8mm Forum: Silent projection on a sound machine

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Topic: Silent projection on a sound machine

Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 30, 2005 11:40 PM

Does running silent film through a sound machine still cause wear on sound heads?

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 31, 2005 12:32 AM

it does unless the machine has some way of adjusting for silent film. Some (such as the Kodak Sound 8 and the Sears Regular 8 projector) have different threading paths for silent 8mm film. Other machines have setting for silent that release pressure pads or by pass the sound pick up head.

If you run silent film as if it were sound, then you're going to subject the sound head pick up to wear.

John

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John Clancy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1954
From: Cornwall
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 31, 2005 01:46 AM

Of course a silent film does not have sound stripes so the heads will not receive as much wear as they otherwise would. Stripe is abrasive so exacerbates wear on heads.

Another possibility to avoid wear is to switch the machine to optical sound (if possible) which should activate the release of the pressure pad onto the sound head. That's actually a good tip for anyone running a GS-1200 in sync' pulse mode where the sound stripes of the film are not being used.

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Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 31, 2005 08:39 AM

Good point John. The Eumig 900 series projectors all have facilities to rotate the control knob to a silent position, where all pressure is released from the magnetic sound head.

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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 31, 2005 07:24 PM

Again it's the same with the Noris machines. The first position with lamp keeps the pressure pads in the up position.
John is correct with all the Elmo machines. If it is an optical equiped machine then switch to optical with the vol controls at min for silent operation. I dont think however that its worth concerning yourselves too much about head wear. Film without stripe is not really going to cause any wear on the mag heads.

Kev.

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GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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