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Topic: Digital sound trailers

Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-22-2002 04:30 PM

quote:
Why would a theatre pay the humongous THX certification fees ...

Because they want to allow the general public to assume that the whole place is THX certified, not just one auditorium. They scream, "WE HAVE THX!" and mumble "in house 7".

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Peter Dougherty
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Maspeth, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-22-2002 04:38 PM

It got even more ridiculous last time (and *the* last time ever) I was at the UA-14 in Union Square, where cinemas 3 & 8 are THX certified. I spoke with one of the ass't managers (insert snide remark here) after the show, and asked if I could get a phone number to call to find out ahead of time which films are in #3 & #8, and the showtimes of same. I was told that the inside number is confidential, and that what's playing in certain audioria is PRIVATE INFORMATION and can't be given out ahead of time for security concerns. I'm not joking...they actually told me that!!

As far as I'm concerned whoever came up with that decree can perform a anatomically impossible act with a 10k xenon lamp. Sideways. With bristles on the end.

Ahhh...movie going in New York City. Not for the feint of heart, and not for the cinephile either, alas.

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Cheers,
PJ Dougherty

W2IRT

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Peter Dougherty
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Maspeth, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-22-2002 04:48 PM

quote:
Because they want to allow the general public to assume that the whole place is THX certified, not just one auditorium. They scream, "WE HAVE THX!" and mumble "in house 7".

That's the silliest part--they DON'T advertise THX anywhere except a couple of one-sheet frames in the lobby. I mean NONE of them do. Look in the paper or online for what's playing at Lincoln Square, UA Union Square, Orpheum, etc, and they just list the showtimes and maybe the digital formats (a nice touch, but I'll bet ya a nickel that most of those are wrong). Not word-one about THX in any of these. It's as if they're ashamed of the fact they have it!

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Cheers,
PJ Dougherty

W2IRT

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-22-2002 05:21 PM

I'm kind of frustrated at the situation regarding theaters originally built for THX, but then the circuit just lets the certification expire. The Carmike 8 here in Lawton was built with auditoriums 4 and 5 in THX design. But a couple years back, Carmike cut costs and dumped the certification for roughly half their THX screens. So now only #4 carries the THX certification, while #5 has all the same exact hardware.

And that leads to interesting confrontations with some customers. A new film with 2 prints might be on both #4 and #5 with staggered show times. You try to tell them the show is essentially the same and they don't believe you unless you do something short of dragging them up into the booth and letting them look at both projection/sound rack setups. The only difference is one print has a THX trailer on it.

I suppose there are worse problems, like the legions of customers who don't seem to notice a good quality presentation when they see one and just happily drive to a dump of a theater just because it is the closest one to their house.

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Peter Dougherty
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Maspeth, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-22-2002 05:34 PM

quote:
Carmike cut costs and dumped the certification for roughly half their THX screens. So now only #4 carries the THX certification, while #5 has all the same exact hardware.

I wonder if anyone has ever made up a list of former THX houses that have failed to renew certification. I recall many Cineplex-Odeon auditiora in Toronto that were once THX but dropped the certifications after a short while. They still offered great presentations, however. Fairview 1, Canada Square 2 & 3, Sherway 1,3,5 come to mind. Mind you, I think all of these are now gone entirely, but they ran for years.

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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 07-22-2002 05:58 PM

Having trouble getting digital sound trailers?

Do what AMC does -- don't use 'em anymore. It only means extra clutter in the preshow.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-22-2002 11:11 PM

It will be interesting to see if AMC renews the THX certification for the former GCC houses that they now run. Many of these now have one or more THX-certified auditoria. In the Boston area, Fenway and Chestnut Hill have one THX house each, Burlington has two, and Framingham has several. They still do some limited promotion of THX (e.g. lobby signs), but I wonder how much longer this will continue.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-22-2002 11:33 PM

Cinemark used to have a lot of THX screens (although why some were THX certified I wouldn't know). I think it was 1995 or 1996 when they let their whole collective certification program lapse. I guess they figured if they went on a stadium seating building binge they no longer needed THX.

AMC hasn't been a particularly good supporter of THX, although I think they still have that one THX screen in LA's Century City where many of the SDDS demo shows ran in 1993 and 1994.

Overall, I've been to some THX theaters where the sound system really wasn't all that impressive and been to others where the sound seemed to pressurize the room. Some of the General Cinemas screens I visited over the years were pretty good (with Northpark #1 being excellent).

