Fran Fixes The Movies

I use to go to the local cinema a lot about 20 years ago and it just opened then and the picture it was really good until I starting seeing dark patterns/patchiness and flickering over the picture in many of the screening rooms. Initially they said no one else was complaining but refunded me. When I went back a year later and found the same thing they admitted they had issues with bulb. Most of the rooms were narrow but very long. They had a certain kind of bulb built to a specification but the contractor went out of business and they could not find another one that would build the bulb to their specifications. So they were buying and testing many different types of bulbs that were closest.

MrMobodies

Finally, a ray of something positive in Fran's life to bring a little cheer.

I used to go to the flicks quite a lot, but stopped for a different reason: Massively over-loud sound. This started in one cinema then spread to the rest. After leaving with ears ringing for hours afterwards, I started taking earlplugs. That didn't last long because it got even louder still. So loud that it was unpleasant even with earplugs tightly jammed in. It must have been somwhere over 120dB because without the earplugs it physically hurt. The rest of the group I was going with had decided to quit going, so I did as well. Not sure if they are still doing this, but they've lost me and my freinds and I don't really feel inclined to bother finding out.

Standard form reply letter, but its nice to see they actually did something. My guess, you weren't the only one to raise the issue and it was a new young employee being lazy.

Kadah

She's got good mov(i)es.

BobC

I wonder if the explanation was as simple as the junior projectionist not realising how dim the 2D movie would be and figuring it just wasn’t worth the hassle to take it off for 2D only to have to put it back on for 3D. Especially if the screening later in the day was 3D... Better theatre scheduling could avoid that hassle too (eg, have a 3D only screen, and some 2D only screens, which seems to be what th3 multiplex here does). Glad you got them to fix it though! I too still like the big screen cinema experience :-) Ewen

Ewen McNeill

Fran, following Patreon’s censorship of conservative media I have cancelled all my Patreon subs. Sorry

Heh Fran. The problem may have been even worse than the 50% reduction you suggested . Im not absolutely sure in movie theaters but in 3D simulation theaters we use 2 projectors, each with its own polarizing filter and yes setup is a PITA. What they may be doing is only using 1 (of the 2 projectors) for 2D movies and leaving the polarizing filter in place. So assuming that each projector provides 50% of the brightness for a 3D movie then accounting for the polarising filter you can see how the result for a 2D setup could be less than 50%. Again not sure of the movie theatre, setup but polarizsers tend to be "bolt on" accesories that are difficult to remove.

Phil Maddox