The Search For New Channels
Dear Gary: As a follow-up to my article “The Search For New Channels” in WSR Issue 58, I need to correct a small technical detail, just for accuracy. I received a phone call from Al Barton of the Sony SDDS technical recording team who had read the article and was most complementary on the content. Al pointed out that, while it is a common belief that when the Left-center (Left-Extra) and Right-center (Right-Extra) channels are folded down to six-channel playback for cinemas that do not have eight-channel capability, they are not directed 2/3 to the Left (Right) and 1/3 to the center channels. Even though I got this information from a reliable source at Sony, in reality, the extra channels are folded 75 percent to their respective companion channel and 25 percent to the center. This “fold down” is performed internally by the Sony SDDS digital cinema stereo processor in the theatre, when this mode is selected by the installer. This does not change the fact that when the printmaster reaches the DVD authoring facility, the extra channels may likely be “phantomed” between the real channels to create a panoramic spread. These channels may be retrieved as “hard” channels with the use of any of the more precise matrix decoders. The current eight-channel SDDS digital soundtrack is Ocean’s Eleven that will be released on DVD later this year. [Editor—A list of all of the known eight-channel SDDS releases can be found at: www.Widescreen Review.com/wsrmmbr/thdefault.lasso] I hope your readers enjoyed the article and are discovering new channels in their own DVD library.
Norm Schneider, SMART Devices, Inc.
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