Posted by John Harkness on 10/24/05 16:32

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 09:26:03 -0700, "Curtin/Dobbs"
<curtin-dobbs@comcast.net> wrote:

>
>"John Harkness" <jharkness@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
>news:c8tol19uji5lou4kfiosh5h7eh8e65d41t@4ax.com...
>> On 23 Oct 2005 22:22:18 -0700, "Jordan" <lundj@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>>I sat down this week-end and watched Batman Begins and was struck,
>>>immediately, at how much clearer it looks on DVD at home than it did in
>>>the theater. I don't have a AAA home theater set-up, but I have a nice
>>>51" rear projection 16:9 set and Dolby Digital/DTS 6.1 surround.
>>>
>>>I remember thinking when I saw it in the theater that it was a little
>>>blurry, a little grainy, kind of hard to follow the action. I said to
>>>myself back then "I wonder what it's going to look like on DVD?"
>>>
>>>Turns out it kicks ass on DVD. Has anyone else had this experence? I
>>>first noticed it back when the Brendan Frasier version of the Mummy
>>>came out. I used to blame it on the projectionist (or lack of a trained
>>>one), but now I'm not so sure.
>>>
>>>- Jordan
>>
>>
>> Just out of curiosity, wen did you see it in its run -- film prints
>> don't have that opening weekend clarity for very long, and as theatres
>> don't have actual projectionists any more to maintain equipment and
>> prints, what you likely saw was a badly projected print.
>
>On many occasions I've gone to see a movie on opening day and I've
>encountered scratchy, worn prints. It's like my theatre was sent a
>"screener." I'd say go ahead and complain, even though it might seem
>fruitless as all the other theatre patrons are enjoying the film as they eat
>popcorn from a trough and drink a bucket of soda. Who knows, you might be
>the 100th monkey. My other word of advice would be to choose theatres that
>consistently have good presentations; though, that might not be possible if
>you live in Podunkville. I've heard that if you happen to live in the L.A.
>area and go to the high-end theatres, you almost always have a good show
>because that's where the industry types see'em (when they go to a regular
>theatre). Does anyone know if that's true? Of course, all these things are
>moot to me, as I've got small kids and Netflix is my theatre. :-)
>
>...Curtin/Dobbs
>

If you have a scratchy print on opening weekend, what you probably
have is badly maintained projectors that scratch the prints up as they
play them. If they use a print to screen for critics in Boston or NY,
they're not going to box it up and ship it to Peoria to open it.

It's not that you're more likely to get better prints in L.A. or NY --
it's that you're more likely to have a theatre that's properly run --
that has audiences which bitch about out of focus shows and non-synch
sound.

John Harkness

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