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Topic: dts discs

John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-29-1999 11:09 PM

I've noticed a few dts discs for sale on HIAC and e-bay. Is it possible to run these on a PC? or do you need the print to send out the time code?

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John

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Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-29-1999 11:50 PM

I've always heard the disk is worthless without the print timecode.

Anybody else know?

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-30-1999 04:42 AM

You can run DTS discs without the print in several ways. The first two require that you have a legitimate DTS player. Put the disc to be played in slot "A" and let it boot up until it is ready and blinking. Now put the DTS Epirical Test Disc into slot "C" (or "B" if you have the older 2-disc unit) and it will start to load. Instead of auto playing the test disc, the theatrical disc will now play. This does not work with trailer discs.

You can also purchase a DTS Timecode Generator which is made by DTS and it costs about $350 or so. You just plug it into your unit and the discs (trailer discs as well) control almost as easilly as a CD, as long as you know the "reel" numbers of what you want to play.

I have heard of people being able to play discs on a PC, but only with proprietary software (I don't know the name) and only 2 channels at a time can be decoded. However, DTS CDs can be easilly copied via CD-R and the CD-R copy will play fine with the film at the theatre. So if your depot only sends you one set of discs with your 5 prints of a certain movie, fire up that CD-R!

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-30-1999 09:41 AM

Here's another "stupid DTS trick" that someone is going to have to try for me (since I've never worked in a theatre that had DTS): insert a disk, plug in a keyboard to the back of the unit (at least this is supposed to work on the DTS - 6D units); when the System light is flashing, hit the space bar twice, hit 2, hit return, hit 1, hit return, hit the reel number you want to play, hit return. Reel 1 shoudl be the DTS trailer, reel 2 should be the trailers on the disk, and reel 3 should be the first reel of the movie.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 07-11-1999 02:26 PM

I haven't tested the tricks posted here myself, but I do know if you insert a DTS trailer disc into your cd-rom drive you will find a whole lot more trailers were recorded on that disc than is listed on the label!

Just click on the text file for a list.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 07-12-1999 01:23 AM

Scott, I haven't tried your stupid trick yet but I will. But Reel 1 on the feature disc is always Reel 1 of the movie. We have a DTS-ES unit and it shows what the timecode is doing. When reel 4 of the movie is playing, reel 4 of the DTS disc is playing as well. As for the trailer discs, each "reel" is a seperate trailer. Clicking on the text list when inserted into the CD-ROM drive will tell you what "reel" the trailers are. If you insert a trailer disc into a CD-ROM drive, you will find that reel 4 is the Mann Theatres Policy trailer. It says something like 4.MANNFP and all other trailers are limited to 8 characters because it uses DOS and we all know DOS sucks.

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Thomas Ferreira
Film Handler

Posts: 23
From: Claremont, NH
Registered: Jul 99

posted 07-19-1999 11:32 PM

Scott, I tried your stupid trick, and it didn't work with the 6D unit. There is a jack for a keyboard, however, in the back of the unit-it must be for some reason. Anybody know?

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Mathias Andersson
Film Handler

Posts: 26
From: Sweden
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 10-03-1999 04:06 PM

Joe, I've tried to play a DTS without a print, but it didn't work. We have the first model of the DTS6d (the one with two CD-ROMs) but the software has been upgraded 6 months ago.

Anyways.... I put CD A from Simon Birch into slot A and when the system lamp was blinking and nothing else was happening I inserted the emperical test disc (june 1997) into slot B. After a minute or so the system lamp bagan to blink again and nothing else happend. Am I doing this wrong?

/Mathias

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 10-03-1999 04:17 PM

You can get the DTS disk track files to appear on screen on a PC under DOS, it can run of sorts, but so far no sound, need that timecode gen.

what's the point to own the disks without the print!.

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Kelsey Black
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: Pima, Arizona, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 10-03-1999 08:26 PM

Personally, I would like to just be able to put the discs in my computer and decode the tracks so I can compare the raw digital soundtrack to the auditorium... plus I'd love to hear the various THX trailers in their full glory at will... especially the new THX 2000 trailer.

I know I would like to have that "proprietary software" spoken about earlier in the topic... (reply bait?)
even with only 2 channels decoded at a time, I could put 2 more sound cards into this easy... or I have multi-track studio mixing software to combine all 6 channels into 2, etc. if anyone out there has this software, I am really interested in it.

(yeah, yeah, if only I just had a DTS player)

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-03-1999 08:43 PM

The problem with DTS is that, as I understand the system, the audio decompression is handled in hardware, not software. Of course, you could probably write a program that would do the decompression, but you'd need a fairly powerful computer, unlike the 386- or 486-based PC motherboards that are used in the DTS units (along with the decompression card).

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-03-1999 09:00 PM

It would be faily easy to write an emulator for the DTS decompression if you knew how it was compressed. A computer that could normally play MP3 files would be powerfull enough to play back 2 tracks at a time of DTS audio. I have heard of people doing this.

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Kelsey Black
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: Pima, Arizona, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 10-03-1999 09:03 PM

speaking of mp3, I did mention the idea of dts decoding to Justin Frankel (the author of Winamp), and he didn't seem interested in the idea, as he is having too much fun touring the country now that he has been paid millions by AOL for Nullsoft....

now back to your regularly scheduled discussions.

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AndrewBurnell
Film Handler

Posts: 17
From: Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 10-04-1999 01:22 AM

Do the DTS disks play in a normal DTS CD Player? I have noticed a couple of CD Players out from Sherwood and so on that bear the DTS logo with DTS Digital outputs, do you think it might work?

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-04-1999 02:21 AM

First of all those are DVD players and not just CD players. However any CD player in the world with a working optical or coaxial digital output can output the information needed for DTS.

But not for theatrical DTS discs. Home DTS only. You see, movie DTS uses 4:1 compression whereas home DTS uses anywhere from 3:1 to 1:1 lossless. And the decoders are not set up to handle movie DTS. And yes, you can bet on your mom's life that I have tried!

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