Digital projection is the strongest innovation that's happened to movies since color and sound... but as yet a scarce minority of fans will be able to enjoy Episode II as George Lucas intended it to be presented.

In a new TFN editorial, the case is presented for why fans need to encourage theaters to upgrade to digital...

Watching a digital projection is like seeing a movie on DVD: once you start, you don't want to go back to film or VHS. A palette of color came alive in such a vibrant intensity that I'd never seen via old-school film. The amount of detail poured into Episode II was psychotic: stuff you would easily miss on a celluloid print floods the senses on digital. Indeed, if digital projection were more widely available, people would keep coming back to see Episode II, if only to see all the stuff they didn?t "get" the first few times around.

And unfortunately - for the immediate future at least - most people won?t get to experience Episode II in full digital glory. Once again it has to be asked: "what are they THINKING?!" This is the greatest tech innovation for movies since sound... and the theaters are pushing with all the exuberance of an air conditioning salesman in Siberia.

I'm at a loss to understand why that's so. Digital projection systems are the ideal way to present a movie, and the reasons are considerable...

In every way possible digital projection systems benefit fans, vendors and filmmakers. Read the arguments for yourself and discuss in our message forums. And please bear in mind our e-mail petition drive.