Talk:List of film sound systems

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Dolby analog formats

The article currently says:

1975 - Dolby - 12497
1985 - Dolby SR (Surround) - 5865

However, Dolby SR (spectral recording) does not necessaryly equal surround, and there is an actual article for Dolby Surround. Can someone more knowledgeable shed some light on this? Are the numbers' total correct? Are they correctly divided between the two? Should another line be added to distinguish between Dolby, SR and Surround? Does a list of Dolby films exist outside of IMDb? -- Katana (talk) 13:33, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

According to Dolby noise-reduction system#Dolby SR ("The Dolby SR (Spectral Recording) system, introduced in 1986, was the company's second professional noise reduction system."), Dolby SR ("The Dolby SR (Spectral Recording) noise reduction format was developed by Dolby Laboratories and has been in common use in professional audio since 1986 and in cinema audio since the late 1980s. It is a revised version of Dolby's earlier formats"), and Dolby Stereo ("In the early 1990s, Dolby SR noise reduction began to replace Dolby A type NR in 35mm motion picture exhibition."), the only difference is in the noise reduction system. Both encode (depending on the "encoding matrix") two to four channels (left, right, center, surround) into two separate waveforms (optically "printed" in the film strip). The underlying problem here are the categories available on IMDB, which are too loose. Diego Ferruchelli (talk) 21:46, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mono or Stereo (from 1949 to 1976)

According to several Wikipedia articles, most film releases had mono sound until 1976 (the advent of "Dolby Stereo", which would be called "Dolby Surround" when released to the home market). But according to the IMDB source of this article, there were much more "Stereo" than "Mono" films, from 1949 on. This is inconsistent. Also, there wasn't even a standard "Stereo" format in this period. Some stereo formats (with two or more channels) emerged in the '50s, along with the wide screen formats (like CinemaScope, etc), but films using these technologies were released in relatively few theaters. The linked page (Stereophonic sound#Back to mono) clearly says: "Beginning in 1957, films recorded in stereo (except for those shown in Cinerama or Todd-AO) carried an alternate mono track for theatres not ready or willing to re-equip for stereo. From then until about 1975, when Dolby Stereo was used for the first time in films, most motion pictures (...) were still released in monaural sound, stereo being reserved almost exclusively for expensive musicals"). By the way, there were several technologies for "Mono" films, but most of them used some variant of "Movietone" or "Photophone". Diego Ferruchelli (talk) 22:17, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]