2.35 published image in disk?

Josh Z said:

IIRC, those 1080p projectors simply masked off the top and bottom of the chip, so the resolution was actually only 1920x800.

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No it was the full 1080 tall as they started with a WQXGA chip. They used something they called an integrator rod to vertically compress the light path to just cover the scope area on the chip.

They also had some cool software that would detect the incoming AR and change the projector on the fly between scope the largest AR and keeping all other ARs CIH at 1080.

It was pretty solid IMO except the pricing excluded almost everyone as you could buy something equally as good and an A-lens and still have money in your pocket. Then you had an A-lens to take along to your next projector.

If you truly believe “4k already has so much resolution that we've exceeded the point of diminishing returns.” Then brightness loss is the biggest issue doing the zoom or scaling method of CIH in today’s world of 4k HDR. Then something like this (integrator rod) that could be put in and out of the light path for zooming or just left in for scaling would make a pretty simple CIH solution.

Here is a old video of dVision scope projector and how it worked.

jHenk said:

I don't suppose they cleaned up this omission on 4K disks? (cringe)

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I agree with Josh Z in part. With every improvement in resolution we are getting less and less impact on our vision. We that view FP are a pretty small subset of those buying media HD/UHD and we view it most cases more immersive than TV viewers who are in the majority.

Scope TV sets were short lived, and there is something in human nature that feels they need to fill that screen or they are getting ripped off. There is no reason a guy couldn’t buy a 85” 4k HDR flat panel TV and sit 6’ back and have a pretty nice CIH+IMAX viewing experience and at 6’ he could surely share it with one or two others. Then when he has a dozen people for a super bowl party he could pull the couch back and everyone would get a decent image in the room full screen. But no one will do that it is against human nature so they sit back 10’ and watch TV and then complain when a scope movie comes on it is so small in comparison. Scope TV sets failed as everyone thought they were getting ripped off every time they watched TV.

The disc is just a bunch of ones and zeros for the most part and could be formatted a million different ways. The industry for good or bad has painted themselves into a 16:9 corner. So that’s the box everything has to live in. With these amazing resolutions and the ability to zoom as much as I like I no longer care if the box is 4:3 what I would have liked or 2.35:1 that most CIH folks would like. As long as I’m not seeing pixels and can zoom to as immersive as I like and still be as bright as I like, I don’t really worry about what I’m not using.

If there is anything that bothers me anymore it is when a movie like Dunkirk that had a 1.43 AR IMAX theatrical version gets cropped down to 1.78:1 to go on a BD/UHDBD it would fit just fine in my 16:9 projector with black bars to the sides and I could then just zoom it even more for the immersion. I know hardly anyone else in the world would do that so I accept it’s a 16:9 world now and just do what I can.

Had a Mitsubishi HC6800 LCD 1080p projector some years ago that could have a mode selected that would increase the projected image exactly so that the scope image would perfectly fill out the 2.35 area of the same screen used for the original mode 16:9 image (16:9 in the middle, of course) Of course that also meant that the black bars would be projected above and below the scope screen, but fortunately, no-one seemed to notice. Enough black masking above the white, and furniture camouflaging the area below. (whew...) Even considering the resulting low resolution count, it actually didn't look that terrible in a living room with a throw of 10 feet to an eleven foot screen (scope diagonal), all considering...

Will probably be looking for another model that supports the same, but also supports Bluray 3D. I really did enjoy Polar Express when I got to see it in IMAX 3D at the Irvine Edwards IMAX theatre during it's original release. (Irvine, CA) Just wish I could find a way to audition projectors nowadays. Retail outlets with setups besides dumbed-down Magnolias in Best Buys (all without 3D) are gone. Probably rely on reviews, and buy on eBay.

Josh Z said:

This can be done now without anamorphic enhancement on the disc using scaling in the projector.
IIRC, those 1080p projectors simply masked off the top and bottom of the chip, so the resolution was actually only 1920x800.

Click to expand...

Had a Mitsubishi HC6800 LCD 1080p projector some years ago that had a mode that didn't do that, exactly. It would increase the projected 1920x1080 image so that the scope image would perfectly fill out the 2.35 area of the same screen used for the original mode 16:9 image, (16:9 in the middle, of course) But that also meant that the black bars would be projected as well above and below the scope screen Fortunately, no one seemed to notice. Enough black masking above the white, and furniture camouflaging the area below. (whew...) Even considering the resulting low resolution count, it actually didn't look that terrible in a living room with a throw of 10 feet to an eleven foot screen (scope diagonal), all considering...

Will probably be looking for another model that supports the same, but also supports Bluray 3D. I really did enjoy Polar Express when I got to see it in IMAX 3D at the Irvine Edwards IMAX theatre during it's original release. (Irvine, CA) Just wish I could find a way to audition projectors nowadays. Retail outlets with setups besides dumbed-down Magnolias in Best Buys (all without 3D) are gone. Probably rely on reviews, and buy on eBay. Actually, the HC7800D looked pretty good for a 2011 machine. Got pretty good reviews at the time, too.