What exactly happens when a film is projected digitally?

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I doubt the theater was doing anything other that 24 fps. There wouldn't be any need.

Film projectors project 2 'blips' worth of the same frame, at a 48 fps rate. This has been done 'for years'... I can't see how upping the rate to 5x that is 5x24 = 120, would introduce 'soap operatic' qualities... just lessen human perception of 'flicker'. Now if there was some sort of motion smoothing of the image between frames... which I think is done in some HDTV displays... and should be a selectable option on processing...

But just upping the number of times a frame is 'shown', shouldn't... but then I don't have access to a theater projection system and 'test' such a claim...

In the movie in question, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shaddows"(2011), in the digital presentations (two) I saw, I did not see any 'TV'-esque artifacts... I saw lots of Guy Richie stylizations... such as speed ramping, Phantom highspeed capture, regular speed playback, CGI enhanced 'reality', what have you... but nothing like the display HDTV that I see at the local Costco which are presenting images that 'look' processed...