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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 06-29-1999, 11:09 PM:
I've noticed a few dts discs for sale on HIAC and e-bay. Is it possible to run these on a PC? or do you need the print to send out the time code?------------------
John
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 06-29-1999, 11:50 PM:
I've always heard the disk is worthless without the print timecode.Anybody else know?
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-30-1999, 04:42 AM:
You can run DTS discs without the print in several ways. The first two require that you have a legitimate DTS player. Put the disc to be played in slot "A" and let it boot up until it is ready and blinking. Now put the DTS Epirical Test Disc into slot "C" (or "B" if you have the older 2-disc unit) and it will start to load. Instead of auto playing the test disc, the theatrical disc will now play. This does not work with trailer discs.You can also purchase a DTS Timecode Generator which is made by DTS and it costs about $350 or so. You just plug it into your unit and the discs (trailer discs as well) control almost as easilly as a CD, as long as you know the "reel" numbers of what you want to play.
I have heard of people being able to play discs on a PC, but only with proprietary software (I don't know the name) and only 2 channels at a time can be decoded. However, DTS CDs can be easilly copied via CD-R and the CD-R copy will play fine with the film at the theatre. So if your depot only sends you one set of discs with your 5 prints of a certain movie, fire up that CD-R!
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-30-1999, 09:41 AM:
Here's another "stupid DTS trick" that someone is going to have to try for me (since I've never worked in a theatre that had DTS): insert a disk, plug in a keyboard to the back of the unit (at least this is supposed to work on the DTS - 6D units); when the System light is flashing, hit the space bar twice, hit 2, hit return, hit 1, hit return, hit the reel number you want to play, hit return. Reel 1 shoudl be the DTS trailer, reel 2 should be the trailers on the disk, and reel 3 should be the first reel of the movie.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-11-1999, 02:26 PM:
I haven't tested the tricks posted here myself, but I do know if you insert a DTS trailer disc into your cd-rom drive you will find a whole lot more trailers were recorded on that disc than is listed on the label!Just click on the text file for a list.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-12-1999, 01:23 AM:
Scott, I haven't tried your stupid trick yet but I will. But Reel 1 on the feature disc is always Reel 1 of the movie. We have a DTS-ES unit and it shows what the timecode is doing. When reel 4 of the movie is playing, reel 4 of the DTS disc is playing as well. As for the trailer discs, each "reel" is a seperate trailer. Clicking on the text list when inserted into the CD-ROM drive will tell you what "reel" the trailers are. If you insert a trailer disc into a CD-ROM drive, you will find that reel 4 is the Mann Theatres Policy trailer. It says something like 4.MANNFP and all other trailers are limited to 8 characters because it uses DOS and we all know DOS sucks.
Posted by Thomas Ferreira (Member # 96) on 07-19-1999, 11:32 PM:
Scott, I tried your stupid trick, and it didn't work with the 6D unit. There is a jack for a keyboard, however, in the back of the unit-it must be for some reason. Anybody know?
Posted by Mathias Andersson (Member # 169) on 10-03-1999, 04:06 PM:
Joe, I've tried to play a DTS without a print, but it didn't work. We have the first model of the DTS6d (the one with two CD-ROMs) but the software has been upgraded 6 months ago.Anyways.... I put CD A from Simon Birch into slot A and when the system lamp was blinking and nothing else was happening I inserted the emperical test disc (june 1997) into slot B. After a minute or so the system lamp bagan to blink again and nothing else happend. Am I doing this wrong?
/Mathias
Posted by Ben Wales (Member # 92) on 10-03-1999, 04:17 PM:
You can get the DTS disk track files to appear on screen on a PC under DOS, it can run of sorts, but so far no sound, need that timecode gen.what's the point to own the disks without the print!.
Posted by Kelsey Black (Member # 126) on 10-03-1999, 08:26 PM:
Personally, I would like to just be able to put the discs in my computer and decode the tracks so I can compare the raw digital soundtrack to the auditorium... plus I'd love to hear the various THX trailers in their full glory at will... especially the new THX 2000 trailer.I know I would like to have that "proprietary software" spoken about earlier in the topic... (reply bait?)
even with only 2 channels decoded at a time, I could put 2 more sound cards into this easy... or I have multi-track studio mixing software to combine all 6 channels into 2, etc. if anyone out there has this software, I am really interested in it.
