Hi everyone - quick, hopefully not too irrelevant question - was watching Ice Age 2 over the weekend and just wondered what resolution a cinema movie would be rendered out at ? my amateur home setup would probably run away and leap of a cliff if I even started typing in the kind of resolution I'd image they're displaying, but was just curious cheers Sean

Bear in ind the difference between the size of the screen you're looking at, and the actualy image on the celluloid that is being projected. True, it will probably be a good sized resolutino within that cel image, but it will be a muh smaller image size (you're looking at a few inches across, not even the size of your screen), so there is some tradeoff there. jonthecelt

Well standard NTSC DVD is 720X480

Attached Link: http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-

1920 x 1200 = 1.6 aspect ratio 1920 x 1080 = 1.77 aspect ratio is HD-TV Sony just release a home projector for HD (link attached)

Attached Link: http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9121

"There are some 'shorthand' values that are used in describing the resolution of a digital projector. When we talk of the HDTV standard in the United States, we talk in terms of 'lines' (horizontal lines per image, or height), like 1080i (1,080 lines per image) and 720p (720 lines per image). Cinema projection is referred to by the width of the image, and uses two key terms: 2K and 4K. The 'K' represents the number 1,000 (like in the Y2K bug, where '2K' meant the year 2000), and the number represents how many pixels across (wide) the image will be. So 2K means 2,000 pixels wide, and 4K means 4,000 pixels wide. Specifically, a '2K' projector will have a maximum resolution of 2048 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high, while a '4K' projector will be 4096 x 2160. (It is not a coincidence that the 1080i HDTV standard has the same number of horizontal lines as the 2K cinema standard.)"

thanks guys - just didn't occur to me that being a projection, it wouldn't necessarily need a significantly higher frame resolution on the source film cheers Sean

I'd say 2048x1080 or 4096x2160 is quite significatly high!

Attached Link: USA Today article on digital cinema

The link shows that it's at least 2000 with Sony going to 4000.

yes they call that "2K" and "4K" for short. In reality the pixel widths are 2048 and 4096 respectively. Some people are saying that on a small screen (home theater or one of those small public screens about 20' across) 4K is not a significant advantage over 2K, but on larger, you can really tell the difference.

From a practical standpoint, it would be a big waste to render at those sizes. They are specific to film and it would require a bunch of money to get your output converted to film. Even if you could afford it, you couldn't play it at home unless you have a real theater set up.

You're better off rendering at normal DVD resolutions (standard aspect or widescreen). HD also is impractical unless you're going to take your output to a production house that works in that format. Even then they'd have to resize it down to fit on a DVD.

Message edited on: 04/03/2006 11:52

he specifically asked for cinema resolution. as oppsoed to DVD

I know. I was just adding a thought 'just in case.' That would be some hellacious rendering. Especially if he was planning on doing it in Poser.

it sure would