This is topic fix this!? sound weirdness in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Mike Jones (Member # 522) on 02-07-2001, 08:06 PM:
specs: ultra stero js-200, strong sound head, dolby surround reader. loud beeping can be heard in the theatre... it sounds like when the aliens are trying to communicate with the humans in the movie "contact." ok, now fix it! i'm thinking it might be a board that's going bad, or maybe a loose connection on the dolby reader... i don't believe its an alignment problem. problem #2: the sound is cranked up all the way, and the theatre is still too quiet. no, its not the print either. i'm guessing the beeping is from sound boards doing something weird... however this doesn't fix the volume level problem! yay film-tech thanks for everyones help in advance!
m,j
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-07-2001, 09:02 PM:
Mike, you don't have a Cyan print, do you? Just guessing.... 
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-07-2001, 09:31 PM:
Paul, I assume Mike would have noticed if the trailers were okay and the feature had a very low level. Despite the one reported incident, I don't think the test of 25 or so cyan dye track prints has started yet. ------------------
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
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-07-2001, 10:11 PM:
Check your power supply. You will have three led's lit if one of the two red led's is not lit it will cause this problem. You will need to order a new power supply for the ultrastereo unit. You can run the unit in standby mode. WARNING follow this closely. you should have a power supply adapter some where that was provided by ultra stereo. If not check your ultra stereo manual for the power requirements since I can't remember off the top of my head. Make sure all the power is off to your amps and processor. Make sure power suply switch is off on processor. on the back of the processor motherboard top left you will find the adaptor plug in. plug the adaptor in and then plug it into the nearest power outlet. next make sure to put the unit in bypass on the format card then push in the standbye button. If there is no standbye button the power green led should come on automaticaly. now turn on your power amps. you will have to make some volume adjustments on your format card to get apropriat volume. It will be mono and may have some hum present.
If this is the problem and the volume is to low after you fix it or check anyway that the fader switch on the format card is not set to remote. It should be set to local unless using a remote fader.
Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 02-07-2001, 10:12 PM:
If it sounds like a rythmical noise ie: morse code bursts, it is most likely the film is not tracking over the optics / slit lens path properly, look at the light from the slit lens as it shines on the film, if it is hitting the soundtrack too far towards the picture you are experiencing DTS timecode noise! Push the film gently to the inside of the projector and see if the volume level increases! If so, then you will need to adjust the lateral guide roller tracking by lossening the small screw in the end of the chrome thumbscrew on the pivot of the sound guide roller, then turn the chrome thumbscrew clockwise about a quarter turn, then listen... It could also be that the cell (pick-up) has been knocked out of alaignment,
a loop of SMPTE Buzz track will prove the test! Otherwise, try bypass on the USL processor, if the noise stops and volume increases then you most likely have a bad format card or pre-amp card. If the noise does not stop, the USL is OK, and the trouble is in the soundhead. Good luck! ------------------
John Eickhof President, Chief Slave
Northwest Theatre Equipment Co., Inc.
P.O.Box 258
Wendell, ID. 83355-0258
208-536-5489
email: jeickhof@nteequip.com
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-07-2001, 10:15 PM:
Thanks for the info, John.
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 02-08-2001, 12:15 AM:
>>usually DTS timecode noisr is more of a 'growling' or 'rumbling' noise rhather than a 'beeping'...Aaron
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-08-2001, 04:56 AM:
DTS timecode being scanned by the optical soundhead sounds kinda' like a modem.Low volume? could be one of about a dozen things.
There's a small silver switch above your volume control knob. It has "local" and "remote" positions. Make sure it's in LOCAL.
Check your power supply, as mentioned above. (These things are notorious!)
If it's low volume and not really distorted or "losing channels" then you may have a bad format card.
The really nice thing about the USL processor is that it's easy to do the "module swap" thing. Do that. Take one module at a time from a known to be good processor and swap them with your processor that's down. Just be sure to mark the cards somehow so you don't mix them up. (OR you'll REALLY be up S*** creek!) I use a piece of masking tape and write the number of the house on it.
I could think up some more ideas. I'm on the road right now. Maybe later.
Posted by Carl King (Member # 398) on 02-08-2001, 07:49 AM:
I also use a JS 200. I have found on several occasions that I lose channels or volume. The problem almost invariably turns out to be the 6 channel sound format unit. I simply replace the unit with a spare and the problems go away. You also may want to check to make sure the unit is properly seated in its slot( if you haven;t already).The beeping? I can't help you there. Good luck
Carl king
Posted by Mike Jones (Member # 522) on 02-08-2001, 08:14 AM:
Ok, the beeping was a problem thought to do with misaligned rollers, speifically the lateral guide roller (makes sense). I ran a test loop and I soon as I turned off the motor, the beeping started again with no projector movement. However upon switching some of the channel cards (changed the left to the right and vice versa) the beeping stopped. The more serious problem on my part is the the all too high volume level. I failed to mention earlier our levels wee not equal, the left was barely registering on the first indicator light while the right channel registered nil. Upon, pushing and pulling some of the test loop, the were both equal again, so all I had to do was adjust that.
