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Topic: DCP Digital Sound Formats Question

Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008

posted 12-17-2012 11:38 PM

I heard a little news tidbit that Sony HAD released a film this year at 96kHz but I can't find any info on what movie that was... ???

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Grant Chambers
Film Handler

Posts: 29
From: Branson Missouri, USA
Registered: Jul 2012

posted 12-23-2012 01:23 AM

The .wav files inside a DCP are 24 bit. 48000 khz mono tracks assigned specifically to each speaker speaker speaker (if it is indeed a surround sound feature)

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 12-27-2012 09:57 PM

I don't know why movie studios wouldn't try 24-bit 96kHz audio on some releases, particularly ones that have a great deal of music in them.

There's more than a few Blu-ray disc releases featuring 5.1 or 7.1 audio in 24-bit 96kHz resolution per channel. Baraka is one disc that immediately comes to mind. Quite a few concert discs have 24-bit 96kHz audio. If 24/96 resolution audio is good enough for the home it damned sure ought to be good enough for the commercial movie theater. Hell, Blu-ray (as well as the defunct DVD Audio format) supports 2 channel 24-bit 192kHz audio.

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Antti Nayha
Master Film Handler

Posts: 268
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 12-28-2012 03:35 AM

You won’t hear a difference between 48 kHz and higher sampling rates. The 24/96 home formats are just audiophile snake oil nonsense.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-28-2012 07:43 AM

quote: Antti Nayha
The 24/96 home formats are just audiophile snake oil nonsense.

But if you rub your digital interlink cables in said snake oil at least once a week you can FEEL the difference, at least between your ears. [Smile]

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 12-28-2012 05:22 PM

Or, as Brad once informed me an audiophile theater goer told him, if you got the wire pointing the right direction (and presumably in the oil) it'll sound better.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 12-28-2012 06:06 PM

quote: Brad Miller
Never turning the 650 off
Powering the 650 off overnight
Power cycling the 650 off for 5 minutes at the end of each show

So this brings up a question...

We've already decided (well most of us) that it's best to never turn off servers. What about a Dolby processor? I've always turned our CP650 off every night figuring there aren't really any moving parts in it that are going to wear out (like hard drives) on boot-up. But is it better to leave it on? For that matter, what about amplifiers?

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-28-2012 07:00 PM

quote: Chris Slycord
Or, as Brad once informed me an audiophile theater goer told him, if you got the wire pointing the right direction (and presumably in the oil) it'll sound better.

Sure, that's because if the electrons hit the end of the wire at an angle, that will cause some minor disturbance in the electromagnetic force that only a gifted audiophile will be able to detect [Wink]

quote: Mike Blakesley
We've already decided (well most of us) that it's best to never turn off servers. What about a Dolby processor? I've always turned our CP650 off every night figuring there aren't really any moving parts in it that are going to wear out (like hard drives) on boot-up. But is it better to leave it on? For that matter, what about amplifiers?

I'm still trying to figure out why so many people think that their equipment will last longer, if they never turn it off...

And just like the CP650, much of the other equipment does have some minor moving parts in it: fans. Those things will eventually wear out. Not to forget, your equipment will even collect more dust if those things are sucking in air.

Even regarding servers, there is much discussion about how much damage a spin down/spin up cycle actually does. One thing for sure, a powered down disk is at least not wearing out its drive mechanism [Wink]

. Servers DO need a clean shutdown, or else you risk data corruption of course. So just switching them off is really a no go. From my personal experience, I sometimes see that an old disk that has been turning non-stop for a year or two will refuse to spin up after a power cycle. But usually, you will update your system more frequently than that, so you will probably run into those problems earlier.

But you know what's great about regular power cycles? You know that your stuff will work, even after the power has gone out unexpectedly. I've already encountered many setups that won't "boot up" after someone or something pulled the plug.

Another thing is that many of those modern digital gadgets have the tendency to need a reset from time to time to get rid of some messed up internal state that will show up as a nasty bug later on. With every power cycle you'll give them a free reset.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 12-28-2012 08:43 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Even regarding servers, there is much discussion about how much damage a spin down/spin up cycle actually does.

Well....of course this is totally unscientific, but here's some recent experience from me:

My list of computers includes:
- A GDC digital cinema server with a RAID (3 hard drives)
- A cheap-ass Gateway office computer
- A Partner 2000 concession computer
- Four HP and two Dell computers at my day job

The server, originally, was powered down every night. All the other machines were left running constantly.

The Partner had its touchscreen go out after seven years of operation, but the drive is still fine. The Gateway ran for nine years, trouble free until we finally replaced it due to being outmoded. When we took it out of service the hard disk was still functioning.

The four HP machines at my day job have never lost a day yet after five years of operation. The two Dell machines both worked for nine years. One finally was felled by viruses so we decided to replace both; the hard drives were still working fine.

In the server, which was shut down nightly, we had a hard drive failure after 29 months. GDC, to their credit, replaced all three hard drives in the RAID even though the machine was five months out of warranty.

So now we leave the server running all the time.

Like I said this is completely unscientific so your mileage may vary.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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

posted 12-28-2012 09:47 PM

5 will get you 10 that the failed HDD in your GDC were the dreaded Seagate "ES" series drives...they would fail regardless of your power cycle method.

I don't run the sound systems 24-hours and most things with fans I like to shut off. The servers are the big exception for me...I've had better luck leaving them powered 24-hours. That also allows for updates during the down time. The need to update a sound processor is far less than a server.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-30-2012 04:03 AM

quote:
Well....of course this is totally unscientific, but here's some recent experience from me:

I guess that's the big problem here. Everybody has their own experiences, but there isn't very much scientific data available on this subject.

There was a very interesting study about hard drive reliability a while back published by Google. Although, this study didn't really include spin-up/spin-down cycles, because most of their disks are supposed to be always on-line and spinning.

Personally, I tend to keep everything called "server" on-line 24/7, but the rest should really be switched off if it isn't being used for a few hours. Besides saving your equipment and power, you're also largely eliminating another fire hazard.

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