What is Digital Cinema?

See the difference.

DLP Cinema technology delivers crystal clear and lifelike images for the ultimate in picture quality. DLP Cinema technology delivers a true digital picture with incredible clarity and vibrant colors every show.

Famous "Hollywood" picture quality

Celluloid film has been used to shoot, distribute and screen movies for more than 100 years. Now, the movie industry is at the threshold of the biggest change in its history: the transition from film to digital.

DLP Cinema technology has captivated millions of movie-goers, delivering clear, sharp, bright and accurate images to movie theatres around the world. The total number of installed DLP Cinema projectors is over 80,000, with theatres located in nearly every country around the world.

DLP Cinema systems have been deployed and tested commercially in theatres since 1999, providing more than 13 years of in-field usage. And with the May 2002 release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones–the first all–digital live action feature, shot without a single roll of film – the digital revolution arrived to stay.

What exactly is digital cinema?

Digital cinema encompasses every aspect of the movie making process, from production and post-production to distribution and projection.

While digital cameras are nothing new, and post-production houses have been using digital equipment to edit and master movies and animation for some time, the all-digital distribution and projection of movies has only recently arrived to complete the chain. In fact, motion picture film production is estimated to end in 2015.

A digitally produced or digitally converted movie can be distributed to theaters via satellite, physical media, or fiber optic networks. The digitized movie is stored by a computer/server which "serves" it to a digital projector for each screening of the movie.

Is digital really better than film?

For millions of movie goers worldwide and leading directors including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the answer is an unqualified "yes."

When you see a movie digitally, you see that movie the way its creators intended you to see it: with incredible clarity and detail. In a range of over 35 trillion colors. And whether you're catching that movie on opening night or months after, it will always look its best, because digital movies are immune to the scratches, fading, pops and jitter that film is prone to with repeated screenings.

That's why directors love digital cinema: it ensures that their creation will be reproduced with total fidelity at every screening.

Since 1999, DLP Cinema has projected over millions of shows to billions of moviegoers.

Where can I see a movie digitally?

You can experience movies in DLP Cinema format and projection at a growing number of select theaters worldwide.

How does DLP Cinema technology work?

1) A digital projector based on DLP Cinema technology transfers the digitized image file onto three optical semiconductors known as Digital Micromirror Devices, or DMDs. Each of these chips is dedicated to one primary color-red, green, or blue. A DMD chip designed specifically for commercial cinemas contains a rectangular array of up to 8.8 million microscopic mirrors.

2) Light from the projector's lamp is reflected off the mirrors and is combined in different proportions of red, green and blue, as controlled by the image file, to create an array of different colored pixels that make up the projected image.

3) The DMD mirrors tilt either toward or away from the light source thousands of times per second to reflect the movie onto the screen. These images are sequentially projected onto the screen, recreating the movie in front of you with perfect clarity and a range of more than 35 trillion colors.