorium is Paul Vanezis so I had a bit of a talk with him about transfers and mastering. I said I'd probably have to telephone him before we do a video all about the subject as he's one of the people who do this sort of work. He's working on something particularly interesting right now rather than yet another Doctor Who Blu-ray release. John.

That sounds like a wonderful adventure you're about to embark on there Adam. I did ask Simon about the cinema video projectors being available to private customers and he told me there weren't restrictions on them. Should be terrific when it's finished... hopefully to run alongside occasional 35mm screenings! John.

@@moviecollector5920 Huh. That's kind of surprising, given how paranoid they are about content protection. What's the situation with back-catalogs? Could you retain a DCP file and "rent" the key any time you wanted to watch it? I would imagine those 100-200GB files probably look better than anything consumers have access to, otherwise -- and I'm sure they're priced to match.

@@nickwallette6201 I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here Nick. I don't know about the DCP costs and how they are rented as a private individual but what I do know is that films to cinemas were always distributed on a percentage of box office basis. When the Star Wars prequels were released from 1999 onwards I remember being told 90% of the box office went to the distributor for the first two weeks but that declined thereafter. Clearly that meant cinemas were struggling and almost totally reliant on popcorn sales and the like. I doubt many video DCP's today would demand a similar percentage but it's probably worked out on a percentage of box office basis. I presume that if a cinema wanted to keep hold of the DCP for a future possible screening then they would keep hold of the video and obtain a new unlock code for the date or dates they are proposing to re-screen it. The Prince Charles Cinema manage to keep hold of the pre-restoration 70mm print of 2001 A Space Odyssey by scheduling occasional screenings of the print every three months so that does indicate that it's possible to keep hold of a DCP assuming the distributors treat films and videos equally. John.

As John suggests the second point I do keep content on the system if we are likely to bring a film back. Oppenheimer as an example after its Oscar win. We simply have to add to our booking and in return receive a key (KDM) emailed to us. As there is no work for the distributor we usually get preferential terms.

This one is right over the western side of England just before we get to Wales so about 150 miles from London. John.

I suppose for 35mm film a lot depends on the colour grading worked out from the interpositive Danny but it's an analogue process so not as exacting as digital video. Having said that, film is still ahead of any video projection I've seen in terms of colour saturation and density. For example, the best blacks I've ever seen are probably on the IMAX print of TENET at the BFI IMAX. I want to see that again... and again and again and again. Maybe then I'll also know what it's all about but who cares when it looks that good?!? John.

Ta very much. John.

When film fails, it's gone forever though. Film reconstruction takes a microscope to the 35mm and recomposites it into a much larger image without losing any of the inherit depth and clarity. Grain is actually just noise from blowing up a 35mm image into a 35ft one. Never fear, we can always blow up the reconstructed image to the equivalent, and have both. 35mm negative is 3D without glasses at 35mm. That's why we're doing film reconstruction over just scans. John Ford wanted us to achieve this damn it.

Film is making a comeback thanks to OPPENHEIMER so even though I don't think we'll be going back to how cinema was done before there should be more movies being shot, finished and released on film in the years ahead. That will get me back to cinemas much more regularly and I don't think I'll be alone there Gary. John.

@@grant9214 Film has proven itself to be archival which RAID storage hasn't - yet. It's great that films are being treated with so much respect now and getting these restorations so that they look just as good as digital videos. There's something about real film projection though and I think it's down to the mechanical shutter and the diffusion of the light from having a physical film passing between lamp and lens. It's simply more natural and easier to look at, or at least, it is for me. Thank you for the detailed reply there Grant. John.

Thank you Stone Metal Fan. John (Tygers of Pan Tang fan).

I think they are going to be using 35mm more now that it's becoming popular again so the best of both worlds will be available at The Courtyard. Given how quickly film is spreading back into cinemas over here hopefully the rest of the world is going to take notice... and OPPENHEIMER will have helped in that regard. John.

Not all the videos shown in cinemas are 4K Gordon. Many are but I don't know the ratio between 2K and 4K. I think you can see the 2K or 4K listing at some point on the screen when SImon is going through the myriad titles on the holding system for the Borderlines film festival. We do occasionally get digital blocking caused by a 4K video disc being too compressed but it's a rare thing. This is usually because the 4K master file has been compressed during the conversion process to fit the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc being used and if it's a 66Gb disc then sometimes it's not enough to avoid a visible issue. For example, TOTAL RECALL has blocking in the extremely red sequence when the ship is coming in to land on Mars. That disc can be purchased for as little as £15 so I don't think we can complain too much. DCP is the cinema format for a reason and that reason is to present the best possible video quality for exhibition to the public. The home market isn't quite so vital, or isn't considered to be quite so vital. John.

