PS3 Powers Cinemas

A chance observation by 2ch has led to the surprising discovery that some Japanese movie theatres are actually playing their films from PS3s.

The tale begins with a 2ch denizen's visit to a Sendai cinema, where the audience's viewing of Kara no Kyoukai was rudely interrupted by the appearance of an onscreen warning to recharge their controller.

Opinion was quickly split as to whether this was a fine advertisement of the PS3's capabilities or a rather miserly move on the part of the cinema.

A number of cinemas are apparently using this method, though it might be hoped they are rather more careful about keeping their controllers charged…

[FiftyFourPointTwo]

It only does EVERYTHING.

[Noctis Aftermath]

Quoted for truth!

[Trevorthenerd]

the ps3 does not red ring.

[Gregmonk]

yep, short of cooking you breakfast, the PS3 is the only true Next gen console this gen that covers all your home entertainment needs. Much more to come! This is only the beginning.

[Redempteur]

I have to admit that i prefer wtaching my 1080p movies ( found on the internet ) on my ps3 rather than on my pc

[pharmd]

how sweet would that be to throw down some COD or something on there, when nobody's there....

would be a hella job!

[Reibooi]

Well I went to go see Evangelion 1.0 at the theater and it was a indie theater and they were using the Blu-ray on a PS3 to play the movie which i found quite amusing I thought it would have been on a film but i guess not.

[wxer]

now this in here is a proof that the PS3 is the ultimate entertainment HUB

[Ravage27]

unless you want to burn your house down, then you'll probably want to get a xbox instead :p

[Winter47th]

They weren't kidding when they said it's future proof. Cinema's being powered by a PS3, nice!

Not to mention helping with cancer research by using Folding @ Home.

[Insomnia_84]

If it was the other console, the onscreen message would've been "E74"

[ThanatosDMC]

HAHAHAH! Great news, but funny that someone forgot to plug the controller. It must have been laying around for 5-8 hrs not needing batteries... ahem.

[sinncross]

lol that is so awesome!!!

Imagine playing games on a cinema screen :O

[outlawlife]

it isn't nearly as fun as you think

the school i went to had a theater in which during down time they would hold tournaments for various games

without a doubt a television is way more fun, you get past the novelty of the giant screen really fast

[Moentjers]

Kinepolis group (Flanders) makes it possible to hire the huge theaters to play your game of choice on the PS3...

http://www.kinepolis.com/be...

[D4RkNIKON]

I hate to bring halo into this (because I don't care for it) but there was a theater local to me that was doing birthday parties where they split a movie theater screen into 4 person multiplayer halo tournaments. Cool idea, too bad split screen is a dying form.

[Moentjers]

I've been hoping once that the PS3 would contain 2 video outputs so you could connect 2 screens to play together in the same room but without being able to see the other's actions.

[Raoh]

That's amazing..

[Dutch Boogie]

The xbox360 powers:

[Poopface the 2nd]

SHROOMS.

[BX81]

Are you saying the 360 has the ability to make an exact replica of your face?

[ColossiSlayer]

Folds Protiens on a molecular level, to understand disease better. Folding@Home.
16 of them are used in BlackHole research. http://gravity.phy.umassd.e...
http://gravity.phy.umassd.e... - http://gravity.phy.umassd.e...

Now, that it powers Japanese movie theaters "it's cool".
It really does everything. Buy 1 it does.
Just kidding, this is kinda cool.

[ZBlacktt]

It's is used to search for Oil also out in the Worlds Oceans as well.

[Sarick]

If they had hardware devices that where remotely controlled and the ps3 had software designed for them. It could be installed and control devices inside a home.

So, technically, you could leave it on at night and it could.

1. Be used as an alarm system. (when they're when detection devices are attached to doors windows etc.)

2. Could be used to regulate a houses temperature. (external thermostats)

3. Could turn your coffee pot on in the morning etc.

BTW. did anyone else notice nude pictures to the side? O.O

[a_squirrel]

it's kinda sad, so called, "scienctists" made up crazy theorys like black holes and dark matter, so they can keep the made up Big Bang and evolution theory alive

[Afreelunch]

Really? Wow dude. *facepalm*

[TheMART at XboxFags]

The Best part is "the appearance of an onscreen warning to recharge their controller".

~ It Only Does Everything ~

[dustgavin]

They are using Ps3 consoles to power the cinema and 360 systems to pop the popcorn.

[TheOutsider]

I think if i heard right, They are using 360's to keep the cinamas warm!! during the movie! DAMN!! (THE PS3)!IT ONLY DOES EVERYTHING!!!

[Isaahc]

@ dust

I have to admit that was funny

[Ron_Burgundy]

poor people may not be able to watch there movies with popcorn when the flopbox RRoDs :P

[ZBlacktt]

The PS3, once again doing something great outside of just gaming.

[Feral Gamer]

Personally, no matter how good projectors are, I don't think they'll ever match HDTVs. It's interesting to see that theaters use PS3s to play movies. I guess I'm behind the times, I thought most movies still come on reels? I still see the "cigarette burns" as mentioned in Fight Club occasionally, or a split-second shifting of the image as the reels switch over..........

[housegroove76]

until theaters switch over to full digital, movies will always come on reels. Not many use the multiple projector style anymore(except for AFFES on military bases because they're cheap) Most use the platter system where you take the 6 or so smaller reels and splice them all into one big a$$ reel.

