Resolution has long been one of the most contentious issues facing digital cinema advocates. The initial problem faced was that there was no real way to quantify resolution from 35mm film grains. However, the SMPTE Engineering Guide 5 goes some way to attempt this, by stating that a standard 35mm frame requires 80 lines per millimetre of resolution. As Sychowski (2000) explains:
“This means that 35mm film should thus be equivalent to 1,800 scan lines of resolution. Alternatively, given an over-simplification of one halide-particle equalling one pixel, academy aperture film would contain 11 mega-pixels at 4,500 x 2,500 resolution.” (Sychowski, 2000, p24)
However, what is important to note is that film degrades. A film reel could start off with a resolution similar to that quoted above, but after a few hundred plays the audience could end up watching at a resolution less than 1K (Sychowski, 2000). This simply will not happen with digital movie files.
There is an emotional issue in the film community when discussing resolution. Current HDTV is broadcast at a maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 (Ive, 2004), and because of this the film community will not settle for anything less, as “...e-cinema should not just be 'as good as' 35mm, but substantially better, with 2K being the preferred standard.” (Sychowki, 2000, p24)
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