Publish Magazine features two articles on digital cinema.

The first article deals with the security around the format. Here's an excerpt:

Technicolor Digital Cinema, the company responsible for the distribution of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, is handling all content preparation for the movie, including the encryption.

The film is shipped to a theater on a hard drive, according to Technicolor Digital Cinema President Ahmad Ouri. Once it's been confirmed that the theater has received the encrypted film and loaded it onto a server, the encryption key is then delivered separately. "The film is useless without the key, and the key just tells the projector it's OK to show the film." In other words, it does not allow the movie to be copied in any way off the server."


The second article looks at the state of digital cinema with particular reference to Star Wars. Here's an excerpt:

With the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, a new age in digital cinema is exploding into movie houses-except that everybody's heard this story before, and heard it just about every year since Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was released in 2002.

But things have changed, and with that change come some interesting questions around this digital medium, about security and about DRM (digital rights management), consumer interest, and what this medium means for the future of cinema.

When George Lucas released Episode II in 2002, there was industry buzz galore about digital cinema, and Lucas was busy pushing for theaters to adapt and begin showing films shot digitally with high-tech digital projectors.

When the movie was released, only about 70 theaters in North America played it in its original digital format. This, obviously, was not the adoption rate Lucas had hoped for. Now, with the final Star Wars movie headed to screens, just where is digital cinema?

Click on the links above to read both articles.