This is topic Cyan sound tracks and SR in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-05-2001, 10:01 PM:
I have been doing a little reading and have come across an interesting situation. I read that the sound will have some distortion in it if you do not use an SR card during playback. Not all theaters use these cards and a lot of money has already been spent to convert the exciter source. So getting all theaters equiped with SR cards may not happen. Has anyone out there read this infor or have any first hand knowledge of this situation.
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-06-2001, 04:35 PM:
Darryl,There is nothing inherent about using SR noise reduction with cyan tracks. The general technical reason is that the cyan track, with a red reader, if everything is optimized will be 2dB noisier than a high-magenta track using the same red reader. And all of this is on top of the increased noise/distortion from using the red reader and non-conventional track.
Since the optical soundtrack isn't really a quiet track to begin with, each step down in noise quality is more noticable. Using SR noise reduction makes it less objectionable. The cyan track is still going to be noisier than the redeveloped tracks with or without SR noise reduction.
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-07-2001, 08:27 AM:
Question for John P. (and others): what about new prints of older films? Will these have silver tracks? Will the distributors have to re-record the tracks with SR and shoot a new optical track? Or will they be reprinted in Academy mono with old optical-track negatives, requiring the audiences to suffer lower-quality sound?
I wouldn't be opposed to cyan-dye tracks _if_ they actually did sound equally good as silver tracks (and, having never heard a cyan track, I don't know if they do), and if the cost to exhibitors could be reduced.
How much of an environmental problem do silver tracks create? Do B&W prints also create these problems? How much cheaper will each cyan-track print be? I'm certainly in favor of reducing pollution and cost, but I'm just curious as to how much of either will result from a switch to cyan tracks.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-07-2001, 09:10 AM:
Because a new sound negative would need to be made to optimize the performance of the cyan dye track, limited re-releases of older color films would likely use the existing sound negative and still have dye+silver tracks, which are compatible with both white light and red LED readers. Obviously, black-and-white films would still have silver tracks.Ideally, prints are properly recycled, so the silver is recovered. But many prints end up in landfills or are incinerated without recovering the silver. Silver is a heavy metal, and release of silver salts to the environment is regulated. Also, soundtrack application and wash-off uses significant amounts of fresh water, which is becoming a precious commodity.
Cost savings come mostly from the elimination of waste caused by improper soundtrack developer application. Anyone who has visited a motion picture lab and watched the viscous soundtrack developer being applied to the track area and washed off with jets of water on processing machines running hundreds of feet per minute usually comes away amazed it works at all!
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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