Martin (1TRIANGLE) May-14 6:31 pm
To: ALL
#299. 1 of 1

According to Bruce Snyder at Fox," as long as a DTS player is
hooked to a processor it does not matter what your sound is like as
long as you can say that you have digital."
We have been in a week long discussion with Fox over the fact that
the indoor theatre in the same town we are in did not have digital
and
it was said by Lucas Film that which ever theatre in town had
digital,
got Star Wars.(we were willing to present Star Wars in digital.)
When the UA theatre was caught not having digital it was said by Fox
that we would get the print.Ua moved a DTS player from one of their
other theatres that was not getting Star Wars. It was also said that
Star Wars had to show on your biggest house. Thay put the DTS
player on the #3 screen with 178 seats. When this was made known
to Fox ,UA lied and said that theatre had 292 seats. when we called
them on it they moved it to their big house with 340 seats. Their
sound system consist of KT 700 Kintec processor,Kintec amps and
speakers and 20 year old wiring with a DTS player hooked to the mag
inputs. Needless to say with the 2/3 octave eq and the less than
adaquate amps and speakers and the DTS player being wired through
the mag inputs the sound is very flat and dry (no highs or sub)They
are also proud of the rest of their booth as they are running
Christie
AW2 platter that dumps at least one film a week in the floor, and a
Christie CH 20 lamphouse with a 2000w bulb on a screen that's over
34 feet wide (no wonder we always get compliments on how much
brighter our picture is at the drive-in).
We sent a THX and Dolby certified sound engineer into their theatre
the other night to observe their presentation and his report was as
follows:
They were constantly adjusting the volume up and down(maybe to
protect the speakers?) Thay film went out of frame in the middle of
the movie and they had to stop the projector to straighten it out.He
said if he had paid money to see a film there ,he would ask for his
money back and drive 45 miles to Charlotte to another theatre or ask
the manager when the drive in would have the picture because he
would wait and see it there. He said there was no feeling to the
sound
what so ever and could not get into the movie because it sounded so
bad compaired to other theatres.
This theatre advertises that they have Dolby stereo on their web
site.
they do not ,our sound engineer friend know this and their most up to

date sound system is the Kintec system.
He called Dolby himself to inform them of the false advertisement
and evedently they are not interested because they are UA with over
2000 screens and they can get away with murder.Also we tried to
contact DTS to let them know about the bad advertisement that they
are getting and they don't seem to care either.
TIME LINE
Monday morning:
I called Lucas Films and asked if the sound quality and picture
presentation would be important.
Lucas Films: yes ,we have set standards and expect them to be
followed. Fox has total discression over this film and we trust them
to
do what is right. If you have a problem you need to talk to Tom
Sherak at 310-369-3583.
I called his office , a couple of hours later I was called back by
Bruce
Snyder.At first he told me that all drive-ins have horrible
presentations,and also that I was not told that no drive-in in the
country would not get the film on the first break. He said that UA
did
have a full digital system and we informed him that they did not.He
told us to send someone into the theatre to see what they did have
and if they had lied to him, Star Wars would be our picture.
TUESDAY:
Bruce called back and he said he had a conversation with the head of
UA and they assured him that they had replaced all of the wiring and
speakers 2 years ago and they had just recently added the DTS
player.
Tuesday Night
The sound engineer we sent went into the theatre(we got away with
this because he was friends with thw manager)
the manager took him and showed him the new DTS player they had
just out in on May 3,99. It was hooked to the wiring and processor
that had been there since 1985,and that the DTS player was hooked
up on the #3 auditorium.178 seats when it was suppose to be on the
big house.
Wednesday morning:
We called Bruce and told him what the sound engineer found and he
wanted to talk to the sound engineer so we gave him a number to
contact him. He called us back and said he had talked to the sound
engineer and had been in contact with UA and they told him that the
sound engineer must have been in the wrong auditorium because it
was on the 292 seat house (this auditorium had mono) So they lied
again.
He also made it known at this point that he was friends with the
heads
of UA and could not believe that they would risk telling him a lie
and
jeprodize thier relationship with Fox over one small theatre in a one

horse town.
Bruce then said that UA had to give him a certified statement from a
qualified sound engineer stating that thay had a full digital system
throughout their biggest house.
UA's in house sound engineer Rick Stien sent a report to Fox stating
that the digital system was in place in the largest auditorium and
had
been for a couple of years now.(another lie that he fell for)Their
own
manager proved this not to be true.
THURSDAY MORNING:
I called Bruce and informed him that the DTS was still on the #3
auditorium. He wanted me to send the sound engineer back into the
theatre and go see if he was looking at the wrong auditorium.This
pissed off the sound engineer at this point because this has been his

line of work for years and is THX and Dolby certified.He already knew

what he was looking at and did not appreciate this guy telling him he

was wrong because UA was trying to cover thier asses. At this point
he said hhe was willing to testify in a court of law as to what he
had
seen.
Thursday afternoon:
Bruce called back and said he demanded a TAP alignment from UA
the terms however would be that Fox would not pay for it .
It was agreed to that if UA was found not to be true digital then UA
would pay for the TAP alignment and I would get the picture if it was

As to the UA theater with the Kintek fake digital system, which one is it? I am
wondering just how small of a town and run down the place is. But on another
note, UA did get more Star Wars playdates than any other theater chain. Wonder
how much UAs patronage to THX sound systems had to do with that. But Martin
is right, as I've been to THX certified theaters that have absolutely horrid sound. If
Lucasfilm wants to keep selling the whole THX package, they better start
requiring these older THX theaters get upgrades...like SR and digital! I know of
current licensed THX theaters that: doesn't have even one subwoofer, an echo
that blurs dialogue, loud hum and/or buzz, a port hole seal that mine as well not
even have glass and there was one that didn't even have functioning surrounds!
(The surrounds in that theater are working now, but were out for a few months.)

Sure you save money up front, but how many other people have spent over a
thousand dollars in their first couple of years just keeping up the Christie gearless
projectors in parts alone? The leds in SDDS readers cost about $350 each and
must be changed out every year (two years if you're really lucky and you push
them)!

Let's check this out again...DTS costs less, has better sound, NEVER fails and
the only servicing it requires is on the extremely rare occasion that a cd-rom drive
dies vs. SDDS which costs lots more, has poor sound, fails all the time and
requires servicing to bump up the led intensity levels every few months...plus the
yearly change out!

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