Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DTS XD-10 delaying sound changeover

This is topic DTS XD-10 delaying sound changeover in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-14-2005, 01:38 AM:

Our XD-10 has developed the habit of not switching to the next reel's sound fast enough. When the splice goes through, it continues to play the sound from the outgoing reel until the BEEP is heard, then it instantly switches to the incoming reel.

It doesn't do this all the time -- when we screened ROBOTS the other night, the sound played flawlessly through the whole movie. But on our last show tonight, I heard that damn BEEP three times, after reels 1, 3 and 4. Anyone else experienced this, and any suggestions?

(We use a platter, so there's no possibility of changeover issues. Our audio processor is an Ultra Stereo JS200 series. And the software in the XD-10 has been upgraded.)

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 03-14-2005, 09:51 AM:

I had this issue with an old reader. The LED was poor so that at each reel change the player didn't receive the new timecode and proceed with the end of file that contains the "beep".

I would check for the RED voltage and the installation of your reader before.

Remember that if the reader is brand new it is very possibile that the LED voltage has dropped a lot after the first months.

Bye
A

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 03-14-2005, 01:29 PM:

As Antonio stated the voltage of the LED could be too low to read the timecode.
However, if the timecode is dropping out you should see the green light on your TC reader switch off.
Is it doing this?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-14-2005, 01:35 PM:

No, the light is nice and bright. No dropouts back to analog at all -- it just takes an extra second to switch reels.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 03-14-2005, 06:13 PM:

The DTS player will keep playing for about 5 seconds without time code, before it switches to analog. If there is a problem at the splice, and it takes a little time to start reading time code again, you may hear the beep.

Try cleaning the LED, and the lens. Check the GAIN adjustment in the reader (R16). Do not shine any light into the reader while making this adjustment, it can affect the reading. With all due respect to DTS, This is NOT adjusting the LED voltage. The red LED is feed from the 5 volt supply through a 360 ohm fixed resister (R15).

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 03-15-2005, 12:55 PM:

Check trhe gain with a meter you would be surprised when you'll find it at 2V instead of 4V!!

However,
I knew just today that what you are describing is a known bug of the current XD10 software and it will be fixed in a couple of months.

I would check the reader too, however!

Bye
A

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 03-15-2005, 01:28 PM:

If it's a bug in the firmware, couldn't you just downgrade?
And what causes this bug to pop out? I've had no problems like this.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-15-2005, 02:12 PM:

I cleaned the reader and it still did the problem last night -- but just once this time.

Jeeez I hate intermittent problems.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-15-2005, 09:48 PM:

Check the voltage of your readers LED as per DTS.
Fix's many ills.
My Xd10 is not exhibiting these problems and has been updated as well.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-15-2005, 10:21 PM:

I doubt that its his reader adjustment. We check that on every service trip to his location. Have you called DTS yet Mike?

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-15-2005, 11:06 PM:

Mark - Not yet, I was waiting to see if things change on our next movie (which won't be until the 24th).

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-16-2005, 01:14 AM:

We saw this behavior -- once -- with a print of Motorcycle Diaries on a DTS-6D. Fundamentally, it seems like the DTS firmware should be able to prevent this problem.

We did not really have the opportunity to debug it at the time, but whether it was 2-pop on the head of the incoming reel or a post-tail sync-pop on the outgoing reel, the DTS encoding box should not be including that part of the printmaster on the CD. Or the decoder should know what the beginning and ending timecode for a reel really are, and not playback sound outside those bounds them without some special flag or switch (input via keyboard, DIP switch, or whatever).

Analog reversion or plain silence would be vastly preferable to those sync pops.

Oh, on a practical level, we had significant problems with the print this happened on drifting in and out of DTS, to the point where it was unbearable and we ran it in analog. Presumaby there is a correlation here. No flickering timecode lights, however, whatever that means.

--jhawk [edit: Motorcycle Diaries sted Monsier N. Sorry. ]

[ 03-16-2005, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: John Hawkinson ]

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 03-16-2005, 05:05 AM:

Mike

You should check the reader LED voltage, not only clean its lens. Follow the instruction on DTS' techcenter, it is simple.

And wait for the upgrade if it does not solve!

