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Author Topic: DTS discs not arriving with Prints Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 10-07-2007 10:45 PM                        Sub run theatres have the choice of digital sound worn off the print, sound on non-supplied discs or analog sound with regular fall-off. It seems to me that the pretty coloured analog track requires more regular equipment attention. If we are fortunate enough to have a run of usable digital tracks, the analog system can be neglected, even though it is silently working away all the time. If we have discs, we usually run trailers analog to monitor its state of health and organise a tech visit if necessary. Some distributors have a policy NOT to get discs for any of their titles. Pity, because we have only occasionally heard a sound-on-film track that equals DTS. At least the hard drive gives us consistent image and sound, though I will continue to gamble with film prints if the feature is in the Scope format. Letterboxing, pansying and cropping are more annoying than print problems. What sort of money are we talking about to send discs to every cinema that requests them? We have to pay extra for the music and the sound recording. Perhaps the record licencing organisation could distribute the discs so that we actually get something for our fees.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 10-08-2007 04:20 PM                     We are fortunate in having the latest DTS XD10 media player which does indeed allow us to store all the CD soundtracks on the internal hard drive. The unit is fitted with an ethernet port! Returning to the original topic, how do we get DTS to address the issue of disks not being available?  |  IP: Logged Brian Guckian Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 594 From: Dublin, Ireland Registered: Apr 2003 posted 10-09-2007 09:21 AM                     New legal contracts, plus making the data available for secure download as outlined above, would seem the way to go.  |  IP: Logged Richard May Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1057 From: Floral Park, NY USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 10-09-2007 09:37 AM                     I wrote a long letter to DTS talking about this problem but I doubt it will get anywhere. Now, a lot of my customers are asking me to install Dolby Digital to replace their existing DTS units. I also mentioned that in my letter. It really seems to me that they just don't care about the problem. That's my impression anyway. Either way, I won't lose any sleep over it. I've had it up to here fighting with them about it. If they want to let their business slip away, that's their problem.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 10-09-2007 10:46 AM                        Sorry, guys, the money is in new equipment sales, not disc sales. This situation was predictable back during Jurassic Park. Louis  |  IP: Logged Demetris Thoupis Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1240 From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-09-2007 12:46 PM                     Sorry to dissapoint you all but in our country, the DTS discs always arrive with the prints even if the cinema is not equiped with DTS!!! I reconn its the distributors' fault for not sending it to the theaters mostly. Would you blame Dolby if your films arrived with DTS only timecode and no Dolby Digital track???!  |  IP: Logged Blaine Young Master Film Handler Posts: 477 From: Kirkland, WA, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 10-09-2007 12:57 PM                     Back in 1993 with the release of Jurassic Park, we almost never got the DTS discs. There was the noise that we needed to special order them and then the distributor (Highway at the time) wouldn't forward them to the theater. But that was 14 years ago. Now, with a very few exceptions, we get discs with every print. Our print of "War" actually came with two sets. DTS has always stated that they do not own the discs - they belong to the studio. In my mind, it's the studio's responsibility to get the discs to the distributor and then the distributor's responsibility to get them to the theaters. I only wish they would go back to the yellow disc rings - the DVD cases they've been using almost always arrive crushed. I agree with the idea of having a secure download site where theaters can pull down the files and then burn them to CD-RW - or upload them directly into the XD-10. I'd like to be able to pull down the individual trailer audio as well, so I can burn custom feature/trailer discs for use in the old 2-drive DTS-6.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-09-2007 01:41 PM                        Well, Daniel Schulz and Mike B. Smith posted in the other thread "DTS CSS System" and Richard May asked them to come over here to comment. They sound like they ARE indeed interested in solving DTS problems. Let's hope they can address this irksome problem. I mean, there certainly are advantages that DTS holds over the other digital sound-on-film systems and a lot of us here like, even favor, DTS (it's all I've got!). It would be a shame that a problem that seems so simple to fix has become such a major roadblock. Saying it's the studio's fault isn't the answer, although I still contend that theatres are not putting enough pressure on the studios when discs don't arrive. If we did more screaming instead of hand-wringing, maybe the studios would be more responsive. Be that as it may, seems DTS has a vested interest in pushing for what everyone here sees as the most expedient of solutions, especially in today's internet environment, and that would be using that medium to download the audio. I mean, isn't it the STUDIOS who are all gun-hoe for downloading both picture and soundtrack to theatres? What's this idiotic bugaboo about downloading the soundtrack all of a sudden? All of a sudden they are switching on their oh-so-tired piracy paranoia again? DTS needs to smack some of these studio suits upside the head -- secure downloading sites are a hellofalot more secure than the hundreds of DTS discs which evidently wind up just floating about unsecured, not password protected and whose whereabouts seems of no concern to anyone -- at least that has to be the assumption since they never wind up going back with the prints. DUH.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-09-2007 01:54 PM                        You would think either DTS or the studios could get this worked out. Give the theatre a user ID and password, like most of us have with our exhibitor relations accounts. If you need a soundtrack, enter the print number and your info, so at least it can be shown you're pulling a file for something you actually booked. Download the disk, then toss it in with the print when you're done. It may not be a tight security issue, but it is about as good as going over and copying the disk from some other theatre. Like Frank says... these disks can be laying around everywhere as it is, and nobody seems to care about that.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-09-2007 02:14 PM                     Guys, Of course they want to know that all their players are in action but once the disks leave their hands and are delivered to distribution there is little else thay can do. Mark  |  IP: Logged Brad Allen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 688 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 10-09-2007 02:24 PM                     Those of us with XD-10's it seems DTS could come up with a direct online solution to download the sound track directly into the unit, since they do have ethernet jacks. I know it doesn't solve the problem for everyone, as everyone doesn't have broadband at the theatre. But, it could be a start. What size file would a typical soundtrack be to download?  |  IP: Logged Blaine Young Master Film Handler Posts: 477 From: Kirkland, WA, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 10-09-2007 02:49 PM                     DTS soundtracks run about 140mb per reel. Obviously it depends on the length of the reel.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-09-2007 03:14 PM                        The unfortunate thing about all of this is that DTS is actually a pretty good system as long as the prints are available in the format and the disks are shipped with the prints. Unfortunately, only very popular mainstream titles seem to be available in the format.  |  IP: Logged Patrick de Groot Expert Film Handler Posts: 161 From: Sprang-Capelle, Netherlands Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-09-2007 03:44 PM                     It's really not difficult to put up an download site. A protected FTP site will do. Create ISO files, compress them and distribute them. Piracy should be of no concerne. If I wanted to, I can bring my laptop and copy the discs while working (if I were working at a cinema). Give each cinema a general ftp username/password. Then create password protected archives (I prefere RAR) that contain the ISO's of a perticular film. Every title has it's own unique random password (Xl@wo381Dei#21). RAR encrypts using the AES-128 standard. Theaters can contact DTS by mail to request a title password. Double security: even if someone gets hold of the cinema's username/password, they can only download, not extract the ISO's without the title password.  |  IP: Logged Blaine Young Master Film Handler Posts: 477 From: Kirkland, WA, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 10-09-2007 04:16 PM                     quote: Scott Norwood Unfortunately, only very popular mainstream titles seem to be available in the format. Scott, I must disagree. With a very few exceptions, almost every studio title has a DTS track. The last studio title I recall not having a DTS track was "Hot Fuzz". Granted, some of the art house films or limited release titles may not have include a DTS track. And then getting discs on some of these titles with smaller release numbers may be an issue. For example, we got no discs for our two prints of "Into the Wild", but we did get discs on both prints of "The Assassination of Jessie James".  |  IP: Logged

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