The equipment is a CP-55 with an SR-A5 and a DA-20.

It is impossible that Dolby Digital has levels too high than SR since the level volume are the same for SR and DD.

I suggest you to check the SR gain with 69T at least once a month.

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At the last cinema I worked which had incandescent exciters (Philips FP-20s and CP45s), we Dolby-toned every fortnight, and a slight adjustment was usually necessary.

That having been said, the changeover to high magenta and cyan soundtracks is really going to cause hassle. If you set the gain for a conventional soundtrack fader setting being the same as digital, then a cyan or high-magenta track will need a very different level, and vice-versa.

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If you are using the latest software revision, just run some 69T and verify Dolby Level for your analog decoding.

BUT!!!

If you are using older software where fader levels are pre-set by format instead of the processor "remembering" the last fader setting (CP-500), make sure that both formats are set at the same level. I have one processor out of eleven that still has this software, and it gets me every time! (LOL)

Speaking from experience, it is easy to neglect the analog optics since they have progressed to a back-up status for the SRD.

Just because we are using LEDs instead of exciter lamps doesn't mean that they won't change with time (or fail for that matter).

The print in question (The Cell) was just moved to this particular auditorium this week. The SRD failure is on a part of one reel of the print. The levels were matched in the previous auditorium so the drop out was not noticed until the move.

Analog sound will never go away. Digital failure is too absolute.

I prefer the seperation of digital, but the soundtrack is too fragile. Analog can fail in degrees, but digital (in any format) is either there, or it isn't.

Give me digital sound!! But on a Saturday night, give me a good SR encoded analog back-up as well!

After repairing the defective LED, we ran in digital and let the drop-out happen. No one noticed.

I think that Spectral Recording could have been a mile stone in the recording industry had "digital" waited a few years before becoming such a magic word.

Heck, just compare the dynamic range between the two mediums.

Michael, I've seen bad Dolby tone test film that was severely "off", for lack of a better term. Get yourself another loop as a different opinion. Without a full A-chain, you can't be positive, but that should be checked for verification. I've never ran a DA20 through a CP55, but I have a feeling it may be a compatibility issue as no DTS unit I've ever installed on a CP55 was ever able to achieve high enough playback levels to match the analog on a CP55.

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