The screen looks small...

Just watched Avatar: The Way of Water at IOI City Mall 2 (East)'s GSC IMAX with Laser last night

Despite the smaller screen size, I loved the picture quality! It was crisp anywhere you looked at and was super immersive to me since I could perceive so much depth between foreground elements/the characters/background elements

However, I will say that the way the movie switched between 48fps and 24fps in some sequences with dialogue was quite jarring and took me out of it. The HFR worked best during continuous underwater and action sequences when there was minimal dialogue. IMO James Cameron should've mastered even the dialogue scenes in 48fps

Also I hope that TGV will take GSC as a threat and upgrade their digital GT IMAX at Sunway Velocity to Laser soon

Haha i can only envy from southern state

The chains here will not upgrade the IMAX since day 1 the malls they at opened more than 10 years ago

@ericling Sorry for the late reply. I'd watched Avatar 2 in December of last year in Sunway Velocity's IMAX hall. I chose the twin middles seats in row H. This time around, I took the time to inspect the size of the screen and yes, the screen is massive. However, I noticed the height very high while the width was quite narrow. This made Avatar 2 have severe letterboxing (black bars at the top and bottom) as I thought the film only used 1/3 the size of the screen. It still looked good and spectacular in 3D but yeah, the disproportioned width and height made it a big ooof in terms of film to screen real estate. Central I-City's IMAX still holds the best IMAX hall for the amount of movie that can actually fit the screen (depending on the film's aspect ratio.)

Some math to back up my claim on the movie experience via screen aspect ratios cause I have no life (if I get anything wrong, feel free to reply with the proper corrections):

Majority of movies are filmed in a 2.39 (W) : 1 (H) aspect ratio while IMAX films/footage are 1.9:1. This means that IMAX films tends to be higher, while normal films are wider. Sunway Velocity's IMAX size (Source: LFExaminer) is 25.9m (W) x 19.4m (H). 25.9m ÷ 19.4m = 1.33. This means that Velocity's IMAX screen is only 33% wider/longer than it's height (1.33:1). That is quite narrow and an 1.9:1 film won't be able to utilize the extra height space as the film's image will have to shrink to fit the screen's width. Calculating the exact screen actually being used (1.33 ÷ 1.9), only 70% of the screen is used. The unused space of (0.30 x 19.4) 5.82m divided by 2 since the film's image is centered on screen would mean the top and bottom letterboxes' length is 2.91m. Avatar 2 was filmed in 1.85:1 but eh, it's very close to 1.9:1 anyway so the criticism still holds true.

2.39:1 films are worse as they lose around 44% (8.5m / 2 = 4.25m) of screen space using Velocity's screen, yikes. I have not watched a 2.39:1 film in Velocity's IMAX (The Batman for example) as the ones I did were No Time to Die, Spider-Man: No Way Home & Dune as they are 1.9:1 (Dune has 1.43:1 scenes which I will touch on later).

Compared to I-City's IMAX of 24.4m x 13.8m and the aspect ratio being 1.76:1, you can see that while still needing to shrink the 1.9:1 films a bit width wise (a mere 7% of unused space) to fit it's screen, the films' image will still look larger than Velocity's. To be more certain, Velocity's screen is 502m squared(2). I-City is 337m2, because Velocity loses 30% of screen space (351m2 total used) whereas I-City is 7% (313m2 total used). While Velocity has a 38m2 lead over I-City, the latter will look and feel bigger because the screen is utilized more than Velocity's.

However, despite my complaints of Velocity, it's screen has a big advantage over I-City's when it deals with tall aspect ratios, notably 1.43:1 IMAX films. Dune for example is a win for Velocity as certain sections of the film were filmed in 1.43:1, thus it was able to utilized more of the height. I noticed back when I watched this film in Velocity that it was breathtaking in terms of its sheer size.

I assume higher aspect ratio films displayed on a wider screen like I-City's will have letterboxing on the left and right side? I don't know, hope you guys can share your experiences on this.

In conclusion, research the aspect ratio of the IMAX films you want to watch beforehand, so you can get a better idea on which Mall's IMAX halls are more suitable for it. Dune 2 and Oppenheimer will have 1.43:1 scenes in them, so Velocity would be the better choice for them. Otherwise, films like the current Avatar 2 and upcoming Antman 3 is more suited for the likes of Central I-City.

Regarding the GSC IMAX Laser at IOI City Mall 2.

Yeah... the screen looks smaller than what TGV has to offer. @OfficiallyAhmad did link the tweet about the screen's height measurements of 11 meters. While not great, it could hint closely to 1Utama's size (L:22m x H:12.5m) which is my current go-to IMAX hall in Selangor. I will definitely make a visit to this hall soon as it is the closest IMAX hall to my residence, and to be honest, even if I am disappointed by it's size, it will still be my new go-to IMAX hall since it's more convenient and has Laser technology (only one in Malaysia unless Lalaport makes case).

Overall, slightly let down but still poggers news, I don't have to ride an hour long mrt train to 1U anymore to watch IMAX movies!

I still have 2 when jam time

If no jam the time will be 40 mins drive

Planning to watch Titanic in GSC IMAX! Any suggestion on where best to sit?

This post has been edited by ericling: Feb 2 2023, 08:40 PM

I usually sit as centre as possible, and 3-4 rows from the back

Not recommended to go for Aurum. The screen is so small

Just checked with GSC, Titanic screening in IMAX laser wont be in HFR.

Might be a good news since Titanic probably wont benefit lot from HFR and the switching between HFR and normal might be distracting.

This post has been edited by ericling: Feb 6 2023, 02:17 PM

Yo, why does IMAX tickets keep increasing in price? From RM30 last year to RM35. This is primarily TGV btw but GSC alsl priced their IMAX tickets at RM34.50.

Can always complain KPNHEP

HFR doesnt work with classics

Even if Terminator 2 in HFR will be disgusting

ya first time i watched movie since mco. price increased so much!

Watched Titanic in IMAX 3D Laser at GSC IOI (East).

Good: Noticed a clear picture quality. Seats are very comfortable!
Downside: The screen is definitely smaller compared to i-City TGV's IMAX, would say quite similar to Starling's BIG in size.

i-City IMAX would still my go to, unless GSC pricing is cheaper (currently both is priced at RM42), or for movies that will benefit from HFR (i-City TGV IMAX doesn't support HFR).

central icity TGV got the OLED & IMAX3D.

different halls though. have to pick either led (onyx hall) or xenon projector (imax hall). if picking xenon imax, might as well go to sunway velocity since the screen is bigger

also, i'm excited to be watching ant-man in gsc's laser imax hall next Saturday

may i know if we could approach gsc or tgv to some sort of book a hall to watch a ongoing movie ? like for the company outing ?

if yes, how much is the price ? I would like to do for Flash movie on June.

Haha sure can

Email their marketing team

which seat row is the best for GSC IOI (East) IMAX hall? (10 rows in total, 24 seats max per row)

This post has been edited by bristlebb: Mar 22 2023, 04:36 PM