News.com: Digitizing the multiplex. "The "digital cinema" transformation refers specifically to the distribution and projection of films in theaters, not to the digital filmmaking of directors such as George Lucas, or the computer-aided production that creates monsters and special effects in "Spiderman" and "Lord of the Rings."

A technology consortium called the Digital Cinemas Initiatives (DCI), created by the major Hollywood studios in early 2002, is finally nearing completion on a set of technical recommendations that is intended to rally the industry around a single technological standard. A few details remain to be completed, largely dealing with securing the files against unauthorized copying while in the theater. But the fundamental technology specifications, based on the JPEG 2000 video format, have now been chosen.

Today they create a film print for every screen that shows one of their movies--about 36,000 theaters in the United States and 150,000 worldwide--at an estimated cost of about $1,000 per print. Indeed, by some industry estimates, the film industry spends close to $800 million every year on printing and distributing film alone.

Aside from cost-savings, boosters of this technology note that digital projection systems will enhance the quality of the movie itself, creating a clearer picture and eliminating the scratches and other damage that degrade a film print that has been copied too many times.

Theater owners have longer-range worries, however. They're used to maintaining low-tech film projector systems that last for decades. They want equipment that won't substantially increase their maintenance expenditures and be simple enough to be operated by minimum-wage high-school projectionists. Most of all, they want to ensure that they don't buy an expensive upgrade that--like many other products marketed by the high-tech industry--will be rendered obsolete in just a few years." The digital revolution is just beginning.