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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Dolby Clones (Page 4)

 
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Author Topic: Dolby Clones
Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 01-21-2008 08:56 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The Cinema had an early Starscope which did indeed have Dolby Cat 22 modules which bore the logo of "Dolby System" was the name of the Dolby Noise reductions (see any cassette deck of that era or such films as American Graffiti.

I remember the article that Gordon mentions...probably around April 1982 or so. It shows a picture of the K-B Congressional sound system. That comprised of a tall wall mounted rack that had Bogen amplifiers used as house sound systems (mono). There were 7 such amps in the rack...one for each theatre with two that could be switched into any of the five theatres via push-button. It was a custom Cardinal Sound design control panel. The three largest theatres (1, 4, and 5) had patch panels on the rack so a mobile stereo rack could be installed in any or all of those theatres by merely moving two switches.

In its day, it was relatively cost effective though it would be considered odd by today's standards in that all of the sound systems were contained in one rack rather than separate racks by each theatre. Believe it or not, I think the fact that two spare amps could be switched into any theatre in a matter of a single push button is what was behind the idea. At K-B we NEVER lost shows or there was a lot of explaining to do. That was particularly true if the film had already started. The rule was, destroy the projector/sound getting through a current show rather than cancel a show that had started...it was better to tell someone that had not be issued a ticket that the show was unavailable than to have a person no see their film in its entirety.

Ah...those were the days.

Steve

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Sebastian Binz
Film Handler

Posts: 32
From: Cologne, Germany
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 01-22-2008 01:45 AM      Profile for Sebastian Binz   Email Sebastian Binz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Good Morning,
let me take a quick look to the right...ehm, yepp, theres an Eprad Starscope just below this computer screen.
This Eprad Starscope system is still in operation and powered by an Eprad StarPowerFour amp. Since the channel seperation is very poor, it will be replaced by a JSD-80D with DA20 and DTS-6 within the next couple of weeks.
I can take some pictures if anyone is interested.

best regards

Basti

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

- posted 01-22-2008 04:39 AM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Steve Guttag
"Dolby System" was the name of the Dolby Noise reductions (see any cassette deck of that era or such films as American Graffiti).
For cinema, I believe that "Dolby System" logo was an umbrella term for any or all of the various Dolby processes, not specifically a reference to the use of noise reduction.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

- posted 01-22-2008 07:32 AM      Profile for John Walsh   Email John Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Didn't the Starscope have a gated 'feature' where the surrounds would come on if the other channels were loud enough, even if there wasn't supposed to be any surrounds at that time?

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

- posted 01-22-2008 09:05 PM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Steve Guttag
"Dolby System" was the name of the Dolby Noise reductions (see such films as American Graffiti).
The Dolby logo that appears in the end credits of "American Graffiti" was added to the 1978 re-issue version. These prints also ran two minutes longer than the '73 original.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 01-22-2008 09:25 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
John...yes but for the opposite affect. They used a gate to determine if the out of phase information was great enough to turn on the surrounds rather than have slightly out of phase info false trigger them. In addition to that was an adjustment for "rate"...if you get these two set right, it normally worked but with a sudden turn on or off.

Michael...Yes I was referring to the reissue, not the orignal release...which would not have used Dolby anything.

Steve

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

- posted 01-23-2008 03:02 AM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Steve...I was surprised you cited "American Graffiti" since it was (1) one of over 40 titles to use that logo, and (2) was one of the last to use it before the company introduced the "Recorded in Dolby Stereo" logo.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

- posted 01-23-2008 02:07 PM      Profile for Louis Bornwasser   Author's Homepage   Email Louis Bornwasser   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Remember early Dolby encoded films were mag only; hence "Dolby System." Later with SVA, a differentiator was needed, so "Dolby Stereo" was launched. Certainly there were actually quite a few Dolby SVA that went out as Dolby System. Marketing had not yet caught up. (Dolby System....Bell System?)

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

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

- posted 01-23-2008 02:57 PM      Profile for Gordon McLeod   Email Gordon McLeod   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Also there were many Dolby Mono Optical prints in circulation that were marketed as Dolby System

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

- posted 01-23-2008 04:47 PM      Profile for Tim Reed   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
FWIW, I remember two of my favorites, "Logan's Run" and "Grease," were also Dolby System pictures... [Wink]

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

- posted 01-30-2008 09:22 PM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Louis Bornwasser
Remember early Dolby encoded films were mag only
Not true; most were optical.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 01-30-2008 09:42 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: John Walsh
Didn't the Starscope have a gated 'feature' where the surrounds would come on if the other channels were loud enough, even if there wasn't supposed to be any surrounds at that time?
Nerd Alert: Edwards used something like that in #4 at the El Toro 5 (now gone). It was awful! The effect was very distracting, not natural at all.

"Dolby System" was used on at least a few optical releases.

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Ron Funderburg
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 814
From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 01-30-2008 10:14 PM      Profile for Ron Funderburg   Author's Homepage   Email Ron Funderburg   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I remember in 81 or 82 at a convention one of the Dolby Clone companies (not sure which) came out with the fake stereo! They also were talking about a new digital system that would have the sound track embedded on the picture in an infra-red format! The sound of the frame would contained on the actual frame of film and read just before it got there. They wanted to make it where you lost the optical sound track and had more room for picture, which meant everyone would have to go their sound track if they had sound. I don't think it was Smart but it could have been.

you have to remember that it was a good 7 or 8 years before Dolby actually came out with Digital sound. I sort of thought that the light from the projector would make the infra-red 1 and 0's visible and you see them on the screen. It never ever came about so not sure what happened to best laid plan of mice and men!

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

- posted 01-30-2008 11:55 PM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: David Stambaugh
"Dolby System" was used on at least a few optical releases.
Forty-three of them...but who's counting? [Wink]

quote: Ron Funderburg
you have to remember that it was a good 7 or 8 years before Dolby actually came out with Digital sound.
Seven or eight, eh? How 'bout eighteen!

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 01-31-2008 11:04 AM      Profile for Frank Angel   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Angel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Steve Guttag
They used a gate to determine if the out of phase information was great enough to turn on the surrounds rather than have slightly out of phase info false trigger them. In addition to that was an adjustment for "rate"...if you get these two set right, it normally worked but with a sudden turn on or off.
Very early on I felt like David....I hated that sound of the the surrounds kicking ON or OFF with a primitive relay on mag prints (12khz trigger tone circuit). So I stole a piece of equipment from the recording studio -- a Fairchild component called a "ducker." This thing would "hear" the presense of audio on the surround track, either in the form of the 12kHz tone or, in the case of the later mag prints that mercifully eliminate that 12kHz debacle, it would hear track audio itself. Once audio of sufficient level was present (you could set this threshold), it would allow the signal to pass to the surround amps.

The really nice thing about it was that you could also set the attack and decay times. I'd set the attack time as nearly instantanious, but I set the decay for a very long few seconds, so it gave a nice, smooth fade-way, thus avoiding David's lament...."The effect was very distracting, not natural at all." With this unit, instead of that stupid either ON or OFF relay, the surrounds behaved and didn't call attention to themselves other than hearing the track you when you were supposed to.

For a time I even left it in the circuit when playing optical stereo. The quieting of the surrounds when they weren't supposed to be on was a plus. Once red readers went in, it was no longer needed (much less bleed in the surrounds), but in its hayday, that Fairchild unit did wonders for mag playback and we keep it able to be switched in for the occasional mag track print that we still play on occasion.

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