posted 04-02-2004 05:27 PM                       

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Today's Black and white films are often released on color stck, no?

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posted 04-05-2004 12:25 AM                       

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As far as I can find in my files, the ads and articles about red LED readers published in Boxoffice, Film Journal, etc. in 1996 and 1997 did not "sell" red readers based on any proposed conversion to cyan dye track. The Joseph Hull article (Film Journal, August 1998) is the first that really promoted the idea of cyan dye tracks directly to theatre owners, and by that time, he reported 28,000 red LED installations worldwide:

http://www.film-tech.com/manuals/DOLBYSCANREV.pdf

Jack Cashin of USL published an article about conversion to cyan dye tracks in October 1998. I believe the first presentation about cyan dye tracks directly to theatre owners was at ShowEast in October 1998.

So it appears that thousands of red LED readers were installed prior to late 1998 without any "push" from cyan dye track conversion.

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At the 138th SMPTE Technical Conference and World Media Expo held in Los Angeles in October 1996, a paper entitled "Red LED Reproduction of Cyan Stereo Variable Area Dye Tracks," by Paul R. Goldberg (Zoran Corp.), Ioan Allen (Dolby Laboratories), Frank J. Ricotta (Technicolor), and Richard C. Sehlin (Eastman Kodak Co.), was presented. The paper discussed the means by which the motion picture industry could finally eliminate its dependence on analog sound track redevelopment, an additional processing step that reintroduces silver into analog soundtracks printed on color stock. A soundtrack reading mechanism, based on the use of a red light-emitting diode (LED) illumination source, was described. The mechanism allows the reading of a cyan dye track with fidelity essentially equal to that presently obtained from a standard "silver track" reproduced by a conventional soundtrack reader.

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posted 04-05-2004 06:53 AM                       

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As far as I can find in my files, the ads and articles about red LED readers published in Boxoffice, Film Journal, etc. in 1996 and 1997 did not "sell" red readers based on any proposed conversion to cyan dye track. The Joseph Hull article (Film Journal, August 1998) is the first that really promoted the idea of cyan dye tracks directly to theatre owners, and by that time, he reported 28,000 red LED installations worldwide:

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posted 04-05-2004 10:15 AM                       

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Then to whom were they sold before 1998, & how were they "sold" since they required high-magenta to support them ?

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Also one of the disadvantages of the IR led was it read residual print wash as a modulated noise which the red led didn't

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posted 04-06-2004 08:58 AM                       

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Why didn't Disney want to go high-magenta?

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Disney rep Jeff Miller expressed support for the program, and spoke of previous environmental efforts in which his company had been involved. “As soon as the theatres have converted, Disney will issue 100 percent dye track analog releases,” he said. Miller encouraged NATO and ITEA to maximize efforts in persuading the remaining screens to convert, pointing out that hardware costs could be as little as $500 per screen.

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"Our industry is striving to eliminate sources of environmental harm, improve lab productivity and theatrical efficiency," Buena Vista Distribution president Chuck Viane said. "Buena Vista is proud to be taking a cutting-edge position in this worthy effort."...
Disney's first pure-dye cyan title is "Mr. 3000," scheduled for release worldwide in September. According to Viane, Disney will then switchover to pure-dye cyan for all its titles released worldwide beginning Jan. 1. Disney's release print conversion will be handled by Technicolor.

In the past, labs manufacturing the soundtracks on 35mm release prints around the world have used environmentally unfriendly chemical processes. Environmentalists have charged that the lab procedures waste water, pollute the air, produce manufacturing waste, and introduce an array of caustic chemicals into the environment.

Under the old process, silver was used to create the soundtrack; the new process substitutes pure-dye cyan, which eliminates the use of caustic and toxic soundtrack redeveloper solution and allows for much simpler disposal of used prints.

"We manufacture a billion feet of film a year and the industry all combined (turns out) probably 15 (billion)-20 billion feet," said Jeff Miller, executive vp worldwide postproduction and operations for Walt Disney Studios.

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