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Topic: Cyan Sound tracks

Stephen Jones
Master Film Handler

Posts: 314
From: Geelong Victoria Australia
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-22-1999 09:47 PM

Has any of the new Cyan type sound tracks appeared in the U.S yet.I was under the impresion that they were to appear early this year but I havent come accross any as yet.Have looked on the Dolby site but no new infomation is available. I have noticed here in OZ that some projectors have not had their sond heads converted to led (which I prefer to the old exciter lamp)How will old exciter lamps perform with the new type of sound tracks when they become wide spread,I understand that there will be a lot of background hiss and the sound quality will be poor if exciter lamps are used instead of led,s What do you think? I heard that another type of sound track has been developed that will permit the use of exciter lamps,The track is produced with a reduced silver content the name of ths process has escaped me at the moment.

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RICK HAMILTON
Film Handler

Posts: 28

Registered: Aug 1999

posted 09-22-1999 11:08 PM

last year I was trying out some JAX lights and ULTRA*STEREO sent me some Dolby tone that was supposedly just Cyan. I did some A-B comparisons. I did an A-Chain alignment with an exciter bulb and then set Dolby tone levels, then I ran a loop of Cyan Dolby tone and I could barely get any amount of level. I have not heard a "Cyan only" soundtrack that I'm aware of.

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RICK HAMILTON
Film Handler

Posts: 28

Registered: Aug 1999

posted 09-22-1999 11:12 PM

This may be a stupid question, but I'm sure that everyone has already given it much thought! If the film is Cyan, will a CAT 700 read the digital information?

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George Roher
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: Washington DC
Registered: Jul 99

posted 09-23-1999 12:34 AM

The overwhelming majority of projectors in the Washington DC area still use good old exciter lamps. I've never seen a led reader. If movies started coming out with cyan only tracks, exhibitors here would be spending a bundle retrofitting their machines. It seems kind of pointless to develop a new film technology that requires upgrading equipment when digital cinema (yuck!) may replace it in the near future.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 09-23-1999 02:10 AM

This is an interesting and very important topic. I do not know when the conversion is supposed to take place. Last year I heard "Within the next couple of years" so go figure.

I have the Christie P35GPS projectors with LEDs for both analog and digital. I myself have some of that Ultra*Stereo cyan "dolby"tone film. I get pretty much the same reading whether I use the cyan or real Dolbytone film, which is quite interesting. But for now I use the real Dolby Tone film.

As for Dolby Digital and the old penthouse readers with the slide projector bulb instead of an LED, I asked Dolby that very same question about 2 weeks or so ago. You know what I got? The runaround! One of three things is possible:

1. Dolby Digital will not work with the cat 699 and 700 once cyan is strictly enforced.

2. Dolby did not understand the question.

3. There is not any silver in the Dolby Digital track (I do not know if it actually has silver in it or not).

If the Dolby Digital track does indeed have silver in it, then the answer is definitely #1. This is something that we really need to find out.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-23-1999 11:28 AM

The SRD track is dye only and as such will not be affected

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Scott Morrison
Film Handler

Posts: 9
From: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-29-1999 04:14 PM

The short answer to your question is 'There isn't (and won't be) a problem.'
The reason is fairly simple. The optical to electronic translation in the SRD system is 'smart' unlike the analog system which is 'dumb' What I mean is, most of what a DA20 does is image enhancement to the video signal coming off the reader. The signal is digitized and then processed to interpret the blacks from the clears in the digital blocks. The cyan tracks are plenty dense enough for the sensitive CCD array in the SRD reader to be able to discern the blocks. This goes for a 699, 700, 701 or an LED or bulb-based basement reader.
Analog has no 'intelligence' to interpret the track, the contrast is directly proportional to the gain. This is why the new LED sound heads have a pre-pre-amp to compensate for the fact that the cell is only excited by small part (red) of the spectrum and thus can't produce as much gain as a exciter bulb&silver track.

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