Barco’s 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 is the first digital projector manufacturer to offer this feature.

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.

“Up to now, Series 2 digital projectors depended on the cinema server to render movie subtitles,” explains Barco's digital-cinema product manager Theodore Marescaux. “In practice, this meant that subtitles sometimes had to be ‘burned’ into each release and for each individual language version. It goes without saying that this process is not only very costly, but also forms a potential source of readability and uniformity issues.”

Marescaux notes that with CineCanvas, “subtitling overlay can now be done inside the projector itself, thereby eliminating interoperability issues and providing a uniform look across all theatre screens.”

Barco's latest firmware upgrade with CineCanvas support can be downloaded from at https://my.barco.com.

Barco also revealed that its full series of DP2K “C” digital projectors has been listed on the Digital Cinema Initiatives website, formally confirming their compliance 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. An official communication announcing the certification of Barco's entire digital projector portfolio is expected soon.