Sony's CineAlta 4K digital cinema solution coming May 1st

May 1st is the date that Sony hopes will usher in the era of digital cinemas. That's the date their CineAlta 4K digital cinema solution goes on sale in Japan. With the SRX-R220 at its core, the 5-foot / 660-pound CineAlta 4K system projects a 4,096 x 2,160 pixel image at 18,000 lumens off its 4.2kW bulb. The 300GB films are stored in an encrypted JPEG2000 format within Sony's 19-inch, LMT-100 "media block" RAID array. Sony is counting on about 1/3 of Japan's 3,000 cinemas taking on their ¥1.5 million ($12,651) per screen solution by 2010 with even higher hopes for the US market. They'll need lots of help since projection systems are just a tiny fraction of the total conversion costs required to move cinemas into the digital age.

[Via Impress]

[Mr.Christopher @ Apr 25th 2007 7:21AM]

Wow! Until I read the 5 ft. part I thought Sony had come out with a new human shrinking technology.

[ph @ Apr 25th 2007 7:31AM]

Sony has had a 4K has been around for years...Whats the big deal?

[darkstar @ Apr 25th 2007 7:36AM]

why do we have to go to the theaters?
will movies ever be released directly to us on dvds or the internet?

[ScOObyDoo @ Apr 25th 2007 7:49AM]

I have to say, for a projector with these specs I find that price very low. It's almost in the realm of the high end home theater.

Then of course it dawned on me; there is no frikkin way this projector costs $12k. Even back in Jan Engadget wrote that it would cost a "couple hundie grand".

So I'm guessing the original article got some facts wrong and whoever did the cut/paste didn't think the price was a tad out of the ordinary. The list price of the SRX-R220 ALONE is $98,550, so add the media server and you are probably looking at $200k.

[ph @ Apr 25th 2007 8:16AM]

"It's almost in the realm of the high end home theater. "

Almost? Considering high end home theater projectors come in at 50000, 12000 is well within that range.

But I agree, NO WAY does this thing cost just 12000 dollars.

[Kev50027 @ Apr 25th 2007 1:28PM]

Seriously, just a few years ago my father spent $25,000 on a 61" HD Plasma TV.

[Karl Viklund @ Apr 25th 2007 7:50AM]

With lots of DRM...

[Rusty @ Apr 25th 2007 8:24AM]

Make that 15 million yen or around $126,000. Which still seems low.

[zed @ Apr 25th 2007 8:45AM]

Nice washing machine!

[R2P2 @ Apr 25th 2007 8:50AM]

The 1.5 million yen was probably for the actual screen, or maybe a bulb for the projector.

[Lazarus Dark @ Apr 25th 2007 9:51AM]

hmm, I don't think that will fit very well in my apartment living room.

[Mike @ Apr 25th 2007 10:08AM]

OMG, the cost for the replacement bulb ,must be astronomical!!!

[ericdfields @ Apr 25th 2007 10:42AM]

So does this mean the cost of going to a movie will drop back down to a more affordable price and movies will start being entertaining?

No? "Of course not," you say?

Right...

[J @ Apr 25th 2007 10:52AM]

I think I would almost rather see 2K at 48 fps than 4K

[Mike Isler @ Apr 25th 2007 11:00AM]

Wired Mag indicates $127,000 for a "base model", which sounds more in line: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/04/sony_4k_cinema_.html

[kadajawi @ Apr 25th 2007 11:20AM]

Yeah, the price was too good to be true. $127000 makes much more sense.

Hm... no, please not 2K. I recall something like 2K being about what you'd see in an ordinary cinema, because it's a copy of a copy of a copy... 4K should be the quality of the original print. And considering how blurry our cinemas are (also multiplexes, not only smaller arthouse cinemas), we need all the resolution possible. Also I hope these 18000 lumen are bright enough... I find cinemas a bit too dark). Actually I prefer a 32" HDTV over a cinema, simply because the image appears sharper, brighter, ... hopefully this projector will change that.