@@moviecollector5920 thanks John. I wonder if there's a chance to do a comparison between a DCP and a 4k Blu ray at any point? Obviously it'd have to be done at a cinema to access the DCP system, and the difficulty would be availability of a 4k Blu Ray during the same window as an authorised cinema presentation, but it would be interesting to see what the differences might be in quality and compression. I do feel we're lucky to have 4k Blu Ray though for the home, as some of them can look - and sound - absolutely amazing.

@@cameralabs I don't think it would be particularly easy to discern the difference unless the screen was huge and there aren't many cinemas around with huge screens any longer. The test would probably have to be done by a projectionist like Simon as they're really the only people with the access to do it. Most 4K discs look brilliant though Gordon, any that don't, such as THE CREATOR, is because they never had the image quality to start with. John.

DCP uses jpeg 2000 compressed files. It is compressed per frame, but it is not lossless. JPEG 2000 can however handle lossless compression, they call that level 7. Blu-ray uses mpeg compression. A 2hr 2k film uncompressed is about 1.7TB, where a DCP is roughly 200GB. In comparison, a 4K film uncompressed original files is closer to 8 TB.

@@princesswalt4010 Thank you for leaving such wonderful information there PrincessWalt. I have a frame by frame transfer of the BATMAN (1989) trailer and it's around 50mb per frame. No way of projecting that with anything at the moment then but once Quantum Computers are here no doubt we're going to see a big change in the quality of digital video. John.

I don't know the answer to that I'm afraid but Simon does keep an eye on the incoming comments so he may see this and know the answer. I would imagine it will be the fastest possible as 1Gb would take around 20 minutes minimum to get a complete average size file across to the holding server and it's not like the distributors only have to upload it to a few cinemas. 10Gb therefore seems more likely but as I said, I don't know. John.

the speed of the line which delivers the feature to the Cinema is around 80Gbs however the delivery server is regulated and data is sent in 'packets' so in an emergency it can still take 3/4 hrs to receive a film. Once on the holding server I am not sure of the line speed internally but it takes around 40mins to 1hr depending on the file size and much longer if the receiving projector is screening a film.

@@simonnichollsfilm Thanks so much for the information. Sounds like it might be a 1 gig line given the upload time.

@@simonnichollsfilm Thank you for the clarification Simon. It's all an education and very much appreciated. John.

If it's not the same Victor then it's got to be very similar. I would imagine it was a worldwide collaboration because the big downgrade in 2011 had taken some time to get to so surely all the interested parties would have worked it out together. John.

US is way ahead of the UK as a whole but there are still cutting edge theatres in the UK as well.

DCP is the top quality but I don't know if we'd perceive a difference on our comparatively tiny home screens. The bigger a projection is the easier it is to discern a superior image. John.

I might be able to if we were able to do a comparison on a huge cinema screen but otherwise I think it's unlikely on a smaller screen and impossible on any telly. John.

Same place the DCP comes from Allen - the distributor. Sent down the same link too. John.

@@moviecollector5920 So the DCP file is the same file for every theater (in a given country), but each key is unique to each theater?

​@@AllenCavedo The DCP may be the same worldwide but with all the options built in similar to what is provided with many home video discs but with only the relevant option built into each destination cinema (e.g. English subtitles for a French language film). There is indication of this when Simon breaks down the various codes within the file details on the holding system with designations for language and any subtitle listed within each particular DCP. I dare say there will be variations for some movies though and some cinemas may be able to request alternative subtitles or language if there is a high foreign language speaking population within the catchment area of a particular cinema... but I could well be wrong here. The unlock codes will have to be unique to each theatre as they are date specific or at least, the DCP is unlocked to run between or on specified dates. John.

@@moviecollector5920 Excellent answer. I always wondered how digital films were delivered and managed.

All correct@@moviecollector5920 and yes quite often I will have 2 versions of the film file but with a key that only unlocks the relevant version for that territory with any appropriate edits. That version is usually of much smaller size but 'pulls' all the info it needs from the main file. You will both of them available to you in order to play the film.

I suppose that would be down to which format a cinema has but if there are both available then whichever is the preferred option from the distributor/studio. Failing that, the preferred choice of the cinema. If Simon sees this perhaps he'll point us in the right direction. John.

Usually a film comes with all the different versions available when we receive it. (5.1, 7.1, Atmos) I then load the file which represents the sound system we use (eg Dolby 5.1). Luckily all the files are backward compatible so if we load up an Atmos version it will still play albeit in 5.1. As with subtitles we can't use a menu (like domestic video) to select subtitles or sound format to change output we literally have to load the correct individual file into the playlist. Simon

@@simonnichollsfilm Thanks! for the explanation. I always wondered how it was done.

@@charlesgreene9434 It all comes down to who has the distribution and what licences are adhered to.

That's a question for Simon really Sen but there is that lock on the file so that it can only be screened between certain dates. Not all of them have the lock key though. John.

Hi there, the nearer the release date the more days and screenings you have to commit to. Usually all available screenings for a couple of weeks. Once you get past the first month it is a-lot more flexible. Having an Odeon over the road we try and provide some choice with programming with up to 4 individual films each day.

