Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dolby Unveils 7.1 Channel Sound for Cinemas

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Film Handlers' Forum » Dolby Unveils 7.1 Channel Sound for Cinemas - Premiering with Toy Story 3 (Page 12)

This topic comprises 14 pages: 1 2 3 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14

Author

Topic: Dolby Unveils 7.1 Channel Sound for Cinemas - Premiering with Toy Story 3

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 06-26-2010 09:23 AM

quote: Ron Curran
The end credits do mention Mixed in 7.1 after the audience has left the building and arrived home.

I agree the sound format logos (and other info like "1-800-PHONE-THX") at the end of the movie's end credits are completely useless to commercial movie theater audiences. Indeed, the audience has left the building.

On the other hand, those sound logos on movie end credits can be more visible to premium cable TV viewers a year or so after the movie played in theaters. The TV viewer switches channels a couple minutes before his movie or TV series is fixing to start and sees the very end of the end credits of the previous movie. Regular broadcast TV networks and cable networks that run commercials stomp all over movie credit runs but the premium channels still show them in their entirety.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-26-2010 09:42 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
the sound format logos (and other info like "1-800-PHONE-THX") at the end of the movie's end credits are completely useless to commercial movie theater audiences. Indeed, the audience has left the building.

True. They ought to put that stuff at the beginning of the movie, just before the studio logo. "Presented in DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND at quality theaters." Then put all three digital sound providers' logos across the bottom. Of course, many projectionists would just cut that off.

Does that 800-PHONE-THX line exist any more? I don't remember the last time I saw that at the end of a movie.

| IP: Logged

Eric Robinson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 538
From: Santa Rosa, CA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 06-27-2010 01:21 AM

I just saw Toy Story in 7.1. I didn't notice anything significant happening on the back surround left or back surround right.

| IP: Logged

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 06-27-2010 01:41 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
They ought to put that stuff at the beginning of the movie, just before the studio logo. "Presented in DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND at quality theaters." Then put all three digital sound providers' logos across the bottom. Of course, many projectionists would just cut that off.

The solution is simple! Just put the following text on that same screen: "If you do not see this image, please call 1-800-CRAP-PROJECTIONIST to notify us that the theater has unlawfully removed it, and we will take extreme action."

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 06-27-2010 02:10 AM

Heh heh. Rhetorical question: If the customers don't see the notice then how are they supposed to know who to call? Answer: the customers aren't seeing the notice and are not calling anyone. That's because various people involved have nothing but contempt for the customers. Those idiots. How dare those customers grace the theater doorstep with their presence?

| IP: Logged

Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 06-27-2010 07:49 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
They ought to put that stuff at the beginning of the movie, just before the studio logo. "Presented in DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND at quality theaters." Then put all three digital sound providers' logos across the bottom. Of course, many projectionists would just cut that off.

The sound could be different for each of the sound formats (with the analogue mix sounding pathetic).

This would not get round the fact that good SR can sound better than bad digital (if the system is not setup well).

| IP: Logged

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 06-27-2010 10:50 AM

You know who else is to blame? Dolby. They won't send out the tags any more. I tried to order some a little over a year ago, but like so many other people, I found out that they did not seem interested in marketing and won't send anything.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 06-27-2010 01:15 PM

DTS and THX trailers were common on a lot of DVDs. Dolby Digital trailers weren't used nearly as much even though Dolby had a lot more trailers for Dolby Digital. I don't think any of my Blu-ray discs have any sound format trailers.

| IP: Logged

Frank Angel
Film God

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

posted 06-27-2010 07:04 PM

Years ago I got my hands on an awesome JBL logo snipe touting their theatre speakers with great graphics and sound and the speaker systems of all channels are shown in a fly-over the theatre auditorium. Now, sound format logo snipes have been around since Dolby Stereo; ah, for the simpler days -- it was either mono or it was Dolby Stereo and none of the alphabet soup that was to follow....A, SR, SRS, THX, CDS, DTS, SRD, SDDS, EX etc., with each touting its horn with a logo snipe to promote it. But I have never seen a snipe before or since that hyped a theatre speaker system.

