Dolby Cinema Leicester Square

[sk3lph]

I was in London this week for a couple of days and took the chance to sample the new Dolby Cinema in Leicester Square for a screening of Captain Marvel.

It has to be said that it is definitely at the pinnacle of how good the cinema experience can be - picture and sound were exceptional, chairs were electric recliners and the most comfortable I've ever sat in for a commercial cinema - my criticism would be that the screen could have been a bit bigger - I'm thinking if you're sitting at the back then it'll lose a lot of its impact. If you want the serious wow factor I still think an Imax screening is the way to go.

There is a nice Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision demo just before the film that shows you what it can do which sets the scene very well.

I went to a 17:30 showing and the price for the best seat in the stalls was £17.50, but I believe ticket prices can go up to eye watering levels for new screenings at peak times - as much as £40 I've heard.

Well worth a visit if you get the chance.

 

[sk3lph]

This was a 2D screening and the image was flawless to my eyes, but my favorite cinema experience though is still the Imax screening of The Dark Knight at the Printworks in Manchester, the size and PQ of the image when it went full size was just stunning - fantastic sound setup too.

In terms of home cinema, any public cinema has tough competition from my home setup shown below which is also an Atmos setup albeit on a much smaller scale. Admittedly its probably going to be quite some time before an affordable projector comes along that can do what this Odeon Luxe one could do.

 

[sk3lph]

so seems all dolby cinemas are not created equal ... where's the definitive list ?

it's nice, but don't you ever want to sit next to your other half on sofa and watch ... that's whats missing in the cinema - lol

AFAIK this cinema is the only one of its kind in the UK but more are going to be built as your post says - I think the next one is in Leeds without checking.

We have a lounge and a TV for watching regular stuff and I did think about having a two seater in the middle, the problem with that is you won't be properly sat in the middle with the room width I had and I'm fussy about that. The middle seat is used the most as my missus is not into films in the same way as me and having a comfy recliner right in the sweet spot for sound and vision with two arm rests won the decision.

 

[sk3lph]

agree looks like we are waiting for the other 6 genuine dolby hdr cinemas ...

so, for the video alone, imax laser and dolby cinemas are both 4K, with similar colour gamut / contrast ... just a question of whether you want an immersive field of vision filling screen, or smaller.

The IMAX experience, such as the one at the Printworks in Manchester has the edge over this, as long as it was filmed using IMAX cameras and has the correct aspect ratio. As I mentioned the screen should ideally be bigger at the Dolby Cinema especially for the people towards the back.

 

[sk3lph]

Thanks for the thread... I think it's convincing me not go.

I think you're making the right decision, will be going to see Endgame at Manchester myself.

if, like The Black Night, its a genuine 70mm imax, although you benefit from the resolution/cinematography, is that still using the rgb laser and thus benefitting from its colour gamut/contrast, versus the conventional film projector .. I don't know?

A quick Google and it looks like the Manchester Printworks upgraded to a laser projector towards the end of last year so I'm definitely going to be making the trip for Endgame to see it there.

 

[sk3lph]

The main reason would be most of the blockbuster films and currently all of the Marvel films have large portions of the film in Imax digital ratio 1.9:1

The dolby screens can't show this and have a cropped version.

I like the idea of what they are trying to do with dolby cinema but it you are stood in Leicester square on a Saturday night and you want to see the Avengers Endgame are you going to spend £40 to see it in a Dolby Cinema or £22 to go across the square to the Dual 4K laser imax which has literally more picture ?

I've mentioned this in another thread - a lot of emphasis was put on the fact that the IMAX version of Infinity War was the one to see as the aspect ratio had more picture however they still released the blu-ray version of the film cropped to 2.35:1, so most people had black bars on their screens, so I don't understand why they did that - bit off topic so maybe a conversation for elsewhere.