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Author Topic: DTS Disks hack Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 01-15-2019 07:20 AM                        In this case you can get a piece of software (see below) that will allow you to sync playback to a bi-phase signal/SMPTE time code, or a physical player (TASCAM made a model of CD player that did this) and a bi-phase encoder and time code generator. See here for info on bi-phase rotary encoders The caveat is that if the source material and the print do not match frame for frame then you will lose sync. Any splices or film breaks that result in lost frames will also cause a loss of sync. Use the encoder coupled to your projector to drive the time code generator and use your audio in whatever format your software or hardware uses. In this case not only is DTS unnecessary but it will be an impediment to what you are trying to accomplish. It looks like there is a peice of software available that will take in a bi-phase signal, generate timecode, and play a media file back to that time code. I have not used this application so YMMV; https://timelord-mtc.com/index.php/features/ Google Search Link  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-15-2019 03:56 PM                     quote: If you are ever in the position of being able to directly compare a 35mm print with DTS, SRD or SDDS against a bluray near field remix, you will totally understand why the near field remixes are total garbage. [Wink] To add to this comment: Sadly, the public that plays these garbage field remixes of the feature on a continual basis in their homes, then comes to our locations to witness what we present on the screen, makes the decision to complain that our sound isn't the best, and even isn't the same as their systems at their homes. We've even received recommendations that they the people who did their hone installs, make a visit to our location to see what can be done to improve the sound that these, the public are hearing so it can match the garbage they're hearing at their homes. Yet, it's fun in a way, to educate them that we were first in this multichannel cinema sound and doing it as its supposed to be.  |  IP: Logged Jarod Reddig Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 513 From: Hays, Ks Registered: Jun 2011 posted 01-15-2019 06:11 PM                     The near-field mixes that Disney have put out lately have been absolute trash.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-20-2019 03:38 AM                        what is a near-field mix?  |  IP: Logged Don Furr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 509 From: Sun City, Ca USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 01-20-2019 09:41 AM                     Basically a near field mix if one that has been "dumbed" down at a much lower volume level for home speakers with the goal of keeping the dialogue at a level that is easy to hear. As one remixer put it...."so you can talk on the phone and still hear the dialogue without all the other noise......" Go figure  |  IP: Logged Markus Lemm Expert Film Handler Posts: 113 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Nov 2005 posted 01-23-2019 09:58 AM                        If you have a hex editor you can change the serial number and reel number of each file. The first 92 bytes are a header. Location 78 or 0x4E is the reel number Location 80 and 81 (0x50 and 0x51) are the serial number Hope that helps. Markus  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 01-23-2019 12:49 PM                     ahah, Markus, I wasn't the only one tinkering with a HEX editor back in the days then! Don, I wish it was just the volume. That could be easily corrected by turning the volume up!  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-23-2019 06:01 PM                        Markus--thanks! That is good to know. Not that it would help if the timecode itself has changed (maybe due to different edits for domestic/foreign versions of the same film0.  |  IP: Logged Greg Routenburg Expert Film Handler Posts: 178 From: Toronto, ON, Canada Registered: May 2003 posted 01-30-2019 12:42 PM                     Another little tidbit in dealing with DTS timecode that may be relevant... Back when they changed the format of the .aud files to .aue on the newer disks, they changed the way that the timecode was printed to the film. The serial number of the feature used to appear at regular intervals in the timecode but it was changed to an arrangement that was encoded in such as way as to prevent the player from reproducing the content if the serial number arrangement in the timecode wasn't correct. It was some sort of binary encoding because the frequency of the serial number occurrences was in factors of 2. Sometimes is was every 4, 8, or 16 frames and I didn't have the time or patience to try and figure it out. I had a DTS timecode generator that I would use for testing DTS units on the bench and needed to use old discs because the new timecode security scheme was never released for the timecode generator. I was dealing directly with the timecode generator manufacturer and once we started delving too deeply into it, we received a DMCA notice and all work on the project stopped. After that I just defaulted to the Titanic sound track because it was released before the security scheme and used three discs so I could exercise three drive units and monitor for drop outs. I have that soundtrack darned near committed to memory.  |  IP: Logged Markus Lemm Expert Film Handler Posts: 113 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Nov 2005 posted 01-30-2019 02:39 PM                        If the reels are the same edit and someone has just changed the serial number for another country then changing the serial number in the file will make the DTS sound match the reel. Hey Greg if you are looking for a timecode generator I have a program I wrote in python that will make a Raspberry Pi output a DTS track that can be plugged into the DTS reader input on any DTS player. I've only tested it with older movies but it is completely customizable. Can program a serial cue whenever you want. I'm curious about the serial number security feature; did it just prevent playback or what happened when it didn't get the right arrangement? Did it happen at the start of a reel or random places?  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 01-31-2019 08:53 AM                        That's interesting Greg because I have been able to play newer releases like "Dunkirk" and "The Master" using a DTS TC generator. However as I mentioned before you have to select and arm each reel I don't remeber but I think that was also the case with older disks too?  |  IP: Logged Kieran Hall Film Handler Posts: 28 From: Coventry, UK Registered: Nov 2017 posted 01-31-2019 04:28 PM                        This would make some degree of sense according to what Greg is saying, as the discs for Dunkirk (at least the ones we have here) have the .AUD format files on them. Perhaps they decided that piracy was not so much of an issue nowadays given how niche the DTS system has become.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-31-2019 08:29 PM                        quote: Marco Giustini Good point, that was one of the advantages of DTS - the ability of changing the language by swapping the disks. Theoretically, but it's risky. If you're playing a DTS track in a different language to the analog one on the print, then if anything happens to stop the digital playback and it defaults to SVA, you're buggered. It happened to me in the mid-1990s, with an entirely forgettable movie called Dante's Peak. We were asked in advance by the distributor if we had DTS playback capability, and replied that we did. The print arrived with instructions that we should play the DTS audio only. I thought something was funny when I noticed that the print was made by Geyer, and the cans and head leaders were all in German. So halfway through the show I'm attending to another screen, and an usher runs in and tells me that "there's a problem in 2 ... they've all started talking in German." Long story short - for some reason that I was never totally able to figure out, the DTS dropped out and it started to play the SR, which was a German dub. I later found out the back story. Shipping delays meant that there weren't enough ex-US prints in England in time for the opening day, so the distributor had scrounged a few from Germany at the last minute (where the movie had bombed, so there were hundreds of unneeded ones), which had been sent, with UK DTS CDs, to the British screens that were DTS capable.  |  IP: Logged Allan Lyman Film Handler Posts: 35 From: COPENHAGEN, S /copenhagen,denmark Registered: Apr 2016 posted 02-01-2019 02:48 AM                     I just tried to change reel numbers on a foreign version film where reel 1+6 where encoded as reel12+13.and It worked. reel1(12)is though much out of sync. so is there a way to change the offset in the file as well? Mark,I would like to make a timecodegenerator,so I´m interested in your code and word on how to make it with the rasperry Pi Alan  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 02-01-2019 09:21 AM                     Leo, I now really want to watch Dante's Peak in German. Thanks for the great story!  |  IP: Logged

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