Hello all -
I had the opportunity to finally catch Coraline yesterday. It was still the 10th movie in the nation last week after 8 weeks. Very nice movie. Gets a little scary towards the end. Anyhow, Cinemark's Tinseltown South is one of Austin's cinemas that IMO is lower down the scale in the technical aspects, though the construction is very nice. Stadium seating and comfortable chairs whose reclining is supported by springs. They do not use THX certification however.
The picture brightness was just about adequate, I reckon it could do with a bit more life considering Coraline is dark and grey in some parts.
The sound was a problem. It's a problem I've heard many times... the digital sound kept crapping out. This was either due to a scratchy print, where the digital sound reader can't see the digital data well enough, or the digital sound reader is not set up correctly and more errors result. (example, being mounted below the projector head, where it is vulnerable to tons of vibrations) Despite Coraline being in release for a while, the print was not particularly scratchy, so it was probably more likely the latter.
The problem was manifested by sudden, periodic drops in sound volume. This is because when the digital sound reader gives up and says it can't read the film any more, the optical soundtrack is used as a backup. Unfortunately it sounds like it's about 10dB quieter (which laymen will recognize as being "quite a noticeable difference"). I do not know why the two formats are set such a large volume difference... it makes it really obvious when the system switches to optical backup. This was enough to erase some words of dialogue from your comprehension, when the drop-outs occurred at the worst moments. I wish the Tinseltown South manager would get this fixed so that the sound would work reliably. This is the kind of issue that causes me to ask for my ticket money back. (concessions tasted fine though!)
The Tinseltown sound systems are not the best in town either - they have amps next to the projector, and run unbalanced speaker wire all the way to the front. You can hear the buzz.
Coraline is not the kind of movie that really tests the sound system, so I've no specific comments on bass, clarity etc..
Matinee ticket price - $7.00
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