This is topic DTS on pc in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-11-2001, 05:15 PM:
Is it possible to run a DTS cd on a computer? I can see a program called dts.exe which seems to run. I get te following message:Just a moment... waiting for timecode reader reset
Then it won't do a thing...
I'm just experimenting a little bit, because I found a disc that got lost in our theater (btw a bad thing ofcourse... nothing hill)
Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-11-2001, 05:50 PM:
uhm nothing hill = notting hill
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-11-2001, 05:50 PM:
You can run a DTS disc on your PC if you do the following:1. Install all of the DTS playback hardware cards.
2. Install a DTS timecode reader (or use a DTS timecode generator, which costs more than a reader, IIRC).
3. Install 2 or 3 SCSI CDROM drives and SCSI controller tha is compatible with the DTS hardware.
4. Have a DTS print handy that matches your discs (not necessary if you had a t/c gen)
By the time this is all done you'd be better off getting a real DTS unit, as that way would be cheaper. 
Running DTS.exe on most PC's usually does nothing, sometimes it makes your system reboot. Without timecode its useless.
Aaron
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-11-2001, 05:54 PM:
It won't run. Time code or not. The PC will not know what the digital information represents, unless you have the hardware installed in the computer designed to read it and convert it into six channel audio. Besides, most PC's use analog output from the CDROM drives that feed directly into the sound card. DTS uses the digital output from the SCSI drives that is routed to the specialized hardware.I think the files of a DTS disc are AUD files.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-11-2001, 06:37 PM:
Hey IAN!!!!! 
!!!!Remember that old guy "George" who used to come to the Greenwood every now and then? You would give him DTS discs, as he claimed he could play them on his PC. He liked to listen to the music scores, etc...
Can you explain this? How was he able to do this? Or was he just insane like I have always thought? I think they eventually banned him from the theater if I remember correctly, after you left.
Posted by Joe Grace (Member # 341) on 05-11-2001, 09:01 PM:
I have always thought about the idea of making a DTS player with off the shelf hardware in a rack mount computer case, the problem is geting 6 channels of audio out of a soundblaster and messing with software to de-crypt the audio files and figuring out how to have the timecode reader interface with the computer, it will be a neat project someday.
Joe
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-12-2001, 12:19 AM:
Good luck. I believe that DTS's codec (compression/decompression scheme) is proprietary. Good luck getting off the shelf parts for that at Comp USA! It's only after that when you will need to worry about getting 6 channels of audio out of your computer!
Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-12-2001, 05:50 AM:
I think it should be possible to decode them someway...Because if you can read the files (.AUD) you should be able to decode them using special software. However I don't know if such a program exists... Maybe you can fake the timecode reader with some software trick.
It seems to me that the original DTS hardware consists primary of computer hardware products (on a DTS disc is a program DTS.exe which runs at a dos prompt... in the DTS directory is a .txt file)
I don't know how that hardware works because we don't use it... Is there a option display with 3 options like the dts.exe program produces?
Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 05-12-2001, 06:50 AM:
Aaron,
To test sound system in one of our theater I usually connect an old AT keyboard to the DTS 6D, load a disk, wait for "system" led blinking.
Then I press "ESC" in keyboard, to return on main menu.
On main menu I have:
1. Play with timecode
2. Play without timecode
3. I do not remember!I select 2 and Enter. Wait to have the track list.
I select the track and I press enter, the player goes in Digital and I can hear the soundtrack in the theater without print.
I enjoy myself listening all THX trailer, sometimes!
I have to do all these operations without see any screen of course. I think that with a VGA card onboard you should see also the screens. IMHO a VGA card could be useful because the screen "play with timecode" contains many many useful information: number of break, status of the player, etc etc.
So since on my PC dts disks are able to spin up my CD rom, I think that install all audio cards in a PC could be enought.
Joe,
DTS's codec is not propietary. It is APTX100 (www.aptx.com). Just buy few chips (in a DTS you can find 5 of them) and build your own sound card!!!
With Cool edit I was able to partially decode a .au track and I was able to hear 20thfox fanfare behind something similar to the "pink noise".
