Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dolby Digital processor today

This is topic Dolby Digital processor today in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-19-2016, 04:10 PM:

Had this silly thought today while dealing with 35mm A-Chain.
How would you design a new Dolby Digital sound processor in 2016?

It would have a web interface and show all the dropouts to SR, the average error rate for every reel, send statistics to the management (auditorium X needs an A-Chain! - Video Level low in screen 3) and to the labs to monitor their printers too - as long as the reels had an ID on it.

What else? [Smile]

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 02-20-2016, 07:49 PM:

"State secret" level encryption of the audio with KDMs to enable playback, screen/time watermarking, and lots of rules about speaker locations, sound levels, and system response - that all get routinely ignored with nobody checking or caring.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-21-2016, 04:51 AM:

bringing KDMs into the equation is brilliant!

Posted by Muhamad Taufiq (Member # 8868) on 02-21-2016, 08:23 AM:

No screen channel bypass obviously. [Big Grin]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-21-2016, 10:11 AM:

I always had the idea of encripted audio; leave the video alone on film. You would then go on line and pay for a key to get the audio to work.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 02-21-2016, 11:27 AM:

That's pretty much how Videocipher II for big dish satellite worked. The video was scrambled via analog (and easily descrambled with simple modifications to the board) but the audio was digitally encrypted with I believe a 40 bit key.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-21-2016, 12:44 PM:

Another feature: DD stream would be extracted and saved on the local HDD. Then played back in a sort of DTS-fashion. That would assure that sound would be there even when print was eventually damaged/scratched.

Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 02-21-2016, 02:45 PM:

Uncompressed audio tracks could be just downloaded, like Louis said: no need to extract them in lossy format from a print.

Boom, now you have Atmos with film and everyone at Dolby is happy.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-21-2016, 04:25 PM:

I remember studios were never happy to have stuff online. That was before digital cinema of course but I'm assuming that downloading sound would not be an option.
Otherwise we could have a simple timecode on the print and uncompressed sound would be downloaded. That rings a bell. [Smile]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-21-2016, 04:53 PM:

If there is enough extra bandwidth in the DD data track to build in potential software updates, there should be enough to build in captions or descriptions.

The update feature was barely used. Right? Why bother using it at all? Why not use that extra bandwidth for features that will be used?

System updates could be applied (should be applied) as the user wants or needs, not necessarily automatically. Why not perform update via the Internet like almost all other computerized equipment?

I really do like digital projection but I also think that the wholesale switch to purely digital medium was like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Shouldn't there be a way to create a hybrid system that takes advantage of the best of both?

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-21-2016, 11:38 PM:

Clearly back in the 90s updates via Internet weren't an option. These days a sound processor could indeed upgrade online. Just remember the software for those modules was just a few kilobytes, not much space available on the print!