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Today I saw my first digitally-projected film (using the Sony 4k system), and in doing so I have discovered a flaw with digital cinema: pixels. Basically, very bright scenes don't look uniform, but instead appear to contain a faint mesh. Wiki calls it the screen door effect, and it's somewhat distracting.

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From: (Anonymous)

I'm sorry to hear of your cinema experience. I would like to better understand your situation, as I work for Sony's Digital Cinema group, and want to shed some light on what possibly occurred, and how Sony is committed to bringing you the best possible show. Can I ask where you saw your movie? Was it in 3D? Was it in a 3D house, showing 2D? Any other thoughts or concerns regarding your cinema experience?

Thank you for your time, opinion, and efforts.

From:

torkell

My blog seems to be getting more and more famous by the day - first the BBC includes it as a related link for a TV program, now Sony manges to find it!

Anyway, the film was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, showing on screen 4 in the Apollo cinema in Fareham. The film was shown in 2D - the cinema has some 3D screens, but I don't know if this was in one of them. I was sitting on the right-hand side, I think about 1/3 to 1/2 way from the front.

Aside from the screen-door effect, the projection was very good with none of the jitter and dust marks you can get with film (the lack of dust was the big giveaway that this was digital). The screen-door effect was only visible in bright, uniform colours (it was most noticeable when a scene had a large area of near-white in it). Most of the scenes were darker or had a lot of detail and so it wasn't as noticeable.

From: (Anonymous)

I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Sony prides itself on our 4K projection systems, which offer 4 times more resolution than our competitors. Still, there are somethings we cannot control, like image capture, lower resolution output, etc.
As you mentioned, there is no jitter, weave, or film gate issues to be seen, and that movie will look just as perfect after 1,000 shows, as it did the first.
If you have any questions I'd be happy to help. Thank you.