# On old school filmstrips, why does the countdown show 5, 4, 3, 2 but never the 1?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-old-school-filmstrips-why-does-the-countdown-show-5-4-3-2-but-never-the-1/403533
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 10, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-old-school-filmstrips-why-does-the-countdown-show-5-4-3-2-but-never-the-1/403533 "2007-05-10T13:33:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 2

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### Author: ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2007, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-old-school-filmstrips-why-does-the-countdown-show-5-4-3-2-but-never-the-1/403533/21 "2007-05-13T05:43:46Z")

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[QUOTE=randwill]  
Otherwise, with the platter system, cue dots would be extinct.  
[/QUOTE]

Oh, I know there are. The theater at my undergraduate institution used the older system, and we showed mostly second-run stuff, just after most of the big theaters had quit showing it. From what I came to understand, films are all printed in reels that can either be shown the old way or can be spliced by the local theater for using the platter system. Then they have to take them back apart to ship back to the distributor.

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