The Digital Cinema Summit continues this morning with sleep-inducing updates like “Thwarting In-Theater Piracy” and “Report from NATO,” but the morning’s first exchange, “The Exhibition Perspective: Truth and Consequences in the D-Cinema Rollout” was chock full of provocative insights.

Turns out the U.S. has taken a long lead in Digital Cinema, with nearly 5000 digital cinema screens in commercial service, exceeding the entire rest of the world by a factor of 10. For instance, since Nov. 2005, over 300 Hollywood movies have been released digitally. Wendy Aylsworth, VP of Technology at Warners, said further that while all Hollywood films today undergo a D.I. in post, the primary purpose of the D.I. is the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative standard) projection master, and that the color-corrected files crafted for film output are created secondarily. If true, that’s a genuine “see” change.

Figures were presented to demonstrate that installing film projection still costs half of digital (a film projector costs as little as $25K), and a gentleman from the AMC theater chain reported that operating digital projectors actually costs AMC more than film projectors, at least in terms of frequently replacing short-arc xenon bulbs. He admitted that AMC runs pre-show featurettes and ads as well as features on their digital projectors, therefore tallying more hours on the digital lamp houses, which could explain the difference.

However it was another gentleman, a CTO from the Midwestern Marcus Theater chain (500 screens), who vetted digital exhibition as a business proposition. He said based on his chain’s substantial experience with running digital screens, there was no box-office advantage to digital: ticket prices remained the same. He reminded the largely techie audience that content remains king, that moviegoers attend the films they want to see in the first place, and not because a feature is projected as film or digitally. Moreover, he said, the complexity of a digital projection system exceeds that of film. Loading a film projector is a “rote” skill easily taught, he said, while maintaining a digital server system with its file protocols and encryption “keys” requires hiring “more educated” and sophisticated employees.

The only digital box-office uptick Marcus detected, he said, is 3D exhibition, where attendance seemed to grow and ticket prices were higher. For him, the best bottom-line argument for digital projection is 3D.

That’s an interesting take-away. Another interesting take-away: all the Hollywood and studio panelists at DCS discussed digital exhibition as mainstream, a fait accompli. No longer a thing of the future.

Sunday afternoon at NAB wouldn’t be Sunday afternoon without attending the splashy Panasonic and Sony press conferences (no more Apple, sob), and, boy, they didn’t disappoint.

Panasonic beat its P2 HD drum loudly, announcing their largest P2 card yet, 64GB, plus a new second source of P2 cards, Fujifilm, who will initially make 16 and 32GB cards.

Panasonic’s stable of P2 camcorders more than doubled too, with the arrival of a “fourth generation,” including two new solid-state Varicams, the 2700 (AJ-HPX2700) and 3700 (AJ-HPX3700). Both are 10-bit, 4:2:2, with AVC-Intra 100 recording and variable frame rates. The 2700, with 1 Mpixel CCDs, captures 4:2:2 to DVCPRO 50, AVC-I 50, and AVC-I 100. The 3700, with 2.2 Mpixel CCDs, additionally captures full 1920×1080 4:4:4 via dual link.

Upcoming handhelds were announced too, including, on the P2 side, the HPX170, available September. It’s a successor to the HVX200, boasting a new 1/3”, 3-CCD imager, wider zoom, HD-SDI, at only 4.2 lbs. (Light weight might have something to do with what’s missing: a tape drive.)

In the Panasonic-has-been-listening department, the HPX170 introduces—FINALLY, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!!!—a built in waveform monitor and vectorscope, both available at the push of an assignable button.

Never thought I’d live to see the day.

There’s also a refresh of the HVX200 called HVX200A. Basically, the addition of the new 1/3”, 3-CCD imager from the HPX170. Boosts sensitivity half a stop.

But wait–there’s more!

Panasonic introduced a new line of inexpensive camcorders called AVCCAM and also unveiled their first AVCCAM camcorder, the handheld AG-HMC150 ($4500, available Fall).

Yes, an amalgam of AVC and CAM. But not AVC as in AVC-Intra.

Brace yourself: AVC as in AVCHD. About which Panasonic says, and I quote: “blends professional 1080 and 720 HD production capabilities and enhanced quality recording (at average 21 Mbps/ Max 24Mbps) with the simplicity and familiarity of SD card, digital still camera workflow.”

If you’re familiar with Panasonic’s tiny HSC1U from last NAB, you’ll recognize the combination of AVCHD and SDHC (faster SD) cards. Indeed, the HSC1U appears to be, retroactively, the founding member of this new line.

Does anyone else see flagrant irony in the fact that the company renown for defending the sanctity of intra-frame compression like P2 and AVC-I now touts the merits of its inter-frame AVCHD, “the industry’s newest long GOP compression standard based on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 high profile encoding”?

Here’s another Panasonic quote: “HMC150 can record hours of high-quality 1080 and 720 HD images onto solid-state SD and SDHC memory cards at lower bit rates than current HDV compression formats.” Hmmmmmm…

Lest you think they’re not serious about promoting their own brand of long-GOP MPEG adapted, like DV and HDV, from a consumer format, here’s a comparison between the new HPX170 and HMC150. In fact, see if you can tell them apart. (Thanks, Barry Braverman, for modeling.)

I think I’ll save my comments about Sony’s press conference for tomorrow’s blog. Stay tuned.