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Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 05-19-2002, 03:02 PM:
I'm sure this has been covered in part or in full before, but I didn't feel like digging through old posts today. Two questions:1. Has a convenient way of determining whether or not a film is in Dolby Digital-EX arrived?
2. What happens if your EX is engaged on your processor (we've got a CP500 with the add on EX unit), but the film is not encoded for EX? Does the rear channel just drop off all together?
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"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-19-2002, 07:31 PM:
It is impossible to tell by looking at a film whether it has an EX track unless of course it is written somewhere on the leaders. And as far as I have seen no film has had 'EX' written anywhere on the leaders to date. Which leaves you to researching (web, print info, etc) to find out whether a particular title has EX encoding.Leaving the decoder in the EX mode will usually just matrix out a 'pseudo-EX' channel from non-EX tracks (in fact, Smart recommends leaving their decoder in EX mode for all films.)
-Aaron
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-19-2002, 07:37 PM:
Check the Dolby web site http://www.dolby.com to check out the latest EX encoded film lists. "Auto-EX" should now be happening on newer films. The CP-650 and new SA-10 adapters will detect the "EX bit" to auto switch. Older SA-10s must be upgraded for auto-EX.
Depending on the film, leaving the EX decoder active will have either a pleasing effect or it can collapse the surround track into the rear channel (if the surrounds were not really mixed for stereo).
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-19-2002, 07:40 PM:
This topic has been discussed often so a search would not have been hard
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-19-2002, 08:56 PM:
Gordon is correct.Leaving the EX enabled 100% of the time will also take ANY & ALL surround information from the optical track which is the only sound available on some trailers, company policies (depends on chain) , ads, etc... and send the sound into the back channel ONLY, since EX is nothing more than a Dolby Pro-Logic of the stereo surround channels. Of course it is up to you if you think that is a bad thing or a good thing.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-19-2002, 09:02 PM:
Steve, do you have a serial number to distinguish "newer SA-10s"?
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-19-2002, 09:58 PM:
This one is kind of on topic. The end credits of "Star Wars, Episode II, Attack of the Clones" has both the Dolby Digital Surround EX logo and DTS-ES logo listed. I thought that was kind of nice.
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-19-2002, 10:04 PM:
Sorry Brad, I don't know when change happened. Perhaps Ken can fill us in.Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-20-2002, 02:52 AM:
Episode 2 is the first film we have had to go 'Auto Surround EX' on the CP650's.Very nice and handy.
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"It's not the years honey, it's the mileage". - Indiana Jones.
Posted by Ken Jacquart (Member # 369) on 05-21-2002, 12:00 AM:
The SA10 needs a Cat 814A to replace the existing Cat 814 switch card (mounted on the inside of the backplane). A serial cable will connect from the DA20 to this card and carry the EX flag that is embedded in the bitstream. To be honest, I don't think the SA-10's are being shipped with this card yet. I'll check tomorrow...ken