Unfortunately, our theatre complex in non-profit and jointly under city and state law so when the large theatre was refurbished and the sound system had to be replaced, the speaker system had to go to low bid, which was....wait for it: ElectroVoice --you know, their their highly respected cinema line of speakers [Confused]

The EV boxes replaced the JBLs and very different sound quality ensued (talk amongst yourselves).

So of course I can no longer run that sweet logo snipe for JBL theatre speaker systems. EV doesn't have anything comparable to the JBL snipe....nor anything comparable to JBL's speakers either, come to think of it [Frown]

.

Anyone here ever run (or even seen) the JBL snipe run in any commercial theatre?

Another question; did 4track mag ever have its own logo and/or a trailer to promote it? I have never seen it stated as such either on one sheets and I don't even think they made reference to it in the film credits when it was used. I guess in those days, the huge CinemaScope logo was supposed to be de facto 4trk mag stereo....until it wasn't.

| IP: Logged

Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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

posted 06-27-2010 07:15 PM

Actually, the Fox Fanfare had the "CinemaScope Extension" for CinemaScope titles and, in the beginning, all CinemaScope features were 4-track.

The realities are that there is little point, at this stage, for Dolby to promote their film sound systems. That race is over. How many more systems would Dolby sell (or Datasat) due to the snipes being run?

Steve

| IP: Logged

Daniel Schulz
Master Film Handler

Posts: 387
From: Los Angeles, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 06-27-2010 07:29 PM

I remember seeing the JBL snipe at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, but not recently.

| IP: Logged

Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 06-27-2010 08:30 PM

Although the new Titan Extreme Cinema system at Reading's Consolidated Ward 16 in Honolulu sucked big time, I was very impressed with the new sound system with Dolby 7.1 when I saw TOY STORY 3 there the other day. The auditorium had seven speakers on both the left and right walls, four in the rear, as well as three or more speakers behind the screen with the super subwoofers. In addition to all of that,, there were seven speakers on the left side of the ceiling and seven more on the right extending from the front of the auditorium to the rear. The Dolby 7.1 trailer sounded great but I could not detact any sound coming from the ceiling or the rear.

-Claude

| IP: Logged

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 06-27-2010 10:27 PM

Once again, 7.1 does not use any kind of "ceiling sound".

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 06-27-2010 11:03 PM

I suppose one reason why sound format trailers have fallen out of favor is digital surround sound is common to many movie theaters and millions of people have 5.1 or 7.1 setups in their homes. There is nowhere near as much novelty to it as there was 10 or 20 years ago. A lot more than just flagship class theaters in the biggest cities have it.

Nevertheless there is a relevant need for the trailers and other materials to educate the public about it. Many people don't know how to get their home theater systems properly connected and adjusted. I'm going to help a friend of mine get his new home theater system working properly sometime this week.

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
The Dolby 7.1 trailer sounded great but I could not detact any sound coming from the ceiling or the rear.

That's unfortunate. I haven't seen the trailer (or Toy Story 3 yet) so I don't know if the trailer isn't mixed well for 7.1 or if the theater's sound system wasn't properly calibrated.

The main purpose for having four surround channels instead of two is so surround panning effects will work better for much more of the audience. Regular stereo surround is not as effective because the surround array is divided into only left and right zones giving off more of a big stereo effect. That's not good when the mix is meant to provide a screen to back wall sound pan or other similar effects.

| IP: Logged

Eric Robinson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 538
From: Santa Rosa, CA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 06-28-2010 12:33 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
The main purpose for having four surround channels instead of two is so surround panning effects will work better for much more of the audience.

Yes, this is true. I find; however, that when I'm watching a movie, my attention span is so focused on the visual that I'm not paying attention to how well the panning effects are being produced. That is: I probably wouldn't notice the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 (consciously.)

It would seem that to make the effect obvious, the post production person would have to emphasize the effect by only producing sound from the back left or right while there is little or no sound coming from L,C,&R.

As a side note, my family was very excited when they saw the 7.1 logo on the screen before Toy Story; however, I'm sure they have no idea what it represents.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 14 pages: 1 2 3 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.