SDDS the future?

[superpanavision70mm]

So most are aware that movies are released theatrically with the film print containing several audio options. There is of course the Dolby encoding, DTS, which sends a signal for a CD to play the digital sound, SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound), which has up to 8 channels of sound in comparison to 2,3,4,5 and perhaps 6 or 7 like the case with the Dolby stereo, pro-logic, 5.1, EX or DTS/DTS-ES counterparts. Question is...will Sony try to market SDDS in the years to come for the home experience? Perhaps they are waiting for a true HD format like Blu-ray or HD-DVD to take off before trying something like with SACD's. Of course this would lead to compatability problems galore as people would need new decoders etc etc.

Can there be a unity among audio and video formats? Probably not. Studios and manufacturers are never going to allow that to happen. Is that a good or bad thing? Would people be happier if only one audio format existed? It's a little trickier with video...although it will be interesting to see what 2006 has in store for this market. It's not looking good thus far. People are afraid to make purchases on HD gear at this point because there are still too many bugs and development problems. Grrr.

[Woochifer]

Doubtful. My understanding is that Sony has not been actively marketing SDDS to the theatrical market for at least the past couple of years, if not more. They'll still support existing installations, but that's about it.

Not too many mixes have been done for the 7.1 version of SDDS the last few years, and only a few theaters were ever setup for SDDS-8 to begin with. For one thing, it requires five screen speakers and most movie theaters use three. This isn't like the typical "7.1" home theater speaker alignment that uses three speakers up front, two surrounds, plus two back surrounds.

And if SDDS were marketed to home users, what advantage would it offer? Dolby Digital Plus, DD TrueHD, and DTS-HD are already discrete 7.1 formats that have been written into the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. And the audio formats are all scalable in case anyone wants to add more channels for future hardware, plus DD TrueHD and DTS-HD are lossless multichannel formats from the outset. Plus, in theory, these new formats are backwards compatible with existing DD and DTS decoders. Any additional format support will add costs, and SDDS would not bring anything new to the table unlike with DTS which offered up higher bitrates and 6.1 discrete.

If Sony intended to make a push for SDDS on the home market, they might have had an opportunity by including SDDS in the Blu-ray format. But, that hasn't happened, so that window of opportunity has probably passed by.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

The problem with SDDS in the theatrical field was a tremendously high failure rate, and a lack of training for field technicians to repair and maintain the processors. Aside from AMC theaters, and Consolidated theaters, the processors were not widely accepted, especially in the face of both Dts and DD. Secondly the expenditure, and space to fully explore what SDDS could sound like was in very short supply, with only the widest of theaters able to support 5 screen channels, and most theaters not even able to fully maintian a 6 channnel system adequately.

Sony never really trained enough people to support SDDS, so when a processor failed, it was simply unplugged and left to collect dust.

Aside from two extra screen channels, SDDS added no performance advantage over either Dts or DD. All SDDS products were finally discontinued in 2003, with Sony announcing that they were going to concentrate on Digital Cinema. So far I have seen no Sony products announced for even Digital Cinema, and I doubt that there is any room left for inclusion as you already have PCM, Dolby and Dts neck deep in this technology as well.

I must say that none of these formats sounded as good as CDS to these ears. Its a shame it never made it in the long run.

[anamorphic96]

I worked for UA and Regal for over ten years and we had nothing but problems with this format. Only a few houses I worked at every had it set up correctly, and as Sir T mentioned. Most of the technicians never really knew how to operate it correctly. When we merged with Regal the technician assigned to my location did know how to set it up correctly. Which we did in two houses. But even then it constantly dropped out all the time.

The big issue Sony had was bad real estate on the film. The soundtrack was located on both edges of the film and came in constant contact with the rollers, sprockets, tension bands, and guide rails. After about a week or two the sound would begin to drop to analog.

From my understanding is Sony is not even offering support on any of the products since all warranty repair has expired. However there are several firms that will repair equipment. Regal seemed to use a company called Odyssey quite a bit to get readers and boards repaired.

The one thing I did like though is the 7.1 (8 channel function it offered). I saw Godzilla, The Matrix, Starship Troopers and a dry run of Star Wars - Phantom Menance in 8 channel SDDS and it rocked. The Coronet theatre here San Francisco was a 1200 seat single screen auditorium with a sound systyem set up by Dolby that really maximized SDDS's potential. Boy do I miss this theatre.

[superpanavision70mm]

I too saw STARSHIP TROOPERS among a few other really great films in SDDS and the sound was phenominal. I've heard nothing like it since. The sound was incredibly film-like and natural with really big sound, not just loud, but full sound.

[anamorphic96]

Yes but was it 8 channel ??? Very few auditoriums where equipped for 8 channel is why I ask.

[superpanavision70mm]

I am honestly not sure...it was at the LOEWS in Pittsburgh.

[anamorphic96]

Probably 6 track. But who knows. I was just being a smart ass.

As noted above by Sir T. SDDS offered nothing the two other formats did not already do. Except for the 8 channel feature. Which was quite impressive. Especially in large auditoriums with very wide screens. 50' + was ideal.