It seems that our readers are dropping out again. The LED packs were replaced about 3 years ago. The voltage adj. pot. on 2 of them is all the way up and they are getting too dim to read reliably. It looks like they are going to need it again, soon. Actually, this part is all academic...

It seems that for some prints they run fine and for others they don't. It's usually only one reel that doesn't play well. In my experience it's usually R-2 or R-3. I can open up the player and look at the LEDs inside and see what track is (or isn't) reading. Usually it's the "P" track that blinks out.

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The pattern of failure is definately tied to frequency of use. Out solution is to bypass the reader if you're not going to play in SDDS. That saves on wear & tear, etc. (We teach a lot of newbies to always thread until they get good enough to handle the "if/then questions".)

Still, I can't help but wonder...
It always seems to be reel 2 that doesn't want to read right. It will momentarily jump out of SDDS every 4 seconds or so. It looks like it's the "P" track that's dropping out the most. I was just wondering if there was any connection to the edge marks that we discussed before. Traditionally those marks appear in R-2 most often but can be in any reel.
I ask because that is what the pattern of drop outs is, too... Mostly R-2 but sometimes other reels. Usually only one reel of a print does it.

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AFAIK, the error correction capabilities of the digital sound systems are usually capable of coping with quite a few unreadable "bits". But in marginal situations (e.g., dim LEDs), other types of (non-magenta) edgeprint may cause enough interference to default.

You now, the ones that somebody else said might be part of the CAP code.

I was talking to another guy who seemed to be in the know about such things and he told me that they weren't supposed to be printing those edge numbers with the code anymore. I showed him a piece of leader with the numbers on it and all he said was, "Hmmm!" He didn't tell me whether or not he thought they would be interfering with the reader, though.

It's just that I think that the ones that do have edge numbers are causing all the trouble.

The way it seems to be going is that a lot of prints run just fine on the SDDS, even if the LEDs are getting weak. At this point they are only "borderline". But when you combine a slightly out-of-spec. reader with a print that has edge numbers where there aren't supposed to be or if the SDDS track is slightly out of spec., then you get trouble.

I can take that print with the edge numbers and play it in another house and it'll be fine. Move it to one of the 'full-time' SDDS houses and it will play fine, except for reel #2 or #3. When you break that print down you'll see the edge marks.

Also, if you can open up your decoder while it's playing, you can read the reel number on the display. Also the LEDs on the PC board inside, (second and third ones from the left, if memory serves), tell you if a track is reading properly. It always seems to be the "P" track LED that blinks out right when the reader drops out. It happens at about 5 second intervals.