Stephen

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Aaron

 

Aaron

 

I agree that Eprad are not a sophisticated processor in todays environment, but I would argue the Starlets, Starscopes and Super Starscopes on a per unit installed basis have proven to be the most reliable processor over the last 20 years. Don't get me wrong, our circuit is 95% Dolby now with most being CP500, but also CP65, CP55, CP200, CP650 and a few Smart, Ultra Stereo and Panastereo.

We now have only one 4-plex running Eprads and they were installed in 1979 and have not skipped a beat. They are being pulled out as I speak and being replaced by CP65's.

Our circuit has all three digital formats with Dolby Digital by far the most common. Majority are basement readers, but still a few Cat 700's, even a Cat 699!

David
 

Whatt are your opinions on the Smart MOD II and Panastereo? The Smart system kinda sucked, but it had one hell of a great booth monitor!

Aaron
 

We have Ultra Stereo processors and Odyssey interface panels.

Michael.
 

Steven
 

If I had my druthers I'd buy the CP-65 but I have no problem with the JS series. I actually kinda' like them. That's probably because I work with them so much I can parctiaclly set one up with my eyes shut. Yes, I know that people frown on the idea of doing an A-chain by throwing in a piece of Dolby Tone and making noise BUT if you were the last guy to work on that projector, this makes an excellent "quick check" to see if everything's working properly. Once I get them set up the way I like them I find that I only have to do a full PM on them about once or twice a year. I'd be willing to say that the same goes for the CP-65s, but again I don't have enough experience with them to know all the little "tricks".

When it comes to the CP-500s, I think they are OK but I only have about a dozen or so of these, compared to over 100 of the USL. I don't have very many problems with these but when I do, It takes me a lot longer to fix it.

The DSP-60s are my least favorite for three reasons:

I only have about 10 of them so it's another "experience" issue.
When they need repairs you often have to replace "bigger chunks". (Whole boards instead of just one card.)
I'm just not convinced that they sound as good as other processors

As far as digital sound systems, I prefer DTS but SR-D is a close second... very close. I think the sound of the DTS is just a bit better (but that's just MY opinion -- YOU should make up your OWN mind)

What really pushes me over the edge toward DTS is that "care and feeding" procedures are so much simpler. Once you have it set up, you hardly ever have to take the cover off to work on it. To tell the truth, if it weren't for those dang disk drives failing I'd probably NEVER have to take the cover off of a DTS!

If you want to give a check up to a SR-D system you need a 'scope and a computer. There's just a lot more overhead involved. If I could be assured of more knowledgeable, professional people running the equipment instead of the average "popper jockey" this would be less of an issue for me. On my last "tour of duty" to the theatres that have SR-D there were only one or two people who even knew what the readout on the front panel meant.

I know there are people here who will disagree but the only thing I DON'T like about SR-D is the basement readers. There are so many more things that go wrong with them and they take a lot more time to set up and keep running right. With the people I have to work with in the booth, this is a significant issue. In the theatres that have the CAT 701s I hardly have any trouble.

Lastly there's SDDS. I'm just going to leave it at that...

Disk availability has not been a problem. Maybe once or twice a year, disks haven't been in the print; usually a phone call to TES solves the problem. I am aware that you guys with multi-screens have multiples of these problems, so I sympathize!
 

As Joe can tell you, we worked in a couple of theatres that all the sound formats. While we enjoyed SDDS and DTS, Dolby is just simply play and forget.

Based on our expirience, I would say, Dolby won! I would only buy Dolby Digital.

1st, the room should sound good. It helps to be able to design the room with a good acoustical designer.

2nd, the equipment should sound good. Buy the best that you can afford and have it installed and set up by a good technician. Never pass up free advice from the kind people at Dolby labs.

3rd, choose a digital system. But then that's the easy choice, isn't it?
 

I have found Smart to be reliable mostly but have had one unit that was troublesome. The Panastereo improves with each model. We run three at a drive-in and several others elsewhere, happy with results, have had average amount of board failures over the years.

