Barco has announced that its DP2K family of digital cinema projectors is now available with integrated CineCanvas subtitling support. The new functionality can be installed via a simple firmware upgrade. Barco says that it is the first digital projector manufacturer to offer this feature. Separately, Barco said that it has obtained full DCI compliance for its complete line of DP2K ‘C’ projectors.
Developed by Texas Instruments, CineCanvas technology eliminates the need for distributors to make a special print for each language version, which significantly lowers the cost of distribution for digital releases. Another advantage is that it gives exhibitors access to a broader range of content and that it presents them with a much wider choice of server options.
“Up to now, Series 2 digital projectors depended on the cinema server to render movie subtitles. In practice, this meant that subtitles sometimes had to be “burned” into each release and for each individual language version,” explained Barco’s digital cinema product manager Theodore Marescaux. “It goes without saying that this process is not only very costly, but also forms a potential source of readability and uniformity issues. By integrating CineCanvas subtitling support into its latest digital cinema projectors, Barco managed to eliminate these shortcomings. Subtitling overlay can now be done inside the projector itself, thereby eliminating interoperability issues and providing a uniform look across all theatre screens.”
Barco has also revealed that its full series of DP2K ‘C’ digital projectors has been listed on the DCI website, formally confirming their compliance in accordance with the DCI Specification. All three models (DP2K-12C, DP2K-15C and DP2K-20C) have successfully completed the DCI testing procedures carried out by testing agency CineCert. The compliance procedure for Barco’s large chip DP2K ‘B’ projectors is ongoing.
