Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How Do I Compile A Custom DTS Trailer Disc?

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Posted by Paul Van Dusen (Member # 3640) on 02-20-2006, 11:55 PM:

Ok guys, I guess I should give some backstory first. Alright, i'm an Assistand Manager at a discount house, and therefore when we get our new DTS trailer discs they're completely useless to us since we're not playing trailers that are that new. So I had the grand idea to consolidate our backlog of trailer discs on to a handful of cd-r's, the only problem, i can't seem to find a way to decode them to pick off the trailers of movies we've already had. So finally on to my question, does anyone know of a way to do this effectively?

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-21-2006, 01:35 AM:

I believe this is impossible, unfortunately.

Not that a discount house would have an XD-10, but does anyone know if you can store multiple trailer discs on the XD-10 hard drive?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-21-2006, 10:03 AM:

Paul, please fix the subject title to clearly be descriptive of your question. The title "dts question" is not specific enough.

This thread will be deleted if this is not done within 24 hours. The rules are very clear.

Posted by Markus Lemm (Member # 3456) on 02-21-2006, 12:27 PM:

If you are looking to make a custom DTS Trailer Disc with only the trailers you want, I wrote a program that extracts individual trailers from regular DTS movie discs and DTS trailer discs. It creates a custom set of trailers that you can burn to a CDR. At my theatre we use CDRWs and make a custom DTS trailer disc with only the trailers we play every month. Most of the time there is not a single DTS trailer disc that contains all the trailers that we need so we have to use a custom made disc.

http://www.markuslemm.com/download/DTSExtractor.zip

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-21-2006, 01:06 PM:

Wow....good show, Markus. [thumbsup]

Now I guess now there IS a way to extract trailer tracks from DTS disks. Round of applause for giving us stuff that DTS won't. [beer]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-21-2006, 02:01 PM:

Very nice Markus!

Archived here.

Posted by Markus Lemm (Member # 3456) on 02-21-2006, 02:22 PM:

I just don't understand why DTS doesn't provide software like this. It can only be used by people in the industry and can only be used to make a better presentation.

Posted by Paul Van Dusen (Member # 3640) on 02-21-2006, 03:36 PM:

Yes! You are a god amongst men my friend! My other option was to put them all in a big cd wallet and printing out a table of contents. That would've sucked come thurday night trying to find a disc with all the trailers I needed. Again thanks man, you saved me a massive headache.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-22-2006, 12:12 AM:

Wow, I stand corrected. I'm still curious about the XD-10 though.

Also, did you crack DTS's encryption for their discs, or are the trailer discs not encrypted like the feature discs?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-22-2006, 12:21 AM:

"cracking" the DTS trailor disk formatting to create your own files my be in conflict with the copyright terms of their usage and someone offering rewrighting software may be in conflict with several US copyright laws under the millennium copyright act

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 02-22-2006, 12:22 AM:

You can load DTS trailer discs until the cows come home on an XD-10. It doesn't delete the other trailers already loaded.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-22-2006, 12:29 AM:

Gordon, looking at things realistically, this program of his offers a very useful tool that many theater owners need. Plus it is of files that are unplayable in anything except an actual dts deck with appropriate timecoded film print.

The studios have much more serious things to do rather than waste their time with something like this...which as I said, is a useful tool to improve cinema presentations for studio advertising (trailers). Freeware programs such as DVDShrink come immediately to mind in regards to software that WOULD be worth the studio's time to go after.

Posted by Markus Lemm (Member # 3456) on 02-22-2006, 02:07 AM:

My software does not 'crack' anything. It is simply a mass data transit tool. It just copies data in a raw format from one place to another. It does not use/decode DTS sound, it just moves raw data. It also happens to have a handy R14TRLR.TXT writer build right in. I don't include the DTS.exe file or any other copyrighted material.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-22-2006, 02:07 AM:

If I remember, that the DTS trailer discs are DOS based so the info on the discs can be seen in Windows Explorer, or any other file browser (like AcDsee32 and others..).

If one looks at the contents on the disc, the files (or trailers) are individually listed - only the filename is abbreviated, which isn't that hard to deciphre on what trailer is what.

I bet that each file can be extracted to a <DIR> that was made, then the files could be burnt to a blank disc along with the EXECUTABLE files needed to run the disc.

..just a guess, since I've never done this before. - Monte

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-22-2006, 02:54 AM:

quote: Gordon McLeod
rewrighting software may be in conflict with several US copyright laws under the millennium copyright act

One has to understand that when you are running a theatre and you are playing the picture, you ARE licensed to exhibit all the copyrighted material -- 1 sheets, standees, trailers on film, trailers on video on mulitple monitors all over the building, soundtracks for preshow music in the theatre, maybe in the lobby, commercials on the radio, etc. This can all be used in conjunction with your exhibition.

And let's also not forget, trailers are ADVERTISMENTS....advertisements for the product of the owner of the copyright. What possible objection could that copyright owner have for you doing what is necessary to run his own advertisement, which, if you have the print of the trailer, you have the soundtrack and by that very fact, you are licensed to play it. Besides, as Markus said, he's not hacking any security code (which, STRICTLY speaking, MIGHT violate the letter of the law -- now breaking any security system that's in place to protect copyrighted material, that in and of itself is a violation, or at least that's the one ruling that was handed down against 321 Studios about the legality of their CopyX software.

If Markus's program is just moving data so it can be played, how would that be any different than the analog red scanner "decoding" the optical track, converting it to electrical impulses and moving it from point a (sound processor) to point b (speakers)?

To put it another way -- if some horse's ass at a studio gets bent out of shape because a THEATRE is copying one of their ADS so that it will play BETTER in front of an audience, and he starts screaming copyright this or copyright that, then you know what? screw the bastard -- DON'T PLAY THEIR FREAKIN TRAILER AT ALL! In fact, send it back to his office in a used airlines barf bag. [fu]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-22-2006, 06:15 AM:

Don't forget that the DMCA is also in conflict with the Constitution.

(Personally, I don't like running trailers in digital sound, though...)

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-22-2006, 11:28 AM:

Why not? Many of the analog tracks on movie trailers are horrible. They're usually too loud and badly overdriven.

Usually when I hear a trailer in digital sound at a movie theater it is typically at a volume level more consistent with the main feature, not several db above it.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-22-2006, 08:29 PM:

The only reason I asked about the 'cracking' is because featrue discs are now encoded as to make it impossible to burn copies of them (as I understand it). So either the trailer discs don't have this same protection, or they were somehow cracked to get around it. From what you say, it must be the first.

Posted by Markus Lemm (Member # 3456) on 02-22-2006, 10:44 PM:

I haven't seen any encoding that would make it impossible to burn copies. If a standard CD player can read the DTS disc in a computer than it can always be copied. The last DTS discs I checked were 'King Kong' and 'Munich' and they read in a computer no problems.
When are these new discs coming out? and How do they prevent burning?

Posted by Paul Van Dusen (Member # 3640) on 02-23-2006, 10:38 AM:

If they're anything like what they used on standard music cd's a few years ago then there will be an encoded band on the edge of the cd that allows it to be played but not copied or ripped. It's kind of stupid though, i know people who have gotten around it by simply filling in the area with the encoding with a black sharpie.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 02-23-2006, 10:22 PM:

The sound files on the feature disks are encoded (encrypted) differently. Apparently this started around the time of Madagascar, Revenge of the Sith, etc. But you should still be able to burn working copies of the disks if you need to.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 11-02-2007, 12:26 PM:

It has been 616 days since the last post.