Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DBOX

This is topic DBOX in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=003253

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-12-2018, 04:59 AM:

Several items of content which I have ingested recently have 'DBOX' in the name. What is this?

Posted by Michal Matys (Member # 8614) on 03-12-2018, 05:12 AM:

http://www.d-box.com

It is timeline coded in the dcp to send the information to the seat when and how to move, so it is synced with the playback.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-12-2018, 05:44 AM:

Motion seats..like a carnival ride. To purchase a D-Box seats, tix prices can be up to double of a regular tix price.

Usually, one house may have three tows of these motion seats.

Posted by Michal Matys (Member # 8614) on 03-12-2018, 08:51 AM:

I have never actually seen this system, but I was wondering, isnt it kind of disturbing for people sitting behind those moving chairs on regular seats?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-12-2018, 09:54 AM:

Usually they are placed within some distance of neighboring chairs. The kind of movies usually played with dbox support will typically attract some people near by, so, the moving seats will sort of advertise themselves. You will not sell them for a Woody Allen flic. I also guess there a different incarnations of these 'rocking chairs'. Those for explicit motion rides in theme parks will usually apply more motion and need patrons to be secured by a bow or belts, while those used in ordinary cinemas will not risc patrons to be thrown around too much.

I always considered motion seats as a useless gimmick, reserved to Fast&Furious type of movies and audiences. However, a while ago I was invited to a demo which played the opening scene of Gravity.
Wow, that was impressing, these seats can not just rock you around, they can also move slowly horizontally, almost unnoticeable, and the effect of seeing the floating around in space, hearing the spinning sound atmo while actually floating around on the seats really added to the experience... So, there is some potential. Though a costly one...

@Stephen: The dbox control codes are on DCP audio channels 13 and/or 14, and as no cinema audio system plays out these audio channels to speakers, this is just a normal DCP with up to 14 channels populated, but with the dbox content indicated in the DCNC name. Dbox enabled auditoriums will use these codes, all other will ignore them.

There is also an option to use an 'audio fingerprint timecode' for dbox features. In that case, the DCP does not contain any dbox specific assets, but the dbox controller applies the dbox control codes from an offline file on the dbox auditorium server, and plays the cues timed from the actual sound that is played for that feature. The benefit is, you can distribute the control codes separately for features that are already in distribution, no special DCP has to be made/mastered.

- Carsten

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 03-12-2018, 11:11 PM:

D-Box is prevalent in high end home theater installations. Many Blu-Rays have D-Box time codes in them.