Bye
Antonio
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 05-12-2001, 08:38 AM:
We used to do that at my old theater, but they changed the system later so you can't do that anymore 
Posted by Pete Lawrence (Member # 130) on 05-12-2001, 11:40 AM:
Well, I'd say the algorithm is proprietary. It just belongs to APT not DTS. APT's website says they now have a software only decoder. With the information available on DTS's and APT's websites it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to decode the disks with just a PC and a SoundBlaster. If you think there is a problem now with DTS disks not being returned, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
Posted by Will Morrow (Member # 792) on 05-12-2001, 07:28 PM:
It's so much easier and so much cheaper to buy a 5.1 channel amp/decoder and a DVD player...I have 800 bucks invested in a home theater system that has six channel sound. Save your time and don't steal DTS disks. I mean this totally towards the people that are trying to crack the AlGor(e)ythms and junk. But hey, the more people like you think, the cooler technology gets!
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-12-2001, 07:58 PM:
Yes Joe, there was an old man named George who claimed that he could play the DTS discs off of his computer. He said that he had old nitrate films with multiple soundtracks on them. He also claimed that his stereo had 80 different Altec A4s to play each individual instrument in an orchestra. He also claimed that he used to be a recording engineer for Carnegie Hall in NYC. He then spent many years as an engineer for Ma Bell Labs. He also had a twin-engined airplane that he used to fly to concerts in Chicago. I believe he also had a pipe organ in his living room. George also claimed he was helping channel 9 with some HDTV tests. He claimed to have been shot in the hip during Korea, which is why he had to walk 6 miles a day. (We, of course, where on his route every morning)For all I knew, he was just an old man who walked around and collected cans. I don't know if he could read the DVD on his CD-ROM drive or not.
But one thing he did tell me was that I was too smart to be wasting my life working for UA and that I should get off my butt and do something else. So I did.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-12-2001, 10:14 PM:
Wow. I guess if it were not for George you'd still be working at Greenwood! As thanks, you should send him a set of DTS discs for Freddy Got Fingered or The Mummy Returns!
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 05-14-2001, 09:32 AM:
Alas, "Freddy Got Fingered" was not in DTS.
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-14-2001, 09:55 AM:
Alas the DTS mommie board bios contains special stuff that you need when you boot up the computer for it all to work correctly. Its actually easier do either buy a new one or locate a used one, of which there are plenty out there.
Mark @ GTS
Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 05-14-2001, 04:04 PM:
Mark,Why have you plenty of used unit there?
Bye
Antonio
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-14-2001, 05:50 PM:
Antonio,
Because there are many theaters close here and in Canada. That makes them quite easy to find on the used market around here. Same goes for Sony SDDS cause so many theaters pull them out because they no work too well. I have even seen SDDS processors and readers on E-Bay for sale!
Mark @ GTS
Posted by Heyward Garner (Member # 722) on 05-15-2001, 12:21 AM:
ahHA!
I am glad that this topic has arisen... As with any kind of obstruction, human intervention always seems to prevail. I am sure that someday, somehow, someone will figure out how to do it. After all, the dts disks are run off of a 486 =) Think about it... Playstation games are nothing but data files. Nintendo games are nothing but data files. Hell, Audio CD tracks are nothing but data files when put into a computer. The files contained on DTS disks are nothing but data files. Now the bitch is not in the timecode, it's not in the processors (platinum live, anyone?) it is in the software used to decode it. Divx has been the most recent example. I can fit entire movies in divx rip onto one regular cd. It's pretty cool. They aren't of the highest quality, but they aren't bad, and they play on older PCs with no special anything, really. It can happen...
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-15-2001, 02:22 AM:
DTS discs aren't anywhere near as popular as DVD, so there aren't as many (if any) actual hackers working on such software. Can it be done on a common computer? Sure. Will it be done? Who knows, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The software would have to do a 2 channel mixdown from the existing 6 channels. "But my PC has a coax digital audio out for 6 channels!" you say? Great. Then the software will have to decode the DTS and re-encode each channel into Dolby Digital AC-3. By the time it reaches your sound system it will sound like crap.