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Topic: CDS-Equipped Theatres

Dan Lyons
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 698
From: Seal Beach, CA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 08-02-2003 05:58 PM

Mitchell wrote :

quote:
Also, I believe, but not sure, that the George Moroder version of Metropolis was released in CDS.

Wasn't that version released in 1984? The IMDB doens't mention a re-release in the '90s.

Danny

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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 08-02-2003 09:07 PM

Mike Olpin wrote...

quote:
Anyone know what screen(s) CDS was installed in for UA Horton Plaza 7 (now a 14)...?

I can't say this with certainty but the most likely candidate would have been the largest auditorium in the west wing, Screen #2 (if I recall the screen number correctly; I worked film festivals there for one week each in 1998 and 1999 but haven't been there since then). While the other screens had to make do with Christie packages, this one had an AA-II, over 2000 watts of amplification, DTS, SDDS, and -- at the time of my gigs -- THX certification.

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Peter Hall
Master Film Handler

Posts: 314
From: London, UK
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-03-2003 05:08 AM

ORC seemed to have some good ideas however from the kit we've seen never quite made it into the mainstream or sorted reliability problems. The small ORCON B is a really handy pisce of kit when it has not self destructed. They were the first with Digital. Even their platters could be described as having some merit if you look really hard ! OK - xenon lamps were another thing - great if you're selling them and want to keep the phone ringing - we had real reliability issues with these and their subsequent rebranding to LTI.

Steven - totally agree about the Croydon ACOP. We have been trying for ages to get this replaced or removed - trick is if you have an alarm turn EVERYTHING off and start again - I know this is stupid as you can be runnign fine on one projector, turn the other maachine on to lace up and cause an alarm and shut down a good show. Only Reg has any idea on how it works - still, I believe that this is probably the only commercial cinema in Loondon without some form of long play ..

Peter

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-03-2003 05:22 AM

quote:
Was there any CDS trailers that were played before the feature?

Yup, there was a CDS sound logo.

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Jeffry L. Johnson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 809
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 08-03-2003 01:38 PM

Tom Cruise's home screening room had CDS installed.

I think that the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at AMPAS also had CDS installed at one time. In the mid to late 1990's there was a SMPTE presentation there that had Dolby Digital, DTS, LC Concept, and SDDS demonstrating their systems. The CDS system could not be resurrected, so that system was not presented.

Somewhere in my house I have a CDS one-sheet, coasters, and two t-shirts with different designs.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 08-04-2003 12:21 AM

quote:
Films in CDS

Flatliners
For the Boys
Universal Soldier

While these three titles were certainly announced for release in CDS (and For The Boys even carries a CDS sound format logo in its credits), I think the verdict is still out on them actually getting released that way...at least in the U.S.

quote:
Was it 'stereo', 4 track, EX etc ??

CDS was a "six-track"/"5.1" format, though not every film to use it was necessarily sourced from a full six-track mix. Edward Scissorhands, for instance, was a four-track (L-C-R-S) mix.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-04-2003 10:59 AM

Bill Langfield writes:

quote:
I'm scared as hell of getting Titanic or Lawrence in DTS only - AGAIN. WHICH will happen around August 15th. There is no back-up. Well there is, TWO PLAYERS (Thanks Ray) but only the one READER. That is the worry!

But if your exciter bulb or LED power supply goes pop on an analogue-only processor you've lost the sound, too. So unless CDS was notoriously prone to dropouts I wouldn't have thought that killed the system in itself. But there again, digital means that you either get perfect sound or nothing at all, so I suppose that backup is more of an issue.

Peter writes:

quote:
still, I believe that this is probably the only commercial cinema in Loondon without some form of long play ..

AFAIK only one of the three NFT screens has a tower, and even then it isn't used for regular shows. Also the Riverside Studios and Everyman didn't use any long-play the last I knew of them, in the early '90s... but maybe they don't count as commercial (the NFT certainly wouldn't).

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-04-2003 11:28 AM

Screen At Oxted (Plaza) which is much a commercial cinema, has no long playing system. They have retained the two Westar projectors and Westrex soundheads with 5,000 foot spool boxes. The AEI 2k xenon lamphouses and T & R rectifiers were installed from the Regal, Cranleigh.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-04-2003 11:58 AM

Leo wrote:

quote:

AFAIK only one of the three NFT screens has a tower, and even then it isn't used for regular shows. Also the Riverside Studios and Everyman didn't use any long-play the last I knew of them, in the early '90s... but maybe they don't count as commercial (the NFT certainly wouldn't).

NFT 3 (ex MOMI) is now using a tower for some normal shows, I don't think it's the same one that was there in museum days. I saw 'Metropolis' there as an extended run, and this was run from the tower.

Shortly after the recent refurbishment (NFT 1 has tabs at last, after years of a bare screen since the gold shutters went out of use years ago!) I saw a normal show there, which was being run normally, but looking up through one of the ports I could see what looked like the edge of a tower spool. I'm not sure, but I think they may be running some shows there from a tower now. Does anybody know for sure?

There are a fair number of other places without long play, if by that you mean towers or platters, most can run 6k spools now.

Towers do seem very common in art house type places; I'd much rather have two machines, it makes life so much simpler. To run with changeovers you just need to be able to lace up film in the right place, and press two buttons, not exactly difficult. Compare that with the procedures described here recently for changing trailers, or re-starting a show with platters; sounds like an absolute nightmare. I've never run a platter, but they seem to make life so complicated.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-04-2003 12:27 PM

Stephen,

You would enjoy a visit to the Oxted cinema. Built in the 1920s with a circle added for the beginning of talkies, the projection room was also moved. The original silent screen painted on the back wall can still be seen behind the old square proscenium. Up until 4 years ago Western Electric Universal bases with valve amps and Peerless carbon arcs were still operating.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-04-2003 01:11 PM

Brad, do you actually have any CDS film to run on your setup?

There were more installations than I had expected. Did the theatres buy the equipment, or was it rented, on loan from ORC, or what? I can't imagine they would have been too happy if they had been persuaded to pay out to buy the system, which only lasted for a few films. Not the first time something like this has happened of course, Fox Grandeur, 8perf Vista prints and sound on disk all spring to mind. Sound on disk did last a bit longer than CDS though, at lest for presentation, if not for original recording.

Are there any CDS prints still around? Could a theatre in theory still rent them if they have the equipment installed?

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Duncan Smith
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: England
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 08-04-2003 03:22 PM

Hey dudes! I have a friend who was a projectionist at UCI thurrock when the CDS was there. According to him it still is there, sitting around, together with the print of T2 too! He left there a few years ago and it was there when he left. Stephen's right about the NFT too, they do run quite a few shows off the tower in NFT3, more than when I was there about 2.5 yrs ago.

It was my understanding that CDS was a forerunner for SRD as it has similar pixel based information. Did it use less data compression as the track was continuous like SDDS and not between the perfs?

My largest screen (out of 2) has no long play system although the little one has a tower and only 1 machine. 2 projectors is preferable but not always possible. [uhoh]

See ya, Dunk.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 08-04-2003 03:34 PM

Anyone have a picture or scan of a frame or two of a CDS print? John?

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John Pytlak
Film God

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

posted 08-04-2003 03:52 PM

There's more Cinema Digital Sound background information in an article published in the July 1990 issue of Kodak Film Notes for Reel People, H-50-25:

http://www.film-tech.com/manuals/H5025.pdf

Ron Uhlig led the Kodak technology team that worked with ORC and the labs.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 08-04-2003 04:52 PM

This is the only picture of a CDS soundtrack I could find. Does that look accurate? I have never seen a CDS print firsthand before.

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