Though I probably won't profit from it because I tend to avoid multiplexes and smaller cinemas probably can't afford it.

[Michael @ Nov 18th 2007 5:44AM]

I saw Blade Runner: final cut projected with one of these Sony 4K projectors and it look incredible. Way more detail than a typical 35mm print. The closest thing I have seen is contemporary 70mm prints.

[Matt @ Apr 25th 2007 11:47AM]

We have a cinema close to where I live that is now all-digital with Christie 2k projectors, and I have to say they look DAMN good.

If that is any indication of the direction of digital cinema, sign me up!

[Brad @ Apr 25th 2007 11:51AM]

DRM? Encoded JPEG2000?

It will be a few more years before people start torrenting 300GB 4K movies, that your computer likely cant even play (unless you have an nVidia 8800).

[g3n3 @ Apr 25th 2007 1:12PM]

You don't want to stare at the naked 4 kW bulb....
I want one ^^

[ColorGuy @ Apr 25th 2007 1:30PM]

The price will likely be in the 130k range for the system. They are starting to mass produce them as opposed to the nearly 1 off process of making the early projectors.

A movie screen while expensive costs much less than 100k.

The files are huge and rendered unplayable on all but the most high end systems with specialized raids. The data throughput to the projector/screen is amazing since it has uncompressed data. 300 gb per feature is highly compressed. Movies are 1-2 TB uncompressed a 90 minute feature would stream near 200-400 mb per second to the display. That is far beyond the standard DVI spec.

It is truly amazing that kind of performance on a system.

The system should run on a native 24 frame a second rate. It it would be 24 fps a second at 72 HZ,just like a traditional projector.

[TechDork @ Apr 25th 2007 7:21PM]

"The data throughput to the projector/screen is amazing since it has uncompressed data. 300 gb per feature is highly compressed. Movies are 1-2 TB uncompressed a 90 minute feature would stream near 200-400 mb per second to the display. That is far beyond the standard DVI spec."

Not sure where you got your numbers from:
Dual Link DVI is 7.4Gbits/sec which >900MB/sec.
HDMI 1.3 is 10.2Gbits/sec which is more than 1 GB/sec.

Uncompressed 4K video is 4096 x 2160 pixels x 3 colors x8 bit/color = 26GB/sec
12bit color would be 40GB/sec. So a 120 minute movies would be 188-288TB /sec.

[justin @ Apr 25th 2007 1:38PM]

http://www.ravemotionpictures.com/

we have fully digital theaters already. and this one sports $5 movies for students with free popcorn and soda. 300 was an amazing flick there!

[Dmc @ Apr 25th 2007 2:08PM]

SONY made the HAL 9000?

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave, I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL?
HAL: I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

[mark hoekstra @ Apr 25th 2007 4:17PM]

>Then of course it dawned on me; there is no frikkin way this projector costs $12k.

Indeed, babelfish comes up with a translation of the price of: 1,500 ten thousand Yen or more, which brings us to 15 million yen instead of 1.5 million. That takes us to $120k instead of 12k which sounds a lot more feasible to me.

[murray @ Apr 25th 2007 8:19PM]

"Uncompressed 4K video is 4096 x 2160 pixels x 3 colors x8 bit/color = 26GB/sec
12bit color would be 40GB/sec. So a 120 minute movies would be 188-288TB /sec."

Um. Wouldn't it be:

4096 * 2160 * 3col/pix * 8bit/col * 24frames = 5096079360b/s (4.75Gb/s) = 0.59GB/s

So a 120m film would take 1.682*60*120 = 4271GB or about 4.2TB uncompressed?

Multiply by 1.5 for 12 bit color (do they use that? Seems like overkill)

[murray @ Apr 25th 2007 8:21PM]

Sorry, I should have said "a 120m film would take 0.59*60*120 = 4271GB..."

[repete @ Sep 8th 2007 1:20AM]

Anybody know where else these are installed?
ROSEMONT, Ill. -- It's a Saturday night out at the movies...The experience includes the first Sony 4K CineAlta digital projectors in the Chicago area.