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I believe a lot of movies were still encoded in A after the introduction of SR for the reason that Joe stated - because the analogue channel was seen as mere backup. Also, I think there were less or no license fees for A-type encoding at that time.

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This is interesting, but I'm lost on the above. Did you mean SR/D or SDDS? I didn't know you could put two analog schemes on one print!
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-20-2003, 05:23 PM:
 
You can`t (except for MAGOP prints, but that is a completely different story).
Joe meant that there was an A-type analogue optical and an SDDS track on the print.
For instance the analogue backup on the SDDS logo trailers is A-type encoded.
You could also put A-type analogue and Dolby Digital on the same print, but somewhere in the back of my head it says that Dolby doesn`t allow that.
dts prints also used to have A-type analogue as backup for a while.
 

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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 02-20-2003, 10:22 PM:
 
Didn't MGM/UA use Dolby-A on their prints up until 1997 or 98? When I was trained in 1998, I was told to play all MGM/UA prints in Dolby-A unless it said otherwise.

=TMP=
 

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Posted by Michael Cunningham (Member # 210) on 02-20-2003, 10:49 PM:
 
All Dolby Digital (SR-D) prints carry SR analog as their back-up track. This is required by Dolby. What you're seeing from that time period is the fact that SR encoding cost a lot more than A encoding then. So if a studio chose not to use SR-D, they would take the lower cost A option as their analog back-up. Now, apparently, costs for SR have come down or the studios don't mind paying the higher rate and A has gone the way of the dinosaur.

- Mike
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 02-20-2003, 10:58 PM:
 
Generally if there is a Dolby Digital track, the analog track will be SR ( hence SRD tracks ) due to the Dolby license set up. On SDDS and DTS the producer / distributor can choose to have the A type analog track to save money or mastering time. Most sound elements in post production are generally encoded ( or recommended to be ) in SR.
Richard Fowler
Kinoton America Inc.
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-21-2003, 12:40 AM:
 
Almsot all printmasters are SR but have to be unencoded before the camera encoder that can be what one wishes a or sr unless a srd track is being recorded as well when the the license requires a sr analogue track
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-21-2003, 03:09 AM:
 
I specifically remember now that "To Die For" was SDDS only with "A" analog. I do not know if there were any prints out there that did not have SDDS but an SR analog track.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-21-2003, 10:06 AM:
 
Which distributor was that movie?
 

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Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 02-21-2003, 02:53 PM:
 
Columbia Pictures
 

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Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 02-21-2003, 03:42 PM:
 
Off topic question:

I have a Dolby A System and regularly show Dolby SR films with it. (films like Triple X, Mr Deeds, new films etc..)

It I get in an old movie that has a Dolby A track. Will it sound better that the Dolby SR films?
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-21-2003, 05:47 PM:
 
Yes, the decoding will be superior. However "will it sound better?" That all depends on the quality of the mix. However to answer the question I think you are asking, if you had two prints of the identical movie and one was SR and the other A, playing both back in A...the A print would sound much better.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-21-2003, 09:04 PM:
 
That explains a lot here. Columbia is owned by Sony. A lot of UIP films had just dts (I think there is a connection somehow because of Steven Spielberg) and no other digital soundtrack. In the first years after the introduction of digital sound, all manufactures thought that their system would be the only successful and therefore no other digital track was required and that the analogue soundtracks were there just for the extremely unlikely case that the practically perfect digital system ever failed.
 

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Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 02-21-2003, 09:21 PM:
 
The mid-90's seemed like a digital sound war.

MGM and Universal were DTS only. ( The Bond films being the exception )

Steven Spielberg was a supporter behind DTS.
 

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Posted by Gunter Oehme (Member # 499) on 02-22-2003, 04:00 PM:
 
Gordon,

today almost all analogue print masters are Dolby SR encoded because almost all print are releasd as SR.
You would not deliver a SR print master for doing a Dolby A release.
The transfer to an optical negative is intended as a straighforward transfer without Dolby A or SR encoding and decoding.
The sound mixer will deliver a printer master with the Doly noise reduction according to the print format required.
If the Doly A and SR prints are required they will deliver two print masters ensuring that the maximum levels will fit into the limits of the according format.

Doing a Dolby A negative from a SR print master would give a soft Dolby A track. Dolby SR print masters are recorded 3 dB softer than Dolby A print masters due to the 3 dB additional gain for Dolby format 05 in the processors.

Michael Schaffer,

in my experience there are no different Dolby license fees for Dolby A, Dolby SR and Dolby Digital. Although the postproduction facilities might charge differently for their work.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-22-2003, 05:08 PM:
 
I wasn`t sure either, but a lot of posts seem to confirm that there are (or were) different fees. Maybe it is different here.
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-22-2003, 05:48 PM:
 
At the two post houses here in toronto all print masters have there NR decoded and then re-encoded at the input to the camera
Or in the case of a dat source the encoding is at the input to the camera
 

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Posted by Gunter Oehme (Member # 499) on 02-22-2003, 06:29 PM:
 
Then this is a different processing to the one in Europa and different to the one outlined in the Dolby DS-4E encoder manual.
When delivering the print master on a DAT it is SR (or A ) encoded over here.

Actually I don't see an advantage of Dolby noise decoding and reencoding.
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-22-2003, 07:02 PM:
 
The only advantage is to correct for level error in the camera track width
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-22-2003, 07:24 PM:
 
I can`t quite follow here. Why?
 

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