Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DTS XD-10 crashed after update installation

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-12-2004, 02:32 AM:

Last night I installed the software update that came from DTS into our XD-10.

Tonight, the machine would not work. The "Initializing...." screen came up as normal when I powered up, but that's all. 45 minutes later it was still initializing. Finally I shut it off (the back-panel switch too) and waited a few minutes, then powered up again. Same thing.

Called the DTS help line and talked to Karen. She said I could open the unit up and re-seat the boards but it probably would not help. (She was right, it didn't.) She then told me this was not serviceable in the field and we would have to get a replacement unit sent out on Monday.

And, the #%$ thing is one month out of warranty. #%$*&!

Karen did not think the software update had anything to do with my problem, but I'm wondering if anyone else had problems after installing it.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-12-2004, 02:40 AM:

Last night before your shows or after? That is, has it worked at all since the update?

I'll bet a nickle that it had eveything to do with the upgrade.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-12-2004, 03:05 AM:

Did you try to load in the software again from a cold boot. Even if that does work all your settings might be gone.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 03:15 AM:

quote:
And, the #%$ thing is one month out of warranty. #%$*&!

Oooooooooooooh, not good. A few years back I had a unit that was just out of warranty and the drives were failing. Karen told me in polite wording "tough shit" and I was left having to buy a replacement drive kit. Meanwhile of course, dts was sending out bazillions of drive kits to the mega-chains free of charge. Gotta love a company that screws the little guys.

If you get screwed into having to put any money into replacing/repairing that unit, even shipping costs, complain here and complain loudly. If the unit worked yesterday, but failed after doing their software upgrade today, it is the software update to blame.

Has anyone else successfully done this update to an XD10? More importantly, does anyone have a clue as to what this update is supposed to do? This wouldn't be the first time an "update" actually created new problems. (Remember all of the various timecode chips they kept sending out before they got it right with v1.46?)

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-12-2004, 03:22 AM:

It probably contains a fix for this here along with whatever other problems they've discovered to date.

Or maybe they added things to nullify this (possibly BS) program loading procedure detailed in the February 2004 Tech Talk newsletter.

Another example of why I usually sit on hardware updates for months or more if there's no problems with the hardware in question as it is.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-12-2004, 03:41 AM:

From what I've heard, this update is supposed to address piracy concerns. It appears that starting next month, the disks sent with prints will have piracy protection on them, and dts players must be updated before the new protected disks will play.

I'm worried that this will make it so that the players cannot read burned cd-r copies, thereby alienating individual print collectors and hobbyists.

The xd10 cd-rom update also includes software updates for the 6AD.
The 6D units will be updated automatically through the feature disks.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-12-2004, 11:15 AM:

And DTS-6 boxen?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 11:23 AM:

quote: Mike Olpin
From what I've heard, this update is supposed to address piracy concerns.

That's pathetic. Who in their right mind would want the audio to a feature, but not the picture? Also, what about all of the copyrighted trailers? I demand dts account for each and every single trailer disc, or the industry is bound to lose bazillions more every year just like Jack Valenti says. [Roll Eyes]

Besides, ANYTHING can be copied. It won't take long for someone to figure out a work-around to this new scheme of theirs anyway.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-12-2004, 11:31 AM:

No, Brad, I think their concern would be someone taking a PC and arranging to do the audio decoding (which of course they are only a licensee and not sole owner of) via software. In fact it's possible that such an arrangement might not even violate their rights if the decoding is properly licensed and the management & control is built into the dts.exe that is on their CD's.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 11:38 AM:

Doesn't matter Steve. Even with that scenario, there is always a work-around. All it takes is a brain-geek with a little bit of dedication.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-12-2004, 12:58 PM:

quote: Mike Olpin
I'm worried that this will make it so that the players cannot read burned cd-r copies, thereby alienating individual print collectors and hobbyists.

It would also stop a cinema which doesn't get DTS discs delivered along with their print from borrowing someone else's set and duping them. I've never worked in a DTS site myself but several people I know who do or did tell me that distributors failing to ship discs with prints is a big problem. At the moment they can get round that problem by borrowing someone else's set and duping them. But if DTS introduces a copy protection system which puts a stop to that, then I predict a lot more opening night screenings being in SVA only.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-12-2004, 03:26 PM:

quote: Leo Enticknap
It would also stop a cinema which doesn't get DTS discs delivered along with their print from borrowing someone else's set and duping them.

