I've tried other solutions such as greasing that center roller spring, but within one or two shows, the roller is dragging again. How can I remove that spring, but still have enough tension to make the DTS reader track properly?

I have an AW3 with non-removable brains, if that makes a difference.

As far as the Christie center roller spring, I have found that with it in it will cause the timecode to drop in and out. When this was happening I would pull excess slack (no tension) and the timecode would read perfectly. So having the spring out is really advantageous for me.

The DTS is wavering in pitch? I have actually heard this happen before (sounds like wow and flutter) but I was using a Strong platter and not a Christie. And it only happened once. I think that perhaps something is wrong with the DTS unit, as it should not do this. If the film is running through at 30 frames per second (just for example) on a 24 fps movie, it should not even attempt to play. Anyone from DTS care to respond to this?

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If you look at the UA Galaxy pics in the warehouse, you will see a white piece of folded over "Value Choice" wipers stuck behind the main drive roller and taped down on the backside of the reader. The thickness should be played with on the bench so that there is a definite drag to the roller, but by no means will it be tight enough so it will freeze. This is a one time thing and then you simply remount it to the bracket and let those rollers bounce and wobble all they want from that point on. The DTS will track smooth due to the drag.

Another problem with DTS "wowing" is people who mount an DTS reader on top of an SDDS reader. The SDDS reader has a "bouncing" roller that wreaks havoc on the DTS unit! It can cause all sorts of dropouts and the "wow" you describe. If you theater has done this, simply reset the timecode delay to bypass that SDDS reader straight down (through the 70mm rollers). Alternatively, flip the DTS readers upside down as I have in the UA Galaxy pics so that the "bouncing" roller on the SDDS is completely bypassed, but both penthouse readers are threaded. The latter is my preference.

Note: For theaters with all 3 flavors of digital penthouses, setting them up as seen in the UA Galaxy pics will allow all 3 to be threaded at the same time, even on a 70mm projector with magnetic penthouse, as the stretch of film is substantially less through the readers when set up this way. TRIPLE BACKUP SOUND!!! Also, two DTS 70mm readers can be mounted in typical "forward scan" configuration on top of the SRD reader and threaded straight down...and even those will have enough delay too!

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I also had a discussion with my service tech about the DTS problem I was having a couple weeks ago, where the UltraStereo processor would kick into "digital" on a timecoded trailer, even though that trailer's sound wasn't on the DTS disk. He thinks the problem could be that DTS is re-using old serial numbers on new trailers. The machine recognizes the serial number and switches to digital, but the machine doesn't "know" that there's no actual sound there....it just looks for the serial number...so it doesn't default back to analog. He is going to check with DTS. Sounds like a good guess to me, but the irritating thing is it doesn't do it all the time. (If I'm standing next to the damn thing, it works perfectly every time!?)