Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Special Mounting Plate for Sony D2000 Reader

This is topic Special Mounting Plate for Sony D2000 Reader in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 11-16-2018, 05:44 PM:

I'm attempting to mount a Sony D2000 Reader on top of a Kinoton PK50D but the plates I have don't provide the correct transition between the reader and the projector top two hole mount.
Is there a "special" plate available that will make the installation possible?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-16-2018, 06:10 PM:

It takes the two larger plates of the kit. Of course there is also that concept of you taking a photo of the plates you have and uploading it here. [Wink]

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 11-16-2018, 10:44 PM:

This issue has been resolved.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-17-2018, 08:41 AM:

Just wanted to wish you good luck [playing back SDDS reliably with those units. The 3000 is a way way better SDDS mouse trap.

Mark

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-17-2018, 09:28 AM:

As usual, I have the exact opposite findings. The 3000 is only reliable if the print is new and has been cared for. The 2000 will out-track a used print with wear.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-17-2018, 11:25 AM:

I've had decent luck on both. Note sometimes it is software dependent (some do a better job of error correction) and sometimes it is reader alignment or LED intensity. There are more adjustments (and things to go wrong) on the 2000 series reader. When dialed, in, either can track well but I think the 3000 series reader puts more stress on the film with that magnetic clutch thing. I'd have to look in very crusty notes on how to set the LED level on them and probably use a computer running Win98 or so to talk to them.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-17-2018, 12:25 PM:

The 2000's, some of which had readers that been serviced AT SONY were so unreliable that I finally pulled them all out and put in 650's and CAT 702's, some new and some moved from less busy sites. Of course all of those 650's eventually died too. All the power supplies had capacitor plague. But you can bet those 650's are still running in those theaters to this day. I had no issues with the 3000's reading reliably, and they could read a 1st run print many weeks longer then the 2000's could, and the prints were all run on well maintained DP-70's & AW-3's, about as gentle on a print as one can get. You have a purpose designed light source and optical system in the 3000 reader and in the 2000 you have a very marginal LED array light source and make-do set of c-mount 16mm CCTV lenses that were marginal quality at best. Sony was in a big rush to get the 2000's out and that is obvious when you open one up. from the make shift LED array to the cctv lenses to the off the shelf sprocket. The only upside of the 2000 reader was it's LaVezzi Stock size sprocket. (yes, Sony was in that big of a rush!). Where the 3000 sprocket was all custom. But when the sprockets wear out the reader is done in this day and age anyway. I probably sent close to twenty 2000's to the recycle. The 3000's pretty much lasted up to digital conversion time with the exception of a few with worn out sprockets. My customer was very happy to get rid of the 2000's, especially as Sony had just abandoned SDDS at that point and parts were non-existent. Even getting 3000 parts took for ever... But at least those eventually did show up from Sony Parts. The biggest issue I saw in the 2000 was LED fade. About 2008 or 9 Sony could no longer supply LED arrays for the 2000, so I rebuilt them myself, acquiring the LED's after sending one array to an LED manufacturer on the west coast to be analyzed. Luckily, they had LED's that were exactly the same. Sadly, doing that was really a lost cause because the short print read time of about two weeks first run didn't improve, and the customer had me pull them.

Also note that they all had the same last version firmware on them. We pulled SDDS out of Cineplex locations too at their request and replaced them with DTS. In Utah. Cineplex had them in roll around carts and with nifty docking type mounts on each projector so the systems could be easily moved screen to screen.

Steve, Agreed on the clutch aspect of the 3000, but those all worked really well until the sprockets became hooked. Sony used aluminum sprockets on both readers, but the 3000 sprocket was at least hard coated. The 2000 was a stock bare alumnium LaVezzi.

My German friends are big SDDS fans... sure it sounds good when it works. They also all have 3000's.

Mark

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-17-2018, 09:41 PM:

What is it with this 2 weeks nonsense? I ran a number of prints over 1500 passes and the SDDS and SRD tracks still tracked flawlessly.

To clarify, my beef with the 3000 is the fact that THESE DAYS prints will almost always have wear on the tracks, and a 2000 simply DOES out-track a 3000 using the identical print in comparison. I have done this experiment several times using 2000 readers I calibrated up against a brand new factory sealed pair of 3000 readers as well as a pair of 3000 readers personally aligned by the nice gentleman who was making the rounds in the early 00s stopping at all of the AMCs across the country to add a roller upgrade and personally re-calibrate them. The 2000 always won on a worn print in every example print compared.

If you recall my trick was to thread the 2000 readers one perf lower tension than the red-line and calibrate with the threading in that position. The sprocket never wore out (unlike the "singing sprockets" by red-line threaders) and it tracked better since the film was running through the readers more steadily.

If you know how to adjust the magnetic clutch tension on the 3000s or any alignment tricks you have personally found, I would be quite interested.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-18-2018, 03:17 PM:

Never had issues with SRD tracking low numbers. That's why we switched everything except the 3000's over to that. I always though a VKF sprocket would have helped SDDS A LOT in both cases! We just didn't have enough of them in service to justify having LaVezzi do custom sprockets for them like we did for the DP-70. VKF teeth run a lot smoother and would have greatly reduced the vertical jitter in the scanner and would have likely reduced track wear as well.

Mark