Why should anyone have a problem with that? The disks should have been in the can in the first place.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 03:47 PM:

I've done that countless times for other local theaters (and my own). It's mostly due to sneak preview screenings, where the theater doing the sneak forgets to put the discs back in the cans, circuits and occasionally the depot flubs up.

Remember also the not-so-uncommon "broken disc" issue too.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 09-12-2004, 04:54 PM:

Also, don't forget about running the film on several screens (projector to projector). You will need several sets of DTS discs. You know there is going to be a big mess when these discs come along, and not all DTS players have gotten the update. This anti-copy crap is going to be nothing but trouble. Sounds like DTS is trying to put themselves out of business, STUPID. I think they have the best system, too bad they want to force you to use Dolby Digital.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-12-2004, 07:40 PM:

If it's really to battle a "piracy issue" it's probably something stupid like a file layout/header change to combat the software decoder(s) talked about here.

Since all DTS processors use STOCK CD and DVD drives it is NOT POSSIBLE for them to incorporate a copy protection scheme on the disc itself, like Playstation discs.

I'll donate $100 to charity if I cannot copy a "new" DTS disc in under an hour.

Can someone send in some ISOs of the new update discs. I know DTS will send them to you free o' charge, but I'd rather just not call them. It seems they're always out to lunch when I call.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-12-2004, 07:46 PM:

What effect will it have on the older DTS6 players

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 07:57 PM:

Upon looking at the note that came with last week's set of discs, it appears that this only affects the XD10 and 6-AD units, not the dts6 and dts6-d units.

Here is the letter word for word...

quote:
Dear Exhibitor:

DTS is in the process of updating the operating systems for our various playback units. These upgrades are required to provide improved performance and support for future upgrades.

If you own a DTS-6AD or DTS-XD10, please contact Stacey Williamson at DTS, or your local DTS dealer to request an upgrade disc. Please e-mail Stacey at swilliamson@dtsonline.com or fax her at +1 818 865 2047. Please provide cinema name, mailing address, unit type(s), and unit(s) serial number if available.

Once DTS or your dealer is notified, you will receive one disc that contains the update for both the 6AD and XD10 units. This disc can be used in both players and multiple players. This is a relatively easy update that should only take a few minutes to complete. We believe the vast majority of projection booth personnel and managers will be able to perform the upgrade. If you have questions or require assistance, we invite you to contact your nearest DTS dealer or DTS service centers.

We kindly request that you complete the updates by October 1, 2004 and notify DTS upon completion via our website. Please go to www.dtsonline.com/cinema and select XD10/6AD upgrade button. Complete information form and submit. We greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Regards,
Michael Archer
Director
Cinema Division

What's the timeframe? 2-3 weeks? No biggie. Let's just wait and see what happens, then if it turns out this is really another anti-copy thing we can laugh as we share "how to" instructions on duping the discs out of spite for them being a pain. [Razz]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-12-2004, 08:59 PM:

quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Last night before your shows or after?

After. It has not worked at all since the update.

FWIW, I did not order that update as suggested in the letter quoted by Brad; it just came from DTS in the mail.

quote: Darryl Spicer
Did you try to load in the software again from a cold boot. Even if that does work all your settings might be gone.

The instructions said to wait until the unit was "ready" and then put the disk in, which I did, and then it said "update complete" so all appeared to be well. The next night, it never got past the "initializing" screen.

I tried rebooting it once, then tried inserting the update disk again, and it would not read the disk this time. Then I tried powering it up with the update disk in the machine, and it wouldn't read it then either. Just won't do anything except say "initializing."

Will report what happens tomorrow.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-12-2004, 09:02 PM:

It was the update, it's undeniable.

You just got treated with DTS' standard response, "It's your fault!".

...and it'd only be your fault if you didn't follow the directions with the update and shut the processor off part way though.

Do not pay them one red cent!

