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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: DTS time coding
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Paul H. Rayton
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 210
From: Los Angeles, CA , USA
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 04-25-2016 04:05 PM
The distribution norm for most US films in Germany is "dubbed", and it sounds like, for some reason, the entire R.1 timecode track was re-recorded, incorporating the ~20 seconds of distributor logo on the head. An odd decision, but that's my guess. The only solution I could imagine would be, as mentioned before, some kind of a hack.
Blocking the timecode from being read would not affect it -- the system goes to the sync point that is (theoretically) associated with the given frame of picture. It sort of has to be that way, or every time a splice goes through, it would drift out of sync. Think, for example, of older release prints which may have lost a few frames from the heads and tails of each reel as it was plattered at various places along the way. We know it's good practice to assemble prints so as to NOT lose frames, but there have been places where the candy-stand draftees sent to be "projectionists" weren't so diligent about film handling. Also at changeover houses -- the system goes to the newer (higher reel #, e.g. from reel #3 to reel #4) bits of track instantaneously when a reel is changed.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-25-2016 06:42 PM
quote: Paul H. Rayton
Blocking the timecode from being read would not affect it...
Yes, I am pretty sure that you are right and I said as much.
Blocking the time code reader is a simple, painless test that can verify the problem with no negative after effects.
As I also said, it is impossible for us to tell exactly what the cause of the problem is without physical access to the print. If you remember, some years back, another Film-Techer (Bobby, IIRC) showed us how to read time code manually (by eye) in order to verify that it is correct and so that we can splice reels together in the right order. It would be possible for a person with that knowledge and physical access to the print to decode the information on the time code track to determine what the problem is.
Alternately, a person can hook a monitor and keyboard up to a DTS machine and read out the current time code (Title/Reel/Frame) to see what's going on. Again...physical access is needed.
So, without physical access, the only way that I can think of to determine the cause of the problem would be to block the reader and cause the DTS system to temporarily revert back to analogue sound then, upon unblocking the reader, the DTS system will re-acquire the time code and, hopefully, synchronize back to the right place.
BUT...IF the time code is written as a contiguous track that includes the logo then blocking the time code reader would not work.
Blocking the reader is just an easy way to help us, who don't have physical access to the print or the equipment, to determine what the problem is. Further, there is still a small, yet non-zero, chance that blocking the reader might work.
There is no reason not to try it if it hasn't already been tried.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 04-26-2016 09:03 AM
quote: Jim Cassedy
If this is only for one or two shows, I'd just turn the damn DTS off and run it analog.
I think the analog audio on his print is of the German "VF", and he wants to hear the English "OV", so to speak.
This issue bit me in the rear the other way round in the mid '90s, with one of the Jurassic Park movies. I was working in a small theater in a remote part of the south-west of England. The print arrived only an hour before showtime - no time to test and preview. So at 6pm I started to play it blind to a sellout crowd. About half way in I nipped out of the booth to answer a call of nature, and when I walked back across the lobby to the booth a stream of customers were coming out, and I caught one of them complaining loudly to the girl in the box office: "What's up with the f***ing projector? They've all started talking f***ing frog language in there!". As you can gather, we catered to a very high class and well educated clientele, and played Bunuel and Renoir every week (not).
Long story short - the print had the French dub on the analog, I was playing the English DTS CDs, reel 4 had a bad timecode and it dropped out. That explained why the distributor called twice during the previous week to confirm that we did have DTS. They were very short of prints and had sourced a few French ones to make up the shortfall, which they sent to the smallest, bottom of the food chain houses that did have DTS, so that if what happened to me happened, the damage would be as minimal as possible.
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