Old 70mm theater projector

[Tony V.]

So I have the opportunity to get my hands on an old German Bauer U2 70mm theater projector for free. Its rather large (about 5ft tall with the reels on it) and weighs about 600lbs and is currently sitting in an abandoned theater that the company I work for owns. You may remember I took photos of it a year ago and posted them on the old forum.



So, I guess the question would be is if you had the opportunity to have one in your theater room would you clean one up and put it as a showpiece? Im just not sure where I could put it in my theater that would not be in the way.

 

[tripplej]

Wow, that is one huge projector. 5 ft and 600lbs. Wow..You would need a big space to occupy that projector.

 

[Tony V.]

The footprint is only about 16" wide by 36" long I have an area to the side I could stuff it into I think

 

[tripplej]

Worse case, if you can't fit it, maybe a good museum?

 

[Tony V.]

Is there any value in the old THX bolby processors There is also a couple digital delays in a rack

 

[dc2bluelight]

There is some value in the processor, but only for a theater doing revival showings involving film. It can handle 6-track magnetic in several track layouts, Dolby SVA (stereo optical) and Academy Mono. Can't see if it's a digital processor, but if so, it could decode the optical Dolby Digital tracks too. THX only made a crossover, and for that to be of value you'd also want the THX speaker arrays.

15-20 years ago I'd have said "yes" to your second question re: integrating into a home theater. Today, unless you're a hard-core film collector, it's a definite "no".

Showing 70mm or 35mm print is energetic. The booth you picture seems like it showed prints "reel to reel", using two alternating projectors and a "changeover" system to change projectors every 20 minutes or so. Pictures running up to 2hr 20 min are shipped on 6 2000' reels. If you don't want to get up and do a changeover every 20min (and lace up the next reel), you'd need a film transport that can handle all 6 2000' reels of a picture spliced together, typically a platter system. I don't see that in the photo, but this stuff is thick in the used market now due to the digital transition.

Also not shown are lamp houses, the projection light source. Depending on screen size this could have been anything from a 1kW Xenon to a 5kW Xenon. I don't see any evidence of carbon arc, but that was used too. Since those projectors can handle either 70mm or 35mm there may be either dual format sprockets or sprocket sets. There should also be a set of aperture plates for various formats, and a set of lenses so you can fill a screen with various aspects and formats, including anamorphic.

I owned a 35mm system for years built around a Simplex projector and RCA sound head and ORC xenon lamphouse. I built my system up to be portable, actually transportable is a better term, for festival showings. Since I didn't want to port two projector systems and couldn't fit a platter in a small trailer, I build my own version of a Cinemaccanica tower transport similar to this one:

I used old Cinerama reels on mine and could show a complete 120min feature, and use the system to assemble and break down the print as well as rewind it (theater projectors don't rewind). I sold the entire system because it's main use was outmoded by digital projection.

Film collecting is a noble hobby, but now full of some rather significant challenges, not the least of which is the availability of low-fade prints in good condition. I just don't see anyone getting into it today.

 

[Tony V.]

Thanks for the info, I had no plans of restoring it to function just as a side piece for discussion only. Just not sure if it's worth the hassle of getting it home and set up.
The projectors were set up as A/B roll one would end and the other would start. I watched Starwars in that very theater along with many other blockbuster movies like Star Trek, Jurassic Park and so on.
Where in the world would a person get some 70mm film?

 

[dc2bluelight]

There's a film collectors market, you can find links via google. The trick is, prints belong to studios, they aren't supposed to be owned by private individuals ever. But, studios throw prints outs, technically they are supposed to get destroyed, but the somehow fall out of the dumpster. "Nuf said. There have been many, many times though that restorations were only possible because collectors had missing pieces. So the studios don't take much issue with it. 70mm is rare because of limited release, and they were about 10X the cost of a 35mm (mag stripe, "sounding", bigger, etc.) But I have seen various 70mm prints come up on the collector market. They aren't cheap. You can sometimes find scraps or single reels on eBay.

There are several decades worth of film that has faded beyond recovery, though. It's called "magenta menace", a fade of all colors toward strong magenta. The decades involved happens to be the heyday of 70mm. Real bummer, mostly Kodak's fault. And some old 70mm prints with mag sound were erased and recycled for use as sound dub masters for new prints because the stock is still good, but new 70mm mag stripe or full coat was oppressively costly.

BTW, 70mm mag runs at 18ips, faster than standard tape at 15ips, has decent high frequency response out to 20kHz, and fairly high output. Slap Dolby NR, especially Dolby SR on it, it's pretty impressive. 6 discrete full bandwidth tracks too, though reapropreated for LFE in the later days. Dolby Stereo optical rolls off at just above 10kHz, by comparison, and is matrixed 4.0 surround only, still better than Academy mono, but...well you get the idea.

 

[Tony V.]

You have a great wealth of knowledge about this, what is your background if I may ask?

 

[Tonto]

600 lbs is a lot of weight to transport! I'd only get it if I planned to use it (meaning it would have to be functioinal). Space is at such a premium in most theaters. Does you AVR still have the 70 mm DSP's?

 

[dc2bluelight]

600 lbs is a lot of weight to transport! I'd only get it if I planned to use it (meaning it would have to be functioinal). Space is at such a premium in most theaters.

That breaks down into at least 4 manageable pieces, projector head, sound head, pedestal and lamp house. The weight isn't as big an issue as properly ventilated and acoustically isolated booth space. An HT would have to be designed for the purpose. Projection port glass is very expensive also.

Does you AVR still have the 70 mm DSP's?

You need the Dolby cinema processor for head gain and EQ of 6 analog tracks. Any AVR with 5.1 analog ins would suffice. No special DSP.

Oh.. was that humor?

 

[dc2bluelight]

You have a great wealth of knowledge about this, what is your background if I may ask?

Nearly 50 years in pro audio, video, broadcasting, film, HT/custom install, blah, blah, and more blah. I don't like blowing my own horn.

 

[Tonto]

 

[Tony V.]

Well, after alot of thought Ive decided to not try and take the projector home as its just way to difficult to get out of the projection room. Im sure they weigh over 1000lbs so I assembled one of them as best I could and took the below pictures and I will just print the photos and frame them (much lighter) LOL

Kind of sad really as Im moving jobs within a couple weeks so wont have access to the theater any more.
Took some 70mm reels and other odds and ends from the concession stand including a menu board with pricing that I will use at the concession I build into my theater at some point.

 

[tripplej]

Nice pictures. Wow, they are huge..

 

[Tony V.]

Ya, I worked in a downtown mall years ago that had a 12 screen theater on the top level and often went into the projection room (a long hallway that connected all the theaters) they used a platter system for the film so they could run the film through two or even three theaters at once if it was a big blockbuster at a time using a series of rollers along the walls to carry the film from one projector to another.
Those were similar projectors to the ones above