Thanks All

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IMHO, Joe Redifer's bad experience when he reviewed PTRs was because he tried to clean film badly abraded by the projector, overloading the PTRs. PTRs are successfully used by hundreds of film labs, film-to-video telecines, and theatres (especially special venue). I was the project leader in developing the PTR film cleaning technology for Kodak.
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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We never ran Photoguard'ed prints (too much bad luck with relief operators forgeting to not use the tightwinds) so I don't know about PTRs and Photoguard.

Regards,

Running PTR's on every screen in a 16 plex with one operator? Moronic. Filmguard does a better job, eats up less of your time and the results last longer.

I agree that washing and drying 16 sets of PTRs after every show would be difficult for a single operator. So, many theatres effectively clean the rollers by using adhesive tape to remove the dirt buildup. It takes only a few seconds to "see-saw" a piece of tape over the dirty roller, removing all the dirt particles the PTR took off the print. A quality "low stick" tape like artists or architects tape is best, as it is just sticky enough to remove the dirt, yet not so sticky to risk "plucking" the soft polyurethane of the PTR.

Washing PTRs with mild dishwashing detergent and water should still be done occasionally (e.g., once per day, with an overnight to dry), to remove any oil residue picked off the prints and maintain the cleaning efficiency.

As I said, I think your "bad" experience with PTRs was because the rollers overloaded with dirt from the severe projector abrasion you were encountering at the time.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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"Pristine" condition varies horribly from person to person. What another person thinks is a perfect print is a shit print to me. I've rejected dozens of prints that were ran only one single time at another theater because of damage that was unacceptable to me, but perhaps not even noticeable to other people. I know Joe is also very picky as I am and I've received tons of emails from people telling me that they *thought* they had a great presentation before switching over to media cleaners and FilmGuard. Most people really do not know any better until they see it. Even brand new prints straight from the lab are NOT in pristine condition, I don't care what anyone says, they are not. There is always dirt on them, most times objectionable amounts to me. No doubt a lot of this comes from the clip together reels that the depots use, but regardless my first presentation is always the worst (even though it would be on par with the first presentation of PTR theaters) and mine only gets better from there. The theaters in town that use PTRs have their best presentation on the first day and it all goes downhill from there. This is a repeated decaying pattern of print quality with PTRs. Again, it all just depends on how much you care about achieving a perfect (and I do not mean a "good", but perfect ) presentation.

Once someone has tried BOTH properly and according to the instructions, I've yet to hear anyone still side with PTRs. Unfortunately, IMAX prints only have the option of PTR cleaning, which is why I feel the comments from the IMAX guys is out of place here for they can not honestly compare fairly. Also, IMAX is a ridiculously larger frame, which means that each speck of dirt is magnified to a far lesser degree than the typical booths running 35mm prints. Those IMAX comments are very deceptive and do not apply to 99% of the members here.

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