> Contrary to widespread assumptions, digital does not look better than film does. It's improving, of course, and may look comparable to film in time, though some believe that it never will due to the subconscious impact of the way film vs. digital projects a series of frames. Film displays an entire frame at once, blinks, then displays the next entire frame; digital projects a frame one line at a time, then paints over the frame one line at a time with the next. The claim I've heard put forth is that viewing a movie the way film is projected has the subconscious effect of revving up the brain, while digital does just the opposite. I lack the technical and personal expertise to validate these claims, but I tend to believe them. Among others things, I understand well how assumptions are made when you throw around terms like "digital" that aren't necessarily accurate.
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Roger Ebert's review of "Attack of the Clones" addressed one of the issues with digital films. He first saw it on a large screen in a theatre that did not have digital cameras. So, the film had been converted from digital. He felt the picture lacked sharpness and looked grainy, unlike something directly from film, possibly 70mm. This isn't surprising. Taking a digital image and trying to enlarge it often has this problem. He also felt that seeing it on film on a smaller screen might be better for a digital to film reel.

A bit later, he saw the movie on a digital projector and wrote about how much better it looked. See link below.

> 70mm, by the way, is almost completely forgotten now. I don't think there are many 70mm projectors still in commercial use, which is too bad, because it looks great.

There were a couple of theatres in San Jose that showed 70mm when I was growing up. They still might when available. This was on a large, curved screen, where they had the curtain closed until the movie started. They would then pull back the curtain and dim the lights and that feeling of leaving reality for another world would start, even before the previews. That was where my friends and I always wanted to see the blockbusters. It was also in a dome! I saw Empire Strikes Back, T2, Indy and the Last Crusade, The Abyss and plenty else there.

Fer"I need to see a movie there again"rick