In my opinion neither have proved as reliable as Eprad or as versatile and user friendly as a CP65. I always rate a piece of projection equipment on results, usability and reliability as found by the projectionist, not the tech! Results to the paying customer and ease of operation and reliability for projectionists are the key.

I love the CP200, but would admit they are far from user friendly in today's multiple booths.

David
 

As to usage, we go with SR-D almost exclusively. The SDDS is avoided for obvious reasons (just see any previous topic about the quality of this sound format). The DTS use is spotty due to the fact that we have the older, defective drives. At any given time, half of the drives in the complex refuse to read any discs and we have only had the upgrade kit installed in 2 houses. The "home office" just keeps sending us more defective drives to replace the ones that have gone Tango Uniform.

-Mike
 

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Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
 

Finally there is the EQ: in a theater I saw 007: the world is not enought. EQ was so wrong that DTS sounds horrible. Theaters manager told me that "they prefer DD"!!

A negative note: in Italy not more distributors has DTS available. If you are not showing UIP movies, you'll use your DTS rarely... Also, EVERY time have the disks is like asking for a miracle...

Bye
Antonio
 

Compatability with film prints prevailed over corporate synergy -- at least in this case.

I like DTS for the sound. I think it sounds a touch better than Dolby's SR*D theatrical system. If SR*D were running at 448kb/s like it does on DVD the differences would be much harder to tell. Every theater screen equipped for digital sound where I live has DTS. Implementation is certainly not equal however. My friend's Carmike theater is just downright the best complex in this part of Oklahoma, and its sound quality is often better than what I can hear at any digital sounded theater in Oklahoma City for that matter. These days, if a movie I want to see is not playing at the Carmike 8, I'll usually wait for the DVD.

The matter of having good quality amplifers, speakers and other equipment AND having a good tech to get it and keep it set up right is of the utmost importance. The Carmike 8 in Lawton has that. Comparisons between digital formats can only take place when all the other stuff is set up properly as a foundation for the comparison.
 

As you can see, I am a big Dolby fan. The CP-650's with the cat 701's are my top choice right now...hands down....but only with the penthouse readers. I have had very good and very bad experiences with the basement readers and would never reccommend them.
 

/ p.
 

Our analog CP55s date back to 1986 and except for one power supply card and a piece of wire shorting out the test jack on the back panel we have not had any problems. Our theaters are not antiseptic by any means with all sorts of HVAC and salt air gremlins to play against so this is saying alot for Dolby's durability. They hold up well.

With the newer digital units there have been no problems.

Almost all our films come in with Dolby digital tracks and we don't even consider the other formats. For us it's a challenge just getting the films around on the circuit. We don't need to worry about lost and misshipped CDs and the like.

Off the track just a little:
I would like to see what the talk is concerning speakers. In our older systems we always specified JBL but in our new digital systems we have installed EAW (Eastern Acoustic Works) I have to say EAW makes a great sounding system. Just wondering since I've only heard JBL mentioned here in the forums. You guys always have so many interesting experiences/viewpoints.

Bill Bunch
Misawa, Japan
 

Given the current situation, I would not be surprised if a number of theaters have had to give up 1 or 2 digital format machines to sell off or just to "spread the wealth" on upgrading analog sounded screens to digital.
 

2 DTS ... 8 analog (of which 3 are center-surround)
 

Projectors are Kinoton FP30e with reverse-scan LED readers.

grant.
 

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Never had a problem with DTS. Never drops out, which is a bit disappointing because I take pride in tweaking our system so well that you can flip back and forth between DTS and analog with barely a hint of any audible change in the house. I agree with Scott -- get your analog SR to sound sweet and your digital will easily fall into place.

One of the things that is problematic in large rooms is speech intellegability. We were no exception. Walls had to be treated, you've got to measure slapback carefully and then deal with it acoustically. Getting even coverage to every seat is no picnic either. We use an Aphex Aural Exciter in the system and it adds a remarkable clarity to dialog as well as firming up localization in a nice, airy stereo soundfield. As for the DTS, I heard so much about the trouble with the disk drives that I have a TEAC backup just waiting to get plugged in -- probably will never have to.

