my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Nearing the end of my rope- Dolby SRD troubles, HELP!

Author Topic: Nearing the end of my rope- Dolby SRD troubles, HELP! Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 11-06-2003 06:42 PM                     OK I have been getting the calls since yesterday on the following problems: Location #1: Dolby CP500; Simplex 5-star with Kelmar SRD/analog LED basement reader- From reports I have been given, prints have been running just fine until yesterday, when 'Matrix Revolutions' opened. The complaint is that the film is dropping out of digital constantly. A new print was obtained, and as of this writing they are a couple reels into the first show and the trailers prior to the attachment played fine, but as soon as the attachment hit, the error rates have been 6-F-7-F with many reversions to analog. Reports I have been given also say that the movie that was in that auditorium previous to Matrix ('Mystic River') played fine in SRD. Location #2: DA20, Cat 700, CP65; Century projector- I was at this theatre on Tuesday for regularly scheduled maintenance and received reports that the digital problems had gone away in recent weeks (more on this later, it may or not be relevant). The ONLY thing I did to the DA20 was replace the front cover (which was off for troubleshooting purposes, per instructions from Dolby). To my knowledge, the film playing Tuesday (Brother Bear) played flawlessly. Come Wednesday, first show of 'Matrix' plays and voila! massive amounts of digital reversions and error rates in the 5-F-6-F-7-F ranges... BUT WAIT....THERE'S MORE: This same theatre playing the same print of Matrix ran from what was reported to me by the staff for the second show without EVER reverting... Then the late show played and the reversion hell was back- to include a few times where the film dropped from SRD to SILENCE!!!!!!! This location also got a new print of 'Matrix' and as of this writing it is playing OK but the thing hasnt played all the way thru yet. This location has been having sporadic problems with the SRD in both of the two SRD houses they have (the other two are SDDS and DTS) and they have had prints go into reversion hell (one of which [Bruce Almighty] I heard the revisions myself)- Lonny Jennings came down and hooked up the laptop and scope and we ran the SAME PRINT OF 'BRUCE ALMIGHTY' and there were ABSOLUTELY ZERO REVERSIONS, with error rates between 1 and 4!!! From what I can remember the print played just fine... Until this EXACT SAME scenario happened again several weeks later with 'Hulk'... I am beginning to tire of the bitching from both upper management and theatre managers that assume that I have the 'magic bullet' to make things work... My supply (and Dolby's in the latter case) of ideas and fixes is running dry and I am beginning to believe that an exorcism is in order on both these places, especially the latter one! SOMEBODY PLEEEEEEASE HELP!!!!!! -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-06-2003 06:49 PM                     Wild shot is there a possible threading problem IE tension on the damper in the reader If it is incorrect it would cause jitter that would drive the error ate up to silly revisions  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-06-2003 06:50 PM                        The sypmtoms would point me towards dying LEDs. I've had similar things happen with a pair of weak LEDs. This'd be especially likely if you'd installed or adjusted both LEDs around the same time. Oddly enough, I had the same experience you describe with a print of Bruce Almighty.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 11-06-2003 10:27 PM                     quote: The sypmtoms would point me towards dying LEDs. I've had similar things happen with a pair of weak LEDs. This'd be especially likely if you'd installed or adjusted both LEDs around the same time. The Kelmar reader had an LED change this spring (when 'Phone Booth' was out), I would assume they are still in good shape. The other location has a Cat 700 reader, no LEDs- and yes it had a brand new bulb put in it just prior to the Bruce Almighty incident. Update: Both locations with the new prints STILL revert with error levels in the 7-F range. I did what I could at location #1 to get it back, but couldn't get it to improve. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!! -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-06-2003 10:51 PM                     Aaron, Two things...have you put your scope on the DA-20s? That is what is the video level for the various readers? You really want to shoot for 4V p-p on the Whiter-than-white burst (when it is reading the perforation). On the 5-star...press down on the pinch roller just a bit and see if that steadies it out. One of two things happen with the Simplex (and particularly the 5-star) soundheads...The pinch roller MUST BE CLEAN. Scum on the roller will make it start to bounce (not really perceivable to the eye). When this happens, you vertical jitter on the Dolby Digital track will be too rapid and you will get the higher errors and Fs. The other thing on the 5-Star is if the damper roller has too much spring tension on it, it will pull up on the pinch roller and defeat part of what it is doing...make sure that isn't happening. Steve  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 11-06-2003 11:10 PM                     Conveniently, SRD jitter manifests itself in the upper-right portion of the scope traces. If it is jittering, then you have jitter.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 11-07-2003 09:34 AM                     We had a small problem with one machine here. That on two prints that ran, that machine would revert to SR for a few seconds on the startup and revert a few times during the reel. (No it was not a bad reel) On both prints I had sound editors present. And both prints had been screened at other locations , fine. I have Kinoton basement readers on my Magna-Tech PR-135 machines. We had Dolby NYC here yesterday to work on it. They found the tension was off a bit, so the flywheel was not getting up to speed on that machine. So it would drive the error rate up and revert. It ran steady on all shows yesterday. I ran 21 reels and it ran fine with 3's & 4's on the CP500.  |  IP: Logged Rick Long Jr Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-07-2003 11:04 PM                     Something you may want to try is simply reseating all of the cards. 90% of the time, this does the trick with CP-500's, but it could be a faulty card as well. If you can, try swapping the digital sub-system with another screen and see if the problem moves. If so, then do it one card at a time to isolate the problem. This is, of course, if you get lucky, and the problem appears while you're there.I've found the CP-500's can be flaky. The CP-650 is MUCH better with regard to how the digital performs.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.