Enhanced Movie Watching in Theatres with DLP

This past weekend, I went to see Pixar's WALL•E in DLP. No, this is not a post about how wonderful the movie was (though it was really well done, and artfully stayed away from giving actual speech capabilities to the robots while still making the characters endearing in their story of robot love) but rather a post about DLP technology.

DLP stands for "Digital Light Processing" (not "Digital Laser Projection," as the man sitting behind me tried explaining to his wife who thought it had something to do with Dolby sound). DLP uses a different sort of projector that allows for a crisp, bright digital image that can be projected at various sizes with the same image quality. DLP technology was originally developed in 1987, and started being used in movie theatres in 1999. Still, few theatres are equipped with DLP projectors, and those that are generally only have one projector so far.

When viewing a DLP movie, the image looks almost as bright as a television screen. It also looks like the quality of one, without little defects that come from scratches on film since the DLP movies are stored on hard drives. The movie watching experience with DLP is really a treat, and at least in the theatres near me, it doesn't cost any extra. Few movies that come out are available in DLP though, and it can be found only in some theatres. You can see what's showing as well as look up theatres at the DLP website. Fandango will list whether or not the movie is in DLP in their listings as well.

At the very least, if you haven't seen WALL•E yet, try it in DLP. It most likely won't cost you any more money than a regular showing, and it'll be a great experience.