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Author Topic: Christie CP2000 Kyle Anderson Film Handler Posts: 86 From: Tyler, TX, USA Registered: Dec 2005 posted 10-10-2006 11:58 PM                     Christie installed a SAN server along with our projectors ~8 months ago; unfortunately it sat there for 5 months because nobody gave enough of a shit to fix it. After the most recent Doremi upgrade (thank God we don't have to deal with the ****** glitching anymore ), they just have problems transferring from the "LMS" as they call it, to our projectors on Thursdays without breaking down or losing connectivity As for the CP2k's themselves... great projectors, if they would fix the retarded warning screens on the touch panels (the bulb strike failed no shit).  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-11-2006 03:36 AM                     Kyle, tell me about it. If you would have asked me my opinion of digital projection the first week we had the systems you would have heard something entirely different from what I have to say right now. I can only take so many movie 'skipping' (like a scratched DVD in on screen appearance). Thank god that's stopped. We're having the stupid LMS transfer problem too, though it seems to be limited to only one screen at the moment. And yeah, gotta love the 'Lamp Strike Fail' indication. To their credit the status panel does give a lot of info. I guess if the projector doesn't know why something went wrong though there's not much it can say.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-11-2006 01:14 PM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen I think the industry wil quickly learn that the Dolby Server is the ONLY server to have. Are you getting paid a commission for Dolby Digital Cinema sales? quote: Dustin Mitchell Kyle, tell me about it. If you would have asked me my opinion of digital projection the first week we had the systems you would have heard something entirely different from what I have to say right now. That LMS transfer problem sounds like a pain. But thankfully that's just something that happens in the background outside of actual shows. Problems like glitches on screen are much worse from the customer perspective (especially if there's been a lot of "come see digital cinema" hype being advertised). The Christie/AIX folks and Carmike's tech people seem to be taking plenty of time testing out all the projection equipment at the theater here. Still, the Carmike website has the Lawton 8-plex and the Carmike 10 in Colorado Springs advertising mostly "digital" shows starting Friday. I guess The Marine doesn't have a d-cinema based version. If all goes well the theater may be doing d-cinema shows perhaps before then. If anything breaks down, I hope it happens early while all the technical people are still within close reach.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-11-2006 07:09 PM                     quote: Bobby Henderson Are you getting paid a commission for Dolby Digital Cinema sales? No, but I can say that with confidence since I've either run them all or have seen how they all operate. Several of the other brands are very cumbersome just to set up a show on. Dolby also has a history of supporting all the products they have sold for decades on. Dolby will still repair a CP-100! Other servers rely on a number of boards that are available off the shelf... and when they are not available off the shelf any longer the useful life of that $25,000.00 server may well be at it's end. Dolby has produced ALL of the boards for their sever except the Show Store which uses an Intel motherboard. Hence... if you want to be able to repair it in 12 years its the best way to go. So Bobby how many of the boards plugged into your computer are still available in the version you bought? I'd bet.... none! Mark  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 10-11-2006 09:51 PM                        My experience agrees with Mark's. Louis  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-11-2006 10:05 PM                     What kind of boards I have plugged into the new and old computers I use is totally irrelevant. This isn't a "Dolby versus Bobby Henderson" discussion. And it isn't a comparison about what kind of computers and software I use in my daily work either. That makes about as much sense as comparing Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream to Home Depot roof shingles. With all the Dolby cheerleading going on, I'm surprised I don't see something just like those broad and wildly inaccurate "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" TV commercials. I'm just not going to drink the kool-aid that easily. Dolby isn't in the hard drive, silicon chip and server manufacturing business. "Dolby Digital Cinema" is not something that is built entirely from the ground up in Dolby facilities. They have to job out a bunch of that hardware work to other parties. Maybe even some of that programming work is getting jobbed out as well. After all, isn't "outsourcing" supposed to be the great new money making thing in big business? With that in mind, I just want to know specifically why something like a Christie/AIX setup is so inferior to anything bearing Dolby's glorious brand name. Dolby may repair an old CP-100. But since they don't make all the silicon chips, the digital projectors, the hard discs and many other components in Dolby Digital Cinema, I have to say it would be extremely presumptuous to suggest Dolby would be able to service an existing Dolby Digital Cinema system 20 or 30 years from now. The first generation of digital cinema setups is only 7 years old and all of that hardware is obsolete. What's going to make any of Dolby's gear so special several years from now? With that in mind, I can certainly see why exhibitors like Carmike have chosen to go another route and simply do a creative lease agreement on the equipment rather than buy it outright.  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-12-2006 01:07 AM                     I cannot speak from a hardware point of view and I've never worked with a Dolby server but with the Doremi it takes less than 5 minutes to build a show. I can't think of anything easier than dragging and dropping.  |  IP: Logged Anslem Rayburn Master Film Handler Posts: 476 From: Yuma, AZ, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 10-12-2006 05:26 AM                     One thing, for certain, is that since Dolby started doing the digital cinema thing it has caught on. We had a digital projector for 4+ years, and had about two movies per year to show on it. Since Dolby has started installing their units, digital shows are coming out every friggin' week. Their name is all they have, and I would actually have some faith in them supporting hardware for years to come, and fighting tooth and nail to keep it viable. They are investing not only their money, but their reputation on the viability of the format, and I trust them more than I do some other companies that have come along in the past.