Each print must be delivered in its metal canister by courier to the cinema, where the reels are spliced together, spooled on a platter and fed through the sprockets of a film projector.

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And an extremely wealthy film buff might buy such a projector from Vision Experience, which sells them packaged with enormous, inflatable screens.

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Built by Texas Instruments, the projector operated without a single scrap of film.

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The Forstars name is a reference to both the glass roof that allows for stargazing and the projector that can be used for watching film stars.

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The systems at Regal and Landmark include passwords and keys that restrict a particular film to play at a particular theater (and on a particular projector) at a predetermined time.

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Film gets beat up in the process of being run through a projector several times a day, and a print in heavy rotation may last only days, meaning another copy has to shipped to the theater.

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The spinning wheel is synchronised with the projector to allow alternate images to be sent to each eye six times for every frame of film.

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