Cinema DTS on MediaInfo!

[Andrea Rossi]

I’m happy to inform you that finally Cinema DTS files are recognized by MediaInfo!

Me and Jérôme Martinez (lead developer of MediaInfo, https://MediaArea.net/MediaInfo) worked hard together to discover the info hidden inside the .aud and .aue files (and not only there) to let MediaInfo show them all!

MediaInfo is now able to show 100% of theatrical

• DTS 35mm Stereo
• DTS 35mm 5.1
• DTS 35mm ES 6.1
• DTS 70mm 6-track
• DTS 70mm Special Venue 8-track

• DTS 70mm 5.1: it should find out almost all of them, but few may be confused with DTS 35mm 5.1; in case you spot a title not recognized as 70mm, please drop me a PM.

Many thanks to:

Jérôme Martinez – he’s the genius behind everything!
the whole MediaInfo team
the great members of this and other forums who helped me with DTS info

Have fun!


These are examples info showed up on MediaInfo:

General

Complete name :             filename.AUE
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS 35 mm
File size :                 103 MiB
Duration :                  16 min 19 s
Overall bit rate mode :     Constant
Overall bit rate :          882 kb/s
Movie name :                movie title (w/filt)
Part/Position :             1
Reel/Position :             1
Production studio :         ABC
Catalog number :            12345

Audio
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS 35 mm
Duration :                  16 min 19 s
Bit rate mode :             Constant
Bit rate :                  882 kb/s
Channel(s) :                6 channels
Channel layout :            L Ls C Rs R LFE
Sampling rate :             44.1 kHz
Compression mode :          Lossy
Time code of first frame :  00:00:06.00
Time code of last frame :   00:16:25.06
Stream size :               103 MiB (100%)
Language :                  English

General
Complete name :             filename.AUE
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS-ES 35 mm
File size :                 113 MiB
Duration :                  17 min 55 s
Overall bit rate mode :     Constant
Overall bit rate :          883 kb/s
Movie name :                movie title
Part/Position :             1
Reel/Position :             1
Production studio :         DEF
Catalog number :            65432

Audio
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS-ES 35 mm
Format settings :           ES Matrix
Duration :                  17 min 55 s
Bit rate mode :             Constant
Bit rate :                  882 kb/s
Channel(s) :                7 channels
Channel layout :            L Ls C Rs R LFE Cb
Sampling rate :             44.1 kHz
Compression mode :          Lossy
Time code of first frame :  00:00:06.00
Time code of last frame :   00:18:01.26
Stream size :               113 MiB (100%)
Language :                  English

General
Complete name :             filename.AUE
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS 70 mm Special Venue
File size :                 106 MiB
Duration :                  10 min 38 s
Overall bit rate mode :     Constant
Overall bit rate :          1 399 kb/s
Movie name :                movie title
Part/Position :             1
Reel/Position :             1
Production studio :         XYZ
Catalog number :            23456

Audio
Format :                    APT-X100
Commercial name :           DTS 70 mm Special Venue
Duration :                  10 min 38 s
Bit rate mode :             Constant
Bit rate :                  1 411 kb/s
Channel(s) :                8 channels
Channel layout :            L Ls C Rs R LFE Lc Rc
Sampling rate :             44.1 kHz
Compression mode :          Lossy
Time code of first frame :  00:00:06.00
Time code of last frame :   00:10:43.99
Stream size :               106 MiB (100%)
Language :                  English​
​

[Marcel Birgelen]

Great work!

Having used the MediaInfo in our own tooling, it's great to see this addition. I don't know if it will ever really come in handy, but it's nice to see the devotion to support even the more obscure media formats out there.

[James Gardiner]

Just for interest's sake. What makes these types of files? How/where are they used? Were am I likely to see them as a cinema tech or in general?

[Kyle Mikolajczyk]

This is awesome! Great work, will be very useful. I had no idea the files contained so much info.

[Andrea Rossi]

Actually files contain most of the info, but not all; for example, the info about the DTS type (35mm, 70mm, ES) is extrapolated from the serial number.

[Jim Cassedy]

Just for interest's sake. What makes these types of files?
How/where are they used? Were am I likely to see them as a cinema tech or in general?

I would suggest you consult the Wikipedia article on DTS, especially the paragraph titled "Theatrical Use",
since theatrical DTS is a whole different can-of-soup than the consumer version of DTS sound.

As to how likely you are to see/use them-
> Are you running film? Especially 70mm?
On my job we run a mix of old and new 35 and 70mm titles. Most of the time, the 35mm disks are often
either missing or are scratched/broken when we get them on some of the older films. (The exception is
that disks for films from the Warner Brothers Archives are usually in very good condition), However, we
always go with the DolbyDigital™ sound tracks on 35mm. For 70mm, 99.9% of the time, DTS sound is
the only available option. The sound content arrives either on disks, or, more commonly now, on a thumb
drive shipped with the film. For older 70mm titles, that were issued without DTS, at my venue we still
have the ability to play back from 35mm magnetic sound tracks, which is pretty much an obsolete format.

Just For Fun, Here's A Picture Of One Of The 70mm
Projectors I Work With. I've Also Occasionally
Run A Pair Of 70mm Kinotons At Another Venue
My70mmBoothPic.jpg

[David Ferguson]

Very nice!

You should also add in the DTS subtitle files, and the narration format. I have documented how the subtitle files work and written a simple decoder at https://github.com/davidferguson/35m.../sbt-format.md - but feel free to ask me for help or example files.

The narration format, I'm not sure on. Perhaps with the work you've done with the audio files you'll be more familiar with how they work? I think they're just a single channel of apt-x100 encoded audio, but I'm not 100% sure on this.

[Andrea Rossi]

Thanks David!

May you provide some subtitles and narration files? Can't promise I would undestand everything, though!