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-12-2006 12:45 PM                     Anslem, I think you're giving Dolby a little too much credit. How many Dolby Digital Cinema packages are installed versus those of other parties? I don't know who has the most installations, but would be willing to bet the Christie/AIX package is the current leader by a healthy margin. Christie/AIX did their 1000th system install back in September. Starting this past August every Carmike theater they have been visiting has had digital projection systems installed on every screen. They're keeping 35mm intact on at least 2 or 3 screens per location. The list of theaters due for d-cinema install at the Carmike website is a very conservative list. They don't have the full schedule of theaters shown. There's a good number of theaters with 50% of screens digital equipped that will soon get the remainder of their screens converted. That aggressive install pace has to account for at least some influence in getting movie studios to make digital cinema versions of most or all of their titles. Don't get me wrong, Dolby's gear is definitely far from junk. I've seen the photos of the Dolby Labs screening room and projection booth. It's all very impressive looking and I'm sure they put on one hell of a show there. However, that is a top of the line theater with very carefully controlled conditions. Regular commercial movie theaters aren't quite the same.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-12-2006 01:04 PM                        Don't forget that Dolby was a distant runner-up to DTS in the early days of the digital sound rollout. A lot of people thought the Dolby system of digital-sound-on-film just couldn't work in the real world. Time has shown that it works just fine and SR-D is in fact now the dominant digital sound format for film. In light of that, exhibitors have to give Dolby's D-Cinema products serious consideration. And they'll have in mind how well Dolby has supported its current (and past ) sound products.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 10-12-2006 01:41 PM                    Actually what pushed dts ahead of Dolby at the time was that the units were cheaper and easier to thread the readers and maintain. You also had the less fallback issues so long as the DTS timecode was printed correctly on the film and no one screwed with the readers. I think what helped Dolby was when they started offering it built into their processors.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-12-2006 04:16 PM                     First off...all one needs to do is read one maybe two of Mark's posts to know where he stands...rightly or wrongly... As to Dolby...they don't make the chips in their analog processors and often don't make the power supplies...and so forth. However, they have supported their products by having plug in modules that would work in their place. Note, the Cat 150...theie were discrete components doing the decoding, then the Sanyo chip then the Analog Devices chip...all transparent to the end user. There is no reason not to think that Dolby wouldn't continue that into the future with their DCinema equipment...they have already done it with the CP650...with chips being obsoleted and new boards out that work with the current day chips. One of the reason for the new firmwares is to handle the newer boards. As for banking on Dolby...it is a MUCH safer bet than other brands that will get bored with Cinema when the numbers show that Cinema really isn't high volume, particularly when there is competition. Anyone that has been to the shows has seen speaker manufacturers come and go trying to crack into the cinema market...still JBL and EV remain...with QSC, already a cinema company with amps coming on strong. This is not to say that the other companies don't still have some cinema speakers or are out of business...EAW will still sell their cinema speakers but you don't see them at the show and you don't see any new designs. As to Dolby vs DTS in the early digital days...Dolby was first but if many recall, the cost of a DA10 with Cat 699 would top $10,000! A Changeover system was knocking on $15K! In 1993 DTS came out with Jurassic Park and was DTS only and the players were damn near free...I want to say less than $4K for 6-track system...with the reader...second reader was less than $1K. How can you beat that? Those orginal DTS6 units were also built REALLY well. Industrial caddy drives (many are still working to this day), Jensen transformers and just a peek inside showed the build quality. DTS effectively forced Dolby to lower its price if it wanted to be in the digital film sound business. It wasn't reliability that kept Dolby out at first...it was $$$$$. Once the DA20/Cat 700 system (and also basement readers) came out....prices were much closer....DTS also raised their prices to more realistic levels for a company that wanted profits! As such, the spread was not as bad though DTS remains significantly less expensive. I would say that the drive reliability didn't really come back until the XD10. As any capitalist would tell you...competition drives prices lower for consumers.  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-12-2006 05:52 PM                     The thing that has pushed Digital releases this year is the fact that there are all these systems. Dolby server can still only handle MPEG files, if you are using the system that was used for Chicken Little 3D.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-12-2006 05:57 PM                     quote: Paul Konen Dolby server can still only handle MPEG files, if you are using the system that was used for Chicken Little 3D. Not completely true... actually Dolby is in the process of converting all pre-existing servers over to handle both MPEG and JPEG 2000. Its not that big a deal for a while anyway with so very few JPEG releases anyway. The majority of stuff is still MPEG. SLC was in fact a big beta test site for Dolby and JEG. Mark  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-12-2006 06:03 PM                     Mark, that is true. Actually, I believe Dolby systems will be able to handle JPEG and MPEG.  |  IP: Logged

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