This is topic DTS Backards Compatibility in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 01-19-2002, 05:00 AM:
OK, this may be a stupid question for me to ask, but I am going to ask it anyway.Is an old DTS Stereo disk (such as the orginal Jurassic Park) compatible to DTS-6 units? Many moons ago, I remember someone saying it is not.
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-19-2002, 09:44 AM:
It has been a long time so I am taking this from old memories. But if memory serves correctly, the first DTS units that came out when Jurassic park was released Had both capabilities. I think you had to set certain jumpeers on the timecode board and use a different output on the back of the unit that you sent the signal to your processor and your processor did the matrix conversion. The second generation DTS units that came out the following year, eliminated this capability.
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-19-2002, 10:21 AM:
Don't know if this helps or not, but... I have no problems playing any vintage disk, old or new, in my old 2 drawer unit. You'd think if there was a difference it would show up in forward compatability. I mean if they changed the disks somehow, I wouldn't think they would play in my relative antique unit.------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 01-19-2002, 11:19 AM:
I recently came across a single drive unit, it looks otherwise identical to the twin drive units we are all familiar with.Is this a DTS Stereo unit?? Could it be upgraded to latest spec?
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-19-2002, 11:27 AM:
There was an audio level change a few years ago. Technically, you need to recalibrate your SPLs to the old levels to play a "vintage" disc properly.There have also been dts.exe file updates built into the discs. Something about automatically flash updating the one in ROM, but I'm not entirely certain about how this one works, or if you can "backwards update" your unit playing a vintage disc.
(And then I realized that Paul is talking about the DTS Stereo discs and not the early DTS Digital discs. *slap* Wake up!)
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 01-19-2002, 12:25 PM:
Hi, Adam. Yes, it was the stereo disc for the old orginal DTS player. Hope this helps........
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-19-2002, 02:46 PM:
Discs labeled "6 track" are fully compatible with today's dts players.Discs labeled "Stereo" are completely useless unless you need drink coasters.
The dts units you are familiar with today are considered "6 track" and require 2 discs if the film is longer than 100 minutes. The discs labeled "stereo" are exactly that, they carry 2 channels of audio. The 2 channels outputted by the dts player were wired into projector 2 input and all HF boost was removed along with any noise reduction. (Obviously there are other ways to do it, but that's how I saw most were wired in.) As I understand it, this was a temporary thing from dts because of a shortage of cdrom drives back in 1993 to handle the incredible demand for Jurassic Park. Many theaters got a 6 track player along with a stereo player for the summer of 1993 movies. One stereo disc could hold something like 500+ minutes of 2 channel audio and was processed through the normal matrix card to derive the center, surround and subwoofer exactly like optical is today. When more cdrom drives were available, dts did upgrades to convert the older decks to 6 track playback and they stopped producing "stereo" discs. Thus, any disc labeled "stereo" is completely useless nowadays except for Pete's unit. (Pete, send that in to dts and get them to upgrade it to 6 track!)
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 01-19-2002, 03:34 PM:
My old theater got back "Jurassic Park" a couple years after it had been out and tried to play it on the 3-drawer DTS-6AD system, and the original 6-track discs that came with it would not load. They had to get CD-R copies that were formatted to work with the newer systems. Supposedly "Jurassic Park" is the only movie whose discs won't work on the 6AD's (and supposedly the old matrix stereo discs won't work on it at all).
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-19-2002, 06:28 PM:
A related question: Is every current disk playable on 6-track players of any vintage? What issues does a firmware upgrade address (besides possible drive replacement)? I would presume that since decoding is done in hardware and many other things can be addressed by the fact that the main software is on the disk itself that there is full back compatibility but it's never safe to take things for granted.
And if I plug in a keyboard, video card, and modem, pop in a CD/R with comm software renamed "dts.exe" can I get my email at the soundrack? 
Posted by Ray Derrick (Member # 1001) on 01-21-2002, 07:09 AM:
Only if you are with AOL.------------------
Ray Derrick
President/Chief Engineer
Panalogic Corporation Sydney, Australia
Phone: 61 (0)2 9894 6655 Fax: 61 (0)2 9894 6935
Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 01-21-2002, 08:54 AM:
Thanks for the advice Brad, I'll get on to DTS UK and get this organized. Means somebody somewhere is gonna get DTS for not a lot of £££
Posted by Karen Hultgren (Member # 395) on 01-23-2002, 12:40 PM:
Hi Paul,No, the stereo discs will not work in current units. We stopped making stereo discs many years ago. We did it for only a few films at our beginning.
Karen at DTS
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-23-2002, 08:42 PM:
Speaking of backards compatibility....Does anyone need the older caddys than held DTS disks? I was just about to toss 4 or 5 of them, but then I thought I'd ask first.
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-23-2002, 08:44 PM:
Yes please. I'll take all I can get.------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-24-2002, 09:10 AM:
OK, Greg, they're yours.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-24-2002, 03:29 PM:
I'm not 100% positive on this answer, but since no one else addressed it yet I'll throw in what I *think* is a correct answer to Steve's query.I know version 1.29 and 1.46 are the two current firmware versions dts is sending out. I heard 1.29 is for decks with the older (non-Teac) drives and card and 1.46 is for the new drives. However, I've heard of people using 1.46 in older units, even original 2 drawer decks, so only Karen will be able to answer that one.
Other versions caused lots of odd problems, like a split second of silence between reel changes and such. I wish I knew more about this to answer this question, but then again I also wish I knew what the different revisions did period.
All discs I've tested are fully backwards compatible though. If you have one of the current two firmware versions, you can play anything all the way back to Jurassic Park without problems.
Posted by Karen Hultgren (Member # 395) on 01-28-2002, 01:53 PM:
Brad, we are only sending out TCR firmware V1.46. Anything else is wrong.Also, all 6-track discs are fully compatible with current units. Even JURASSIC PARK discs.
BUT, stereo discs are no longer available and haven't been for many years. If you have an old print with "stero" discs and have a DTS-6 with the 2-track digital out still connected into a CP, you can get "stereo". But, why? Would't you rather have 6-track? We did very few film in 2-track digital (aka "stereo").
Karen at DTS
Posted by Karen Hultgren (Member # 395) on 01-28-2002, 01:55 PM:
V1.46 is used on the DTS-6 and the DTS-6D. They both use the same timecode circuit.Karen