Bye
A

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-01-2005, 08:39 PM:

Karen at D.T.S. advises that this is indeed a software bug and will be fixed by the end of the month.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 04-01-2005, 11:37 PM:

Mike - if you had stayed with your good old DTS6 you wouldn't have these problems.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-02-2005, 10:02 AM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
Mike - if you had stayed with your good old DTS6 you wouldn't have these problems.

Jon,

Make up your mind man!! A while back you e-mailed me that the 6D unit I sold you when I was at GTS was now obsolete junk.... [Razz]

Mark

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-02-2005, 12:37 PM:

Jon: No, I would have had different problems (the ones that caused me to trade that unit in).

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-02-2005, 05:14 PM:

Did DTS tech support mention if they will be sending out the upgrade to everyone, or will they wait and only send it out for the people who complain?

What would be neat is if they could work out something so their upgrades come on feature discs, sort of like how Dolby Digital gets it's updates from playing a current movie.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-02-2005, 07:02 PM:

She just emailed that the fix would be available by the end of the month...didn't mention if it was going to be an automatic send, although that would make sense.

She did say that she could send me "the unreleased version" in the meantime, so I take that to mean it'll be released generally. So if anyone else is having this problem, by all means contact DTS.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 04-03-2005, 12:17 AM:

Mark - What I said was not that the DTS6 was junk, but rather that as a sales person if you knew (or had information that the general public did not)that DTS was planning to stop supporting the DTS6 unit in the near future, then that was something that should be communicated to a potential buyer - as it might influence which model that a buyer then decides to purchase.

I have always liked the DTS6 (I have two of them) and think they are just fine.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-03-2005, 08:55 PM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
What I said was not that the DTS6 was junk, but rather that as a sales person if you knew (or had information that the general public did not)that DTS was planning to stop supporting the DTS6 unit in the near future, then that was something that should be communicated to a potential buyer - as it might influence which model that a buyer then decides to purchase.

Yes, You bought your unit about 2 years before any of us had any inkling that support had about another year left(supposedly), then they went another 6 months, then they pulled the plug, now they have set up an out of house person/company to support them again. Some support is also available from New York.... Many dealers such as CLACO kept the trade in units and did not send the boards in. So it would appear that support of them has not really ever been discontinued has it? Now next year they could discontinue the 6D, and a year later the XD-10 to release the XD-11 if they feel like it. Also, the computer you use to type in these threads here is obsolete as well... so is mine.... So what! Sooner than later all your booth equipment will be obsolete and you may find that out with little or no warning at all. Then comes D-Cinema... talk about quick obsolescence with NO warning, thats the ultimate!

In Reality the DTS 6 is the best built DTS of the bunch, but it doesn't have the best D to A converters. The XD-10 has it beat in that department.

Mark

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 06-23-2005, 09:51 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
She just emailed that the fix would be available by the end of the month...didn't mention if it was going to be an automatic send, although that would make sense.

She did say that she could send me "the unreleased version" in the meantime, so I take that to mean it'll be released generally. So if anyone else is having this problem, by all means contact DTS.

Hey Mike, did you ever receive the software update that fix's this? I'm now having the "beep" problem on Batman.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-25-2005, 11:59 PM:

Brad - Yes, we got the patch and it fixed the problem. Just send an email to DTS and they'll send it to you.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-26-2005, 08:37 AM:

Good news Mike. Do you know what the upgrade is officially called?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-26-2005, 12:58 PM:

It's called "XD10 Upgrade Software" Version 1.01.17

Posted by Mike B. Smith (Member # 2829) on 06-27-2005, 10:55 PM:

Software version 1.01.17 update has been released and is available for no charge from DTS customer service. This version fixes the sync pop that may be audible occasionally between reels on the XD10. DTS does not automatically send out update discs but do their best to inform technicians directly or thru dealers. The DTS web site should have updates available but checking I see Karen has not yet made this one available. Brad, if you would like to add the latest DTS updates to the software section of the Warehouse send me your shipping address and I’ll keep you updated on the latest.

Posted by Ian Bailey (Member # 1752) on 06-28-2005, 04:10 AM:

It's only taken DTS 7months to work out that my two new XD-10s have a fault that requires a card change-the cards landed in the country last week-I suppose 7 months isn't too bad.Software upgrades-WHAT ARE THEY?Never seen one - never been contacted by anybody about them-Keep up the good work DTS.
War of the Worlds starts down here tomorrow-NO DTS discs have arrived in the country(I knew I should have listened to Brad!!)