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Author
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Topic: Universal and cyan
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-02-2006 09:43 AM
Does anyone know if Universal has gone fully to cyan tracks by now? We are playing AMERICAN DREAMZ next week in our rep house and if this is going to be cyan, it means I will have to install the reverse scan readers which have been waiting on the shelf as long as possible. Given that we run mostly older titles with tracks optimized for white light, I have been very reluctant to switch-over. I mean, I knew this day would come, but I was holding off until absolutely necessary. Then again, two weeks later we will run a print struck in the 80s. It will be interesting to see if the sibilance/xmodulation distortion the red reader may add is going to necessitate switching back to white exciters. If so, then a CURSE on both their houses -- the SMPTE and the studios. ![[fu]](graemlins/fu.gif)
Did we ever come to any conclusion in those threads about cyan and homebrew red LEDs whether or not one could replace the red light source (exciter) in a reverse scan system with a white or IR superbright LED light source to avoid the distortion problem that red light causes on older tracks? If it's only the light source that negatively affects the distortion level, and one could find a way to easily swapped out between red and white LED arrays, that would be a saving grace for those of us who have to run a mix of older and newer prints. (I am assuming using a white light exciter instead of red in a reverse scan system would solve the distortion problem caused by the two differently optimumized types of soundtracks).
Since the slit is a function of the cell assembly, then they only thing the light source needs to do, no matter what it is, would be to illuminate the track evenly and with adaquate brightness, no? Seems that could be quite easily done....a lot easier than having to change entire optic assemblies of the two different systems.
I am also running GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK in the same house right after AMERICAN DREAMZ, and even though that is not a cyan track (B&W), I am correct in assuming that it will be optimumized for red light excitation, right?
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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-04-2006 05:01 PM
From a purely subjective standpoint, I wouldn't worry about the red LEDs with conventional tracks. I have run all sorts of old variable density (B&W) and variable area (B&W, color) tracks, on red LED reverse scanners (Kinoton soundhead retrofit for Norelco AAII), and most of them sounded fine. I haven't done an A-B comparison between white and red light, but I can say that some conventional tracks have sounded phenomenal with red light ("Pink Floyd The Wall" in A-type comes to mind), while others sound rather poor, so I think that any distortions the red light introduces are relatively minor.
(Note: the "Wall" print was very recent, within the past 3-5 years, but my understanding is that all conventional tracks are still optimized for white light.)
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-05-2006 04:47 AM
Is 'Good Night and Good Luck' printed on black and white or colour stock?
I had quite a few, about a dozen, cyan prints within a few weeks, but hardly any recently. 'Jarhead' is this week, but that's the first 'new' film. i.e. not one which we're had before, and brought back for another run, for about a month. This week also sees our first cyan trailer; for a French film, I've forgotten the title. This is interesting; most of the cyan tracks which I've seen were on prints from French labs. For a while we were getting quite a few non-French films printed in France for some reason.
Still seen no adverts in cyan.
Another strange thing, in the last few weeks there seems to be an increase in the number of films released with conventional, i.e. not high magenta, tracks.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-29-2006 10:34 AM
quote: Frank Angel
I am also running GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK in the same house right after AMERICAN DREAMZ, and even though that is not a cyan track (B&W), I am correct in assuming that it will be optimumized for red light excitation, right?
Frank, how did you get on with this film? We've got it this week, and we've been having problems with it.
I wasn't aware of any problems during the first show, nor with the second one, which was a different film. Due to the fact that it is a short film I wasn't able to get down to the auditorium while it was running, as I was getting other material ready. I hadn't noticed anything wrong on the monitor speakers, but it's difficult to hear dialogue properly over the noise of the machines.
During the last screening of the day I had a call from the Duty Manager, reporting a complaint from a customer of poor sound. I went down to the auditorium, and the sound was poor, a bit like people speaking with paper bags over their heads. I checked all the obvious things that I could do while the film was running, but could find nothing obviously wrong. Spoke to the DM, she decided that it wasn't too bad, and we should continue the show. I checked again after the changeover, and it was still the same, so that rules out the soundhead.
Stay behind after the show, and try just about everything. Ran it in SR, A and mono. Ran it in bypass, that rules out most of the processor. Ran it with the spare pre-amp card, that rules out the pre-amp. Ran other film, ran non sync from both CD and tape. Listened to each channel in turn; all are affected, so power amps and speakers are unlikely. Suddenly, that problem clears up on it's own, and has not returned.
However, we still have a problem with 'Goodbye'. I think the combination of the two problems was what we were hearing on Friday. Went in early on Saturday, ran the adverts and trailers reel, fine. Ran the first reel of the children's film, fine. ran the start of reel four of 'Goodbye', and it sounds like a very dirty, scratched, mouldy track. This must be the print, because everything else now sounds fine.
I've not had problems with any other silver tracks which I've run since the red readers were fitted. The readers are red lasers, one machine is fitted with a Future Projections one, and the other with an ACL.
The intended track type, printed from the negative says 'SILVER', so it should be ok. I've asked two other people who have run the film, they didn't report any problems, but they were running one of the digital tracks.
Has anyone here had any problems with the analogue track on this film?
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