DTS sync issue? Sound going in and out of sync several times within a feature.

[Brad Miller]

Jerry, something occurred to me in regards to the dts drifting sync. What is the threading path of your system? Can you post a photo?

[Jerry G. Axelsson]

Brad, this has nothing do with my system. My system at hand works fine. This was an open question about the DTS system in general after hearing the oppinion from one service technician.

[Brad Miller]

Well if you can get a photo of whatever setup that exhibited that problem, I can point out the one scenario where it can happen that I know of.

[Marco Giustini]

Over the years I've heard many "technicians" state incorrect things about this or that piece of equipment. When I first started working in a cinema I was told not to use the DTS timecode reader because "it scratches the films". Those statements are usually coming from not fully understanding how the system works and making incorrect assumptions.

[Randy Stankey]

I've never seen a DTS system go out of sync unless there was something wrong like incorrect offset or threading an improper film path.

DTS can seem to drift for a few seconds after a splice. It can happen at the end of a reel like somebody said above but that should be unnoticeable unless you're looking for it, especially on a new print that doesn't have a lot of frames cut off. If the print is brand new and the projectionist makes the splice exactly where it should be with no lost frames, one would have to look pretty hard to notice anything, if at all.

Now, if there is a big jump between pieces of film like a cut from the middle of a reel to some random place in the movie in the middle of another reel, yes, there will be a noticeable glitch in the sync but, again, it should catch up within a few seconds.

The only other thing that I can think of that would cause the sync to go off is a bad disk or CD drive. If, for some reason, there is a bad disk or drive, I suppose the system could seem to lose track but I'm only conjecturing. I've never seen that in real life. I would think that, if the disk is bad, the system would just revert to the default format.

I agree with what people say above... Most of the complaints about things like DTS going out of sync for no apparent reason come from people who have small brains and big mouths.

[Leo Enticknap]

When I first started working in a cinema I was told not to use the DTS timecode reader because "it scratches the films". Those statements are usually coming from not fully understanding how the system works and making incorrect assumptions.

And the longer these assumptions go unchallenged, the more they become entrenched. In one of the first cinemas I worked at, the chief believed that A-type was superior to SR (and that therefore all Dolby prints should be played A-type, including those labeled as SR on the cans and/or leaders), and that for prints that weren't scope, all American movies should be played in 1.85, and all others in 1.66. I was nearly fired for playing It's a Wonderful Life in 1.37, which he came to see on his day off (we had the lenses and plates, which had acquired a thick layer of dust by the time I took them out of the cabinet!), and of course he didn't realize that I also had the CP45 set to mono. Both the manager and the other projectionist leapt to his defense, on the grounds that things had been done this way since the place had opened eight years previously, without any customer complaints. Showing them the CP45 manual and the BKSTS projectionists' manual, which made clear that his way was the wrong way, cut little ice.

[Jerry G. Axelsson]

Hello Leo, I agree with you 100%. Incorrect information and speculation should be corrected so that further misconceptions can be avoided.

After reading your comments above about a certain cinema manager being involved in such detail with how things should be done in the booth, I was somewhat surprised that you had a CP45 as a processor.

I also find it irritating and sad that you had to present documents to be taken seriously in the situation mentioned. Some people just seem to be more interested in to be in charge than to listen and learn something from their colleagues...

[Kenneth Wuepper]

All too often the basis for quality control has become "Customer Complaints"

If we dumb things down to what customers feel is just acceptable there will be nothing left of the originator's hard work to enjoy.

Perhaps this is the opposite of the practice of raising the price until more that half of your customers complain about it.

[Gordon McLeod]

The CP45 was overall a good little economical processor If one had decent speakers and a relatively good room acoustic

[Steve Guttag]

Nah, it was an expensive "cheap" processor with fake SR, a fader that moved if the wind blew, an EQ that was a joke...etc. USL's stuff made more sense. At least with SMART one knew they were getting a "value priced" processor and had similar expectations. With Dolby, you would think you were getting "the best." Instead, it just cheapened the brand (as did the fake SR for any other processor).

[Gordon McLeod]

Well the fake SR was the standard option on later CP65 and CP500's The fader was not an issue that we had the eq was adequate with good speakers and room acoustics. Its price point was only slightly above a USL JSD100 or a Smart 2c here The only one cheaper was the Mod6 and the Eprad DSS and that was a decent unit

[Leo Enticknap]

I was a relatively inexperienced projectionist when I worked at this place (the only theater I ever worked at with CP45s), and so was not able to evaluate its EQ or SR performance (in what way was the SR fake, out of interest?). I do remember that I couldn't hear much difference between A-type and SR, though. Agreed totally about the fader on the actual unit. It would stay in its notch, wherever you had that set, but for other adjustments it was so loose as to be a liability. I only ever used the remote faders (homebrew - not the official Dolby ones) under the booth ports.

[Steve Guttag]

The CP45 didn't have the preset ring...just the sloppy loose fader. Fake SR was written about, at length in the old F-T so I suggest looking there rather than completely rehashing it here. The short answer is it wasn't SR but cascaded S chips. If you look at the plots of the 222"SR"/A and compared to a CAT280, you'd be amazed at how far off it was and still carried the Dolby name. Gordon's comeback line of being a standard option on the CP65 and CP500 is exactly why I despise it so much. It legitimized using improper decoding. If Dolby is going to fake SR, why can't other people? Would you promote it as being less wrong than the competition? And event that wouldn't be true. The Panastereo CM333 and CM353 were significantly better SR cards than the CAT222"SR"/A. Was it audible? Absolutely. Even customers knew it and we did do A/B comparisons. It wasn't hard to pick off the fake one.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The CP45 was overall a good little economical processor If one had decent speakers and a relatively good room acoustic

Yes, I liked the CP-45 as well. In Utah it had kind of gotten a bad rap because the few that were there always had intermittent sound problems, with channels dropping out. And as I told them... just replace the output relays dammit!! One of these was at the Sundance screening room for a time.