Stephen

It seems that people generally have an aversion to the Cinemecannicas. Forgive my ignorance, but I've found them to be quite good. What are the things that you don't like? What would you change on them if you could???

 |  IP: Logged

Century JJ (rock steady picture, very easy threading, very forgiving on poor threads, dual format 35/70, won't crack the foundatino and easy to move as well as service)

Christie SLC lamphouse (these babies crank light out, are extremely reliable and have a knack for getting extraordinary life span out of a Christie lamp. Alignment is also first rate without a hot spot.)

Christie AW3 platter (The new MUT leaves much to be desired, but the old MUTs are great. Some reliability issues over the last several years in terms of leds and motor drive wheels, etc, but all have since been rectified by Christie. Still the best overall platter without breaking the pocketbook.)

Dolby CP200 with Aux rack (A damn shame these are not still being made!)

Stephen.

Brad I agree that the Christie lamphouses are pretty good. One thing that was missing from the manual when I used them was the placement of the exhaust cuttout switch. I lost the flap one morning and couldn't get my xenon going...eventually replaced it with a bit of Coke can!

Stephen, yeah I know where the B11 are, but that will remain a mystery for now, give me a call and I'll tell you all about them.

I have worked with Centurys in only a limited capacity. I'm not sure what model they are (David can you help on that one), but I found them harder to thread and frame. I agree about the location of the focus knob on both, and the Cinemeccanica lens turrets have one flaw, using a 240volt turret motor (at least here in Aus.) I think that the belts are easier to change than the central shaft should it break!!!

Vic 8's are a great machine and have that solid feel that you say the Century's have.

The meccanica's are heaps easier to clean!

Platters, Christies are pretty good to. An interesting theory was put to me the other day that the Christie platter have less film wraps because they lift the film up prior to entering the payout module, and gravity does a fine job of seperating the film layers.

Ari, what are the Favorit70's??? I've never heard of them. Is there a picture somewhere or info I could find?

Favorit70 or rather, Zeiss, Favorit70, are license-built Prevost P70 machines (for both 35 and 70mm). They're great machines, very reliable and user-friendly.

Lamphouse,I like Strong. Old X-60. I've been subjected to ORC (yuk). I thought it was cool until I learned better.

Sound,Smart MOD's are nice. I want to run a MODII DIT in my drive-in (when and if the time comes)

 |  IP: Logged

As far as the booths I've seen in my area it'd have to be the 5-screen in the Randolph Mall in Asheboro, NC.

It's got Xetron lamps, IREM rectifiers and a mix of old Century and Simplex. The platters are Christie Miniwinds. All of them have RCA sound heads and 4 out of 5 of the houses are mono. The big house has DTS, though. USL processor. The big house even has reel arms for for reel-to-reel. You could run shorts and stuff if you wanted to.
The automations were home-built by some guy in his garage. All simple relay and switch jobs.

Yeah, It's small, old and dingy-looking but I almost never have problams with that booth. If I do get a call, usually they really mean it. This stuff just works.

This is probaly the closest thing to a REAL 'projectionist's' booth in my whole area. There are one or two other booths in my area that are pretty nice but this one is my favorite.

The cheapest way to set up SRD from scratch is the CP650, I believe. CP500 comes second.

We've had the CP500 for ten months now, so far without any major problems. Not many minor problems either, BTW. Not that I've done an A-B comparison myself, so I can't really say if it sounds better or worse than an equivalent CP65 installation, but subjectively speaking, our installation sounds great! I've been very happy with it.

Philippe

Favorite projectors: 35/70, Phillips DP-70
35mm, Century SA/R-3

Favorite processor: Dolby CP-65, CP-200

Favorite Platter: Older AW-3's, Kinoton

Favorite Booth I service: Hindsale Theater, Hinsdale, Illinios: Had pair of imacculate DP-70's, one Hortson and one Prevost 16mm and a Strong Gladiator followspot. Booth was also very small. I had to leave my tools outside the door most of the time.

Brad,
Since when are JJ's forgiving of threading?? I don't know how many 70mm prints were trashed in Chicago on them by careless operators making the loops too big!!
Steady , Yes! But not forgiving of loop size at all.
Mark

On a Century in general (particularly the 35mm only SA model) you've got quite a bit of "forgiveness" there. On the JJ running 70mm I will agree that it doesn't quite give you as much leeway, but hey...what's that moron doing running 70mm anyway?

One MAJOR problem with 70mm I've found is the switch from acetate magnetic to polyester DTS. You absolutely can NOT thread them the same. The polyester loops will shake violently and cause substantial scratching from a loop that was ideal for older acetate 70mm prints. Just to be safe, I remove the 35mm pad roller from the upper loop when running these newer 70mm prints and make sure everyone threads the lower loop very small. The studios should send out a letter in those prints as a reminder.