Always remember, the discs belong to the studios, not to DTS. If a studio decides not to let us send a disc, that is their call (even though we'd love nothing more than send a disc to everyone that needs it). We will do all we can to get discs to all theaters that need them.

Question for you....why are DTS discs not sent out w/prerelease promos and special screenings? I showed many a promo and was forced to run on a DTS house because of scheduling, etc, and discs were NEVER sent out w/proms...only on actual release date!

As for the answering the actual question topic of this thread....

1)How many screens do you have and what are your revenues?

2)Can you afford to have a tech come out every 6 months or so and eq the screen?

3) Where are you located...are you in the-left-hand-side-of-the-middle-of-nowhere....what would it take to get a tech out to you in case of emerengcy?

there are probably other questions to consider. What do you charge for tickets? Digital sound and its maintenance may increase your operating costs, and this may have to be passed along to your patrons...listen to and poll your patrons...are they willing to pay more?

All the fine detail, like better channel separation, occasional stereo surround effects or louder "bangs" is something that WE pick up on, appreciate and are tuned into, because it is what WE do. The success of digital sound is due more to the advertising hype, the lack of well aligned, well maintained optical systems and the fact that digital installations also usually get new bigger and better amplifiers and speakers, than it is due to any real or perceived improvements that the digital technology itself may offer. It is afterall the same soundtrack, just treated a little differently.

I have lost count of the number of times I have witnessed patrons leaving a well equipped cinema in which movie has been playing in analog and when asked "what did you think of the digital sound" they say "it was really great"! This has become a standard joke for certain projectionists I know in Australia.

So as others have said, get your analog top notch before even thinking about digital. The small percentage of people who can tell the difference probably would not come to your cinema anyway, even if you did have digital, because if you are still running mono (gasp), then it is highly likely the rest of your presentation is a bit lacking as well.

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Ray Derrick
President/Chief Engineer
Panalogic Corporation Sydney, Australia
Phone: 61 (0)2 9894 6655 Fax: 61 (0)2 9894 6935

I understand that the DTS disks belong to the studios. But since it is in your interest as a company to make sure that EVERY theatre having DTS systems gets disks to play with their prints, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of a deal whereby you would have some extra sets on hand to send out to theatres that need them at your discretion? I suppose there is some copyright-related reason why this can't be done, but it would seem to be a good idea.

Actually I feel like some people must be overstating the problem of not getting disks. 50%? I get prints from Technicolor just like everyone else, and we have less than 1% of prints arrive without disks. (ETS is the same, but since they're more regional, we could just be in a more dependable area.) On the very rare occasions I have been unable to get disks by calling TES, I almost always have been able to them by calling DTS direct.

As far as screenings or reviews, if discs are ready and the studio requests it, we can provide discs for the screenings.

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I do not completely agree with you.
I agree with you that a good "analog" theater can sounds better than a cheap "digital" theater.
However I believe that a good "digital" theater sounds much better than a good "analog" theater.
It depends also to the film you are watching: a comedy will sounds the same in both systems, a Sci-Fi movie will not!!

Sorry, I obviously didn't make myself clear. I am not saying that digital does not sound better than optical. I was simply stating my observations and experience regarding the majority of the cinema-going audience.

My personal opinion as a "professional listener" is that DTS is by far the finest sounding, most accurate film sound system, and it does offer very low noise, discrete channel separation and extended dynamic range, not to mention relative freedom from playback system deficiencies, all of which optical film sound cannot offer. But these are things that you and I know.. the problem is the average cinema-goer either cannot tell the difference or doesn't care.

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Ray Derrick
President/Chief Engineer
Panalogic Corporation Sydney, Australia
Phone: 61 (0)2 9894 6655 Fax: 61 (0)2 9894 6935

I mean that to a medium movie-goers a good digital theater will sounds better than a good analog theater...
Ok, there are a LOT of people that doesn't care, but I believe that most of them at least recognize that (good) digital theaters "sounds better". They don't know why, they don't know how, but I believe that they recognize the differences.
I agree with you that most of them don't find differences between Dolby and DTS.. That is why I show the DTS logo at the start of each DTS encoded movie... I believe that the difference is in that logo...

However I think that at the base of this conversation there are GOOD installation that, in my town, in my country, are very hard to find.
So usually in italy a good theater has a very good Digital system while a bad theater has a very bad analog system... In that situation customers WILL hear the differences...

BTW I should correct one previous statement that I made. I said that in my opinion DTS is the best sounding film sound system, but I meant "commonly available" film sound system. IMHO there is nothing that even comes close to a Dolby SR encoded 6 track mag soundtrack.

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Ray Derrick
President/Chief Engineer
Panalogic Corporation Sydney, Australia
Phone: 61 (0)2 9894 6655 Fax: 61 (0)2 9894 6935

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