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Author Topic: Dolby Screentalk William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-01-2006 03:38 AM                        I am looking into Dolby screen talk. With a print that has a high or reverting SRD track how does it effect the audio description and subtitling. If any of the UK members have screen talk, I would love to have a chat about it, Please email me.  |  IP: Logged Justin Gorka Expert Film Handler Posts: 174 From: High Wycombe, England Registered: Apr 2006 posted 01-23-2007 12:47 PM                     Just noticed your screen talk question. I had it in Swindon and had no problems IF we got the discs on time. A lot less fuss than the DTS system!  |  IP: Logged William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2007 01:17 PM                        Have got the system in now in one of the screens. Works like a treat, even with a bad print. Have found Dolby very helpfull at getting back titles, and have started getting the forthcoming disks as well  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-23-2007 01:20 PM                     Subtitles are done through a seperate projector which superimposes them on the screen, so they run pretty well. Never heard the audio description, how does it work? Do you only get the AD through the headset or both soundtrack and AD? Found the system pretty easy to use, and only occasionally goes wrong, couldn't tell you why or how, but since you should be there at the start of the feature anyway a reboot takes under a minute and solved any issues we had.  |  IP: Logged William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2007 04:06 PM                        You can have either through the headset, depends on what system you have and number of channels. Our I/R system you can select either A/D, Sound track or have both at the same time, its actually supposed to be used for stereo music etc. The A/D track is great fun to listen to, they describe pretty much everything that goes on. Its done in between the dialogue. But in all seriousness, it will benefit a lot of cinema goers. We do have a few customers who bring someone to describe the films.  |  IP: Logged Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 01-24-2007 06:10 AM                     While descriptive audio allows severly visually impaired people to go to a movie, can this product really be worth the investment? Based on statistics that I have seen, maybe 3% of the population is considered visually impaired. Of this number over 1/2 are elderly. If you look at moviegoing statistics, young people make up the majority of moviegoers. Is it really worth spending a few thousand dollars so that a miniscule percentage of people can basically pay a lot of money to listen to a radio show? Wouldn't that money be better spend upgrading normal equipment that everybody in the audience can enjoy? Now, if blind charitable organizations wanted to foot the bill of purchase and installation, I'd have no problem with it but it makes no business sense at all.  |  IP: Logged William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-24-2007 07:27 AM                        It is worth it. Once people realise you have the equipment in and it works, they will market it for you. Just got to put the work in to begin with and away it goes.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-24-2007 08:09 AM                        Lyle; In the USA it is a required government mandate to accomodate everyone. It is not up to you and me.(But I agree with you in concept.) LOuis  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-24-2007 11:18 AM                     It's kind of the same here, the law says something like 'must make fair and reasonable provision for', but in true legal fashion does not define what fair and reasonable provision is. For example, a cinema I know of closed because the were looking at having to spend a huge amount of money to install a stair lift or similar device for the mobility impaired. Now is that fair and reasonable? Well the local disablity organisations didn't think so and publicly said so, the local council had a different view, and were pushing them to do this work or face refusal to renew the exhibition licence. So the owners had little choice but to give up, the towns people, both able bodied and mobility impaired lost their only cinema, and the town gained another buidling slowly going derelict. The screentalk is another can of worms, I can't think of anywhere I've come across where it would be physically impossible to install it, however as it requires SRD to be installed for it to function, I've come across a lot of places where it would be expensive to install it, especially now that the DA20 is no longer available. This can make it financially non-viable for small exhibitors, so forcing them to have this equipment by legla means will put them out of business. There is of course the DTS option for such sites, I have installed DTS titling systems in cinemas with mono sound.  |  IP: Logged Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 01-24-2007 12:55 PM                     quote: Louis Bornwasser Lyle; In the USA it is a required government mandate to accomodate everyone. It is not up to you and me.(But I agree with you in concept.) While this is true, there is some kind of a limit. For example, roller coasters don't have to be wheelchair accessible. Specifically with respect to movie theaters, it is reasonable to have to be wheelchair accessible because once somebody in a wheelchair is in an auditorium they can experience the movie. On the other hand, descriptive audio is not part of the way a movie was made. Unfortunately (and if I could I would cure blindness), a blind person can not experience a movie becuase it is a visual medium. Just the same, even if somebody described a painting for a blind person, they can't truly experience it because they can't see it. It would be ridiculous if the government required descriptive audio which costs thousands per auditorium to install. Luckily for smaller exhibitors they haven't yet. Maybe you could say it is reasonable on a Digital Cinema installation where the only additional equipment would be a couple of hundred dollar transmitter (on a $100,000 plus total cost and I'm assuming the DC server can just send the audio to a relatively cheap device) but it isn't reasonable in a 35mm auditorium where it requires thousands of dollars of separate equipment.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-24-2007 01:41 PM                        I was recently asked if "it was possible" to add descriptive audio to film. While not all titles are available, a few are. In a legal sense, we are now "required." This is the same logic used to mandate fire supression in popcorn machines, although I have never seen an uncontrolled fire. Louis  |  IP: Logged

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