Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Princess Diaries 2 dropping out of Digital in the first 15 min. of the feature

This is topic Princess Diaries 2 dropping out of Digital in the first 15 min. of the feature in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-17-2004, 06:37 PM:

I've got a problem, and I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem.

PD2 likes to drop out of digital, but only in the first 15 minutes of the feature, the trailers run fine, and after that 15 to 20 minutes, it runs fine. I don't know what could be the problem, when the cleaner was applied, there was no problem. After that, we figured that it was the tension on the film before the gate, so we tightened the rollers on the topside digital sound reader, and still, it drops out. I have to wonder if it isn't the sound processor. We are running DTS-6D playback modules, with ultra sound js-2000 processors. The playback will register a time code, but will not play the discs, sometimes it doesn't even register the discs are there! [Mad]

I don't know what to do, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-17-2004, 07:48 PM:

I had a 6D come in from a customer today that they claim is doing the same thing. Sometimes plays back and sometimes not. Sometimes its like the disks are not evern there. They however are playing a different film and theor player seems ok. Have you tried playing another film with this system? Is it just this film that is giving you problems and was the last one ok? Have you checked the 4 volt time code reader adjustment?
The unit in our shop ran fine all day with the DTS setup disk and I am waiting for their time code reader to come in and check out.

Other possibilities are:
1. Bad CD Roms
2. Bad power supply that does after its been powered up a while(I've seen this quite a few times).
The fan is stalled in the power supply allowing it to over-heat and shut down. Look in the back by the air intake after the unit has been on and stops playing back.
Note: DTS says the fan cannot be replaced but thats a crock of [bs]

. They just want to sell you a 300 dollar plus power supply. I've replaced at least 50 fans in the last 2 years in 6's and 6D's!! Its a standard 12 volt brushless muffin fan available from any computer wholesaler for less than 10 bucks.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Greg Routenburg (Member # 1742) on 08-17-2004, 08:03 PM:

If it's registering time code then it does sound alot like a CD-ROM issue. Seeing as it's a 6D why not try playing the feature discs in Drives B and C to see if the problem persists. You might have a flaky A drive. The Reel 1 track on the CD could also be corrupt, maybe see if the disc looks physically damaged.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-17-2004, 09:29 PM:

Back in the good old days when DTS would post here, the solution to that kind of a problem was always "order a new reel." If it's happening for the 15 to 20 minutes in, I would guess that your reel 1 has defective timecode.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-17-2004, 09:41 PM:

The question is, during that first 15-20 minutes, do you have a solid timecode light or does it blink? If it blinks, but the rest of the film runs steady, order a new reel. If not, look into the cdrom drives next.

Are you still running off of the old Toshiba drives, or does this unit have Teac drives? If you don't know how to identify them, take the top cover of the dts6-d off and the brand name will be clearly stamped on the drives itself.

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-17-2004, 10:37 PM:

In response to your question mark,

The playback does not shut down, and yes, other films have ran fine, such as AVP, the villiage, The bourne supremacy, and so on.

Greg,

I looked at Disc A, and physically it seems ok, but I will try swapping the discs to drives B and C. Thanks for the suggestion

Brad,

The timecode is steady on, all through out the film. I will check into the Drives for you, but if i may ask, what difference does drive manufacture have, is Teac better then toshiba??

[Frown]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-17-2004, 11:24 PM:

If the timecode light is steady, it's not the reel. DON'T order a new one or you will end up getting charged for it!

At this point it is either defective discs or defective cdrom drives. The easiest solution at this point is to call up TES (800-99-FILMS) and request another set of dts discs. If they play, there's your problem. If they don't, then start looking into those drives.

The Toshiba drives are incredibly bad and fail regularly.

Posted by Greg Routenburg (Member # 1742) on 08-17-2004, 11:29 PM:

The teac drives are definately more reliable. You can tell if they are teac drives by the face plate of the drives. If you look at the front of the drive when it's closed, the toshiba drives will have an indented space the height of the tray on both sides. The teac drives will be completely flush around the circumference of the tray. If you find the movie plays fine in the B and C drives then it's probably time for an upgrade.

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 08-18-2004, 02:32 AM:

I had a time-code intermittently dropout on Collateral, 2nd reel. Thankfully it doesn't drop long enough to switch to analog, but another Collateral print I tried had even worse time-code problems. It was first for me.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-18-2004, 09:08 AM:

-Deleted due to double post.-

[ 08-18-2004, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gulbrandsen ]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-18-2004, 09:09 AM:

Steve,
If you do find out that you still have the older Toshiba drives in your unit then you will need to order the complete 3 drive upgrade kit from DTS. This kit also has the all important V 1.46 time code firmware update aside from the new drives and boards you will need to make the 32X or faster drives work properly. The last one I got from DTS had Teac CDWR drives in it, there are two LED's on the front panel of those.

All in all I'm willing to bet your DTS is fine and that you just have bad disks although it is also remotely possible a drive might have failed.
Mark

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-18-2004, 02:45 PM:

Also have you checked the disks for a fingerprint or other defect? Doesn't take much of a smudge in the wrong place to wreak havoc.

Posted by Scott Manley (Member # 867) on 08-18-2004, 08:52 PM:

Has anybody have a problem with Dolby Digital on Collateral?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-18-2004, 10:45 PM:

Collateral is tracking 0-1 in SRD here. For that matter, so is Princess Diarrhea. [Big Grin]

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-19-2004, 10:17 PM:

Thank you all for you suggestions, We are ordering new discs as per my request so the problem should be fixed fairly soon. Mark and Brad, just because I'm a gadget person, I'm still gonna look into those drives and suggest the teac upgrade. I think it will be well worth the money

[Cool]

Thank you very much [Razz]