With its bright and colorful visuals, Inside Out 2 is made to shine in HDR. The movie will be released theatrically in HDR, but only about 100 cinemas are equipped for it.
All Pixar movies are available for home viewing in High Dynamic Range (HDR) with an expanded luminance and color range. More recent releases, such as Coco, created with HDR in mind, look particularly stunning in the format.
Disney-owned Pixar is now encouraging theatrical exhibitors to adopt the HDR video standard, according to Variety, so cinemagoers can experience animated movies as the director intended.
However, HDR presents such a significant technological challenge that it may force exhibitors to break with tradition and move beyond projectors.
Technology elevates storytelling
New audio and video technologies can elevate storytelling, argues Pixar, which should be especially true for the bright and colorful look of Inside Out 2, the sequel to 2016's Inside Out. Pixar's new animated feature film will debut theatrically on June 14.
- "We’re very excited in general about the future of cinema, as it relates to opportunities for storytelling," Dominic Glynn, Senior Scientist at Pixar, told Variety last month in reference to Pixar's plan to promote the adoption of HDR. "It does lead to new opportunities to tell stories and bring immersion to audiences."
Inside Out 2 should look stunning in HDR. Photo: Disney/Pixar
'Inside Out 2' in HDR
Inside Out 2 will be released in 4K SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) for IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and other 4K-capable cinemas.
However, the theatrical HDR release of Inside Out 2, which is graded to 300 nits peak brightness and more accurately represents the director's intent, can only be experienced in approximately 100 cinemas equipped with large HDR-certified direct view LED displays, such as the Samsung Onyx. It is the same display technology that the company is trying to commercialize as 'microLED TVs' for consumers.
In 2019, Samsung announced that Onyx LED screens were installed in 16 countries worldwide, including the US, India, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Spain. No further updates on the roll-out have been provided, as far as FlatpanelsHD is aware.
HDR projection systems?
Pixar has previously released Lightyear and Elemental theatrically in HDR. Earlier this year, the studio also rereleased three covid-19 titles, Soul, Luca and Turning Red, in HDR in select cinemas.
The high cost of LED cinema screens, which start at around $300,000, risks diluting the concept of HDR in cinema. This is similar to what has happened in the consumer space, where cheap LCD TVs are advertised as HDR-capable despite lacking the display hardware to accurately reproduce the expanded luminance and color range.
Barco and Christie are both currently developing laser projection systems that they claim can deliver HDR. No projectors today meet the minimum requirements for true HDR. Dolby Cinema's laser projection system, for example, is typically referred to as EDR (Enhanced Dynamic Range).
Even if Barco and Christie's new projection systems receive HDR certification under the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) specification, they will not achieve the same dynamic range in pictures as LED screens in cinemas or OLED TVs at home are capable of.
- Source: Variety
