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Author Topic: What happened to Cinema Digital Sound? Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-09-2009 04:41 PM                        I understand the Eastman Kodak Company and along with the Optical Radiation Corporation wanted to play a very vital role in the early days of the development of digital sound for the theatres and introduced the CDS process known fully as Cinema Digital Sound. I understand only nine film were released with CDS track and they were DAYS OF THUNDER, DICK TRACEY, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, FINAL APPROACH, FLATLINERS, TERMINATOR 2, THE DOOR and the final film UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. How did this sound process differ from todays SRD, DTS and SSDDS process? For those of you who had experienced working with this system, was it better than todays sound or not as good? Was it very costly to set up compared to the three existing system or cheaper? I think T2 played at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles in 70mm and CDS. I also saw the movie in 70mm here in Hawaii at the Waikiki #3 and I do not know if the print was encoded with Dolby A six track mag sound. Now that the system has been defunct for years, what ever happend to the equipment? -Claude  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 02-09-2009 04:48 PM                     The short answer is it went bust. The problem is that their digital tracks covered the same real estate as the analog tracks (ie. replaced the analog tracks), so the studios needed to maintain dual inventory of prints. CDS has been widely discussed on Film-Tech. See This Thread for more info.  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 02-09-2009 06:04 PM                     And because it covered the analog track area, there was NO fallback if the digital track couldn't be read. And the processor itself was gigantic, it took up the rack space of TWO CP-200's!!  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-09-2009 06:27 PM                        From what I had heard so far, the CDS process deserved to fail. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-09-2009 06:32 PM                     "T2" and "The Doors" both sound really good at the Cinerama Dome.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 02-09-2009 06:33 PM                        More like it was destined to fail from the beginning, just like ORC. Has ORC ever done anything good for mankind? No, they have not. In fact they set it back several notches.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-09-2009 06:43 PM                    At 6 MB vs. the less than 1 MB digital 35mm sound systems used today, I bet it sounded awesome.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 02-09-2009 08:13 PM                        The compression was less advanced at the time so I bet it sounded similar to today's film sound in quality, needing more room for the same thing. The resolution was the same. In fact I think it may have been at 44.1Khz instead of the 48Khz that Dolby Digital offers.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 02-09-2009 10:12 PM                        Sounded OK. . . . .when it functioned at all. Louis  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 02-13-2009 11:51 AM                        You actually only listed 8 films, and according to my records (which may or may not be accurate), there were actually 10 CDS films. The two missing from your list is "For The Boys" and "Hudson Hawk". Also according to my notes, some were 35mm, some were 70mm, some were both. Dick Tracy, Flatliners, Edward Scissorhands were released in CDS in 70mm only. Days of Thunder, The Doors and Terminator 2 were released in CDS in both 35 and 70mm. And the others were released in CDS in only 35mm. As I remember it, Dick Tracy, the 1st CDS film, sounded harsh and brittle. Flatliners, Edward Scissorhands and The Doors sounded really good (in 70mm), especially The Doors. But Dick Tracy played at the Loews 84th St 6 in NYC, which wasn't great, and I believe the other three all played at the Ziegfeld in New York, so that could explain some of the difference. Also Dick Tracy was the first CDS film, so they obviously had less experience mixing for digital at that point. I can't remember if I saw Terminator 2 in a movie theatre. I didn't see the other films.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 02-13-2009 12:01 PM                        CDS and SDDS have a lot in common: same recording camera, not reliable, not here and Howard Fleming. Louis  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-13-2009 12:07 PM                     A lot of the CDS people went over to SDDS  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-13-2009 12:40 PM                     Well the film "For the Boys" got a 70MM Dolby Stereo release in LA & NYC. Paramount withdrew the 70MM CDS prints and replaced them with 70MM Dolby prints. And from Mike's site "The Doors" (SR) and "Flatliners" (A) were 70MM Dolby Stereo playdates at the Ziegfeld in NYC. Not every film was released in the CDS format from that list.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-13-2009 03:38 PM                     dick tracey played toronto in 70mm mag with the stips applied over the cds track  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-13-2009 05:04 PM                        quote: Martin Brooks As I remember it, Dick Tracy, the 1st CDS film, sounded harsh and brittle. Everyone's mileage varies, but I saw Dick Tracy in 70mm CDS at the Edwards Big Newport, and it sounded awesome, not harsh at all.  |  IP: Logged

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