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Author Topic: Dolby Digital processor today Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-19-2016 04:10 PM                     Had this silly thought today while dealing with 35mm A-Chain. How would you design a new Dolby Digital sound processor in 2016? It would have a web interface and show all the dropouts to SR, the average error rate for every reel, send statistics to the management (auditorium X needs an A-Chain! - Video Level low in screen 3) and to the labs to monitor their printers too - as long as the reels had an ID on it. What else?  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-20-2016 07:49 PM                     "State secret" level encryption of the audio with KDMs to enable playback, screen/time watermarking, and lots of rules about speaker locations, sound levels, and system response - that all get routinely ignored with nobody checking or caring.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-21-2016 04:51 AM                     bringing KDMs into the equation is brilliant!  |  IP: Logged Muhamad Taufiq Film Handler Posts: 23 From: Bandung, Indonesia Registered: May 2015 posted 02-21-2016 08:23 AM                    No screen channel bypass obviously.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 02-21-2016 10:11 AM                        I always had the idea of encripted audio; leave the video alone on film. You would then go on line and pay for a key to get the audio to work.  |  IP: Logged Sean Weitzel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall) Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-21-2016 11:27 AM                     That's pretty much how Videocipher II for big dish satellite worked. The video was scrambled via analog (and easily descrambled with simple modifications to the board) but the audio was digitally encrypted with I believe a 40 bit key.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-21-2016 12:44 PM                     Another feature: DD stream would be extracted and saved on the local HDD. Then played back in a sort of DTS-fashion. That would assure that sound would be there even when print was eventually damaged/scratched.  |  IP: Logged Pietro Clarici Expert Film Handler Posts: 136 From: Foligno (PG) Italy Registered: Sep 2008 posted 02-21-2016 02:45 PM                        Uncompressed audio tracks could be just downloaded, like Louis said: no need to extract them in lossy format from a print. Boom, now you have Atmos with film and everyone at Dolby is happy.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-21-2016 04:25 PM                     I remember studios were never happy to have stuff online. That was before digital cinema of course but I'm assuming that downloading sound would not be an option. Otherwise we could have a simple timecode on the print and uncompressed sound would be downloaded. That rings a bell.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-21-2016 04:53 PM                     If there is enough extra bandwidth in the DD data track to build in potential software updates, there should be enough to build in captions or descriptions. The update feature was barely used. Right? Why bother using it at all? Why not use that extra bandwidth for features that will be used? System updates could be applied (should be applied) as the user wants or needs, not necessarily automatically. Why not perform update via the Internet like almost all other computerized equipment? I really do like digital projection but I also think that the wholesale switch to purely digital medium was like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Shouldn't there be a way to create a hybrid system that takes advantage of the best of both?  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 02-21-2016 11:38 PM                     Clearly back in the 90s updates via Internet weren't an option. These days a sound processor could indeed upgrade online. Just remember the software for those modules was just a few kilobytes, not much space available on the print!  |  IP: Logged

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