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Posted by Joseph Pandolfi (Member # 223) on 02-19-2001, 04:10 PM:
A couple weeks ago we ran "The Invisible Circus". On the Saturday after opening day on my shift I was very suprised to find on this print the DA-20 was reading a flat -0- with the highest peak of 1.0 And get this on a Christie basement reader. 
On a normal opening weekend we are lucky that it falls below a 2.5 . I did a double take when I saw that and thought Whoever printed this film thought of those basement readers. 
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-19-2001, 04:50 PM:
If I work on it, I can get a Cat 700/701 read steady "3's" Sometimes it'll blink down to "0" but never steady "0's".Basement readers are a different story.
Who set that baby up? Hats off to whoever it was! 
Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 02-19-2001, 05:27 PM:
I've seen this once on a Century (CE) Basment reader and CP500. It was a fox print and never went above 1. all teh way through.
I was keeping a close eye on it as I'd just built the reader onto the mech, and literally aligned it ten minutes before the show!
Posted by Kevin Crawford (Member # 469) on 02-19-2001, 08:54 PM:
I saw Titanic running steady 1's after 4 months of running. This was on a Simplex with a basement reader. Most impressive.
Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 02-19-2001, 10:56 PM:
I witnessed SRD reading 1's and 0's during a film once, but it was with a penthouse reader. What was odd was that this was in one of the dumpiest theatres I have ever seen. The machines were beyond filthy, there were piles of junk everywhere, and there was a mouse running around the booth. But the one digital house was tracking 1's and 0's. (I think it read "2" or "3" a few times, I didn't watch it throughout the entire feature). I've never seen a "0" or a "1" on an SRD unit anywhere else.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-20-2001, 01:08 AM:
Joseph, My findings on those Christie basement reader problems were mainly linked to the led. Some of the older leds were mounted crooked on the bracket and would not line up to give a good tracking no matter what was done. More recent replacements (manufactured within the last year or two) have yielded me 0-2 on the scale constantly with no dropouts. I have had many prints set firmly on 0 for the entire show, perhaps only a few times flickering into 1. If set up properly and not tampered with, I can honestly state that the Christie basement readers DO in fact function just fine.
On the print that tracked 0s, I'll bet it was printed by Deluxe...right? I have noticed that Deluxe prints will track constantly between 0-2 as I stated above and Technicolor lab prints generally track 3-5. I have seen this happen repeatedly with a firm pattern. Tweeking the reader to a Technicolor lab print does not seem to improve the rating anything substantial, but does hurt the readings on Deluxe prints. I have always found this odd, as Technicolor prints are the better prints "visually", but Deluxe prints have the best SRD tracks.
Posted by Michael Pace (Member # 553) on 02-20-2001, 05:45 AM:
I am currently running 'Hannibal' here and have been getting 1's & 2's on our SRD unit with a cat 700 penthouse reader.Michael
Posted by Bill Purdy (Member # 202) on 02-20-2001, 12:27 PM:
Well, this seems like a good opportunity to speak my piece. I have noted the "basement readers suck" comments for many months and groaned each time because it simply does not have to be true. Look, all of us who make SRD readers use the same Dolby CCD circuit board as built by Dolby. We all use the same LEDs and in some cases the same lenses. As we often tell people who call in for technical assistance, "If you can shine a flashlight in the lens and see it on your 'scope, the reader is working". Period. Everything else is proper alignment and that is YOUR responsibility! The reader can read only what you put in front of it. It's the old "garbage in garbage out" bit.You must have your light source almost perfectly even (note Brad's comments above) and bright enough to produce adequate video level. You must have the camera focused and in azimuth (the system will tolerate an amazing degree of slop) and your film path MUST be stra_________________________aight and true, both before and after the actual reader location. When you do this, along with normal housekeeping, and your projector is running more or less smoothly, you will get the good results mentioned above. Also, when doing this alignment, your best tool is a good 'scope with at least 40 to 60 mHz bandwidth. Dolby's DRAS program on your lap-top is useful, but will not give you the answers you need.
It's kind of like "film done right".
------------------
Bill Purdy
Component Engineering
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-20-2001, 04:21 PM:
Actually, I have never had much trouble with basement readers at all and have been installing them since they became available a number of years ago. The only major problem I have had even with the Christie projector is the fact that snow from film shedding can get inside of the scanner and cover the window in the CCD Integrated circuit. I think that this has now been changed so that it is sealed better. At any rate I feel that basement readers are the better way to go as there is almost 0 chance of threading them wrong.
I have caught many operators and seen many a Cat 700 / 701 threaded wrong and running film with the display reading F. Basement readers will cure this altogether. Its always surprised me that Dolby has not done something to improve the threading path so that even a baboon could get it right.
Mark @ GTS
Posted by Kevin Crawford (Member # 469) on 02-23-2001, 10:17 AM:
Bill, I would agree with you. As a general rule the basement readers work fine. However, the main problem I have is that oil gets in them easily. I know that this is the operators fault. However, when you have up to 8 or 9 people in a booth in a given week and management does not care, nothing gets cleaned. Then the oil gets into them. This is not the fault of the reader, just its location in the dripping fields.
The other gripe I have is one that should be solved by the projector's manufacturer. That being a not quite good enough bearing for the hold-back sprocket. Again, not the fault of the reader, but never the less, something that must be dealt with.
My preference for a theatre that I service would be to have the penthouse readers. It just makes the service call easier. If it is my booth on the other hand, I prefer the basement readers. Easier to thread, and it is easier to train people on.
Posted by Ari Nordström (Member # 288) on 02-23-2001, 02:46 PM:
I screened "Hannibal" yesterday, with values between 2 and 4, coming from a pair of Cat 701's. Could easily have been between 0 and 1 (which happens fairly often at our theatre with new prints), had the print not been subtitled.Subtitles can sometimes totally destroy the digital track. A subtitled British film ("East is East") I ran at the Göteborg Film Festival last year went to F and stayed there until the last reel. Probably nothing wrong with the print itself since the type of subtitles on that reel was different from the rest of the print.