UK Odeon cinemas to get true 3D projection

By Nate Lanxon on 11 February 2009, 4:47pm

It seems that, if the world's not going crazy about Twitter, it's going crazy about 3D movies. But not the wretched intestinal-discharge type of 3D movie that usually involves some American mammal, a pop-star voice actor and a despicably disposable plot, but actual 3D, with 3D glasses and actors that fly out of the cinema screen and everything.

The UK's Odeon chain is installing 3D projectors in many of its cinemas. These new projectors will deliver 3D images at a resolution of 2K (2,048x1,080 pixels).

To put that in context, that's roughly twice the resolution of a movie on a Blu-ray disc, but only half the resolution of what can be achieved by many modern digital cinemas, which project at 4K (4,096x2,160 pixels).

Currently, it's mostly animated features that are produced in 3D, and so it may come as no surprise that two of the movies you can expect to start watching in 3D are Disney's new Bolt picture and the similarly uninspiring DreamWorks production Monsters vs Aliens.

The rollout began in January of this year and will be completed by March, when 30 Odeon cinemas will be 3D-ready. Odeon cinemas to get 3D include those in Derby, Bath, Belfast, Brighton, Cardiff, Manchester, Swansea, Preston and Huddersfield.