Improving the Quality of Film to Digital Transfers for Digital Cinema
Matt Cowan, Loren Nielsen · SMPTE Journal · 1999
High-quality screen picture performance is the ultimate technical goal of digital cinema. Tests have been performed by projecting movies from standard and high-definition (HD) telecine transfers intended for home video and HD broadcast applications. The results of these tests have fallen short of the image quality needed for large screen theatrical projection. This paper reports on a project undertaken to improve image quality by altering the source characteristics through adjustments in the telecine transfer process. The work is based on using a display having identical characteristics to the ultimate theatrical projector to perform the transfers. This has resulted in transfer images with a quality different from the “standard,” using CRT monitors as the transfer target. The image was improved by concentrating on the treatment of the following: gamma, black-and-white crushing and clipping, colorimetry, and digital enhancement.