Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Analog v/s Digital

This is topic Analog v/s Digital in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ravindra Desai (Member # 2337) on 04-03-2004, 07:05 PM:

With the basic requirements of properly aligned reverse-scan, amplifier and speaker system met with, which of the two formats is qualitatively better? Fatigue over prolonged (2hours) listening is also to be considered.

Ravindra.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 04-03-2004, 07:25 PM:

Wow, I get to be first with 3 in a row.... Properly done analog sounds excellent. I bet many projectionists would not be able to tell the difference, except if a splice or other defect on the soundtrack went by. However, digital soundtracks will offer much easier maintaince which means customers will hear better sound longer. Also, DTS will allow you to run a pretty damaged print, yet it will still sound great. I feel that there are better 'lows' with digital, but the highs are about the same.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-03-2004, 07:33 PM:

Ummmm.... don't forget that digital has discrete channels, whereas analog only has two channels. I don't think theaters have Dolby Pro Logic II technology yet (why is this not built in the CP650, Dolby?) so you can't get split surrounds on your analog.[av=m]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-03-2004, 09:06 PM:

Smart offers split optical surround decoding with the circle surround matrix

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 04-03-2004, 10:49 PM:

Ok, i understand you but what is that for pro logic in cinema??

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 04-03-2004, 11:04 PM:

I had fairly knowledgeable people comment about my "digital" sound months before I installed it... so I'd have to agree that properly tuned SR can sound pretty darn good. The tech that helped me set the theatre up was of the opinion that digital had somewhat lower distortion than optical, but I've never measured it so I don't know what kind of definitive numbers those might be.

IF you can A/B the two systems, the differences are more apparent... especially in the surrounds. Digital can shoot stuff separately to left or right... even to the back with the proper equipment... stock Dolby analog can't, though you might not notice that if you hadn't seen the show before. Center channel is frequently reserved for dialog, with accompanying music playing on the left/right channels. On "Finding Nemo", the title song (sailing) had all the music in the l/r/s channels and the singer was all by himself in the center... pretty interesting effect... and the kind of mix I don't recall ever having heard on the analog side.

Some stuff DOES sound better in analog... but my ears seem to like the digital better overall. Maybe it's subjective... perhaps psychological. In any case, I can't think of a time that I intentionally defaulted to SR when digital was available... and working properly... except during those blastedly loud trailers. I know many people can't tell, but there are those who do hear the differences... if not in clarity, then in the mix... and I want the theatre to put out the best it can.

I'd have to say however, that if you can't have digital, a properly tuned SR system in a market that's not hotly competitive ain't bad at all.