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I've seen people make the trip to a particular theatre so they can see the film in DTS or Dolby Digital, only to realise that the film is only screening in SR. (I've had to speak with a few annoyed customers with this problem from time to time)

I've also seen films which I know don't have a digital soundtrack as being advertised as running in Digital (eg The Full Monty).

I'm sure that all cinema chains, in all countries have done similar things. Most of us are Human.

Shaft was in Dolby Digital (at the time, it's in DTS now that the discs have finally arrived!) and The Ninth Gate was in Dolby SR at the time (and has since moved to a Dolby Digital screen). I checked both at the time of the complaints and the surrounds were indeed working. Strange; I can't really understand why this would have generated a complaint!

Doesn't it seem strange when people complain about things that you're doing absolutely right whereas I've been to other cinemas where seriously deficient aspects of the presentation go seemingly unnoticed?

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Can I ask everyone to differentiate between:
1. Theaters that do not have the sound system advertised *in any theater* Of couse, this is totally wrong.

2. Theaters that have the sound system advertised, but the film advertised is not running in that auditourium.

I know they're both wrong, but sometimes theaters switch screens (while it take a week to change the ads), so #2 above might be somewhat understandable.

Wasn't there a lawsuit about avertising Dolby Stereo, when you only had Eprad, or something like that?

We've had several problems with our newspapers getting things wrong. There are two areas where people can look. One is "The Movie Clock" that just shows the film title, theater and show times. The newspaper provides this for free, and generally won't take any responsablity for any errors (and there are many.) Sometimes, when they have completely screwed up, they will just put in a statement; "The theater did not send the showtimes to us in time for printing." ..which usually is BS.

The regular ads are paid for (co-opped) so there are less mistakes. But, many times, the ad space is shared with other films, and a "Dolby Digital" logo is simply placed at the bottom of the ad... without specifing what is or is not in DD.

Here is a legal tidbid. It is OK and LEGAL to advertise a film in DOLBY, DTS, SR, whatever, and not even have the equipment. Here is why... If the film has a soundtrack PRODUCED in dolby, or whatever, than you can show it in mono, and still say its a dolby film. Yes its cheating, and lame, but it is in practice all over the place.

BUYER BEWARE...

I've actually been hounded so much by a couple of people about how incredible their home THX system was that since they lived very close, agreed to go listen to it only to find out they were not even running it in digital...or even pro-logic! Many of these home receivers have a "cinema surround" mode that more or less just adds an echo into the surrounds. They will inevitably sit there and play their "WOW" laserdisc while I cringe at the pathetic sound for 8 minutes. The funny part is these guys get junker speakers (almost as if they came from a Ford stock car radio) and hook them up to a "THX receiver" and actually believe they have the best system in existence. "Deep bass" to them is about 400hz.

Next time you get that complaint, chat with the customer for a minute. I guarantee that is what they will say.

If they say they won't run your ads anymore if you refuse to pay for mistaken ads, go up the ladder as high as necessary.

At Cinema West we would quite often advertise in "DTS" as if to say "In the auditorium that is equipped to play DTS" because quite often - disks wouldn't show up etc. etc. And even THEN - it's in DTS Stereo. And still to this day they make very little differentiation between ULTRA and DOLBY Stereo.

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