Smart & Wired: Wide Open Spaces
07/01/2008
Achieving a cinematic picture has always been the goal of home theater aficionados. Thanks to new digital innovations—combined with a decades-old optical technology—they cannot only achieve that goal, but surpass it.This technology allows home theaters to display pictures using the same ultrawide format in which movie theaters project most blockbusters. The effect is, in a word, epic. Images can stretch across an entire wall of a home theater. Action becomes as enveloping and enthralling as in the film industry’s finest screening rooms and showcase theaters.
Film buffs refer to these ultrawide pictures by their aspect (or width-to-height) ratio of 2.35:1; for comparison, standard HDTV images measure 1.78:1, and old-fashioned analog TV images measure 1.33:1. You may also recognize the wide shape by its best-known trade name, CinemaScope.
Anamorphic projection is the key technology behind ultrawide video. Surprisingly, it dates back to the early days of motion pictures. A special lens stretches images to make them about one-third wider. Of course, this optical process would make Brad Pitt look like Danny DeVito (well, more like Danny DeVito) were it not for additional digital processing inside the projector. This manipulates the picture from a DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or TV channel, so that it looks geometrically correct when projected through the anamorphic lens.
Widespread use of anamorphic lenses in home video systems began two years ago when high-end video display maker Runco introduced the CineWide with AutoScope option for its top-of-the-line projectors. Heeding electronic commands from the projector or an outboard video processor, the AutoScope mechanism (usually referred to as a "sled") slides the CineWide lens in front of the projector’s own lens when 2.35:1 material is played. The option originally added $12,000 to the price of the company’s $39,995 VX-2cx projector, an acquisition cost that largely confined the combo’s use to dedicated home theaters.
Within the last couple of years, almost all of Runco’s competitors have created similar systems, and the technology has trickled down even to such mass-market projectors as Optoma’s $2,699 HD80. (The cost of the anamorphic lens and its motorized sled, however, has dropped only to about $6,000, leaving some homeowners in the perplexing position of allocating more funds for their lens than their projector.) The anamorphic lens may also be permanently placed in front of the projector’s lens, thereby eliminating the need for the motorized sled. This method requires additional digital processing that reduces the resolution of conventional widescreen movies and non-widescreen programming.
When more conventional program material—such as the 1.85:1 widescreen images on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, 1.78:1 HDTV images, or old-fashioned 1.33:1 TV images—is in play, the anamorphic lens slides off the projector, and black bars appear at the sides of the picture. Its height stays the same, only the width changes. (For this reason, some video engineers use the term "constant-height" to describe ultrawide projection systems.) The better projection screens include motorized masking to cover unused portions of the screen with light-absorbing black velvet marking material—a technique used by commercial cinemas to adjust their screens for different image shapes.Ultrawide video projection may benefit casual settings even more than it profits home theaters. The wider shape tends to provide a more wall-filling effect than the more squarish shape of a conventional screen. In some rooms, the screen can occupy almost an entire wall, providing an impressive and captivating image. The capacious screen can be made to disappear into a ceiling: rolling down automatically when the projector is activated and retracting when not in use.
At least one screen—Stewart Filmscreen’s CineCurve—has been designed specifically for ultrawide home theater use. Its gently curved face directs more light toward the audience for a brighter picture, just as many commercial movie screens. Black masking slides in from the sides to accommodate narrower aspect ratios.
Fixed-mount (as opposed to retractable) 2.35:1 screens sometimes occupy so much wall space that there is no room to place speakers to the sides of them. In such cases, the speakers can be positioned beneath the screen, but most home theater experts prefer to place them behind a perforated or woven screen, so that sound can pass through. This option conceals the speakers, creating an effect that is more visually pleasing and truer to the commercial cinema aesthetic.
With a motorized sled, screen masking, and a video projector (and possibly a separate video processor) to control, these systems present the most complicated installation of any current video projection systems designed for home use. Fortunately, professional home theater designers and installers can make the operation transparent to users, rendering the process entirely automatic or triggering all functions through touchpanel remote controls available from such companies as AMX and Crestron.
Most of the elite companies, including Runco, JVC Pro, and SIM2, market their products exclusively through custom electronics installation firms. You can locate such firms by accessing the dealer lists on these manufacturers’ websites, or through the member search function on the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association’s (CEDIA) home page.
Runco’s projectors can take the ultrawide concept even further—to the ultraultrawide 2.55:1 aspect ratio used for Ben Hur and a few other epic movies. Of course, having a screen custom-fabricated to accommodate such rare fare is a decision only the most dedicated film buff would make, but it is a feature founder Sam Runco insisted on for his home theater. His response when asked why he would devote such effort when only a handful of movies are available to exploit it? "Because I can."
Runco, www.runco.com
Optoma, www.optoma.com
Stewart Filmscreen, www.stewartfilmscreen.com
CEDIA, www.cedia.net