The Harkins Tempe Marketplace Theaters opened on June 25, 2007 with the new Die Hard movie at its Cine Capri, 1400 watts, I think 140 speakers, and a 2:35 curved screen 70' wide with side masking for 1:85 films!!!

Large seats and rows for us big folks, too!!

Best picture and sound in the area.

But an analog projector.

Sometimes, when it was originally a digital movie, like Spiderman 3, The Golden Compass, and others, I could tell the picture was somewhat soft.

Today, for The Incredible Hulk, the Manager announced just before the movie that they just installed what they said couldn't be done, a brand new digital projector for the biggest screen in Arizona.

I don't know what projector it is.

But the picture was simply drop dead gorgeous sensational. And a great movie, too!!!

I wonder what projector they got!! And how much it cost??

Here's an article I found about a brand new Harkins Theaters in Tuscon with all digital theaters!@

Barco DP3000, Dolby Server.

Very nice. Welcome to the Digital Cinema Forum, esquire.

Very nice. Welcome to the Digital Cinema Forum, esquire.

Max, since you are THE ONE up on this stuff, how long have digital cinema projectors been available, how much did they initially cost, and how much have they improved over the years at what cost now?

I've see digital cinema before and never on this big a screen or this outstanding of a picture. Very impressive!!!@@@

The prcing has gone down from 115k to less than 70 and projected to hit the 55 mark after next weeks announcements. But that is un-modded, once you go that route it starts adding up as the cost of having a warranty after mods comes to play, as well as the mods themselves.

http://www.showest.com/filmexpo/cinemaexpo/images/Banner.jpg

The prcing has gone down from 115k to less than 70 and projected to hit the 55 mark after next weeks announcements. But that is un-modded, once you go that route it starts adding up as the cost of having a warranty after mods comes to play, as well as the mods themselves.

http://www.showest.com/filmexpo/cinemaexpo/images/Banner.jpg

Max, I was asking about the price of the digital cinema projectors that they are using in the theaters, not in the home. Are you telling me that the projector they just installed at the Harkins Cine Capri to light up a 70' wide screen cost less than 70K and is projected to hit the 55K mark after next week's announcement?

Peter is installing in his theaters the same units used in the digital cinemas except modified to get better sequential contrast than the units used in commercial cinemas.

Art

http://www.barco.com/projection_systems/images/ev_DP3000_pic1_L.jpg

I would say that one is 100k.

The smaller unit being announced next week may be 55. That's only a 2k lamp, half of wolfgangs but sufficient for 25 feet wide.

The prcing has gone down from 115k to less than 70 and projected to hit the 55 mark after next weeks announcements. But that is un-modded, once you go that route it starts adding up as the cost of having a warranty after mods comes to play, as well as the mods themselves.

http://www.showest.com/filmexpo/cinemaexpo/images/Banner.jpg

Well they started at nearly free;-).

Demo, Loaner, Barter, and so on...

TI introduced the first DLP D-Cinema chips in 2003, before that manufacturers used 1.3 K chips. First commercial DLP projectors were announced in 1996, DPI and Christie contest who was the first to market, Christie (Electrohome) the first to announce its agreement with TI in '96.

The 3000 is an older model, they vary in light output, it is easier to get more light out of a projector with the older larger chip, so they will probably be around for a while yet. These big boys go upto 30K ANSI lumens.

The 3000 is a new model based on the older large chassis like Odyssey's, although the convergence is neatly accessible in a board and convergence of a 1.2 chip is much easier than on a .98, the little ones are more like working on a crowded car engine. Perhaps they will add the card in the new lite model. With the exception of ease of convergence, the .98 image is more impressive due to the higher native contrast.

What 'card' are you referring to Peter?

Where you have all convergence controls mounted on a board for easy access.

Okay, but those won't help you if you actually knock the panels out of alignmenthttp://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:QcCQz4FLWAsJTM:i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/tanshin_1978/post%20images/smiley_devil.png.

...a brand new Harkins Theaters in Tuscon with all digital theaters!@

I've seen the new Indy movie in that theater. Very, very nice.
I asked before buying tickets which screen had DLP projectors and they told me "All 18 of them!" woohoo!
That will make me go back to the movies much more often.
We've since watched "Baby Mama" albeit on a smaller screen and it was also very nice.
Can't beat the $1 drinks either!

I posted this to a film forum where the manager of this theater resides. He mentioned they are in the testing phase and could not say which projector was in use but did say it was confirmed in this thread.

Anyone know if they were using an anamorphic or the zoom method. Steve how far back were you sitting. Could you detect any pixel structure, thats a very large screen for 2k.

I posted this to a film forum where the manager of this theater resides. He mentioned they are in the testing phase and could not say which projector was in use but did say it was confirmed in this thread.

Anyone know if they were using an anamorphic or the zoom method. Steve how far back were you sitting. Could you detect any pixel structure, thats a very large screen for 2k.

Alan, I like to sit in the third to fourth row from the back, right in the middle.
I have subjectively found that the sound is best there! So that's where I sat.
From where we sat, I couldn't detect any pixel structure.

Doing a web search I found out that when Harkins recently opened a new 14 theater complex in west Phoenix, that its all digital, too:

http://www.newszap.com/articles/2006/08/21/az/north_valley/anth02.txt

Alan, I like to sit in the third to fourth row from the back, right in the middle.
I have subjectively found that the sound is best there! So that's where I sat.
From where we sat, I couldn't detect any pixel structure.

Thats where I prefer to sit as well, thanks for the reply.

Here's a nice article of the history of Harkins Theaters:

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1519305/

Apparently the Cine-Capri's Barco DP3000 test was not successful, according to a post on Film-Tech. The message stated that the test has concluded and that the Cine-Capri will not be going digital at this time.

Apparently the Cine-Capri's Barco DP3000 test was not successful, according to a post on Film-Tech. The message stated that the test has concluded and that the Cine-Capri will not be going digital at this time.

I talked to either the theater manager or one of the assistant managers after seeing the new Will Smith movie at the Cine Capri on July 4th. He advised that this was a scheduled test of the projector for several weeks, that they liked it, but at some future point they would get an even better brighter projector for the Cine Capri.