Digital cinema system using JPEG2000 movie of 8 million pixel resolution

摘要

We have developed a prototype digital cinema system that can store, transmit and display extra high quality movies of 8-million (3840 x 2048) pixel resolution, using JPEG2000 coding algorithm. The image quality is four times better than HDTV in resolution, and enables us to replace conventional films with digital cinema archives. Using wide-area optical gigabit IP networks, cinema contents are distributed and played back as a video-on-demand (VoD) system. The system consists of three main devices, a video server, a real-time JPEG2000 decoder, and a large-venue LCD projector. All digital movie data are compressed by JPEG2000 and stored in advance. The coded streams of 300 ～ 500 Mbps can be continuously transmitted from the PC server using TCP/IP. The decoder can perform real-time decompression at 24 or 48 frames per second, using 120 parallel JPEG2000 processing elements. The received streams are expanded into 5.6 Gbps raw video signals. The prototype LCD projector uses three pieces of 3840x2048 pixel reflective LCD panels (D-ILA) to show RGB 30-bit color movies fed by the decoder. The brightness exceeds 3000 ANSI lumens for a 300-inch screen. The refresh rate is chosen to 96 Hz to thoroughly eliminate flickers with compatibility to cinema movies of 24 frames per second.