Our Recommendations for Movie Sizes and Slicing
Here is our list of fulldome systems that we know have successfully played the shows we distribute. If a model isn't listed, it just means our shows haven't been tested on them yet — but as far as we know, every fulldome system on the market can play our movies!
| MANUFACTURER | SYSTEM | MODELS/NOTES | OUR RECOMMENDED | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOVIE SIZE | FORMAT | |||
| Ash Enterprises | Warped Media | Older projector | MEDIUM | 1408 circle MP4 |
| HD projector | MEDIUM | 1920 circle MP4 | ||
| AVI | OmniStar | All models | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG |
| - custom - | spherical mirror | Older systems - using Werewolf or WarpPlayer | MEDIUM | 1408 circle MP4 |
| Modern systems - using VLCWarper player | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| Digitalis Education Solutions | Digitarium | Alpha, Alpha 2 | SMALL | 768 circle MPG |
| Other models | SMALL | 1024 circle MPG | ||
| Kappa | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| Lambda, Theta | LARGE | 2400 circle MPG | ||
| Æthos [*] | X-LARGE | 4096 circle MKV | ||
| ePlanetarium | Discovery Dome | Fisheye | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG |
| Newtonian mirror - using VLCWarper player | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| Newtonian mirror - HD projector | MEDIUM | 1920 prewarped MP4 | ||
| Newtonian mirror - UHD projector | X-LARGE | 3840 prewarped MP4 | ||
| The Elumenati | Omnifocus | 1K models | SMALL | 1024 circle MPG |
| Other models | MEDIUM | 1920 circle WMV | ||
| Evans & Sutherland | Digistar | SP, SP2 | MEDIUM | 1408 circle MPG |
| SP HDQ | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| SP2 HD, Lite | MEDIUM | 1920 circle MPG | ||
| SP2 HDQ | LARGE | 2560 circle MPG | ||
| Other models | SLICED | sliced MPG or MKV | ||
| GOTO INC | VIRTUARIUM X | May require additional slicing/encoding [**] | SLICED | sliced MPG |
| Konica Minolta | MEDIAGLOBE | MEDIAGLOBE, MEDIAGLOBE-II | SMALL | 1024 circle MPG |
| MEDIAGLOBE-III | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| Super MEDIAGLOBE-II, Σ | LARGE | 2400 circle MPG | ||
| R.S.A. Cosmos | InSpace System | 1C HD | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG |
| May require additional slicing/encoding [**] | SLICED | sliced MPG | ||
| Sky-Skan | Definiti Theaters | May require additional slicing/encoding [**] | SLICED | sliced MPG or MKV |
| STARLAB | Digital STARLAB | Older models | SMALL | 1024 circle MP4 |
| Ares - use VLC player from desktop | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| Spitz | SciDome | older models | SMALL | 1024 circle MPG |
| 1600 | MEDIUM | 1600 circle MPG | ||
| HD older models | MEDIUM | 1920 circle WMV | ||
| HD newer models | MEDIUM | 1920 circle MPG | ||
| XD, IQ2400 | LARGE | 2560 circle MPG | ||
| XL, IQ 4K [*] | X-LARGE | 4096 circle MPG | ||
| Carl Zeiss | Powerdome | Older models - May require additional slicing/encoding [**] | SLICED | sliced MPG |
| Newer models | X-LARGE | 4096 circle MP4 | ||
Hardware manufacturers may change their specifications and supplied software and player applications without notice, which has the potential to affect playability of our movies. Problems usually occur from the manufacturer shipping their system without the proper codecs. The usual fix is simply to install the missing or current codec for the operating system to use when the player application calls to it.
About non-sliced 4K movies
[*] The "state of the art" when it comes to making 4k movies continues to be a moving target. Some fulldome systems require use of specific video graphics cards and custom or proprietary software to play movies. As of this writing, we can make 4096x4096px MPG, MP4 or MKV movies. They should play on your system, since they play on ours. However, if you run into issues, we might have to resort to Plan B, and adjust our encoding settings in some way. Trial-and-error isn't the most efficient method of operation, but there we are.
Instead of us iterating various bitrate and compression encoding settings, you may want us to provide your movie to your hardware vendor for encoding. That way they can verify the encode will play on the hardware they sold you. Contact us about details for this service.
About slicing
Some multi-projector edge-blended systems require movies pre-warped and sliced to feed the individual projectors. For Digistar-based fulldome systems, we use ESVideo or DsMedia to encode/slice.
[**] Some theaters may have non-standard configurations, or require the use of proprietary software to slice. In those cases, we'll need to contract with your system provider for some custom encoding. Contact us about details for this service.
