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Just saw it @ the Library during my lunch....congrats!

Just stopped back to say . . .

Just saw Spider Man 2 in a Leow’s movie theater, and the presentation was atrocious!

· Dirt and hair on film: mild but obvious, and on a print that has supposedly been in use for only a few days.
· Repaired print in use: at least two places where the print had been broken and spliced, visually missing a few frames of the film plus causing an old-fashioned analog film audio “fudlump” shortly after the edit went past the projection gate.
· Analog audio from film, with surround sound processing: I suspected this in the first few seconds of the film when what was supposed to be steady violin notes played back with changing pitch at about the same rate as a film reel would complete each revolution – a steady up-and-down pitch variation as one would experience when playing an LP record on a turntable that rotates at an inconsistent speed. ‘Analog’ was confirmed later when a film edit caused the audio to “fudlump” in an analog fashion, not a digital glitch. Also, there were no distinct upper high frequencies and lower bass seemed non-existent – this would occur with analog optical audio tracks due to both high-end and low-end roll-off.
· Center channel sound overdriven and distorted: either one or more drivers in the center speaker array were mildly damaged, or a preamp or processor input was slightly overdriven, because, except for the most quiet of conversations, everything from the center channel was reproduced with mild over-modulation distortion. Of course, this could be the effect of the old-fashioned optical analog audio tracks on the film. Also, the center channel level was so high compared to the left and right mains and surround speakers that, except for one scene where the organ was played in the church, only the center channel seemed active during the whole viewing.

I was thoroughly disgusted. This type of viewing is only possible with theater personnel gross apathy and incompetence.

A friend of mine has a $500 MSRP Onkyo ‘home-theater-audio-in-a-box’ 6.1 system purchased for under $400 that outperforms that movie theater’s presentation in every way!

The job of professional IATSE motion picture projectionist is going the way of professional buggy whip repairman, and you are just as likely as not to have the pimply faced concession stand dweeb (or dweeb-ette) running the projectors. There is no mandatory maintenance requirement in a theater until the complaints get really bad (with the possible exception of some THX theaters, but I've witnessed plenty of bad shows at these too).

Hopefully digital projection will idiot-proof the presentation process to a certain degree, but personally I have all but given up on theater going in favor of my humble home theater where I can have any food/beverage I choose, pause the show, and clothing is optional.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited July 04, 2004).]

My favourite multiplex here in Ottawa is Famous Players' SilverCity. It's only a few years old, is well-built, and does feature great seats, screen, and sound systems. It appears that they take care and pride in the quality of the picture and sound.

On the very rare occasions (twice to be exact) out of the hundred or so times I've been there, I was disappointed by either the sound or the picture. (One of each). In both cases I asked to see the on-duty manager and explained my concerns - in a polite and instructive manner. In both cases, without asking, I was given four free passes (with pop and popcorn) for future viewings as thanks for having brought it to their attention.

At least at that multiplex they care enough to encourage people to voice their concerns. Maybe that's why all 16 screens seem to be pretty busy year-round, and why I'm still a client.

Jeff Mackwood

it was spider man 2, after all; what did you expect?

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