Regardless of the technical screen resolution of a particular image, organizers can use outdoor screens to capture the attention of their audiences.In addition to the recent talk of faster frame rates, there’s been another format upgrade that may lead to a new trend in cinema display. Watching HD images on outdoor screens is still enough of a jolt for some audiences to handle, but the absurdly high resolution of Ultra HD, which is said to be more than eight million pixels in the Wall Street Journal, is here to test audience’s limits, and only time will tell whether it will become the true wave of the future or go the path of Laserdisc.
The emphasis on detail in the movies we watch brings with it some problems. An article in the Seattle Time noted that a recent showing of the M. Night Shyamalan film “After Earth” made use of 4K screening technology, equivalent to the “Ultra” standard being peddled for high-quality TV screens. However, the amount of storage that such digital films requires is said to be large, something theater owners will have to contend with if this becomes the norm.
Projecting such images onto an outdoor screen makes the experience more important than the particular image quality. The Times adds that those sitting far from an Ultra-HD screen may see it with the same clarity as traditional HD.
As long as there are large movie screens, there will be arguments over the best ways to screen films and what to watch. The important thing is the memories these kinds of equipment can be used to create, and organizers can use outdoor screens to accomplish with HD what some theaters may spend too much money trying to do with newer, less tested formats.