General questions about new digital projectors in movie theaters

[jimdagys]

I read that most movie theaters have converted to digital. My questions are:
1) what size (in GB) is the average movie file that is shown in the theater
2) how does the movie theater get the movie, ie, is it snailed mailed on a special hard disk, or does the movie file get to the theater by internet?
3) what type of file is the movie, ie, avi, mpeg or some special proprietary format
4) any other interesting facts regarding the new digital projectors

[TreeTops]

Can't answer any of your questions, but I can mention my experience watching a digital projected image in a theater in Eugene, Oregon. The picture was too dim. I won't ever do that again unless they get better projectors. Maybe your answer to question #4 will address that.

[jman98]

1) I found a reference to movies being stored on 300 GB hard drives, but no mention of the size per film.
2) Live broadcasts can be done via the internet, but apparently special hard drives are the normal means of distribution.
3) I do not know, but I'm guessing it's proprietary.
4) They're REALLY expensive. Hollywood wants to shift to all digital for various reasons, but smaller theater owners probably will close rather than pay what it costs to convert to digital.

[Cornucopia]

The DCPs that digital theatres use for their masters use Jpeg200 2k or 4k Images in a MXF wrapper. At ~100:1 compression (mild/minimal compression for JP2k) this works out to:

[Video]
18.225    Mbps for 2D 2k @ 24Fps
36.45     Mbps for 2D 2k @ 48Fps
36.45     Mbps for 3D 2k @ 24Fps
72.9      Mbps for 3D 2k @ 48Fps
72.9      Mbps for 2D 4k @ 24Fps
145       Mbps for 2D 4k @ 48Fps
145       Mbps for 3D 4k @ 24Fps
290       Mpbs for 3D 4k @ 48Fps
 
[Audio]
6.591    Mbps for 24bit, 48000Hz, 6 channel LPCM Broadcast WAV

So for a 2 hour movie, that works out to:
21.81 GB or
37.83 GB or
69.87 GB or
133.23 GB or
260.68 GB

Some of those options weren't available until this most recent advancement into 48Fps, so are non-standard. Plus this doesn't include Imax footage (which STARTS at the upper end of those figures and goes up from there).

No DCP goes through the standard internet. It is either physically shipped on Pressed & Encrypted data DVD-ROMs or you connect to it & download through a dedicated Satellite connection to your dedicated, encrypted cinema media server.

Look up DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) for more info.

Scott

BTW, the decryption key does not exist on the media server - it must get it by "renting" it from a DCI show rental clearing house, so it never exists except at the time of "showing" the title. VERY SECURE (aka don't even think of wasting your time trying to crack the chain).

[Hoser Rob]

There's no way they were ever going to distribute those files over the net.