Working at a theater for a few years I always look up at the booth before the movie starts to see what system they use. I dont know why, out of habit I guess.

[Feral Gamer]

Interesting information. Thanks!

So the theater gets smaller reels and has to splice them? Or does the film come pre-spliced? So many questions! I should Bing it (I prefer Bing to Google) but then I wouldn't get the personal experience that you would provide :)

[Kenshinhimurasz]

I work at a theater and yeah the movie comes in film cans that contain mostly around 5-6 reels depending on how long the movie is. So we splice the end of one reel to the beginning of the next reel, using a splicer which is pretty much putting a special kind of tape and then making holes to where the sprockets will go into.

It take about 1-2 hour to build up depending on how good you are and the movie length. Right now we just got a Sony SRXR220 4k a digital projector, and when you compare this to the 35mm film projectors. Lets just say you wouldn't want to go back. The sharpness of the colors and smoothness of the picture is unreal, its all digital so there's no dirt, or scratches on screen.

It also does Real 3D you can see both 2d and 3d movies on this projector. It cost a lot of money, i forgot how much it was but the screen we needed for the 3D was about 4 thousand dollars. Some Theaters are going all digital but slowly because of the cost. We have 1 digital projector right now, but next year in August we should be all digital. If i were to compare the picture quality i would say close to IMAX quality. Its 4x the resolution of a 1080p HDTV, so that might give you an idea of how good it looks

And don't get me started with IMAX...

[eddispider]

After comparing outrun 2 on fat ps3 vs slim i noticed that the framerate is much better on the slim model. Pluss i just compared BURN ZOMBIE BURN and that to is better on the slim. The prosessor has to be better on the slim.

[HWG]

You're an idiot eddispider. *sighs*

[JohnnyAkiba]

MY PS3 only play the movie "THE YELLOW LIGHT OF DEATH"

[Harry_Manback]

"Red Ring Of Death", its way more popular! I've seen it twice already, and will probably see it again in the future.

[housegroove76]

lol, that was a good one

[jack_burt0n]

I have to admit that lossless audio @ home with decent amplification is alot better than the local multiplex cinema <central london>.

[wxer]

It only does EVERYTHING

truth

[divideby0]

all those early PS3 bashers are dinning on crow now.....lol...

[djfullshred]

Blu Ray is roughly 1/4 the resolution of film. No way are they getting the same quality as a reel distributed by the movie studio. Digital projection of the original source material is the best presentation of a film in the cinema these days. Blu Ray is a home consumer product. Much better than DVD, but much less than cinema quality. Those people paying to see the movies in the cinema, and getting a Blu Ray showing, are getting ripped off by the cheapass cinema operators.

[DJ]

Especially if you're talking about film (4K resolution)

IMAX though is a sizable leap over Blu-ray though, since it's 8K.

[djfullshred]

Regardless what some "experts" tell us on what we can or can't see, the issue at hand is what are you being charged for when you buy the ticket? Are they telling consumers they play their movies from the same blu ray discs anyone can buy in the store? If not, they are cheating people.

I find a lot of the expert claims on what level of detail people can see or hear to be dubious. There are studies that show people do actually sense the audio/video resolution that digital sampling pundits claim we can't detect. Our senses are analog. Digital media is a series of samples in an agreed upon standard. Of course the pundits are going to draw a line in the sand & say you don't need anything better than this, and you really can't tell the difference. But of course this is always stated in comparison to better source material that is already available for the cinema.

[topgeareasy]

look

[NateDPG]

PSTriple FTW!!!

[Crystallis]

It really does everything so im not suprised..

[NotSoSilentBob]

I guess so long as the Hard drive space is there for the files there would be no need for blu-ray. I know I will get disagrees but the file transfer is faster with HDD over the disc drive. But either way just shows that PS3 is able to fill the roles people never thought it would.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

...in the year 1950!!! ;-D

[ico92]

people use the ps3 to play games,watch movies,find a cure for cancer and now to power cinemas it truly is an amazing console.

[SuperStrokey1123]

See! People dont buy the ps3 for games! They only buy them to run movie theatres lol.

[xg-ei8ht]

Hey guys i've noticed the java media server for the PS3 is either much better now or the 3.00 firmware had something in it.

Because my hd content on my PC is streaming much smoooooooother to my PS3.

[bjornbear]

I mean...duh...read the article xD

[Gish]

Ok i have a question, I have a PS3 and a 62 inch Samsung DLP 1080p tv. When I watch blu-ray's, when the screen has really dark or black it blocks up and looks rather hidious. Is this a problem with settings or my tv or what?

[djfullshred]

Could be some setting on the TV. Projection TVs are a little more tricky with black levels, and many don't do them well because of the high intensity light source used to create the picture image. Many newer DLPs do a better job, and there are probably some settings you can adjust to make it better.

[FamilyGuy]

but that is entirely related to the contrast ration of your tv.
If it actually bothers you it might be time for an upgrade.

[Gish]

ugh.... I figured that was the case. I don't see me tossing a couple thousand back into a tv as this works well other than that. Maybe it will "break" so that best buy has to honor my extended warranty :)

[SpitFireAce85]

You guys see those hot japanese girls galleries on that site.
To bad we dont have girls like that in the US

[seifer085]

Weird Indie movies in theaters over here in Honduras use PS3's too, didnt know other places that did till now.