But it still rarely spikes up past the first indicator lights when it should be going up into the yellow region.
So chances are my cards are kaput? Or is this the entire power supply?
Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 02-08-2001, 08:32 AM:
Do you have exciter lamp or LED reverse scan soundheadhead?If exciter lamp, have you tried a new one?
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-08-2001, 08:35 AM:
Is the beeping there in nonsync. If it is that means the problem is somewhere either in the format card, eq cards or possibly the powersupply or outside of the processor.
If it is there it tells you that the problem is not in the preamp nr cards or the projector.
If it is not there in nonsynce then see if there is any difference between sr and a type.
If there is a diffence then a NR card is probably at fault or again the format card
If it is there in both formats look at the preamp and the reader.
Also I have had many failures of the bypass relays on the format card and rapidly flipping the processor in and out of bypass seems to clean up the contacts abit
Also there is a relay on each eq card that can become very iffy and I usually just put a jumper across them
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-08-2001, 08:47 AM:
OK, on the main power supply you want to make sure it is seated all the way in and locked down, If one of the two red led's is out you will need to get a new one like I mentioned above. Normaly if the preamp card is failing you will get no volume but just in case switch this card with another js unit and see if the problem follows. Do the same thing with the noise reduction and matrix cards but not at the same time. You may need to have a complete A-chain alighnment using a scope to see if you are getting the highest possable dolby tone from your solar cell. If you have a dolby tone test film you can run this and compare your dolby tone levels when you twitch the preamp cards. If you are getting close to the same response on bothe cards and it is not good levels then it is probably the slet lens or solar cell out of adjustment. if you are getting good readings on the noise reduction when using another preamp card the reinsert the old one and see if you can adjust the dolby tone. If not you have a bad preamp card. If it is the sound head a-chain you will need an osiloscope and analyzer to alighn the slit lens and check solar cell. analizer is used to make sure you have all your frequencies. High frequencies are very important for achiving proper stereo seperation. If you are not a technition. You can still do the dolby tone check as long as you have the test loop. anything else needs to be done buy a tech.
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-08-2001, 09:04 AM:
Thought of a cople of things. Like Gordon said does the problem with beeping occure while the system is in N/S. Check also your amps. If you have a monitor that features processor and amp setting stitch it to processor and see if you hear the noise. THen switch it to amp and listen. If the beeping is heard in the amp position but ot processor then the problem lies in the amps. if it is heard in bothe the problem is in the processor. if you are using a jax light exciter lamp make sure it is perfectly centered in the socket. also if the vertical adjustment of the jax light has changed this can cause loss of dolby tone signal.
Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 02-08-2001, 12:02 PM:
Low signal level on the NR card usually indicates a cell (pick up) or pre-amp card problem...I would check the bi-lateral (Dolby) cell and without film in the projector, see if the slit beam of light is hitting the cell in the top 1/3 of it, I have seen the cells get hit and drop down so far the light beam is not hitting the cell properly. This would explain low channel level and source for other noises. If the noise is like a bee buzzing around the film is definitely not tracking properly, the other cause may be the pre-amp card is breaking down and oscillating, to check this, rmove the cell (projector) input leads on the back of the processor and move them to the Proj-2 inputs, then place a jumper wire from the c/o terminal to E (ground) on the back panel, then run tone (cat 69) film and set preamp levels for proj. #2, if this is successful, and works fine, you need a new pre-amp card. How did it behave on bypass?------------------
John Eickhof President, Chief Slave
Northwest Theatre Equipment Co., Inc.
P.O.Box 258
Wendell, ID. 83355-0258
208-536-5489
email: jeickhof@nteequip.com
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-08-2001, 01:52 PM:
Also for what it is worth UltraStereo uses a seperate preamp for mono so if all else fails check the mono output.
Posted by Mike Jones (Member # 522) on 02-09-2001, 12:18 AM:
Problem solved. Our technician came out and found that the solar cell was misaligned. He said that most of them when misaligned are pushed down too far, but ours was up too high. Very odd. So he tweaked that and all was well. As for the beeping, it stopped and hasn't been an issue. He said he most likely had something to do with that.Thanks everyone for your help. It wasn't in vain because I got a crash course in some sound problems! Thanks!