Biggest screen in Ireland now?

case_sensitive

There's a very old thread about this, but it's frowned upon to resurrect..

Breakingnews had a bit about the Odeon in Point Village, and their website says they've an iSense in both Blanch and Point Village.

I'm not fussed about 3D at all, but I'd like to give iSense a whirl, anyone been? Are there any (accurate) figures for largest screen? Cineworld 17 is usually touted as the biggest, but 3 stories (> 18ft) sounds pretty big.

Anyone work in one of the Odeons?

Sad Professor

Vue screen 1, 2 and probably 5 are the biggest (possibly too big!). Followed by the Savoy 1, although that depends on the aspect ratio of the film being projected. 1.85:1 films are probably larger in Cineworld 17/IMAX and iSense.

maquiladora

Here is the new screen in Cineworld if that helps for comparison.

s_carnage

Any idea what would be the best screen to see The Hobbit on?

Raekwon

maquiladora wrote: »

Here is the new screen in Cineworld if that helps for comparison.

That looks exactly the same as the old Screen 17

What exactly did they do to improve it?

Sad Professor

From the looks of it, moved it closer to the audience, curved it, and added an extra meter to the length and width.

Raekwon

Hmmm, I'm not so sure. as they've always had a curved screen and the size plus the distance from the audience all look the same from that picture.

It was closed for several months so I honestly thought that they possibly going to raise the ceiling and make the screen taller but that doesn't seem like it was the case at all.

Anyway if it's only Digital IMAX then surely they would only need to make renovations in the projector room and not the auditorium itself.

This all smacks of marketing, similar to Odeon's ISENSE screens, and an excuse to raise ticket prices even further.

johnny_ultimate

Raekwon wrote: »

This all smacks of marketing, similar to Odeon's ISENSE screens, and an excuse to raise ticket prices even further.

There's no doubt about that, TBH. It's playing up to a very understandable lack of consumer knowledge - very few people in this country will have seen a 70mm IMAX film in the last decade or so, and fewer still will have seen anything other than a nature documentary or two. It's unlikely people will know the technical specs or standards of a proper IMAX screen. It's a renovation of screen 17, nothing more.

It's a stroke of luck for Cineworld (or very, very clever marketing) that the Hobbit is released just as they open the screen - a film whose digital presentation is going to be different than viewers are used to. A lot of people are going to be fooled or misled as a result. But all in all its little more than an exercise in misleading branding, although one IMAX themselves are just as responsible for as Cineworld.

maquiladora

Raekwon wrote: »

That looks exactly the same as the old Screen 17

What exactly did they do to improve it?

It's taller, maybe a bit wider and closer to the seats. IMAX sound system has big speakers behind the screen too. There was a construction pic on facebook a couple of months ago showing scaffolding all over the place so there must have been a fair bit of work going on.

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johnny_ultimate wrote: »

There's no doubt about that, TBH. It's playing up to a very understandable lack of consumer knowledge - very few people in this country will have seen a 70mm IMAX film in the last decade or so, and fewer still will have seen anything other than a nature documentary or two. It's unlikely people will know the technical specs or standards of a proper IMAX screen. It's a renovation of screen 17, nothing more.

It's a stroke of luck for Cineworld (or very, very clever marketing) that the Hobbit is released just as they open the screen - a film whose digital presentation is going to be different than viewers are used to. A lot of people are going to be fooled or misled as a result. But all in all its little more than an exercise in misleading branding, although one IMAX themselves are just as responsible for as Cineworld.

Here here you are bang on. I saw TDKR on the BFI IMAX in London on 70mm and was blown away. I have never experienced something like it. Everything was big. Screen, Sound, the Popcorn

Yes it was £19 for a ticket and €40 for the flights but it was worth every penny. I would feel cheated paying €16 euro for a ticket to cineworld. Sure you could see the same thing in Odeon for €4.25 :P Nobody will notice the difference. Maybe the public will for The Hobbit but that will be the HFR kicking in. Not true IMAX.

Just my 2 cents .

Soby

Sad Professor wrote: »

Vue screen 1, 2 and probably 5 are the biggest (possibly too big!). Followed by the Savoy 1, although that depends on the aspect ratio of the film being projected. 1.85:1 films are probably larger in Cineworld 17/IMAX and iSense.

2 in vue is the biggest actual screen (as in the white screen) while 1 is a bigger auditorium , not sure about it compared to others in the country (Although i doubt the biggest ones exist outside the pale :P )

Rodin

flowrider04 wrote: »

Here here you are bang on. I saw TDKR on the BFI IMAX in London on 70mm and was blown away. I have never experienced something like it. Everything was big. Screen, Sound, the Popcorn

Yes it was £19 for a ticket and €40 for the flights but it was worth every penny. I would feel cheated paying €16 euro for a ticket to cineworld. Sure you could see the same thing in Odeon for €4.25 :P Nobody will notice the difference. Maybe the public will for The Hobbit but that will be the HFR kicking in. Not true IMAX.

