Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SDDS with Kodak Digital Cinema?

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Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 06-28-2005, 06:01 PM:

I saw "Revenge of the Sith" at the Elk Grove Theatres in the town of that same name here in Illinois. They installed a Kodak Digital Cinema System back in March for "Robots." I have never heard of any D-Cinema system mentioning specifically a particular sound format, yet this location states that they are using SDDS 8 channel sound WITH the Kodak system for "Sith." Does any one know if this is true or perhaps somebody got their (advertising) wires crossed?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 06-28-2005, 07:42 PM:

They're just feeding the audio from their digital cinema server to their SDDS processor, not unlike most people using Dolby CP-500s or CP-650s.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-28-2005, 09:31 PM:

Hehe. That means the theater is literally insulting the actual quality of the "D-Cinema" audio track (most are uncompressed linear PCM 20-bit 5.1 channel audio). SDDS may have a more identifiable brand name, but it's still a lossy data compression sound storage format.

Posted by Mattias Ohlson (Member # 1662) on 06-29-2005, 10:10 AM:

Bobby H.
http://www.insightmedia.info/industrynews/20050518_digitalcinema.php
"Up to 16 channels of linear audio are supported, using 48 or 96 kHz sampling at 24 bits. Audio also supports a second language, commentary, and other features. Subtitles are supported, together with the use of projector-resident fonts, as well as PNG graphics"

Posted by Rick Long Jr (Member # 541) on 06-30-2005, 09:36 PM:

As far as I've seen, every D-cinema system has fed 6 channels of analog audio into the cinema processor. Has anyone used the DMA-8 or a similar box to deal with the sound in the digital domain beyond the server yet? (Not that I can see any real advantage, just curious.)

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 06-30-2005, 11:33 PM:

The output from the servers is Digital and goes through a DAC in the processor. You have to have a card installed in your Dolby processor to handle the 6 Channel External Digit Input. (Mode 11)

Posted by Rick Long Jr (Member # 541) on 06-30-2005, 11:53 PM:

Actually, the audio fed into a processor in format 11 IS analog. The cat 685 card is a 6 ch ADC (not DAC).

The only way to feed a true digital bitstream into a conventional cinema processor is with a DMA-8 or some other such device, such as the D-cinema server that converts the sound to analog. Unless you have a CP650.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 06-30-2005, 11:55 PM:

Not necessarily. The DMA8 may be necessary if you don't have a processor like the CP650 with the option card for external digital sources. The new generation of Avica servers can also deliver 6 analog channels, so you just "plug it in".

EDIT - I was replying to Paul at the same time as Rick.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-01-2005, 05:50 AM:

The new USL JSD-80 and DTS XD-10P have 8-channel digital (PCM) inputs as well. This is a trend I think you are going to find on all new sound processors if they want to be used in the digital picture era.

The CP650 (no suffix) will also take up to 8-channels of digital audio. Since this adds about $1000 to the price of the CP650D...it is a pretty cheap way to have a DCinema sound processor and Surround-EX comes along for the ride.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 07-01-2005, 10:29 AM:

So if pump my non-sync through the SDDS, should I say, "Movie Tunes Presented in SDDS 8 Channel Sound!!"?

Actually, come to think of it, my Movie Tunes does go through my SDDS. So does my SR*D and my DTS. In fact, ANALOG even passes through my SDDS. So I guess I'm presenting EVERYTHING in SDDS! [Smile]

Woohoo!

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-01-2005, 05:42 PM:

quote:
So if pump my non-sync through the SDDS, should I say, "Movie Tunes Presented in SDDS 8 Channel Sound!!"?

Nope. As I said before, saying the show is in SDDS would actually be a kind of insult to the quality of the audio track. SDDS is a lossy compressed audio format. Linear PCM is not lossy. It is better than DTS, Dolby Digital and SDDS. The downside is few people will even understand the term "linear PCM".

Still, I would rather tout the sound as "Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 Surround" because anyone that gives a hoot about sound formats like SDDS would probably understand PCM digital is better.

As it stands, the audio track is really the only factor in D-Cinema I find superior to most 35mm shows and DVD. You can't watch a movie at home with full 5.1 LCPM. Most 35mm theaters can't play it either unless they have something like a DTS XD-10 processor and the distributor actually makes some discs in the lossless format.