@@simonnichollsfilm There is a nice cinema in Liverpool, it's a community cinema in Crosby called the plaza, run by volunteers

There are still many great independent cinemas all over the UK keeping the magic alive. Its nice to hear about some of them through this channel 👍

The cat was dead Russell. Cooked by the heat from the xenon lamp! John.

Maybe we'll challenge Simon to do that once The Courtyard start to make greater use of real film now it's back in vogue and generating audiences around the world once more. John.

I believe satellite live streaming does go on Jarek but it's not something I'd ever bother going to see so have never experienced it. I don't know about satellite distribution of files though which maybe had a place up until about 20 years ago but after than broadband started coming in and internet speeds improved vastly over standard ISDN. John.

Whilst never a film industry professional myself, through a friend who was I was at the first demo of digital cinema in the UK at BAFTA Picadilly. Must be more than 20 years ago now. There was much talk of how piracy would be reduced and part of that was through satellite distribution. The hard drive box for just one film was large suitcase size back then and I would guess that as storage technology improved and became cheaper it rendered satellite distribution obsolete. Only my guess, I was only an interloper at BAFTA with no inside knowledge.

@@malcolmknight6450 There was a three-gun CRT video projection demonstration at the Odeon Leicester Square a few years before triple DLP projection came along Malcolm. I didn't see it but my boss from the BFCC was and he rated it as possibly 16mm quality. There was then the triple DLP demonstration and although that was only HD at the time (if I remember correctly) it was rated much higher than the previous effort. The BFCC team had a morning with Nigel Wolland at the Odeon when the downloading of video movies first came about and it was being sucked down an ISDN line, was taking forever and was driving Nigel nuts! I remember him telling us that he was glad he was close to retirement so it wouldn't be his problem for much longer. John.

Yes Darren. But it's batteries were dead so it wasn't purring I'm afraid. John.

This is due to the rat immersion into breathing fluid scene. It was heavily cut over here and I think it would have to be re-submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for a new certification to be issued with the scene intact and there is probably not a guarantee it would get through. It's therefore uneconomic to either re-work the disc into a seamless branching version with two different cuts or to produce an entirely separate disc. I have the film on film so this doesn't really affect me. John.

@@moviecollector5920 Thanks for the information, John. For the record, the new disc has both the original theatrical cut as well as a longer version. I personally prefer this longer version. Hopefully, the British Board of Film Classification can work out an agreement with Cameron and get the film released in the UK. I think it's a good film.

@@jknuttel Conversely, I don't like the extended version. This will probably ruin it for you now so don't read on if you don't want me to spoil it but... the success of the film is the claustrophobic, confined nature of it. The only distraction from the events down below are the short sequences showing the command ship above. They are few and short and so the whole film is focused on the adventure and tension within the submersible drilling rig. The extended version breaks that focus and it suddenly becomes an alien invasion, worldwide destruction movie. We're taken out of our confined surroundings within the submersible and seeing rather dodgy computer effects of goings on around the world. I found it interesting to see it once (the re-release at the Shaftesbury Avenue which is now an Odeon) but I have never wanted to watch it again despite having multiple copies on home video formats. I did use the extended edition LaserDisc to re-record my Super 8 print and there are two alternative takes used of the same scene within that extended edition. I did see a few extracts from the new 4K a few days ago and one of these was when Mary Elizabeth's character is en route down to the sub and Ed Harris says "God, I hate that bitch!" and the chap playing Hippie responds, "Well, you probably shouldn't have married her then, huh?" - well, those two wonderful lines appear to be missing now. Please feel free to correct me if they are still there but it's possible they're deemed politically incorrect now. John.

I expect most of us on here prefer film Raymond but it's not likely to come back en masse. An occasional screening of special releases and some of the greatest classics in cinema history will keep it going and ensure we get to see the best possible quality on occasion. Tabs are a part of cinema for me but they are so rare today. I'm pleased to see motorized masking because that is even more vital but some of the morons in charge of cinemas don't appreciate the value it brings which illustrates what they know about their chosen career. John.

I'm not sure I've fully understood what you've said here Marco but it reads well and makes me think of a little film called CINEMA PARADISO. Now that's a beautiful little cinema showing real film. John.

what I said was that I love film over digital@@moviecollector5920

Thanks Victor. John.

Me too Andrew. I actually see more in the resultant video than when I'm actually in these places doing the recording. John.

I'm not exactly enamoured with video in cinemas either Finlay but I have to admit I found this very interesting and gave me much more appreciation for the work involved. John.

Good cinemas still have that capability Robert and still do the occasional 'reel' film screening. John.

I'm hearing from people all over the world that their local cinemas no longer mask the image to correctly frame it. No wonder cinema is in terminal decline. Better to watch a movie at home. At least anyone could put some black card or material around the projected image at home.... or even to frame a large television image. John.