Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DTS Trailer Discs

This is topic DTS Trailer Discs - what to do with them in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 01-31-2008, 10:09 AM:

What becomes of the DTS trailer discs at your theater after they have been retired? Are you stacking them in the corner? Throwing them in the trash? Sending them back to DTS?

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 01-31-2008, 10:16 AM:

If you have any sub run theatres in your area you may want to give them a call and see if they have any DTS units. I am sure that they would GREATLY appreciate your old trailer discs! You may even be able to work something out with them where you can watch movies there for free if you miss something the first time around.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 01-31-2008, 11:10 AM:

You're kidding, right? Domestically, DTS will send trailer discs to anybody with a DTS player, first-run or sub-run. I can't speak to internationally.

--jhawk

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-31-2008, 01:39 PM:

instead of filling landfills with them, put them in a recycle bin for all plastics ...what I do with mine.

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 01-31-2008, 04:02 PM:

I was actually going to suggest shipping them to me - I'll pay for postage. Looking for any and all dates - in fact, the older the better.

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 01-31-2008, 04:53 PM:

Are the trailer discs readable by a PC as a standard type of DTS soundtrack? It's my understanding that the discs for the movies are encrypted somehow, but is this true for the trailers as well?

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 01-31-2008, 05:19 PM:

Movie discs and trailer discs are structured the same. The audio must still be played back through a DTS playback system - the difference is Trailer Discs have 45-50 trailers encoded as a single Reel (R14), with each trailer having a unique serial number. The disc includes a "play list" which lists the serial numbers and where the audio for each is stored within the 'reel'.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 01-31-2008, 07:22 PM:

I found some hacked up winamp plugin that allows stereo playback of files from a DTS disc.. wouldn't do much good, though without any way to sync to the projector.

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 01-31-2008, 08:34 PM:

I'd be interested in extracting the 5.1 audio (and converting to DVD-compliant DTS or Dolby) for the use of syncing to trailers myself (off of DVD, Quicktime, or what have you) that weren't transferred in 5.1 for whatever reason. The fact that a plugin like that exists makes me hopeful.

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 01-31-2008, 11:29 PM:

Unfortunately that won't work.

I've never figured out how that plugin works - and while it will still presumably work on the trailer reels, the feature reels have changed to prevent just that very thing.

In addition, the DTS format on film and that used on LaserDisc, CD and DVD is completely different, and the home decoders will not be able to play it back.

Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 02-01-2008, 09:04 AM:

Does anyone have any old DTS trailer discs or DTS discs for that matter from the early to mid 90's? I'm looking for a coming soon snipe that has a DTS track but I don't have a disc for it...

Thanks

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-01-2008, 09:16 AM:

This may be a silly question, but will DTS send out older trailer disks to theatres that book repertory programming? If I wanted to show a trailer for, say, Lord of the Rings in advance of an upcoming booking, is there a legitimate way to get the disks for the trailer, short of asking theatres to look through their junk piles?

Personally, I don't play trailers in digital, but I would hope that DTS would have the means to accommodate such a request.

As a side note, DTS has also been known to send out trailer disks to theatres that don't have and never did have DTS. I know of one theatre (without DTS) that had a difficult time getting them to stop sending them trailer disks (this was in the late 1990s; perhaps things have changed).

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 02-01-2008, 09:49 AM:

Well J Hawk I havent worked in a sub run for over ten years but I remember that we were luck to get our hands on anything! Posters, trailers etc... I beleive the owners of the theatre had a similar deal as I mentioned with a first run theatre to get trailers and posters so I figured that DTS trailer disks would have been the same but now I know better! Thanks!

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-01-2008, 11:17 AM:

Oh, soooo right you are Sean....I have been in repetory all but the first 5 years of my booth career and getting publicity material is like getting root canal without any pain killer. 1-sheets...forget it.

Years ago there was an outfit in Texas, Consolidated poster I think. They were a gold mind for older posters. Then they went belly up. The only other place I've found that has older posters is a place in NYC, but they are catering to the upscale the collectors -- you know, the crazies -- so if you want a poster, say of the original WAR OF THE WORLDS, you better have $300 to $500 to buy it from this outfit. So that's out of the question. I will be playing PERSUASION on Monday (Sony Classics), do you think there is ANY material available for this 10 yr old film?

Luckily for me, the color inkjet printers today have a feature called TILE. They let you print big posters from computer images. I just did one of these for PERSUASION. I grab 1 sheet images or DVD jacket images off the web and put them in Photoshop and then outputing them to the printer and "tile" them as nine 8.5in x 14in pages....then get a cup of coffee and spend half an hour pasting them together to make a near-perfect 1 sheet. I've gotten really good at it -- step a foot or two away and you'd swear you were looking at one piece of paper. Still, what a pain in the butt. But we do what we gotta do. I have to have a budget just for color ink cartridges!

Hey, I am with Blaine, ship those trailers discs out to your poorer rep house brethern who have to scrounge for any scraps we can get our hands on. Hell, you wouldn't even need to have perfect sync....I'd be happy to just suck off the audio, put it into a powerpoint file with some artwork from the film (sucked off the imdb or such), just so I could put SOMETHING up on the screen. I used to even use those hokey Filmack "Trailerettes" --they were just a shot of the artwork from the film, usually the newspaper ad matte and some stock music on the soundtrack -- shlock to be sure, but I was glad to get even THAT. I think Filmack still makes those.

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 02-01-2008, 01:22 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
I'd be happy to just suck off the audio, put it into a powerpoint file with some artwork from the film

Any specific software that will rip/convert the audio from a trailer disc? Or is this directly readable by something like VLC?

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-01-2008, 08:15 PM:

Most of the art houses are Dolby Digital....what a concept! digital-on-film....no discs needed! Louis

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-01-2008, 09:23 PM:

quote: Mark Strube
Any specific software that will rip/convert the audio from a trailer disc? Or is this directly readable by something like VLC?

I am talking about down and dirty -- just play the DTS trailer disc in the DTS unit...record the trailer audio as regular analog audio off the processor. Nothing fancy. Edit out any lipsync dialog if there is any and just marry it to whatever images you can find on the internet. It's called - make your own trailers....it goes with - make your own 1-sheets! [thumbsup]

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 04-28-2008, 03:51 AM:

If anyone is in need of current DTS trailer discs, let me know... we just throw them out. I'd be willing to ship as long as shipping and packaging cost is covered. Just PM me.

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 04-28-2008, 10:29 AM:

I'll pay for postage any DTS trailer discs you want to ship to me. I'm particularly interested in older stuff, but will take anything prior to September 2007.

Posted by Mark Strube (Member # 4190) on 04-28-2008, 12:52 PM:

Sorry all I've got are discs for current trailers. Right now I have 2 copies each for April 25, April 18, and April 11.

[ 04-29-2008, 02:22 AM: Message edited by: Mark Strube ]