Posted by Kyle McEachern (Member # 2250) on 09-12-2004, 09:25 PM:

I think there are only two options. One, that it was the install (Most likely problem). The reason I say it's most likely (95%) is that before it started crashing, he restarted it and it worked fine, and assumedly, it booted up every day and had no problem. And then it stopped working IMMEDIATELY after the install, so it's almost ABSOLUTELY the upgrade. The only 5% other possibility is that there was a hardware issue that manifested itself right when he rebooted, or there was something wrong before that the update just exacerbated (But that would still realistically be the upgrade's part).

If DTS doesn't claim responsibility, then that's just absolutely ridiculous and they should be berated and laughed at by anyone who has ever had to upgrade and install software on a computer. Maybe throw some CDs at them too.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 09-12-2004, 09:26 PM:

It sounds like exactly like what happens after a bad bios flash.

Does this update the DTS' bios?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-12-2004, 10:19 PM:

Mike,

I would call the office tommrrow and talk to Clayton about this. Its pretty obvious that DTS should stand behind this problem.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 09-13-2004, 02:42 AM:

I noticed a lot of our 6d units have become very picky about the new DTS discs. There was a batch a few weeks ago that would lock the drive into "CD-Rom" light mode and not play any of the movie discs on like half of our units. I had to revert back to discs from the week before that, then skip ahead one week before the drives would behave again.

Its one of those things where I wish they would understand that if it isn't broke, don't mess with it!!

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-13-2004, 02:46 AM:

Huh. I noticed the same thing with the batch of trailer disks a few weeks back. We just took them out, and put in the prior weeks disks.

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 09-13-2004, 03:59 AM:

Yep. I meant to specify it was the trailer discs that crashed our units, btw.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-13-2004, 09:32 AM:

That was a problem with the trailer disk it's self. They had one for September 3rd that had a defect and they sent out a replacement for it.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-13-2004, 10:51 AM:

We never actually got the sep 3rd batch. This issue was in mid augest.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 11:45 AM:

It's highly likely that at least somebody will get a bad trailer disc in any given week. It's no different than the odd bad audio CD sold in stores.

Maybe that's why they always send me about 3 times as many discs as I need.

BTW, if a bad disc won't eject without rebooting the processor you're missing the AQRM update. Not sure what you're definition of "lock up" is. To me, it's the damn thing won't even eject. Otherwise it's just a read error.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 09-13-2004, 12:55 PM:

From a fax we received from DTS, it stated that upgraded software for any other units besides the XD10 and AD would be accomplished by an un-named movie sound disc is used.

Just like XP SP2, I'm going to wait on updating my XD-10's until I see if anyone else has problems.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 01:14 PM:

If that's true (and they're not just saying they're upgrading the 6Ds to make people happy) it's totally [bs]

. With DTS' track record of updates gone wrong they should never be releaseing updates on un-named feature discs. At least when you know you're doing an update you know the reason that the processor started acting up.

If they actually do this, they better at least make note of the update on the disc themselves.

Where the heck is that guy (Daniel Schulz) from DTS anyway? Did he get a gag order too? Maybe I hurt yet another manufacturer's / dealer's feelings for being hard on them for doing stupid things.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-13-2004, 01:26 PM:

Agreed with everything Daryl said.

If this 6D update is actually necessary to play back future disks, though, it will need to be included on every disk issued by DTS for the next few years, in order to accommodate screening rooms and smaller theatres that don't just book every mainstream film release.

Really, all of this nonsense is just more of an incentive to go with the Dolby system. A DA-20 purchased five or more years ago will still work perfectly well today, with the only "upgrades" being new exciter lamps for the cat. 699/700 readers (easy and cheap to do) and periodic alignment during regular sound service calls.

At this point--when almost every film with a digital track is playable in SRD--the only real need for DTS would be for venues which actually use capabilities which are unique to DTS--70mm/special venue, rear window captions, and descriptive narration for the blind. DTS does have a good system, but the Dolby product "just works" without needing much attention and the tracks are also recorded on more titles.

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-13-2004, 01:49 PM:

Brad,

In Italy many pirates takes the video from Internet because usually the movie is released in US months before us. Then the pirate Must go to a cinema to record the soundtrack or have someone inside the theater to record it.
Since now DTS disk are playable with PCs, the pirate has just to have a copy of CDS to have high quality sound!