(yeah, yeah, if only I just had a DTS player)
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-03-1999, 08:43 PM:
The problem with DTS is that, as I understand the system, the audio decompression is handled in hardware, not software. Of course, you could probably write a program that would do the decompression, but you'd need a fairly powerful computer, unlike the 386- or 486-based PC motherboards that are used in the DTS units (along with the decompression card).
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-03-1999, 09:00 PM:
It would be faily easy to write an emulator for the DTS decompression if you knew how it was compressed. A computer that could normally play MP3 files would be powerfull enough to play back 2 tracks at a time of DTS audio. I have heard of people doing this.
Posted by Kelsey Black (Member # 126) on 10-03-1999, 09:03 PM:
speaking of mp3, I did mention the idea of dts decoding to Justin Frankel (the author of Winamp), and he didn't seem interested in the idea, as he is having too much fun touring the country now that he has been paid millions by AOL for Nullsoft....now back to your regularly scheduled discussions.
Posted by AndrewBurnell (Member # 122) on 10-04-1999, 01:22 AM:
Do the DTS disks play in a normal DTS CD Player? I have noticed a couple of CD Players out from Sherwood and so on that bear the DTS logo with DTS Digital outputs, do you think it might work?
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-04-1999, 02:21 AM:
First of all those are DVD players and not just CD players. However any CD player in the world with a working optical or coaxial digital output can output the information needed for DTS.But not for theatrical DTS discs. Home DTS only. You see, movie DTS uses 4:1 compression whereas home DTS uses anywhere from 3:1 to 1:1 lossless. And the decoders are not set up to handle movie DTS. And yes, you can bet on your mom's life that I have tried!
Posted by Mathias Andersson (Member # 169) on 10-04-1999, 06:41 AM:
What is actually the purpose with a timecode generator? Of course it would be cool to have one and play all the THX trailers and stuff, but what is the real purpose?
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 10-04-1999, 11:58 AM:
The time code generator is required to drive the dts player to make it play. In a simplistic sense it is the motor on a old vinyl turntable.
The disks are coded by serial number then reel number and location in frames the film timecode contains that information. If the film isn't running you can connect a dts timecode generator to the timecode input and input the serial number and then command what reel number to play
Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 10-04-1999, 05:06 PM:
Got a question. I am about to upgrade a DTS-6 (2 drives, not 3) with the Teac drives, Acqutec ROM, Adaptec SCSI board, and the V1.46 chip.
One of the problems with the old hardware was that at the end of the show, after the automation had pulsed the unit to non/sync, the unit would default to optical after the time-code ran out, hearalding the end of the show by running the tail-piece through in optical. (Woke up the patrons after a boring movie, anyway). This happens with the 2-drive units, not the 3-drive ones.
We have found several ways around this. My question (at long last) is; does the updated hardware prevent the unit from defaulting to optical at the end of the show, after the non/sync pulse?
Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 10-05-1999, 03:13 AM:
The only times I have had thes problem is when the projectionist puts on the end cue before the time code runs out. The processor switches to nonsync, but the DTS, which still has timecode, switches the processor back to digital until it looses timecode, and switches the processor back to SR.
Posted by AndrewBurnell (Member # 122) on 10-05-1999, 07:53 AM:
Joe:
It's not a DVD Player, it is just a CD Player, I may be stupid but I know the difference! 
It's a 5 disc carousel and it has a nice little DTS logo on the front and a Digital output on the back.
Posted by AndrewBurnell (Member # 122) on 10-05-1999, 07:55 AM:
Joe:
It's not a DVD Player, it is just a CD Player, I may be stupid but I know the difference! It's a 5 disc carousel and it has a nice little DTS logo on the front and a Digital output on the back.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-05-1999, 06:52 PM:
Andrew - I have never seen that before! Interesting. But I would take it to mean that it can play DTS music CDs. There are around 50-100 of them on the market (I think I have 3 of them). It's just some obscure bands recorded in 5.1 multichannel. Sounds great! However any CD player with digital out can play DTS music CDs with a DTS decoder. I wonder if there is a way to "modify" a home DTS decoder to decode movie discs?
Posted by AndrewBurnell (Member # 122) on 10-06-1999, 09:24 AM:
I hope so, I bought a receiver today for my dvd player that has Dolby Digital and DTS! If anyone thinks of anything, give me a yell!