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Author Topic: DTS To Discontinue Support of DTS 6 Units In One Year Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-14-2003 10:10 AM                     Mark said"Try to get a backplane or the front panel switch card sometime.... Dolby may or may not have a refurbished one in stock.....Definately no new stock on these, unless that has changed in the last year" I have never had to replace the back plane except where traces have been burnt by someone being stupid and then it is repaired with wire and soldering iron there is no middle plane on that board to worry about Switch card the switchs if they fail can be got from eaton switch and several asian firms but not in the old grey colour but in yellow or red but they are pin compatable and work AT powersupplys are still available from several OEM manufacturers as a lto of industrial equipment is still AT and ESA based  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-14-2003 10:52 AM                     "I have never had to replace the back plane except where traces have been burnt by someone being stupid and then it is repaired with wire and soldering iron there is no middle plane on that board to worry about" _________________________________________________________________ I've had defective back planes on both a CP-50, and a CP-55. Most likely the result of rough handling in both cases....both units were purchases used. Certainly the switch card could be rebuilt with available OTS componebts if one has the time to do it. In both my cases for both cards I borrowed them from other units on the shelf till Dolby could get one to us. Mark  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-14-2003 11:14 AM                        The "standalone-PC-as-DTS-player" seems like a really bad idea to me, both for DTS and for the user. Selling the cards and the reader (only) to be used with a standard PC is just begging for someone to go out and buy the cheapest bottom-of-the-line PC that happens to be on sale this week at Best Buy and then complain to DTS in a year or two about reliability problems and poor support. Given the choice of buying a cheesy $500 PC or a $1500 (or more) "server appliance" rackmount unit (from QSOL, etc.), most theatre owners (who are cheap by definition) will go with the cheaper option and then wonder why they are having problems with their DTS setup. This isn't to say that some wouldn't choose to use decent hardware and end up with a reliable system, but that most wouldn't bother. For reasons of both profitability and reputation, DTS would do much better by packaging higher-quality hardware that is known to be reliable into its own units and selling (and supporting) those units to theatres.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-15-2003 12:04 AM                     As to the CP-55 backplane or front panel switch board...I can't say I have EVER need to replace them. I've had a couple with cold solder joints on them (backplane) but that is about it. Whereas neither are high-tech boards (single-sourced active components) and both are "through-hole" double-sided boards...ultimately they are field repairable....even if catastrophic failure were to occur. Then again, if the failure was dramatic enough, I'd probably recommend that the unit be retired...if the exhibitor had more CP-55s...scrap the unit for parts to keep the others working. Of course you could change the backplane to the CP-65 one and replace the front panel and get yourself a CP-65 with just a couple board upgrades (443 would be required...the 241 WILL work in the CP-65) and the card guides would probably need to be moved. This isn't something I would recommend but it theoretically can be done. Steve  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-15-2003 08:22 AM                     Quote: "AT powersupplys are still available from several OEM manufacturers as a lto of industrial equipment is still AT and ESA based" _________________________________________________________________ Have not had a problem getting power supplys for AT's. I just go to either the local surplus shop, or the myrad of re-sale shops we have here and buy an entire older computer with at least a 250 watt supply in it. Install a new fan and then into the DTS. This saves the customer a ton of money over the totally rediclous 300.00 price from DTS. Oddly none of these older supplies I have installed has yet failed.......Could very well be the fans I use though..... As for industrial equipment using AT style components go, they too are being obsoleted quickly. A good example is CNC machinery where in many instances an entire new controller must be fitted to a lathe or milling machine, as cards and components come available, or you have to scrounge through other CNC repair sites and techs. Here is a good example of a widly used controler on CNC lathes such as are used in manufacturing parts for this industry........ http://www.qualitrol.com/html/refurbished.htm Industrial or not.....nothing matters when semiconductors become obsolete, or the demand for equipment drops to below levels that can no longer justify the production of new units or any of the associated components in them. BTW: these industrial CNC controlers cost the equivelent of a half dozen new DTS 6D's! Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Carro Film Handler Posts: 67 From: Tempe, Az USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 06-16-2003 10:47 AM                        Okay, maybe I missed something. I have a DTS 6. Are these new machines BETTER than the 2 drawer? My unit has had all the chip upgrades. Never had a problem. Granted I'm a private screening room and it only gets used about once a week. So, when I ask is it better - I mean when it's all said and done will it SOUND better? Mine sounds great! But if the fidelity between these models are night and day I'll get a new unit. And will these new units play Jurassic Park discs and the like? Thanks  |  IP: Logged Jonathan M. Crist Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 531 From: Hershey, PA, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 06-16-2003 12:57 PM                     IMHO the older DTS 6 units have much fuller dynamic range than more recent DTS units. The older DTS 6 contains one of the best D/A converters on the market. It is my choice particularly if you are using older speakers. I don't believe the new system is generally available yet so comparisons will have to wait.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-16-2003 01:18 PM                        Mike C. - The new system is hard-drive based, meaning you load up the disks the first time you show the movie, the sound is then transferred in a matter of minutes to the hard drive and then you don't need the disks anymore. The harddrive also will include all the trailers. The HD can hold up to 30 full soundtracks, according to the publicity. (Why is this, anyway? Can the one unit play sound simultaneously for multiple screens? If not, then why would it need more than 2 or 3 movies' worth of capacity?)  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-16-2003 02:01 PM                     Imagine a 20 plex and on Thursday being able to go to a nearby dts hard drive based unit and load up the audio files, then pressing another button and shooting them across the network. Imediately no matter where the print was moved, every player would have the files. Very nice. Mike, anyone who says that one dts unit has better sound than another is pulling your chain. At one point we had the dts6 and the dts6-d set up into one system and switched between them. Not one person could tell the difference.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-16-2003 05:57 PM                     Brad, Actually the DTS 6 is better built in so far as the analog section is concerned. Never compared sound quality between them though. The 6 has Jensen balanced output transformers whilst the 6D does not. The balanced configuration can be helpful in some installations. Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-16-2003 06:08 PM                     Hmmm, never looked at it that close. You should do the A/B test though. So long as you have the output levels set at exactly the same level, they will sound identical.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-16-2003 08:00 PM                     Its pretty amazing that they do sound identical and that certainly speaks for the qwuality of those Jensen transformers they used. Next time you inside one take a look in the left rear corner.... there is a PCB with six Jensens mounted on it. Mark  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-16-2003 08:38 PM                     I will certainly do that Mark. However I've only got a couple of those left in my service, so I don't know when the time to crack the cover on one will turn up again. Most theaters I service got sick of the defective disc issues over the last year or two and opted to do an upgrade to Dolby Digital. At least now that dts is shipping in the good thick cases again I haven't heard of another damaged disc since the switch.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 06-16-2003 09:59 PM                        quote: the sound is then transferred in a matter of minutes to the hard drive Actually, the unit is supposed to read only the first reel in about 30 seconds the first time you put the discs in and then be ready for playback while the other reels are loaded in the background. You certainly don`t need to keep 30 feature soundtracks on the hard drive at the same time. But the memory capacity makes the unit ready for whatever "future formats" we might see. Since the player can also output digital video, maybe some of the hard drive space could also be used for digital ads or similar stuff.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-17-2003 03:17 AM                        quote: Actually, the unit is supposed to read only the first reel in about 30 seconds the first time you put the discs in and then be ready for playback while the other reels are loaded in the background. Exactly...that's what I said. The whole thing should only take a couple of minutes. (I don't think the unit waits for you to run the movie before it loads the other disks...does it? That would be kinda dumb.)  |  IP: Logged

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