Bye
A

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-13-2004, 05:14 PM:

You have to wonder how much DTS really cares about piracy. I mean, film piracy doesn't hurt them directly all that much. Playing devil's advocate I imagine the conversation between DTS and the MPAA went something like this:

MPAA: "You are the only digital sound format that can be copied bit for bit by film pirates while preserving all of the qaulity. You must stop this."
DTS: "But that's silly, you know as well as us that anecdotal evidence shows most film piracy comes from screener DVD's."
MPAA: "Fix the problem or one by one studios will stop releasing their movies in DTS until you do."
DTS: "Okay."

Obviously not an excuse for any poor customer service relating to upgrade problems, however, people who are criticising DTS for implementing the anti-piracy measures in the first place need to think about their possible motivations for doing it. I obviously have no inside information about how DTS works, this is just my best guess.

And Daryl, have you tried calling DTS and telling them how many trailer discs you need? We have 6 players and always get 6 discs.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 05:18 PM:

Like I care if they give me more discs than I need. Having the extras is great for when I get the odd bad trailer disc, or another theatre doesn't get theirs.

quote: Mike Olpin
From what I've heard, this update is supposed to address piracy concerns.

Don't think I'm picking on you Mike, but from where'd you hear this? So far there is no actual documentation from DTS on this.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-13-2004, 05:54 PM:

Karen called me back today and replacement unit is on assuming once the replacement arrives, I will again be a satisfied customer.

Mark: I would have called Claco first on this, but we didn't buy the unit from Claco (we got it from John Eickhof before he went out of business) so I decided to call DTS directly instead of saddling you guys with it.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-13-2004, 05:58 PM:

[QUOTE=Daryl O'Shea Where the heck is that guy (Daniel Schulz) from DTS anyway? Did he get a gag order too? Maybe I hurt yet another manufacturer's / dealer's feelings for being hard on them for doing stupid things. [QUOTE

As a matter of fact all DTS people did get a gag order from the DTS legal department. Rediclous as that seems its true.

Daryl, and you think you hurt someones feelings... I'm king at doing that but sometimes for very, very good reasons, and especially when it may boil back to very negative experiences with equipment/people. I much prefer to tell it like it is [thumbsup]

.

Mike, We are happy to assist you no matter where it came from.....

Mark

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 07:18 PM:

I think I've got half of a few auto maker suppliers pissed off at me for the same reason Mark.

Mr. Schulz posted two and a half weeks ago.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-13-2004, 09:59 PM:

quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea
With DTS' track record of updates gone wrong they should never be releaseing updates on un- named feature discs. At least when you know you're doing an update you know the reason that the processor started acting up.

Perhaps you missed the point there Daryl. If they let you know a certain movie will have an update on it and it crashes your system, then they get repair $$$ because you can't blame it on them.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
As a matter of fact all DTS people did get a gag order from the DTS legal department. Rediclous as that seems its true.

They should be more concerned about preventing their staff from screwing people over than any comments made on the internet. Believe me, the way Karen fucked me back in 2000 will never be forgotten. It's going to take a lot from them to undo that. Besides just take a look at the logic in Scott Norwood's post above. There is simply no reason to go with dts these days due to all of the nonsense with that format there is to deal with. You've got to screw with discs in general, plus scratched discs, and broken discs, and not getting discs, and having to copy feature discs for interlocking, and having to work around the stupid copy protection on the discs to be able to copy them for interlocking, and trailer discs changeouts, and dying cdrom drives and overly picky timecode reader stabilization and depending on which tech you talk to, crappy customer service. (In all fairness, I have dealt with a gentleman at dts by the name of Mike in the late 90s who was very helpful in the past on multiple issues and is the only person at dts I would ever deal with again.) Still though, Dolby just works. It always has and they support their products well. Mark my words, Dolby Digital will outlast dts in the long run.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 10:43 PM:

quote: Brad Miller
Perhaps you missed the point there Daryl. If they let you know a certain movie will have an update on it and it crashes your system, then they get repair $$$ because you can't blame it on them.

Perhaps you confused your point there Brad. If they don't let you know a certain movie will have an update on it and it crashes your system, then they get repair $$$ because you can't blame it on them.

quote: Brad Miller
Mark my words, Dolby Digital will outlast dts in the long run.

