Are You getting the Full Picture in 3D?

Digital cinema technology has caused a definite resurgence in the popularity of 3D cinema. On this page you can find out all about the very latest addition to this technology, which is helping enhance the movie-going experience further still, for digital cinema patrons worldwide.

• To read about the challenge presented by 3D digital cinema click here
• Find out about the triple flash solution for 3D digital cinema by clicking here
• Learn about Brilliant3D™ - Christie's full resolution triple flash solution for digital cinema here
• Or you can find out what 3D movies are coming out by visiting our 3D Digital Cinema Releases page

The Digital 3D Challenge
Regular 2D projection works at a speed of 24 frames per second. However, to properly display 3D with a single DLP Cinema® projector, the movie image needs to be split into separate right eye and left eye images.

At standard digital cinema processing speeds, this left eye/right eye image sequence would ‘flash’ the movie image at 48 frames per second. This is too low to watch a 3D movie without eye discomfort. That then, is the challenge to overcome with digital 3D cinema!

The Triple Flash Solution
Triple flash is the solution to provide 3D digital cinema, with a single projector solution.

In order to project in 3D, in such a way that viewers do not suffer from any discomfort, the projector “flashes” each frame for each eye, three times as fast as with conventional projection. This tripling of the frame rate (from 48fps to 144fps) smoothes the projection, and gives the best motion rendition possible. It allows DLP Cinema projectors to display 3D images with a single projector using any of today’s commercially available 3D systems.

There are two issues with standard triple flash, however.

The first is that, due to the bandwidth limitation of the electronics involved, only a portion of the DMD could be used for 3D triple flash projection. This of course, means movies have had to be shown at a lower resolution than that used with 2D movies.

Second issue, is the loss of up to 80% of the original luminance. This is caused by a combination of standard triple flash not using the full DMD chip, thus lessening the amount of projected light coming out of the projector, plus loss caused by other hardware involved such as Z-screens and the eyewear worn by moviegoers to view 3D content.

Brilliant3D™ – Better Than Triple Flash
Christie have met the challenges of triple flash with Brilliant3D™ – our full-resolution triple flash solution. We are the first manufacturer to offer a full-resolution triple flash solution for 1.2” DMD technology. Full resolution means that the entire DMD is used when projecting content in 3D, compared to standard triple flash, where a reduced amount of the chip is used. To get an idea of the difference that Christie Brilliant3D can make, take a look at the diagram below. It shows standard triple flash resolution for both flat and scope projections in grey, and Brilliant3D resolution in blue. In the case of a scope projection, an anamorphic lens can be used to add further to the resolution by about 20%.

We’ve done this by improving the electronics involved used in our triple flash technology, so that they are capable of coping with the data bandwidth required to use the entire 1.2” DMD chip for triple flash projection. This means that 3D digital cinema movies can be shown at the same resolution as 2D movies and the brightness of the 3D projection is increased by up to 12% in Cinemascope and an amazing 34% increase in flat (1:185) format.

Get Brilliant3D™ Now
Christie Brilliant3D™ is available on the world’s brightest 2K DLP Cinema^® projectors; the Christie CP2000-SB and Christie CP2000-XB, as well as on the Christie CP2000-ZX, and Christie’s .98” DMD chip digital cinema projector - the Christie CP2000-M.

Brilliant Benefits
In addition to a brighter, higher-resolution 3D projection, Brilliant3D™ offers these additional benefits:

• With 3D movies being shown at the same resolution as 2D movies, Brilliant3D™ means that you no longer have to have a second set of lenses to show 3D content.
• Because our Brilliant3D products don’t lose as much light as standard triple flash solutions, they can provide 3D digital cinema on much larger screens than previously possible.
• In addition to that, the new electronics allow for the use of an anamorphic lens, giving the opportunity for even bigger screens to be used.
• A single projector 3D digital cinema solution has obvious cost savings over dual-projector solutions. In addition to the saving made from only buying one projector, there is reduced energy consumption, maintenance, venting/exhaust management and general overheads to consider.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Check back here soon to download our FAQ about Brilliant3D™ and triple flash
• plus our whitepaper on Full Resolution Triple Flash