Just my 2 cents .

The opening scene to the Dark Knight is filmed on Imax. Many have seen that

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Rodin wrote: »

The opening scene to the Dark Knight is filmed on Imax. Many have seen that

Yes but was it 70MM or Digital ?

This is a rough example

Empire = Cineworld IMAX - Digital IMAX
Lincoin = BFI London IMAX - True IMAX

Sad Professor can explain it better

grimm2005

Wow, that photo looks very underwhelming. I knew it was never going to match proper IMAX as I've seen the comparison shots before but I didn't realise just how small a difference it would be compared to screen 17 previously. I'm going to go the free taster session tomorrow to check it out in person and I'm sure I'll catch the Hobbit on it too as it's a bit of an "event" film but I can't see myself paying the €4 uplift too often.

OctavarIan

Was at one of the preview screenings today, I'll try sum up what I thought of it.

Content: Half an hour of random trailers. Older stuff like Spiderman 3 and 300 mixed with newer stuff like Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises. There were a few 3D trailers that consisted of a couple of nature docs, a Nascar... thing, an animation and of course The Hobbit.

Image quality: The screen was off when I first walked into the cinema and I wouldn't have known there was any change to be honest. At first the screen doesn't seem much bigger than the old one at all. It's a few metres closer to the audience.

When the trailers were rolling it was a real mixed bag. Some of them were obviously upscaled and didn't look much different to your typical cinema quality, except a bit bigger. Some of them however were noticeably sharper and clearer. The ones that stood out were TDKR and one of the nature docs (Born to be Wild?).

The 3D was also mixed. The Nascar was WOEFUL. Born to be Wild was actually really natural and realistic. The animation was cheesy but fun. The Hobbit was mostly quite subtle and refrained but there was something off about the image, part near the edges seemed to be out of focus. Could have just been my glasses (had two pairs on, 3D and specs :P)

Audio quality: TDKR stood out by a mile, couldn't notice too much difference with anything else. It's very clear, slightly louder than average and can get a nice deep rumble in your seat.

Conclusion/TL;DR: It's not an IMAX experience but it is a very nice screen. Unsurprisingly TDKR was the standout from the trailers shown. However I wouldn't go see a rerelease of your typical movie expecting it to be a different experience, because it won't be.

Tar.Aldarion

Waste of money going to that screen, glad I didn't bother going to the screenings today.

grimm2005

I'd echo much of what OctavarIan has said. Went to one of the screenings and found it to be fairly underwhelming. It's a damn nice screen for sure, but it certainly doesn't compare to the real thing. The screen looks as if its been made thinner and taller and the screen touches the ceiling and floor (you can see where the ceiling has been raised towards the screen). I felt that the sound was a good bit better then previously. It did feel more like IMAX then any other screens I've been to bar the real thing but in the end of the day it's more like IMAX Mini or IMAX Light and certainly doesn't deserve the IMAX brand being attached to it.

They showed a trailer for Born to be Wild 3D, the full thing of which I had seen earlier in the year in the BFI IMAX and it was just phenomenal whereas it didn't feel even close to that when watching the trailer at Cineworld.

In the end, I feel it'll be a rare treat for huge releases but it certainly won't be worth the uplift to see re-released films in the IMAX format (even then the only ones I can think of with scenes filmed in IMAX are TDK and TDKR).

Theta

It was a screen replacement in Screen 17 I think. They didn't make it any larger as far as I know but is it not one of the newer gen screen like the BFI replacement which didn't make the screen any bigger either.

For anyone interested here is an album of how that one was done. http://imgur.com/a/ygU0l

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Theta wrote: »

It was a screen replacement in Screen 17 I think. They didn't make it any larger as far as I know but is it not one of the newer gen screen like the BFI replacement which didn't make the screen any bigger either.

For anyone interested here is an album of how that one was done. http://imgur.com/a/ygU0l

Well the BFI don't need to make it any bigger ITS MASSIVE

Seen the photos on BFI facebook page, the photos don't do it justice. :cool:

case_sensitive

Ended up buying 2 tickets (1 student, 1 adult) for wifey and I, €30! Premium seats, in the iSense for Hobbit next Monday, it'll be interesting to see what it's like. The gimmick obviously works on lots of people though because I couldn't get 2 adjacent seats anywhere close to opening night.