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-23-2002 08:48 PM

AMC at Disney downtown is supposed to be THX certified as part of there lease and I did notice a lot of improved over AMC norm

Peter said "I wonder if anyone has ever made up a list of former THX houses that have failed to renew certification. I recall many Cineplex-Odeon auditiora in Toronto that were once THX but dropped the certifications after a short while. They still offered great presentations, however. Fairview 1, Canada Square 2 & 3, Sherway 1,3,5 come to mind. Mind you, I think all of these are now gone entirely, but they ran for years"
All those theatres actually did the impossible and purchased the compl;ete THX crossovers and did maintain most of the standards and in the case of Fairview got recertified before they closed

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Peter Dougherty
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Maspeth, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-23-2002 09:14 PM

quote:
AMC at Disney downtown is supposed to be THX certified as part of there lease and I did notice a lot of improved over AMC norm.

I was recently at the AMC Empire on 42nd St. Got a great booth tour and saw MIB2 there opening week in aud. #6. Gotta say the presentation, sound and environment at that theatre is top-notch all the way, and it's on my list of places to go back to (at least the two bigger auditoria are). I don't think there are any plans to go THX here from what I was told, but I've been in THX houses that were nowhere near as good as this one--specifically the Orpheum in NY and the York and Pantages (when it ran as a cinema) in Toronto.

By way of comparison with the only other AMC theatre I've visited, I was much more enthused about the presentation in the Empire 25 in NY that at the Kennedy and 401 complex in Toronto--that scratched print on OPENING NIGHT of Saving Grace left a reel--er--real impression!

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Peter Dougherty
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Maspeth, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-23-2002 09:33 PM

quote:
All those theatres actually did the impossible and purchased the complete THX crossovers and did maintain most of the standards and in the case of Fairview got recertified before they closed.

Amazing what a couple of outstanding sound techs can do, eh?

Actually, now that I think about it, and if I recall correctly, Fairview also once had THX in #2 and #6 as well. I knew about #1 getting recertified--it reverted about a month after I moved from the Fairview.

Sherway re-certified at least one of their old THX houses after they renovated, and I'm not sure if any of the new ones were THX'd as well. I seem to recall seeing something in THX in what had been Cinema 5 when I'd worked there (but I don't recall what that auditorium was renumbered to post-renovation; #8 or #9 maybe?).

I just did a quick lookup in Eye magazine online and unless I'm missing something, it looks like the York and the Hyland are both gone!

At the risk of straying off topic a bit here, what's been closed in the last couple of years since I left? I heard the Sherway went as well--what's being done to that building? I always liked it.

Glad to see I was mistaken about Canada Square being closed--another of my favourite booths--nice to see it's still running.

I know they tore down the Hollywood (what a waste of a beautiful theatre!), and I heard about Famous' plans to shutter the Uptown/Backstage and the Eglinton, but I see the Uptown is still open.

BTW, I saw the before and after pictures of the Kingsway's booth. Sorry to see my old Magnarc Type G's are gone! I really loved those old beasties--I'd gladly have bought them if I were still in town and had the space to store them. I put a lot of hard work into those, and I'm glad to see they gave a few more years of life to the Show.

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Cheers,
Peter, W2IRT

No trees were harmed in creating this message, however several thousand electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-23-2002 09:40 PM

I too have been quite pleased with the FILM presentations at the AMC Empire on 42nd Street in NYC. But I was disappointed with very poor tone scale with POTA in Digital Cinema last August, and "digital hiccups" forced them to use the film backup print for "Ice Age" when I visited in March (Ted Costas wrote that it took almost a week to fix). Their projectionist wrote about additional problems in Boxoffice magazine earlier this year.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Jim Leko
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-23-2002 09:43 PM

At my theater, we usually don't have THX, or digital format trailers attached to the film (managers always change the schedule mid-day). We did do it for Attack of the Clones though. Put both the THX, and Dolby Digital trailers on the 2 prints that were playing in our 2 THX houses. This was great until they gave us an interlock at the last second, to a non-THX SR-D screen. Oh well, I guess we could claim the PRINT was THX certified, and that was enough.

BTW, if you were wondering...
16 screens
2 SR-D EX (THX Cert)
3 SR-D
5 DTS
4 SDDS
2 SR

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 07-23-2002 10:22 PM

Cinemark did away with THX in 1995 in favor of using the money to purchase DTS units. The cost was $5000 a year per screen to keep the liscence up. All THX equipment were removed. Processors were converted from cp55's to ultra-stereo 1000 and DTS units installed in all former THX houses. THe peavy amps that were being used stayed set up for bi-amplification with the use of a crossover plugged into the back of each amp.

From what I also have been told, how factual I am not sure, that one reason Cinemark got rid of THX was because of an agreement they had in Mexico or somewhere international that they would have exclusive instelations of the THX systems. THX apparently failed to keep the agreement.

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-24-2002 05:05 AM

quote:
I was recently at the AMC Empire on 42nd St. Got a great booth tour and saw MIB2 there opening week in aud. #6. Gotta say the presentation, sound and environment at that theatre is top-notch all the way <snip>

If you like the sound coming at you from somewhere above the screen, anyway.... although admittedly I got used to it, perhaps being more distracted by evaluating the quality of the digital "Ocean's 11" I saw there.

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