In mainstream cinema applications yes. It's asinine to even suggest that DTS will outlast a well established Dolby Laboratories. DTS isn't going anywhere though. The consumer & special venue market will keep them in business for a long long time.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 09-13-2004, 10:49 PM:

(Sorry this is so late.)

So, assuming the XD10 here is sufficiently like the CSS, if you want to know what's going on, just plug in a VGA monitor and watch what happens as you turn it on and where it fails as it boots.

If it's not obvious, you might need to tell it to boot into single user mode and then walk through the normal startup sequence by hand, rather than in an automated fashion. This is annoying to describe but easy to do if you're familiar with Unix...if it turns out to be necessary, we can walk you though it...

If anything goes wrong during the boot process before the dts software starts running, you won't see anything on the LCD display. Also, error checking isn't quite what you might hope for in a number of subsystem components...

Oh...and on the CSS, all old software versions are saved when an update happens, so it's just a matter of moving files around on the hard drive to back out from an upgrade. I expect the XD10 is the same (because they are very similar).

--jhawk

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 10:54 PM:

No point in that John,

quote: Mike Blakesley
Karen called me back today and replacement unit is on

quote: John Hawkinson
Also, error checking isn't quite what you might hope for in a number of subsystem components...

What's that supposed to mean? Are you suggesting that they're using the same error checking for the XD-10 as CSS units?

Subsystem components? Are you expecting to see error checking between software components in a non-safety critical highspeed realtime system. I wouldn't hope or expect there to be many at all.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 09-13-2004, 10:59 PM:

"No point in that John...Karen called me back today and replacement unit is on."

I know. But I thought Mike, and F-T might benefit from understanding what went wrong. (And also that future people with similar problems might understand that there are some things they can do before having to ship heavy boxes around.)

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you suggesting that they're using the same error checking for the XD-10 as CSS units?"

I believe they both use the same loadable kernel module. The versions I have seen can fail to load the kernel module, and then the dts application software fails in mysterious ways when it cannot talk to the module (device driver). That's what I mean by error checking.

I was told that this was going to be fixed, but I don't know if that actually happened.

"Subsystem components? Are you expecting to see error checking between software components in a non-safety critical highspeed realtime system. I wouldn't hope or expect there to be many at all."

Umm, see above, I think that makes it clearer? There's every reason to expect reasonable error messages and proper return values for predictable failure conditions.

--jhawk

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-13-2004, 11:00 PM:

Daryl, yes I was referring to dts cinema. Who needs video crap anyway??? [Wink]

And yes, although you knew what I meant to say, I typed it backwards. My bad. Pick a random member who annoys you and he/she shall be banned to make up for it.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 11:07 PM:

quote: John Hawkinson
I know. But I thought Mike, and F-T might benefit from understanding what went wrong. (And also that future people with similar problems might understand that there are some things they can do before having to ship heavy boxes around.)

I'm sure DTS would be even more interested in getting the NFG unit back in an un-tampered state so they can actually correct the problem so people don't actually have to put up with it in the future. It's probably the only reason Mike is getting an exchange past his warranty expiration. You are getting it for free, right Mike?

quote: John Hawkinson
Umm, see above, I think that makes it clearer? There's every reason to expect reasonable error messages and proper return values for predictable failure conditions.

Umm, see further above. We were talking about error checking of source data, not whether or not the software modules were well engineered when it comes to processing the source data. I may be dumb, but I'm not an idiot.

BTW, you infer that unpredictable failures don't deserve proper return, or state, values. That's ludicrous.

quote: Brad Miller
Pick a random member who annoys you and he/she shall be banned to make up for it.

I'll let you choose on my behalf.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 09-13-2004, 11:10 PM:

Plugging a monitor in and watching the screen is not going to change the state of the box ("tamper").

--jhawk

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 11:13 PM:

True, but this is:

quote: John Hawkinson
tell it to boot into single user mode and then walk through the normal startup sequence by hand, rather than in an automated fashion.

Of course if the monitor is VESA complaint or anything newer and the OS detects that, then simply plugging in a monitor _will_ change the state of the box ("tamper").

