CAN WE EXCEED IMAX CINEMA QUALITY IN THE HOME?

CAN WE EXCEED IMAX CINEMA QUALITY IN THE HOME?

Lets talk about resolution first...

Vista Vision (35mm)....1.85.1...........................................4.8K ......Theoretical max.resolution

Super Panavision.(52mm)....2.20.1..................................6.9K ..... Theoretical max.resolution

70mm........................2.76.1..............................................9.3K ..... Theoretical max.resolution

Imax...........................1.43.1-2.00.1.................................12K......   Theoretical max.resolution

Cinerama.(Inaugerated in 1952)..2.65.1..........................14.4K   ...Theoretical max resolution.

Now the screen width of Commercial Cinema screens can vary wildly from 25ft wide to 100ft.

Normal multiplexs are about 30-50ft wide.

A reasonable size for a quality home cinema screen would be 10ft wide..(Just over 3Meters)..

Now with 8K DCI commercial Cinema projectors the resolution using a 2.35.1 aspect (aka 2.39.1,2.37.1) screen would be 8192 x 3486 on an average 30ft wide screen..

8K will follow into the consumer market place in 2018 BUT onto an average 10ft wide screen.

For the first time in Movie history,the perceived resolution of an image at home with be better than an image at the Commercial Cinema.

What about brightness?

The aim is to get 16ft lamberts of brightness back from the screen in a commercial cinema.Of course with ambient lighting its closer to 12ft lamberts.

In a consumer high end Cinema using a Sony VPL VW5000ES on a 16.5ft wide screen you could expect 16ft lamberts using a 1.3 gain screen from a viewing distance of about 45ft.

This is 30% brighter on a 50% smaller screen.

What about picture dynamic?

Because you have the ability to completely darken the Home Cinema room ,less ambient light means less washing out of the picture from light reflected back onto the screen.

This means "blacker" blacks,a more punchier picture. 

Conclusion..

A quality large screen consumer setup can out perform its commercial cousin quite significantly now..in resolution..brightness and picture dynamic..

The only area it cant easily outperform its commercial cousin is in pure size.!

But even here,its perceptory to a great degree..in a room 10% of the size of a large auditorium,that 50% smaller image seems vast in the significantly smaller space.