Audiences prefer 4K

Consumers overwhelmingly see a difference and prefer 4K content versus 2K content, according to a study by an independent market research firm. At the same time, audiences in the UK have praised the benefits of 3D on the Sony Digital Cinema 4K projectors. In both cases, the visible quality of 4K shines through.

Parker Marketing Research, in a study paid for by Sony in the US, sought to assess consumer reaction to a 4K cinema experience versus a lower resolution 2K experience.

The company found that the Sony Digital Cinema 4K projector outperforms 2K on key attributes of picture quality. Nearly one quarter of consumers said 4K is likely to enhance their movie-going experience.

The audience was shown clips from action movie, Dark Knight, and dance documentary, Stomp, in both 2K and 4K. On every single indicator, 4K outperformed 2K. For both movies, the audience said 4K was better, with comments such as “this is much more engaging than what I am used to”.

The audience also rated the 4K ahead of the 2K in terms of coming back for more, with statements such as, “this is something I would tell my friends about” and “this is worth paying more for”.

While some have suggested that 4K may only be useful for screens of 70 feet or larger, the consumer research was conducted on a 20-foot screen, indicating 4K works for all theatre sizes.

“The research in the States backs up what cinema owners who have installed 4K projectors have been telling us directly, that their audiences prefer watching in 4K,” says Oliver Pasch, head of digital cinema in Europe at Sony Professional. “Not only do they prefer the 4K image, they are also telling researchers that they are willing to spend more money to sit in a 4K theatre. This should reassure cinema owners looking to invest in a digital system that the Sony Digital Cinema 4K solution makes financial sense.”

How to Train Your Dragon screenings

In the UK, qualitative research of audiences have revealed the same enthusiasm for watching with the Sony Digital Cinema 4K solution, this time using the 4K 3D option.

Dreamworks’ hit 3D movie, How to Train Your Dragon, was shown to audiences in 3D on Sony Digital Cinema 4K projectors installed at leading cinema chain, Apollo Cinemas.

Audience feedback after the screenings was very positive, including comments such as “the quality was really amazing” and “the pictures were really sharp and the 3D elements really came out of the screen a lot more than other 3D films I’ve seen”.

“We had some really good feedback about in particular how different 4K 3D is as a viewing experience,” says David Bush, marketing director, Sony Professional.

Oliver Pasch says audiences can see for themselves that the 4K 3D solution is inherently better than 2K. “The way 3D is currently done in most cinemas is on a 2K projector, so what that effectively means is, because you need to do two images in order to have information to both left and right eyes, you need to project them frame sequentially. This means if the left eye gets an image, the right eye is muted and vice versa. The way we do it on a 4K projector from Sony is, because we have a higher resolution, we have enough space on the imaging device to actually have two images simultaneously projected on top of each other. This provides the audience with a more natural 3D experience.”

Only Sony offers 4K now

Sony was first to market with 4K Digital Cinema projection in 2005. Now that 4K is a widespread success, many vendors are promising 4K in the future. But only Sony Digital Cinema 4K is available today and is already in use in hundreds of projectors and is proven through hundreds of thousands of hours of real-world user viewings.

If 4K is proven technology, the question is, is the 4K image better than the 2K image? The audience research indicated that audiences think so. Oliver Pasch says that there are also technological reasons that make 4K a better option for cinema owners. “Not only can Sony 4K projectors play conventional 2K content, but the projectors actually improve the presentation of 2K material,” Pasch says. Sony’s Intelligent Smoothing algorithm and smaller pixels make the difference.

While Sony projectors can display 2D content in 4K, Sony's 3D solution displays two simultaneous 2K images in their native form, without scaling. In this mode, resolution for each image is the full 2048 x 1080.

The Sony Digital Cinema 4K projector is also able to offer a technically superior picture quality. “For example, dark levels are wonderfully low,” Pasch continues. “Contrast ratio is an impressive 2,000:1 minimum, 2,500:1 typical. Colour accuracy is so high that it meets the DCI specification's demanding Review Room requirement. The Sony Digital Cinema 4K projection system offers a reliable, high quality, value-for-money system with the best 3D solution available on the market. It is why Sony Digital Cinema 4K is becoming the market leading projection system in the US and is achieving amazing success worldwide.”