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Topic: Disney Approved Equipment

Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-12-2008 07:59 PM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Martin... would appreciate it if you could post the supposed "list of equipment".

Here is the link provided in the letter for current approved machines and all future improved machines(It also contains the letter):
http://www.bvpdsales.disney.com/DisneyApprovedDigitalEquipmentlist/

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 02-12-2008 09:04 PM

Now that I read it it's not too scary, just their way of saying that exhibitors who buy their own equipment need to have a plan to upgrade their equipment when final "DCI Compliant" versions are available. It also says that those who buy their own projectors are definitely SOL when it comes to VPFs - I think the gist here is that the studios are trying to play the ownership card when it comes to equipment they are paying VPFs for and this is Disney's way of trying to steer exhibitors to "deployment entities".

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 02-13-2008 01:02 PM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
I also can't stop thinking of the entire phone switch building in Hinsdale, IL that burn't down back in the 88...

A lot more redundancy has been built into the core telephone network in the 20 years since Hinsdale. An example would be where signaling transfer points are replicated using equipment from different vendors. This to add the assurance that a problem with one vendors equipment would be unlikely to affect the entire network. I do remember the Hinsdale incident and I do believe there was an element of human error associated with that failure.

quote:
dial into modems are a thing of the past today!!

FWIW, to the point of using dial-up to deliver keys: That seems just plain shortsighted given the state and reliability of data networks today. Dial-up should only be used as a fall back method of delivery should the primary method fail.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-13-2008 01:31 PM

quote: Rick Raskin
I do remember the Hinsdale incident and I do believe there was an element of human error associated with that failure.

Rick,
This was a case where duplicate equipment would have made no difference, it too would have all melted together with the other manufacturers gear... The human error in this case was that there was no way adaquate in the building to immediately extinguish the fire and who ever reported it waited an hour too long.

It not so much the equipment redundancy factor in a building that the phonee company should worry about... its not having all your eggs in the same building!!

Mark

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Andy Frodsham
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 238
From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 02-13-2008 02:15 PM

and we are dumping trusty 35mm (with superior picture quality) for all this!!!

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-13-2008 02:38 PM

quote: Andy Frodsham
with superior picture quality

I wish I could agree... the last 6 months have seen drastic decliine in print quality with many prints having no better than mediocre 16mm image quality. Decent 35mm prints seem to be getting scarcer, perhaps this is happening on purpose.

Mark

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 02-13-2008 03:10 PM

There is not much you can do if an end office goes kaput.

Back on topic: Wasn't there a standards body that was setting requirements? DAVIC or something like that?

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David Stambaugh
Film God

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

posted 02-13-2008 03:13 PM

If 35mm print quality is declining, it might be more to do with diversion of attention and resources to digital, and less attention to 35mm quality control etc. I doubt it's a conspiracy. But who knows.

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 02-13-2008 03:26 PM

quote: David Stambaugh
If 35mm print quality is declining, it might be more to do with diversion of attention and resources to digital, and less attention to 35mm quality control etc. I doubt it's a conspiracy.

I expect the real signs of this is when Print Numbers are reduced, I can see more loosers than winners on D-Cinema (Digital Video) as at the end the day the Cinema Exhibutor will have to bear the high costs for this equipment and what about the small Cinema Independents that strugle now?.

Will they decline or go bust......

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Brant Veilleux
Film Handler

Posts: 23
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 02-13-2008 04:06 PM

quote:
and we are dumping trusty 35mm (with superior picture quality) for all this!!!

Unfortunately, I feel the Digital Intermediate is doing more of a disservice to film than D-cinema. In addition, I agree with Mark in regards to poor registration because of the high speeds the prints are made these days. Throw in the fact a lot of scope films are shot on super 35, and not using an anamorphic.

I'll take D-Cinema just keep the whole process all the way through presentation Digital. Film done right will always beat out digital. It just doesn't seem to be done right too often any more.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 02-13-2008 05:36 PM

It will be interesting to see if print quality improves or declines as print quantities decline. In general, the smaller labs seem to make better prints. In general, prints from Du Art, Alpha Cine, Foto-Kem, and smaller labs will completely blow away anything from Technicolor and Deluxe.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-13-2008 07:27 PM

quote: Scott Norwood
Technicolor and Deluxe.

Thats for sure... Technicolor Dailies from New York were always by far the worst that could ever be produced!! An old friend at BHP Products told me that they not only didn't own the alignment jig for the BHP panel printer but that the New York lab got all the throw away stuff from L.A. [Eek!]

. It sure showed... literally...

Mark

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 02-13-2008 09:57 PM

Since somebody mentioned that there's apparently only a requirement for one analog phone line per building it sounds like either you only have to connect one server to the line and it'll transfer keys across your network, or you're allowed to use ATAs for each of the servers (which could get a little expensive given that most theatres only have 16 or 24 extension phone systems).

In either case, I'd prefer external modems than the built in ones that Mark suggested he'd be expecting to see.

Personally, I'm fine with a POTS line requirement over an internet based method if the failure of either means it's going to cause problems. Most theatres have cheap internet connections with lousy MTTR terms. For the theatres that don't have cheap internet connections (say four wire SDSL with a better MTTR or the very common ISDN situation) I wouldn't really care either way provided that their internet connected network isn't a Mickey Mouse mess like is often the case.

POTS lines are fine and are still in very widespread use in (even new) industrial equipment. If data rates weren't at issue I'd prefer them for credit card transactions (but data rates are an issue for CC transactions since they're time critical). POTS lines are reliable, cheap internet connections are not. I think most people would be surprised how often cheap internet connections are down if they were to monitor them.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-14-2008 08:57 AM

The other method of setting up one puter on that single line as the chain here has done for the distributers to call in the KDM's too seems the best route to me... although in two years it has not been used. That puter could easily have its own simple network going to each server running a program to feed KDM's to appropriate servers when they arrive. Funny thing is that I could see the manufactrurers comming out with a whole new product... A KDM Library! [Roll Eyes]

If I'm not mistaken this is something along the lines of what the DTS FilmStore can already do.

Mark

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 02-14-2008 08:54 PM

quote: Louis Bornwasser
WHEN fully-DCI compliant equipment becomes available, THEN they 1. won't pay VPF

Pardon if I'm having a dense moment here, but... what does the VPF have to do with DCI compliance? I thought VPF was supposed to be a "transition motivator" for otherwise-reluctant exhibitors.

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