Audio equipment for 35mm setup

[Dave Macaulay]

The latest I have is 2.3.66, it has 7.1 playback as the only addition shown in the release notes. It wasn't free (nominal charge, something like $20.00), but if you get a copy it doesn't have any license or anything to stop installation if one didn't pay.
Contact salesadmin@dolby.com for a paid upgrade, it may be free now since the 650 is NLA.

[Abraham Robinson]

what is the best way to keep a 650 running during long periods of inactivity? keep it on all the time, turn it on once a week or month for a few hours?

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

what is the best way to keep a 650 running during long periods of inactivity? keep it on all the time, turn it on once a week or month for a few hours?

Sam will chime in if I am wrong, but the CP650 doesn't need any special attention. The flash memory does not AFIK require power to stay "alive." I have never heard of a CP650 failing because it wasn't powered up. You MIGHT have to reset the time and date but that's not a thing that would disable it.

[Marin Zorica]

CP650 main problem is power supply which can be fixed or replaced......as not bad by desi g, but many units were 24/7 on so.......

You can also use datasat AP20 or AP25 if you have budget, but has only analogue inputs.....

The thing will be what you like, since 35/70mm is now mostly in Art houses etc, the processor is something to chose based upon what you like how it sounds. CP65 for pure analogue is also cool.

Just now i have Art house which has AP25 but we think of using CP650 for analog and dolby digital, or maybe just dolby digital while analogue will go to AP25 direct, so in case 650 goes dead, they will still have sound.

Did anybody make comparasion or dolby sr and 2:4 decoding between CP65, CP650 and say AP25? What you would prefer between all for dolby a/sr decoding and 2:4 matrix?

[Steve Guttag]

I'd say, for SR decoding, the CAT350, CAT300 and CAT280 are the gold standards. That is what the digital processors are trying to emulate. So, the CP65 can edge the digital processors out on that (providing it has CAT350s. As for 2:4 decoding. That has been a moving target over the years and whereas you are trying to match what the dubbing theatre heard, you'd almost want to match the decoder to era the track was mixed/mastered. The CAT150E became the gold standard (the SDU4 never got the CAT150F...always the CAT150E). Emulating the CAT150 digitally is probably easier than the SR noise reduction. The CP65 though is an inconsistent processor. The CAT441 for Rs and OBE use a different VCA than the CAT242, which used the older/noisier VCA (there was a studio mod to change out the VCA chip for the same dbx/THAT VCAs used on the CAT441 via a daughterboard.

But know your audience...is it REALLY going to matter which film processor you use? All three of those are going to do the job. We have used both CP65 and CP650s as the film processor as a "source" to the main digital sound system. In fact, when we updated some sites, like the AFI/Silver, we left the film processors (Panastereo CSP1200s or Dolby CP200, depending on the auditorium) right where they were and cut the audio at the crossover so that DCPs would get a direct digital shot and not flow through the older technology yet the film processors essentially are just using a different crossover so there was no impact on how the projectionists operated their film shows.

That is how we plan to do any future film/Dcinema systems too. Just use either their existing film processor or put in a CP650 or CP65/DA20 as a film source processor and then Q-SYS for the crossover/B-chain. In fact, I'm planning on doing most everything in Q-SYS except maybe the noise reduction (though I think I can emulate Dolby-A with the components in Q-SYS...I don't think I can emulate SR) and attach a DA-20 or DTS player, again, as a multi-channel source. There is plenty of I/O to switch the digital processors in/out. I suspect that 363 frames with CAT300s are out there to take care of the SR/A noise reduction. Even 70mm processing can be done in Q-SYS with relative ease for things like split surrounds.

[Abraham Robinson]

Sam will chime in if I am wrong, but the CP650 doesn't need any special attention. The flash memory does not AFIK require power to stay "alive." I have never heard of a CP650 failing because it wasn't powered up. You MIGHT have to reset the time and date but that's not a thing that would disable it.

thanks tony

[Sam Chavez]

The CP650 does not need power to maintain settings. Dolby's Norm Cerda found one possible scenario where occasional power up would be useful, but in all my years dealing with 650's, I've never seen it happen.

[Marin Zorica]

That was my point ofaskibg, also leaving something like cp650 for film is cool thing to do, maybe to replace power supply in case of some cp650 which was used for some period so to avoid problems in near future. As for qsys, i did a chain emulation, but newer had time to compare with say cat22 to hear difference and do some improvements.