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I can see the necessity for this equipment if the print is being circuited in your theater chain.

However, spending money on something to aid a film move from one house to another in the same theater that shares the same projection booth without any obstacles to trip over or a stairwell that has to be used might not be necessary.

With Strong platters, Xetron platters, Potts platters, and even the old CFS platters outfitted with removable payout heads, I just switch the platter disks themselves. Do as you please. I have been doing this for the better part of 17 years and I only recall several times where I had to re-time the platter.

I cannot speak for Christie Autowinds, LP Associates, Eplotz or some of the ORC Platters that come equipped with removable pay-out heads because I never tried it. I don't know if those machines would react to it.

End of rant.

Problem is, the operators abuse them and scratch the platters up so bad. Did you see the "where the heck is your dog" tread on Film Yak? Poopers was sitting on platter. Brad even saw the scratches on the platter. It is sad.

You said:

"Also, I would be fine with a real projectionist and helper moving a platter - but today's "booth ushers"? No way."

No truer words were spoken.

You could then carry the entire print like a spare tire through the rain and throw it in the trunk and deliver it to the next theater.

I use one of these devices to move prints around in our little circuit.

Has anyone seen these? If not, I'll get you some pictures of it.

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Perhaps i even initiated this post as i was suffering back problems from carrying prints, see my thread 'Moving prints is killing my back', soon afterwards, this thread started.

We looked about, but nobody was selling the type of film mover we were looking for.

So we built our own.

It's not so hard. You have to look at your own individual cinema, the layout, how often prints are moved, the number of staff available for moving etc..

Then come up with a design, and get prototyping!

Build your first version and test it, iron out the glitches, see what works and doesn't. Use wood for your prototype, and when you get it perfect, go to an engineer to get a final lightweight metal version made.

You don't have to spend too much, we are on version 8 of the prototype, and have only spent around £120 UK Sterling so far on the project, and thats total spend, final version is expected to be much less.

So the moral of the story is, if it doesn't exist, make it! You know what you want, and you know what you want it to do. It is that easy