User`s manual

Dolby
®
CP650 Digital Cinema Processor User’s Manual The Evolution of Dolby Film Sound
B-4
The Digital Age Begins
The next film sound development from Dolby Laboratories was Dolby Digital,
introduced in 1992. Dolby Digital puts a six-channel digital optical soundtrack in
addition to a four-channel SR analog track on 35 mm prints. This format is yet
another significant step forward in film sound, providing independent Left, Center,
Right, Left Surround, and Right Surround channels, plus a sixth Low-Frequency
Effects channel for bass effects.
In addition to its six-channel capability, Dolby Digital provides extraordinary
dynamic capability, wide frequency range, low distortion, and relative immunity to
wear. Its combination of high quality, reliability, and practicality has been proved in
cinemas around the world, and today it is the most popular digital format, with the
most equipped cinemas worldwide and the most releases.
As with previous Dolby developments, Dolby Digital did not obsolete existing
cinema installations. Prints can play conventionally in any cinema, while the digital
track can be reproduced in cinemas with Dolby Digital soundtrack readers and
decoders.
Dolby Digital Surround EX
Dolby Digital Surround EX
TM
was introduced in 1999, and adds a third surround
channel to the Dolby Digital format. Enabling improved realism, more precise sound
placement, and exciting special effects, the third channel is reproduced by rear-wall
surround speakers, while the Left Surround and Right Surround channels are
reproduced by speakers on the side walls.
As with all Dolby soundtrack improvements, Dolby Digital Surround EX is backward
compatible, with prints playable in all Dolby Digital cinemas, whether or not
equipped to decode the additional surround track.
The New World of Digital Cinema
Today digital cinema is poised to change the way people see movies. By replacing
traditional film prints with a digital bitstream, digital cinema offers a more consistent
and more involving experience. Digital movies are free of scratches, picture
movement, and screen dust. They play back exactly as the director intended, every
single time. Audiences feel a greater sense of realism, particularly in the 3-D format.
The 3-D format is far more practical with digital technology than with film-based
systems. Dolby offers a comprehensive, reliable digital cinema solution, designed and
built specifically for today’s cinemas. We also provide mastering and encoding
systems and services studios, as well as playback equipment for cinemas.
Making Films Sound Better
Release prints that use one or more Dolby formats, and the equipment for playing
them, are only part of the chain that extends from the original postproduction
location, to the dubbing theatre and processing laboratory, and finally into the
cinema. Developments like Dolby SR and Dolby Digital ensure that the soundtrack
itself remains one of the strongest links. But the extreme fidelity of the latest Dolby
formats can reveal the quality of each step in the recording, mixing, and dubbing