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Author Topic: SDDS film prints in Europe Allan Riddelll Film Handler Posts: 33 From: msida , malta, europe Registered: Jan 2009 posted 01-21-2009 06:37 PM                     Out here in Malta we have 6 DFP3000 processors in our 6 screens - 2 with SRD backup. The general scenario being that SDDS was chosen as, at the time (2000), it was considered the premiere digital format offering at best the 8 channel configuration when utilised. So far so good. SDDS at its best, in my opinion, is head and shoulders above SRD or DTS (and incidentally i am not an employee of any of them). So, as Shakespeare would say, here's the rub: Over the 8 years since our opening the standard of SDDS prints have deteriorated rapidly and by that i mean prints from both Technicolor and Deluxe London. Am not talking about used prints either. You can be sure that when u check the cans and u see SR/SRD/DTS/SDDS you can think again. What a major misnomer. Tracks labeled SDDS without SDDS - tracks not labeled SDDS but complete with SDDS and multiple dropouts. I have 8 years of film reports and a good percentage cite high dropout rates (pc based error rates confirm this). Here's my most recent one: Madagascar 2 - reel one SDDS - drop out just after start reel 2 and remainder. reel 3 goes into SDDS after a few minutes then couple of d/o for remainder. Reels 4 and 5 not SDDS. Then comes a brief respite when we occasionally receive used prints from the States (recent titles being Lakeview Terrace, The Express and, i think, Beverly Hills Chihuahua) - and guess what ? All SDDS tracks are immaculate and play like a dream. You can bet that any prints with a USA prefix will be trouble free. It should be mentioned that the Sony technicians who have been here to service our equipment have been more than efficient and helpful and indeed have been trying to address the problem. But quite simply put, if the labs across the pond can get it right, why do we have to put up with this crap. The final note being that yes, i,ll get comments about SDDS supposedly being on the way out but thats not on. Many thousands of exhibitors invested in this equipment and we here in Europe are being treated to a Russian Roulette state of affairs. Yes there is no domestic equivalent but , to be fair, SRD can be just as guilty. Cloverfield, incidentally, was a crud of a movie, but it has the best SDDS track i have ever heard. Change of subject - 2 movies - Let the Good Times Roll (1974) and Snow Job (1971 and retitled Ski Raiders in UK) . Any of u guys have it on DVD ?  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-21-2009 07:28 PM                        SDDS, in the States, is just about as bad. Sony does not fully support the equipment and prints are becoming harder and harder to find. Some releases haveno sdds at all on any print. I would reconsider SRD. Printing quality is significantly more robust and, compared to the master, the analog and digital playback is unequaled. If it isn't it is a setup error at the cinema. Sony "processes" the audio and it has never been a "mirror image." BTW: Technicolor London has an excellent reputation for quality, perhaps ever better than US Tech. I would,however, believe that sdds quality control is not high on any printers list of worries. Louis  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2009 08:53 PM                     Not that they don't sound good when they work but SDDS is now really a dead horse... we have the units(good and bad)stacked like chordwood in one of our store rooms. Also, since film is also not far behind in the obsolete department perhaps its time to consider starting the conversion to digital. What ever ya decide to do just don't fully rely on those SDDS units any longer. Mark  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-21-2009 08:54 PM                     So talk to the labs and let us know what they say! They *do* listen. They do answer their phones. They do answer email. Technicolor London? I would have thought you'd get more prints from Technicolor Rome. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2009 09:07 AM                     Those sites we have that have SDDS...have been tracking well...better, in fact, than when SDDS was still actively installing equipment. So I believe you when you say that your USA prints track well...all of the ones I've seen recently have tracked as well or better than the other Digital offerings. Whereas you say your techs have tried to address any equipment issues and the good tracking on imported prints proves this, your only recourse is to complain to the labs and demand superior quality. You can also see if Sony can assist you on this. Steve  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 01-22-2009 09:39 AM                     WoW! You actually have Sony TECHS??? Last year I assisted a small theater chain here in pulling out a whole bunch of SDDS systems, which were replaced with a mixture of Dolby Digital or DTS systems depending on the venue and how much money they had to spend. The owner of the SDDS systems knew I had my own projection set-up at home and offered me one of the systems for free. But I didn't take it. (That news would make some of my close friends faint, since I have a reputation of being quite a "pack-rat".)  |  IP: Logged Blaine Young Master Film Handler Posts: 477 From: Kirkland, WA, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 01-22-2009 12:11 PM                     quote: Louis Bornwasser SDDS, in the States, is just about as bad. Sony does not fully support the equipment and prints are becoming harder and harder to find. Some releases haveno sdds at all on any print. Aside from Focus Features (which never have an SDDS track), an occasional Fox title (The Sentinel) and handfuls of independent pictures ("Bottle Shock" & "Nobel Son"), SDDS tracks are present on nearly every title. We don't have any readers - so that doesn't do us any good. I also find it interesting that some prints overseas do not have SDDS tracks, where the US versions do. I've seen prints of "Independence Day", "Star Trek" VII-X, "Star Wars" Episode IV & V, and "Titanic" all which didn't have SDDS tracks. Granted - these are a few years old...  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-22-2009 12:39 PM                     This doesn't seem very surprising. In a word: AMC. That is, there is a very large chain in the US that has a very large deployed SDDS base and the clout to require the studios continue to produce SDDS on their prints. I expect that internationally, there is neither such a loud voice nor as significan an installed base. It's really too bad that 8-channel mixes have gone the way of the dodo. I was really hoping DTS would help bring it back with the XD10, and the XD10P, etc. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 01-22-2009 11:42 PM                     SDDS Letter of Discontinuance  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 01-23-2009 02:37 AM                     Only 8500 decoders; is that Worldwide? To be honest, I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did? Does anybody have figures for Dolby and DTS?  |  IP: Logged Marin Zorica Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 671 From: Biograd na Moru, Croatia Registered: May 2003 posted 01-23-2009 07:40 AM                     I installed a used DFP-D2000 in friend's cinema a year ago, on reader I did changed led's and align all, so from time to time till them when I hear from him I ask for SDDS, he says that 80% of prints have it and he do play in SDDS, and only few did drop out for a second on couple places during film. O yes, if anybody is kind to give used unit I'm please to take it, as I hear there are numerous units dismounted?  |  IP: Logged Bastiaan Fleerkate Film Handler Posts: 85 From: Linschoten, Utrecht, The Netherlands Registered: Jun 2006 posted 01-23-2009 03:58 PM                        I'm also available for dumping any used (and new )SDDS units There are 2 SDDS units in The Netherlands and they aren't in use, as far as I know... Most mainstream films have SDDS here...  |  IP: Logged

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