Question about image quality of cinema projectors

[bxyhxyh]

Hello guys,
I got hired as a projectionist in a cinema in Mongolia.
Not really have experience in the tools of cinema tbh.

Are those projected movies supposed to look like pirated ones? like those movies recorded on camera from cinema?
Like that it has slightly low brightness and low contrast and looks like it has "wrong" black level

I thought they would look on par or even superior to bluray versions.

No matter how I set my focus and zooms it doesn't actually affect anything as I'm pretty sure that it isn't about zooms and focus.

Maybe screen quality thing, lamp problems or image settings of projector?
Or is it supposed to look like that from the beginning?

I don't have authority to play with image settings of projectors (actually I have if I read my job description, but higher-ups don't let me do and I'm also afraid of those expensive projectors lol.)

Projector is Christine CP4220 btw

[Emulgator]

At 22k Lumens for a new 3kW Hi-Power lamp the max. contrast ratio of 2000:1 would still leak 11 Lumens onto the screen.
Depending on the screen size and reflectivity (screen gain) one will end up with, well, not pitch black.
Max. Brightness: Expect 50% loss after 1500 (3kW)..2500hrs (2kW) lamp life, you may want to read that out from Lamp History.
Dirt ? Open housing, expect to have filters replaced / reflector / lens cleaned.

[bxyhxyh]

I don't think dust is the issue there.
There is a dust suction system in the projector box, me and other projectionists clean it every month with compressed air.

So I checked lamp history and it was used for 1900 hours.
Lamp was CDXL-20 model that has 9000 lumen and has an average life of 3500 hours and warranty of 2400 hours.

I expected a lamp to be the cheapest fitting for the projector.
But still, a bit disappointed tbh.

it's bummer that I wanted to watch Godzilla vs Kong with a good quality.

[FranceBB]

Originally Posted by bxyhxyh

Are those projected movies supposed to look like pirated ones?

No? xD

Originally Posted by bxyhxyh

I thought they would look on par or even superior to bluray versions.

They're way better than any BD you can buy, even the UHD ones. You see, the masterfiles we send to theaters are 4K files in MJPEG 2000 250 Mbit/s in XYZ (yes, XYZ, not YUV) 4:4:4 12bit planar encoded from a series of lossless .tiff images (each frame is a still) in the DCI-P3 colorspace.
The Motion JPEG2000 basically uses the Wavelet Transform which is peculiar 'cause, instead of dividing each and every frame in block and macroblocks of pixels (like H.264 or H.265 do with 4x4, 8x8 etc) it applies the Transform to the whole frame. Oh and they're also Intra in the sense that "reframe" and GOP don't really make sense as each .tiff is encoded to .j2x and then is "appended" together and muxed in an .mxf container, so there are no motion estimation errors or other things. As to the audio, it's a discrete (each ch corresponds to 1 file) lossless PCM 24bit muxed in .mxf coming straight out of the mixer, all delivered as a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) which is essentially a folder structure with other folders, what else do you want? xD

Originally Posted by bxyhxyh

it's bummer that I wanted to watch Godzilla vs Kong with a good quality.

Well, I'm not really an expert about projectors as it's not my field and once I've sent the file to the theaters, my job is done, however... well... if you really really want to watch the movie you like and they have a room connected to the playback server, you could play the masterfile on a monitor instead of using the projector after your shift is over.


(Please note that I mean at your workplace in an approved room, do NOT try to get the masterfiles with something stupid like an external USB HDD, that would be just stupid and you would not only get fired but also get prosecuted)