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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Lord Of The Rings 3: Return Of The King, SRD playback
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Alexander Smith
Expert Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1769b.jpg)
Posts: 128
From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 01-06-2004 04:00 PM
Kit: Dolby CP500-D, Strong picture and sound heads.
Since we opened our two copies of LotR3, we've not been able to play them in SRD correctly. Our support engineer has given the Dolby Digital reader and processor a full alignment check (no problems found, focus 68, azimuth 0, mag. width 100%, corners found 99%) e.t.c. We've having to play them both in SR, where it works fine.
There are other observations: 1. When running the adverts and trailers, the digital playback is good (error rates of about 4). As soon as reel 1 starts, the vertical jitter shoots up to about 4.5 (as displayed by WinDRAS) and the error rate changes between 6, 7 and F(ail). At this time the error concealment becomes quite audible, mostly on the centre channel. Sounds like a muted 'popping' sound. Sections of reels are worse than others, with some just reverting to SR.
2. If this is left running, by about reel 3 or 4 the sound is breaking up and eventually goes to silence. It won't revert to SR because the processor still thinks it is playing in Digital. The vertical jitter was reading about 6.0 by this time.
3. I watched a different film in the same screen, in SRD and the playback was excellent.
4. As a test, we moved the final reel of LotR3 to another screen with the same sound system, and it played back correctly.
5. Also, we tried swapping all the cards of the digital sub-system with "known good" cards and the problem persisted.
Has anyone had a similar experience with LotR3? Our engineer told me that other cinemas in the UK are also having to play LotR3 in either SR or some other digital format.
To me, all this points to the print being border-line out-of-spec. Naturally it's a brand new print from Deluxe. For other reasons I've already requested a replacement reel 1, but I was informed that our chances of getting it are slim to none.
Our programme next week means we're moving the print to another SRD screen, (where we tested the final reel), so that should allow us to play in SRD. I've volunteered to watch and listen to the copy in that screen, so I'll post back with my observations.
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Alexander Smith
Expert Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1769b.jpg)
Posts: 128
From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 01-09-2004 03:12 PM
Last night I ran our print of LotR3 in our other Dolby Digital screen, and it played back (to my ears) perfectly. I heard it revert to SR about twice during the entire show, and one of those was during the closing credits.
However, WinDRAS reported the alignment was quite wierd (this is for near the beginning of reel 8): Error rating: 0.0 Lateral position: -107.14 Track Width: 79 Focus: 67 Azimuth: 1 Vertical jitter: 420.05
So the track width and vertical jitter are "well off", although we had our service engineer align the digital reader earlier in the week with calibrated CAT69T in the usual way.
I suppose it's a minor miracle that the digital playback is mostly error free.
Meanwhile over in the screen where we couldn't play LotR3 in digital at all, I ran our copy of "The Last Samurai", and the results were quite poor. It was reverting to SR alot and the error rating was changing from zero to F, the lateral position was varying +/- 0.5 around 1.5, the track width was steady at 101%, the azimuth was wandering slowly between -10 and +30 and the vertical jitter was varying between 50 and 250.
Our engineer informed us that it may be necessary to buy a spring upgrade kit (if the playback didn't improve with a different print), when we get it fitted I'll see if that improves things.
I hope this is of some use to anyone else having similar problems, I can make the .dqc files available, on request.
Alex.
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