I’ve always found it odd that for years consumers can enjoy higher picture quality at home than in movie theaters. It’s something Gerwin Damberg, one of the brains behind the recently announced HDR system via Barco, agrees with. “It’s upside down!” he observed me during my recent meeting.
Prior to his role in Barco, Gerwin worked at Dolby on their Dolby Cinema formula, and in a twist of fate, I was able to compare the two in the same film, Gladiator II, a few days apart.
Having recently interviewed Damberg about HDR by Barco I was keen to get to see it, and the opportunity soon came when it was announced that the projector was to be installed at the Cineworld Leicester Square Superscreen in London for the premiere of Gladiator II — to which I was invited.
However, I had already made plans to see the movie in the only Dolby Cinema in London that I had not yet experienced — the Cinema in the Power Station, in Battersea. I stuck to my original arrangement, knowing it would give me a great opportunity to compare both technologies in action only a few days apart.
In the display order, then: HDR via Barco. Cineworld Leicester Square’s Superscreen has a modest 375 seats and is spacious, if shallow, with only 12 rows of seats. This oblong shape is due to the fact that it was in the back component of the huge 1300-plus-seat Screen 1 of the former Empire Cinema, which was split in 2014 to allow for the installation of a dual-laser IMAX auditorium and the Superscreen. he.
A new Harkness projection screen has been installed on the Superscreen and it measures 20. 5m wide and 11m is a decent size, especially for the small number of rows. The Superscreen logo is on either side of the auditorium, the seats are luxurious, the legroom is reasonable, and Dolby Atmos sound is also available.
Before the movie started, a small trailer was shown indicating an ad that we were going to see in HDR through Barco, and then the movie started. The effect was immediate. The image was visibly brighter than anything I’d noticed in the cinema and a few seconds later I felt like I was hunting for a large, high-quality OLED TV, with deep blacks, rich colours and a wealth of detail.
The opening scene of the movie has the ships of the Roman army commanded by Marcus Acacius, as played by Pedro Pascal, attacking Numidia, the home of Paul Mescal’s Lucius. The sea was an intense blue as were the explosions from the fiery cannonballs lobbed by the Roman onagers. Also impressive were the faces lit only by the golden light streaming into the darkness of the tunnels of the Colosseum. I also felt that the overall brightness level helped with contrast and enabled me to appreciate the fine detail of the costume work. I was distracted briefly by some light reflecting on the Superscreen logo on the right-hand side, and also by people going in and out at times, causing light to enter the auditorium but overall, I was lost in the movie, which is really what it’s all about.
It’s also a fact that the practicalities of a journey can impact how one perceives a location. A few days later I found myself at the Cinema in the Power Station in Battersea, London. The former power station, one of the city’s most iconic locations, has been converted into a large shopping center and while it’s over an hour away by car I chose to drive as on a cold day my EV was a far more appealing prospect than multiple trains.
The Dolby Cinema at the Power Station cinema in Battersea, London, is a lovely place to stay. . . [ ] to watch a film.
However, things did not go as planned. Although we arrived on time, the parking lot was completed and we were turned away. This meant that we had to park more than a kilometer away and walk back to the power plant in the rain. Once there, the tension was compounded by the lack of proper signage directing newcomers to the cinema. So instead of enjoying the atmosphere of the cinema while we were preparing for the film, we arrived at the very moment when it was starting. So, while the cinema says We will be offering wines, champagnes, crafts. beers, space cocktails, and popcorn, we didn’t have time to flavor them.
This is not the fault of cinema or Dolby, and both deserve credits for very good theater. The screen looks very different from the Odeon Dolby theaters I’ve been to; I like what is done here. The hallways leading to the screens are covered in striking cinematic photographs and the interior décor is modern and stylish; Plush without exaggeration. The seats are comfortable and not very reclining, which is a sensible choice: I’m not a fan of giant armchairs that go all the way to the back: after all, we’re there to watch a movie, not to take a nap. Legroom is also smart and each seat has a table with a snack tray. It’s all very clever.
A stylish cinema adorns the walls of London’s Power Station cinema.
And what of the image battle? Specs would say that with Dolby’s 108 nits playing HDR by Barco’s 300, it should be an easy victory for the latter – and in the end… it was. In terms of color, contrast and dynamic range, the Dolby system is still superior to any current standard digital projector system, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t miss the brightness and color richness of the Barco system. On the upside, I think the Dolby Atmos sound was just as impressive.
So the result is that Barco’s HDR ruined Dolby Cinema a little bit for me. The latter is wonderful, but the former is just a step forward. For me, it puts Superscreen, or at least Leicester Square in London, back into play, and I’ll be thinking about my possible options between that and the scale and strength of IMAX. For the larger film audience, it’s great news that HDR has, after all, indeed made its way to the big screen, giving it equivalent quality surpassing all the highs. The house’s sumptuous formulas in terms of scale and large-format and more sophisticated presentations can adoptarla. la Barco formula as soon as they can.
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