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The Vergecast · Thursday, August 6, 2026

Understanding IMAX Technology: Beyond the Big Screen

Charles Pulliam-Moore explains that IMAX is more than just large screens, encompassing proprietary filmmaking and projection technologies. This includes specific cameras, film types, projectors, and massive screens that can display films in a 1.43 to 1 aspect ratio for an immersive experience.

personCharles Pulliam-MoorecompanyIMAX

The tape

4 quotes
Tell me what specifically is IMAX other than a big screen?
Jennifer Patterson Tui
So, so, um, huge screens obviously like a huge part of the IMAX brand, but IMAX, right? IMAX encompasses, uh, a handful of different proprietary filmmaking and projection technologies.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
So we're talking about the cameras that the films are shot with, we're talking about the specific kind of film that is loaded into those cameras, um, and then, you know, when it gets to the screen of it, we are talking specifically about a very particular kind of hard-to-build projector, um, many of them are very old right now.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
but like true IMAX, they are these humongous screens that are able to show films in 1.43 to 1, which is just like, immersive, and really sort of, uh, if you were not specifically trying to look around the theater and you were focused on the screen, it is kind of like you are being pulled into the image, which is kind of the the image max, IMAX of it all.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Heard on The Vergecast — “The next big thing in movies is 60-year-old IMAX tech, published Thursday, August 6, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.04
Understanding IMAX Technology: Beyond the Big Screen — Heardvine