Re: DLP showing Was Re: Master and Commander AR

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 Michel Hafner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> The perception of black depends on average image brightness, amount of
> ambient light, structure of the image (where are the dark and bright
> regions)... Excellent blacks in my books are blacks that pass the following
> very tough test: 
> - no ambient light, black room (minimal reflections from room on screen)
> - space scene with black of space and some stars, mabe a little space ship
>   too, not very bright
> - the scene lasts long enough so the eye adapts to the very low average
>   image brightness
> 
> Is space now pitch black or a shade of gray? If it's pitch black the blacks
> are excellent. I have only seen this from top CRT technology. Laser should be
> able to do it as well. Any technology that uses a bright lamp and takes
> light away to create black will have huge problems to create real blacks
> (and that includes film projection, DLP, LCD, D-ILA, LCOS).

I saw _2001: A Space Odyssey_ on its first run in New York and in the 
space scenes the "space" seemed to me to be absolutely stark pitch 
black.  I don't know what technology was used to accomplish this.  My 
recollection is not good enough for me to swear in a court of law that 
the edges of the frame were not visible, but I certainly remember that 
space was BLACK. Not dark, not black-with-little-flecks-in-it, certainly 
not black with little white dots or scratches in. Just black.  

I was terribly disappointed to see it recently in 70mm at a local 
theatre, and the blacks were distinctly washed out. In this particular 
case, it was a smallish theatre and it's possible that screen light 
reflecting off the cinema patrons themselves might have been enough to 
have an effect.

-- 
dpbsmith at world dot std dot com
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