Rip-Off Of Given the kiddie target audience, the first connection I made was with that great The Muppet Movie scene in which Animal fries everyone ears with his roaring sound check. (Okay, that's partially an excuse just to link to this Dr. Teeth vid.) But the ad-world granddad of these sorts of spots has to be the classic Memorex commercials, in which a wall of sound blows a yuppie's martini right into his waiting hand.

The Spin Those of y'all with massive subwoofers, or at least a passing familiarity with the THX sound tests of yore, know the deal: Dolby Digital bestows a fat, loud bottom end to any cinematic soundtrack. Yes, even the beating of tiny bee's wings sounds awesome in Dolby Digital, which gives you every reason to look for the brand name when you shop for your next HD DVD and/or Blu-ray player. (It's usually emblazoned on the upper right corner of the faceplate, Joe Q. Public.) Because that's what this promo is really about—getting the next generation of consumers accustomed to the concept of Dolby technologies being the be-all and end-all of audio perfection. As they say in the ad biz, if you win a customer's loyalty before the age of 16, you've got 'em for hooked life.

Counterspin It's no accident, though, that Dolby's latching its brand-building promo to a movie with obvious cross-cultural appeal. Judging by the transcript of Dolby Labs' Q3 conference call, the moneymen are wondering how the company will ensure that the digital cinemas of the developing world—especially those in India and China—come to rely on Dolby 3D, which is ostensibly the company's future cash cow. Despite its apparent digi-audio hegemony, Dolby is actually at something of a crossroads—a few years hence, digital projection will be the rule in cinemas worldwide, and the company wants to make sure it's got a jump on selling to vendors who'll be making the transition from celluloid. Never mind that the real money is to be made in the home market—theaters continue to be the glamour realm, so that's where Dolby has to ensure that its brand remains strong.

Takeaway Love him or hate him, John C. Dvorak recently made a sharp observation regarding Dolby Labs: on your first Walkman, the noise reduction technology was pointedly called Dolby noise reduction. Yes, the company that Ray Dolby built has been aggressively branding itself for decades now, for the express purpose of making sure that consumers look for the Dolby name when purchasing third-party audio equipment (and thus ensuring that licensing fees remain fat). That seems to be the real money-maker for that company, as opposed to licensing for professional cinema. But just as kids are more likely to purchase a sneaker if it's endorsed by Michael VickGilbert Arenas, consumers are more likely to buy an HD DVD that prominently boasts a technology trumpeted at the local megaplex. This may seem like a trifling point nowadays, given that no one in their right mind would buy a player that can't support the AC-3 codec. But, hey, it's never too early to start worrying about 2018, right?

Hype-O-Meter 7 (out of 10). Dolby's on a roll, and this is a surefire brand builder in the U.S. But will cinemas in the developing world really pay for Dolby 3D, or are the Lords of Guangdong already developing lower-cost alternatives for digital cinema? Branding works best, after all, when the margins between the "real deal" and the knock-off are pretty thin. Make that margin too wide, and cinema operators in Golmud won't become devoted customers.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

Read more Hype Sheet

When docked with Sony's SRW-1 VTR, it's also able to record at just about any frame rate between 1p and 60p using its three 2/3-inch CCD imagers, allowing shooters to create high-rez fast-motion or slow-motion effects. It also has that highest of high-end 4:4:4 sampling ratio for only the richest color. It'll be available next spring at an undisclosed price. We'll probably be watching blockbuster movies made on this monster by next summer. – Charlie White

Sony's New F23 Camera Rises To The Pinnacle Of The CineAlta Acquisition Line-Up [Sony]

Our trained professional investigators have been able to recover much of what was taken in the break-in. We happily got our aluminum prototype back, a lens, some computers and drives that were mostly personal in nature, and some misc. stuff. What is still out there are computers that had most of the camera related development info.

We've met Jannard and his team, and we're starting to think this camera will actually come to market as advertised. Plus, if anyone thinks they can do a better job of building a $17.5K 4K camcorder before the Red One is released using data on the company's computers, they're nuts. – Charlie White

Recovery...Mostly [dvxuser, via CrunchGear]

It's a slow-downloading 100MB file, and it's just 1K resolution—hardly even high-def yet—but still, it's something. Looks like those burglars really didn't get their hands on the good stuff last week.

Anyway, if Red Digital Cinema can actually deliver this 4K camera for $17.5K, I'm pumped. – Charlie White

Product Page [Red Digital Cinema, via DV Guru]

"While items taken included many computers, drives, monitors, prototypes (including our shiny aluminum IBC prototype), ID files and our Scratch system... it appears that the thieves did NOT get any sensors, sensor information or our primary "Frankenstein" shooting camera. It took all the RED troops coming back in to put all the pieces together. We will resume shooting and testing tomorrow. This would be the easiest piece to identify as stolen."

Red Theivery Update: Prototypes Gone, Mysterium Sensors OK [CrunchGear]

These behemoths, donated by Christie for this special event, bring some serious specs, such as 35 trillion colors, 45-bit color processing, 2048x1080/24p resolution (that's what's commonly called "2K"), a 2000:1 contrast ratio and light output that rivals that of the sun (well, not really, 14fL, to be exact). You wouldn't really want of one of these in your home theater, though—just the lamps for it cost over $3300, and they just about draw enough power to light up a small city.

Christie DLP Cinema Projectors to Premiere Disney's "Cars" [DCinema Today]

Christie CP2000 Product Page