CDS (Cinema Digital Sound) system overview

[spoRv]

http://www.in70mm.com/news/2017/cds/index.htm

Thanks to zoidberg for the link!

Edit: out of curiosity, these are the titles released with a CDS track, according to wikipedia:

•     Days of Thunder
  
•     Dick Tracy
  
•     Edward Scissorhands
  
•     Final Approach
  
•     Flatliners
  
•     Hudson Hawk
  
•     Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  
•     The Doors
  
•     Universal Soldier
  

[zoidberg]

No worries. In70mm is a pretty cool site, if you have a good dig around there's all sorts of info about releases, technical info etc.
The print reader for CDS is a beast! I have this deluded notion that should a 35mm print ever turn up the audio might one day be decoded. After all it's in the optical track and it's basically a variation of PCM but delta modulated.

[Beber]

I was under the assumption that Basic Instinct also had a CDS track as I read something like that years ago, and being a Carolco movie that came out at the same period as T2, but the end credits don't mention it and according to IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103772/tech...tt_dt_spec) there was a French only track (is it a dub or the English one, I don't know) that was a LC-Concept Digital Sound track. Would that qualify as a CDS mix?

[captainsolo]

I love the tracks made for this system and despite its reputation for being technically deficient and not having space for an analog backup, the resulting mixes speak for themselves. Each of these films have wonderful soundtracks on any format or mix-even Dolby SR.
The format was 16bit pcm placed on six individual optical tracks and somehow decoded as digital streams. However if any problems arose and the sound went out you had no place for a backup audio track and thus many never gave it a chance. Once digital sound came back in CDS would have been much better placed to take advantage of the marketplace but the major studios were by then behind Dolby, dts or SDDS.

Also of note is that some CDS mixes are on disc. Dick Tracy on dts dvd was according to disclord and my bluray sounds identical but even better. The Doors is CDS on original LD and dvd in its original 5.0 configuration. Edward Scissorhands is iirc 4.0 CDS and all home releases are 4.0.
I have Days of Thunder on LD and bd.

One day I’d love to experience both SDDS and CDS not to mention proper Dolby and dts just like the old days. I think next to magnetic audio and 70mm six track film sound has never been better.

[deleted user]

Only one I'd be interested in besides Terminator 2 is Edward Scissorhands. I checked two Blu Rays (old and remaster) so far, audio tracks seem to be identical, with only a bit of padding difference at beginning/end.

[BDgeek]

Great thread!

I'm very curious about CDS mixes.

I have the original UK Blu-ray for Univesal Soldier, with a PCM 2.0 track. Does anyone know if it's based on the CDS mix, or even if it's the original Dolby Surround mix, or just a downconversion of the 5.1 remix?

I could rip the track for analysis if anyone is interested.


ps: the original Japanese BD also lists a 2.0 PCM track, but I have no further info about this release.

[wongfeihung]

Re. Universal Soldier:

Is the 5.1 track on the UHD the CDS mix or a remix from the stereo?

[dvdmike]

It's 100% a descrete mix.
CDS mixes went hard

[captainsolo]

The only variant are the CDS mixes that were only 4.0 for some strange reason like Edward Scissorhands and The Doors.

[PDB]

Maybe because they were mixed in DS and shifted over to a CDS release at the last minute?