THR claims more than 4,000 D-Cinema installations WW

Two major digital cinema milestones have been passed, according to Texas Instruments and The Hollywood Reporter. There are now more than 4,000 screens world wide converted to high-end digital, and 10 per cent of all screens in the US, since that is where the majority of the installs are.

According to the article this growth is being pushed recently by digital 3-D:

TI's figures are based on projectors using DLP technology. The TI chip is used in digital cinema projectors from Barco, Christie and NEC, and TI estimated that 99% of digital theaters rely on this technology.

"Meet the Robinsons" will play in 3-D on roughly 600 digital cinema screens domestically, and an additional 100 internationally. "There has been a 400% increase in 3-D screens using DLP Cinema projectors in the U.S. since Disney's 2006 release of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D," said Nancy Fares, business manager for DLP Cinema Products Group. "Meet the Robinsons" will also be available in 2D on 122 digital cinema screens worldwide.

The burst of activity demonstrates some momentum in the transition, as the industry recorded 1,000 digital cinema screens in theaters about a year ago and reached 3,000 in early January.

If TI is right that 99 per cent of projectors deployed use the DLP Cinema chip, that means that there are around 40 Sony SXRD projectors from Sony in US, Norway and Japan.

But with a growth of about 400 projectors a month (most still for Christie/AIX) ad a projection of 5,000 screens this summer and 7,000 by the end of '07, Sony has some serious catching up to do.