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-14-2004, 02:58 AM:

I'm not sure that 6D allows any type of "upgrade" by software... This upgrade should be compatible with all 6D unit and the only piece of equipment I saw in the 6D capable of a software upgrade is the new motherboard that has on the board I do not remmeber what kind of interface.
Older 6D has no software upgradable parts, I believe.

So when DTS says "upgrade by disk" I suppose that they will upgrade the dts.exe on the disk, do you agree?

Bye
A

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-14-2004, 08:38 AM:

What do you think the firmware chips are for?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-14-2004, 08:51 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
Really, all of this nonsense is just more of an incentive to go with the Dolby system. A DA-20 purchased five or more years ago will still work perfectly well today, with the only "upgrades" being new exciter lamps for the cat. 699/700 readers (easy and cheap to do) and periodic alignment during regular sound service calls.

Someone told me (can't remember who, now) that Dolby did issue software upgrades for their processors, but that the data was included in all feature film prints issued for a set period of time after the latest version came out; and that it installed 'silently' as that print went through its first pass, without the projectionist needing to do anything. This method is still a lot more efficient than the DTS way, though, and the only processors it wouldn't catch would be those in arthouse venues that only showed a Dolby digital film once in a blue moon, and then one which was very old.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-14-2004, 09:00 AM:

'tis true, but how many DA-10/20s or CP-500/650s get hosed by an update encoded in the track? Certainly far fewer than DTS. If DTS could be trusted to release flawless updates this wouldn't be an issue, but alas, they cannot.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-14-2004, 10:47 AM:

Actually, the DA-10 did get hosed by updates. It would take one update okay...when the second one would try to download...it would crash.

Steve

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-14-2004, 02:40 PM:

What Firmware chips? I believe that all Firmware chips installed in the 6D units are not flashable. Am I wrong?

Bye
A

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-14-2004, 04:41 PM:

Where do you think the CD updates get loaded to?

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-14-2004, 05:25 PM:

Daryl,

I think that there is no update on CD for 6 and 6D. Update for XD10 and 6AD is a different thing, the unity has been designed in these years and are fully flashable, from processing to DSP.

I do not believe that there is something flashable in 6D players. To upgrade the TC software you have to change the IC...

So, I believe that DTS with "update" mean the update of the DTS.EXE file on the cds.

Bye
A

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-14-2004, 05:33 PM:

Wow, I'm striking out today. I had 6AD stuck in my head for some reason. [Embarrassed]

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-14-2004, 05:59 PM:

You were revolutioning my knowledge of 6 and 6D!!! [Wink]

Bye
A

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-15-2004, 03:50 AM:

quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea
You are getting it for free, right Mike?

It arrived today and works great. Thanks to DTS for handling this matter quickly and getting us back in the digital sound business! [Smile]

[ 09-16-2004, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 09-15-2004, 12:48 PM:

As far as the DTS-6Ds go; am I incorrect to assume that they aren't really updating, there is just a newer version of the dts.exe bootable software that comes along on each disk?

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-16-2004, 10:47 PM:

I don't get to use DTS that often in my situation (screening room) but overall I like it. It's a robust system and a time coded print can drive all manner of different format playback systems if need be. Likewise anything that can carry timecode can drive it such as 16mm. I've not heard of someone doing Super 8 DTS but it's hypothetically possible. Likewise they are the only supporter of 70mm and that's probably not exactly a big moneymaker for them. And they have been very generous in their support of Ebertfest and its venue, Champaign, Illinois' Virginia Theatre.

But if they did something that would obsolete their existing base of older players...hmm...that would be bad.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-16-2004, 10:51 PM:

I have actually wanted to get a Super8mm print from Derann Films and record timecode on it. They have many full length features available. I figure I would use track 2 for the timecode and leave track 1 as a basic analog mono backup. [Cool]

I got the update disc in today. It states that it is for the 6-AD and the XD-10 only. People with regular 2 and 3 drawer dts players need not concern themselves.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-16-2004, 11:32 PM:

There are also a rather impressive list of bugs and updates associated with the firmware update...including some processor switching updates, CSS (subtitling stuff), port control of COM1, activation of the S/PDIF connector (which would be really cool if there was an internal AC-3 decoder).

They don't really mention the security update other than to say some discs in the future may need the update in order to play.

Steve