This is topic DTS and Policy trailers in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 04-04-2002, 02:11 AM:
I think i know the answer, but i'll ask anyway.How do policy trailers play on DTS setups.
Will it just drop out to analog like all the non-dts trailers, or does the DTS trailer disk also contain the policy trailers for different theatres?
I have heared a DTS drop to analog using an Ultra-Stereo processor, and the audio quality is almost unlistenable. I imagine it will drop to analog when the policy trailer roles through, but I cant fathom that the theatres would allow their policy trailers to be playing in analog.
(edited 4-18-02 by Mike Olpin to remove location info.)
Posted by Josh Kirkhart (Member # 1046) on 04-04-2002, 03:46 AM:
The Regal Policy trailer DTS codes are not included on Theatrical discs. Come to think of it, I am not sure they have code, don't remembar ever seeing that little green light. They do have a nice sr, dolby digital and sdds output. We also run half of our sound thru Ultra stereos. They do drop out of dts and run in analog (the stereo button on the console). Have your consoles been check on, balanced and such. I believe Dolby processes the signal better than Ultra, but in stand alone the sound should only be a bit less crisp. If your sound levels are low in analog, I would have a tech come out and test and calibrate your system. If your analog does sound that bad , why have you not requested service before. Not all of your trailer could be in DTS, especially not your PSA's.
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 04-04-2002, 11:58 AM:
I don't know about Regal in particular, but I would be surprised if most people making policy trailers go that route (I don't know what DTS charges to include policy trailers on their trailer CDs, but I assume it is not a fixed one-time cost like having SRD or SDDS put on your print would be). But there are usually some policy-type trailers on DTS traier discs. Exactly what seems to vary over time, and does not always match up with what is printed on the dics.For instance, the April 5th dts trailer disc claims to have (according to the artwork):
DTS Sonic Landsacpe
DTS Digital Experience
THX Cavalcade Trl
THX Broadway
THX Grand
THX Tex
THX Tex II
Kodak Men in White
Kodak Million Hours
The disc seems to have:
code:
No FILENAME SERIAL TC's MIN:SC:FR Feet.Fr FILE LEN
-- -------- ------ ---- --------- ------- --------
01 dtssonic 735 810 0:27:00 40.08 2,976,750
02 dts 1045 1200 0:40:00 60.00 4,410,000
03 thxbrdwy 15 1140 0:38:00 57.00 4,189,500
04 thxgrand 56 1170 0:39:00 58.08 4,299,750
05 thxtex1 71 1440 0:48:00 72.00 5,292,000
06 tex2moo 257 1230 0:41:00 61.08 4,520,250
07 thxcavtl 1404 1068 0:35:18 53.06 3,924,900
55 menwhtrl 890 1860 1:02:00 93.00 6,835,500
56 kodktst1 914 1890 1:03:00 94.08 6,945,750
57 sil2sec 0 70 0:02:10 3.08 0,257,250
that seems to match up 1:1 ("sil2sec" is on every disc, two seconds of silence). My notes say that these policies have been on past DTS trailer discs:simpsons
tex2
cinemtrl
cineimax
timesliv
jbllogo
pepsiacd
pepsihot
pepafi.0
pepaf.0r
startrlb
wilrog99
I believe "cinemtrl" was a Cinemark policy, but I could certainly be wrong.
Incidently, the above formatted list came from "preview.txt" instead of "r14trlr.txt" on the DTS disc. I only recently noticed those on there. Does anyone know when they started being added?
I assume it's used by the display on the 6AD, though it seems
pretty weird, since all the fields in preview.txt:
code:
No FILENAME SERIAL TC's MIN:SC:FR Feet.Fr FILE LEN
can be derived from the fields in r14trlr.txt:
code:
;NAME SERIAL START END OFFSET
--jhawkp.s.: Hey Brad, is there some way to format text in <PRE> in UBB, so tables like the above don't look so bad (other than as an inlined image)?
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-04-2002, 12:07 PM:
What is the Kodak men in white and million hours all about? are they some of kodak's demo films?Josh
------------------
"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 04-04-2002, 12:08 PM:
Those are the Screencheck trailers...--jhawk
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-04-2002, 03:12 PM:
To format in preformatted type, use the code and /code tags.
Posted by Michael Rourke (Member # 1142) on 04-04-2002, 06:07 PM:
To Mike: One thing you could do about the sound is to clean the optics on the soundhead. Use lens cleaner on a q-tip and clean the Exciter bulb/LED, both sides of the slit lens and carefully clean the cells.This is important to do before adjusting levels on the Ultra Stereo unit, because if the optics are not clean the noise level will be too high when the unit is correctly adjusted.
