[Tig] ASC Non-Theatrical Display Subcommittee Report

[Bill Hogan]

The following outlines some work and results of an ASC (American Society
of Cinematographers) subcommittee that is looking at the increasing use
of flat-panels and display on non-CRT displays in Post Production
and Consumer environments.  Please consider these facts and share and
discuss with others.

Bill Hogan


Non-Theatrical Display Subcommittee - ASC
Chair: Don Eklund, Don_Eklund at spe.sony.com

It was recognized several years ago that digital cinema screens placed new
demands on film mastering, but offered new opportunities to display content
without many of the problems typical of theatrical presentation. The digital
projector has in fact, become a standard and indispensable tool for film
mastering.

In the last few years, high quality digital display products have become readily
available to consumers at affordable prices. Consumer displays and set-ups
emphasize a different set of characteristics than displays and set-ups used in
professional mastering of motion pictures or high definition video releases.
Usually operated far out of professional specifications, the high brightness, high
contrast, and high frequency response of the newest breed of consumer digital
displays can reveal image qualities in the source signal that are not visible on
industry standard professional CRT based displays. Under typical home viewing
conditions, a growing number of consumers now have a day-to-day display that
provides a more critical view of HD sources than what is in popular use in the
facilities that master these sources.

Film makers also have new tools available in the form of digital cinematography,
new film stocks, and all the devices and systems that comprise the digital
intermediate process. It is natural to assume that better displays and better
production tools will lead to better consumer experiences. And in fact, often this
is the case, but not always…

While VHS made an acceptable consumer picture and was satisfactory for more
than 15 years, DVD created a more discriminating consumer. The audio and
video presentation on DVD is sometimes criticized for characteristics that, while
sometimes intended, can often be traced to the master. Move forward 10 years
from the first release on DVD and we can now deliver 6 times more picture
information to the consumer in a packaged media format such as Blu-ray or HDDVD.
HD packaged media has the power to literally bring the film closer to the
viewer. The best consumer displays, properly calibrated, at an optimum viewing
distance (the same viewing angle as in the theater), and in an appropriate
viewing environment can provide an enveloping experience that fully realizes the
potential of high definition. When viewed in HD, some of the objections to
characteristics of an aforementioned DVD can now be recognized for what they
are, a decision by the film maker to use the medium in a particular way to tell a
story. On the other hand, characteristics are also revealed in HD that are not
intended and take the viewer’s attention away from the story and into a technical
detail.

As we watch films made today, rich with special effects and with all the benefits
of the technologies mentioned above, it can be demonstrated that technical and
production properties of films have become somewhat less consistent in recent
years. We have found that traditional film making and video transfer continue to
give good results, while films that benefit from all the newest technology and
tools occasionally have shot-to-shot or scene-to-scene variability that can
momentarily surprise the viewer.

It can be argued that quality consumer displays, or professional displays that can
duplicate consumer display characteristics, have a place in the color correction
and post-production quality control process and should be considered a viable
tool. Raising awareness of potential issues through the use of such displays and
taking into consideration how issues translate to consumer products is a worthy
pursuit given the growing importance of the home viewing market.
A number of post production facilities have already begun to test consumer
displays for evaluating HD masters.

There are several complications in using consumer based products in
professional environments:
     • Model year changes mean that it is not practical to standardize on a
             brand and model of device for any length of time
     • Consumer devices rarely are provisioned for professional signal formats
     • Products are not built to professional criteria and may have variable
             performance, even within a particular model

The benefit in accepting the complexity of adopting non-professional devices for
picture evaluation are clear; the consumption of content in the home is an
important economic factor in entertainment and creating an exceptional HD
experience is a technologically achievable goal.