Some unique things about this sound system -- everything runs through an 18 channel Allen-Heath studio console, which is great for precise signal control; I can do the gross eq, not with the dinky two controls on Dolby processor, but with the 4 band channel parametric eqs on the console -- then very little has to be done with the CP's on-board 1/3rd octaves. Only downside is that after hours of alignment and after you've got everything tweaked, it is way too easy for someone to mess everything up with his big fat, stupid fingers. So I have a big sheet of Lexan that screws into the rack and covers the mixer. Sometimes I want to just pour epoxy over all the controls and encase it in one big block of plastic, like Hans Solo.

Another unique thing is, we don't use Dolby's bass enhancement. We use a great piece of recording studio equipment from DBX -- their Bass Enhancement processor which gives me a lot more control and quite frankly, it sound much better than Dolby's BE processing. The DBX *halfs* frequencies in the 50-150Hz range; we pump that into quad JBL 18in subbass drivers housed in 2 throated fiberglass Community bins and get a result that slams you into your seat and rattles the fillings out of your teeth. When we play EARTHQUAKE, we don't need to bring in those wimpy Cerwin-Vega folded horns as our subbass bins couple along our the arched ceiling in a special "speaker loft" above the screen. We use 8 HH 800w monolithic amps with incredible damping factor to drive the low-end drivers and 6 Adcom 400w amps to drive all JBL Constant Directivity horns.

Also unique, the screen is not perforated. Our horn clusters are on either side of the screen, with the center channel up above it in the loft along with the 6 dual bass bins for the L/C/R channels. This is nice because a non-perf screen gives us about 10-15% more light that is not wasted going through the holes -- totally free extra foot lamberts. Another nice thing about using the console is that it allows me to play non-sync music with the first notes of the movie sound OVERLAPING the last few seconds of the non-sync music as it ends. Can't do that with the Dolby either/or switching arrangement. Our preshow music is programmed to end EXACTLY at showtime as the CURTIANS being to part....to the second. I use a Cannon 8T sexagesimal calculator to makeup the time schedule.

Unique surrounds in this theatre -- not on the side walls, but two JBL double bins with 90 degree CQ horns in the Left and Right rear corners of the theatre to provide point-of-source surround sound, something THX in their early specs recommeneded over smaller, multiple source speakers along the walls. Once they saw that no one was doing that, they relaxed that requirement and allow multiple sides.

In the smaller Museum theatre (400 seats), no digital at all, just a CP55 with SR/A card modification -- a Dolby Digital unit WAS on the budget before 9/11, but since then the cinema program, like all arts programs in the city, lost 30 -50% of their operating budget. Maybe in time.

The unique thing about this theatre is that the surrounds are not along the side walls but mounted in the ceiling. There are 12 wide-range, 8in speakers in acoustic enclosures mounted in such a way that their dispersion covers all seating areas. I don't know what can be done if they do get digital -- no way to effectively split the surrounds. This theatre uses a powered BGW 1000W RMS Subbass system (dual 18" drivers in it) It isn't behind the screen because the speaker room has cuttouts thru the wall behind the screen and the L/C/R speakers fit through each of their holes. There isn't any space in that room for the big BGW unit. Besides, I heard that putting a subbass speaker system of this size up against a perf screen has a tendencey to make the screen itself pulse with the beat. Great, something else to make the picture look out-of-focus.

The outdoor Movie-in-the-Park setup is also just analog; we use an UltraStereo unit with SR. Decent sounding, but here I can never tell what I am hearing because everything goes through the sound mixer's console and he is forever adjusting stuff. Whis is fine because he runs it like he is running a show, always at the board and always tweaking. I stopped trying to tell him he doesn't have to touch anything since he has a good ear and he does make everything sound quite good. How close that is to what the director heard in the mixing sessions I will never know.

The 70mm (Century's) installation at a Museum in Mass, has no digital at all, just straight Dolby CP200 plus the mag preamp unit. Same deal as the Park as far as everything being actively mixed by a sound mixer. In fact, same guy who mixes the sound in the Prospect Park venue is hired in Massachusetts for their performances (yes, he is that good). I only desigined the cinema system up there and have never actually seen (or heard) a film screening there. I am assuming Dave makes it all sound good.