This is topic The Eight Channel Difference in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Jeremy Spracklen (Member # 18) on 10-12-1999, 02:22 AM:
I have read many times on this forum people bash the SDDS format. Well, I can not tell you how many times it has gotten me out of a jam. I work for a small chain that recently took over a theater from a larger one. In our large auditorium, they had the full 8 channel system installed and did it make a difference.-- Allow me to explain. The first thing we did was get rid of the SDDS and replaced it with a system that actually worked, a DTS-6D. And this is where the diffence could be noticed. In the first six months of operation we blew the left and right chanel woofers. We were easily able to move the two woofers that had never been used in the Left Center and Right Center and it did not cost us a penny! I highly recomend the eight channel SDDS because you never know when you will need spare amps or speakers after upgrading to a good system.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-12-1999, 02:28 AM:
Cool! At least your company knows the difference between good systems and bad ones. But what happens when the next two channels get blown? Maybe DTS is far too powerful for an SDDS house!
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 10-12-1999, 11:12 AM:
SDDS is a reliable system. I'm not a big fan of it because it's just too expensive, but that doesn't mean it's unreliable.There are problems; then there are Problems. Any tech worth his salt will chase down and fix problems. If it's a real Problem, then he will work with the company (say, Sony) learn little details that make him a more knowedgeable tech.
I think a lot of problems are caused by the people that use the equipment in question. Example: I cursed a Cinemecannica lens turret for a year, for not holding the lenses in focus and not staying aligned. But then I saw an operator slam them closed like a car door. I said, what are you doing!? He said he always closed it like that.
I'm not saying never, but 99 times out of 100, it's not the equipment.
Posted by Brian Paymer (Member # 57) on 10-17-1999, 03:49 AM:
I must disagree with you Mr. Walsh. SDDS is far from reliable. You claim the techs do not know how to properly service them. Then why is it no tech I have found can fix them? There is something wrong with the design. I am tired of having the main track drop out to silence or the failsafe track which is really bad when I would rather it just fallback to optical when it faults. If the system is so good then why will it work for weeks at a time and crash on a Saturday evening performance only to work fine after rebooting the machine? These problems are not threading errors. The system is lousy and I refuse to thread the readers when I fill in at theater that has them. Judging from the cleanliness of the readers and the dirty projector heads I would assume the regular projectionists do not either. SR with a reverse scan always sounds better anyway. You must be a tech yourself and not have to operate to see how bad these machines are. Otherwise you would have sympathy when you get yelled at because the customers are complaining about the sound. The techs always love them and the projectionists always hate them. If you are a projectionist then you are the first one I know of who will back SDDS.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 10-18-1999, 06:35 AM:
At the new AMC 24 in Kanata even Sony's own employees had problems when they installed the new firmware in them. I personally have no use for SDDS as it has no consistent reliability