Posted by Karen Hultgren (Member # 395) on 04-04-2002, 06:42 PM:
Looks like John has got it covered.Karen at DTS
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-04-2002, 07:44 PM:
I'm pretty positive the most recent Cinemark policy trailer (the one they just stopped using and which is about to be replaced with a new one) usually played in digital on their DTS screens. For one thing it exercised the .1 LFE channel hard. It was painfully obvious when the trailer played in analog.
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-04-2002, 08:10 PM:
Carmike Cinemas' policy trailer is included on most DTS theatrical release CD-ROMs. It is kind of a cheezy trailer, but the "Carmike Across America" part of the music is kind of nice in that it rotates around in the surrounds.
Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 04-05-2002, 04:56 PM:
Thanks for all the info!
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 04-05-2002, 10:43 PM:
Yes Cinemarks old policy trailer was on the disc but not always.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-06-2002, 11:24 PM:
When it comes to polcy trailers on DTS disks, basically some are on there and some aren't. Unless you can put the disk in your computer like John did, the only way is to try it out and see. Cinemark has had DTS trailers on and off for a while now. Even then, some disks that we THOUGHT were supposed to have them didn't and ones we THOUGHT weren't supposed to did. Like I said, try it and see.Your analog sound shouldn't be THAT bad, compared to digital. You have a problem there, somewhere.
Stupid question... apology in advance... When was the last time you cleaned the lens in the sound head? Crappy lenses can lead to REALLY crappy sound. It's an easy thing to forget.
Ultra*Stereo processors may not be the best processors (opinions vary) but they aren't THAT bad. Properly calibrated, and with a properly adjusted A-Chain in the projector, you ought to be able to get decent sound out of them.
DO call your theatre's technician and tell him the problem. Unless you have some major problem, he should be able to get your sound back to the way it should be in one or two evening's work.
It's easy to do if you have the equipment and know-how.
You'll be surprised at the difference... Besides, your customers deserve it. 
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 06-30-2002, 09:41 PM:
Bumping this up for the guys at Annacoutes(SP?).Josh
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 07-01-2002, 01:10 AM:
We just recently got new policy trailer about a month ago, and of course we are only a 4 theatre chain so we are probably not on the DTS discs. But the trailer discs for last week had our policy music on it. The ones this week didn't. I tried to check what trailers were different on the discs but they seemed to be the same. It was kind of weird and kinda messed up our cue stuff hehe.
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-01-2002, 10:27 PM:
Policy trailers are an in and out problem with our one DTS system. The Marcus policy trailer will cause one of three things to happen: 1. Default to SR with our CP65 and not return to Digital
2. Lose timecode and go silent until the feature starts, at which time it plays in SR
3. Default to SR, return to digitalI've found that it depends on the print. Lilo & Stitch pulls a #2, Changing Lanes did a #1, and Episode 2 did a #3.
The solution, in my opinion is comprehensive cues for sound format changes, but in the absence of automation, or within the supply of cue tape, there's room for other options.
I'll be interested to hear any solutions that anyone's come across.
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-01-2002, 11:23 PM:
Seems that if you have a disk that has your policy soundfile on it, and then run into the problem that newer disks do not, why not copy the your policy file from the disk that contains it to a PC hard drive. Then when disks come in where it is missing, just burn all the files on the the new errant disk, but add your policy file to it. Now you have a copy of the current disk but it will contain the policy trailer soundfile as well.
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-01-2002, 11:34 PM:
The point you are missing, Frank, is that all trailers (policy and otherwise) are in one file, and it is less than completely trivial to pick apart the file and extract individual trailers.--jhawk
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-03-2002, 03:52 AM:
Ah, I see. No doubt the software that compiles that file is DTS proprietary, right? If the compiling software were available, we might be able to deal with it (recording all the trailers that would be needed and then compiling all the audio files including the policy trailer). Seems more trouble than it's worth though, given how good a well calibrated analog system playing SR can sound. Besides, us art houses folks are too poor to be able to afford custom logo snips with DTS tracks in the first place.
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-03-2002, 09:17 AM:
Bleh. I just bothered to go look at the URL I kept pointing people at, and discovered that somewhere along the way, the configuration of the web server changed and it no longer attached or displayed the README file. 
This would have made things unnecessarily cryptic--fixed.Anyhow, my software is here.
Frank, DTS's software to create trailers is proprietary. My software will let you shuffle around individual trailers within the monolithic file, so you can combine and seperate trailers from individual discs. That's the whole point .
--jhawk