More Digital Projectors, Coming to a Theater Near You

June 18, 2009, 9:02 am

By Eric A. Taub

Movie theaters throughout the world are shedding their old film projectors and installing digital versions. Digital cinema offers pristine, scratch-free, rock-solid images and super-sharp pictures.

In the fight for digital cinema product share, Sony has made 4K resolution its signature difference between it and Texas Instruments, its rival in the field. According to Sony, 4K, with four times as many pixels on the screen compared with T.I.’s 2K technology, offers a far sharper image, which will draw consumers back to the movies.

T.I. has always said that 2K is good enough, with tests showing that consumers can’t see the difference.

T.I. has been against 4K, until now. On Thursday, the company announced that it would market 4K technology, which will be incorporated into its next-generation projector technology to be manufactured by a variety of partners.

The company will continue to sell 2K projectors to the majority of its customers, according to Nancy Fares, business manager for T.I.’s DLP Cinema Products Group.

Ms. Fares said this was not a case of Texas Instruments trying to play catch-up to Sony, which recently announced a number of large contracts to install its 4K projectors in AMC, Muvico and Regal Entertainment cinemas. Texas Instruments has been working on 4K technology for two years, she said.

And when T.I. said that most consumers can’t see the difference between a 2K and 4K image, the company is sticking to its guns.

Its 4K technology will be installed in only about 20 percent of its customers’ theaters, the “brightest and biggest” with screens 70 feet and larger in size.

Even digital IMAX theaters, Ms. Fares said, successfully use TI’s 2K technology.

Have you experienced 2K and 4K digital cinema technology? Can you tell the difference?