Yes, I did search for this topic, and received no joy.

My question is this: how is it possible for DTS audio to slowly drift out of sync with the picture? We are showing EP2. The distributor insists that we play it in DTS, despite the fact that our largest house also has SDDS and SRD. The technicians come and set the sync, and it's perfect. When they leave, we get complaints. I don't see any problem for quite some time, until I walk into the cinema and the sound is around 1 second out of sync. I rush up to the booth to switch to SR, and by the time I get there the sync is perfect again.

I know that if the time-code is lost for more than a few seconds, the switch back to SR is automatic, so I'm assuming it's not that.

What we have is a DTS-6D and a Dolby DA20 hooked up to a Sony 3000 SDDS unit. All the readers are on the penthouse.

Any tips on this? Even if you can just give me a decent way to trouble-shoot this? I have one idea - monitor the green LED on the reader, using a PC. Is there a way to check the status of this LED, perhaps via the 9-way D-Sub connector? I don't want to have to open the reader up and connect directly to the LED.

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Steve

Frank

I agree with Steve, probably your rotary switch is full of dust and/or oxidized. Try clean it.

I had a similar problem for that.

> I only noticed after writing this post that you had already written that you were bypassing the other readers, so what I just wrote does not apply to your problem, but you should check anyway!

What model of DTS player do you have? And, it's serial number?

Is the whole film out of sync or some reels?

Do other films you play also have the sync drift problem? If not, it is a print problem and you should request a new print.

If other films do have the same problem, write down the OFFSET setting. Then, get a small flat bladed screwdriver and rotate each (of the two) rotarty switches two full revolutions. Once that's done, return to the OFFSET setting that you wrote down.

Sync is determined by counting the number of frames from the DTS reader's lens to the picture aperture and mutiply by 1.25. Subtract one from the result and that is your OFFSET setting. Be sure that is what is selected by the rotary switches on the player.

When threading, make the same size loops as you did when measuring the OFFSET.

Sync drift is not caused by a faulty reader or bad tension. It could be the rotary switches or the timecode board itself. Please send me an email for more information.

What I intend doing tonight is hooking up two processors simultaneously - DTS-6D and DTS-6AD - to the same reader, then comparing their center channels while running through the film. I've borrowed discs from another site. Results tomorrow.

By the way, is it true that the DTS disc may have a backup soundtrack? I sincerely doubt this, but this seems to be the understanding of the manager here, who spoke to the technician.

I would test the whole thing out and find no problems....
A few days later they would phone and say they had wow
and out of sync.

DTS suggested I upgrade the firmware to the latest version as this was a known problem, which I've done and no complints since.
I've also done the same at my own theatre where we have two DTS 6 units. NO problems of any kind EVER!

I can't rememebr excatly what the firmware version I upgraded to
is (possibly 1.24 from memory?). It may be worth checking that out.

The IC is normally clearly labeled with it's version number so
check it out. DTS are VERY helpful in evey way so give them a call and they will keep you right and supply the required IC's.

Regards Ken.

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