This is topic DTS units and there drives in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 12-19-2009, 03:49 PM:
 
So here is the issue. Our dts6 decided that its drives were going to start to fail. So the company bought some cheap drives aka old used SCSI drives from a wholesaler. Those lasted 2 weeks. Then we got some drives from another dts6 that the company had but those are bad drives.
Finally I went out and bought 4 slot loading SCSI drives. Now they were cheap but they were also brand new meant for hp servers. The first set of these drives is going.
Why does a dts unit seem to chew through any drive that is not a dts drive, and can I make my 3rd party SCSI drives work.
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 12-19-2009, 04:02 PM:
 
Because the firmware could've easily been written in such a way that it only worked perfectly with the intended hardware.

On the other hand, at least with the 6D (I'm not sure if this applies to the 6) they have a DVD-drive upgrade kit that includes an IDE-to-SCSI adapter. So now if you had a drive fail, it could literally take any old IDE DVD drive. But of course 6D isn't 6 so this might not help you.
 

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Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 12-19-2009, 05:46 PM:
 
I think they do have the upgrade kit for the dts6 I would we could get an xd20. 9 Theaters and only one broken dts unit.
 

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Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 12-19-2009, 06:02 PM:
 
That SCSI to IDE kit is same for DTS6 and 6D machines. I did asked dts tech support for it, too bad they don't longer support that units, but there is some out company that do it for them, I send them mail only still no replay.

Even....newer figured whay they didn't just replace SCSI controller with IDE one and make new firmware that thing can go....
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-19-2009, 07:13 PM:
 
Yes, Computer Spirit is now the parts source for those drives. I believe this company also built all the DTS units for DTS... They also put together the upgrade kits back when they were available. Like any computer item the older it gets the harder it is to keep em going.

Mark
 

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Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 12-19-2009, 08:14 PM:
 
In my personal experience DTS Toshiba drives have no special firmware. I compared the firmware between a retail unit and a DTS unit and it was the same (at least the SCSI card showed the same firmware version).
What I found testing several drives of different brands, is that they work but with no reliability. Only the same type of drives work flawlessy. I think you just have to find on the market the same model of drive, and try them. Of course they must be brand new.

Or you simply could buy the SCSI/IDE adapter
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-19-2009, 08:37 PM:
 
It is a firmware issue with the drives's firmware has to be all the same to match the SCSI controller.

And forget about doing IDE controller with HD/IDE drives,et. al. - units pretty proprietory with SCSI
 

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Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 12-20-2009, 03:32 AM:
 
To bad dts had there head up their butt when they built these things. Dts will sell the drives for a few hundred bucks.
Any idea on part numbers / cost of the ide upgrade kit.
does anyone have a number for computer spirit?
 

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Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 12-20-2009, 03:36 AM:
 
You are better off making an exchange for an XD20 unit. It will eventually be cheaper.
Demetris
 

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Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 12-20-2009, 03:45 AM:
 
I would love an XD20 I would love 4 of them does anyone have info on this trade up program.
 

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Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 12-20-2009, 07:16 AM:
 
I speak with Adam McDonald but that's for the European region. I am not sure of the US region.
Demetris
 

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Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 12-20-2009, 08:41 AM:
 
From memory, their upgrade kits were around $250. We upgraded the ROM chip in some controller and they used Acard SCSI-to-IDE adapters and standard IDE DVD drives.

Yes. The adapter cards can be bought off-the-shelf and they cost around $80, far less if you find them used (we paid like $35 for a few). They need to be above a certain revision, though. After installing the kit, if a drive fails (which they all eventually do), it's only a matter of getting another standard $25 IDE DVD drive in there and you are good to go for a couple more years.
 

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Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 12-20-2009, 12:36 PM:
 
Julio if I recall correctly the drives should not be above x16 speed otherwise they have a lot of fallbacks. That is the limitation of the DTS6D and DTS6 unit.
Demetris
 

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Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 12-20-2009, 06:02 PM:
 
Newer TEAC drives were 32x, reduced to 4x by software if I'm not mistaken.
Maybe with IDE DVD drives they can reduce speed without the need of a particular drive model.
When I fitted in SCSI 40x version of Toshiba drives (6401 instead of 5401 if memory serves) my DTS was NOT able to reduce their speed. Obviously the command sent to the drives was not compatible with 6401. Maybe with IDE drives it's no more an issue.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-21-2009, 01:21 PM:
 

quote: Michael Voiland

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does anyone have a number for computer spirit?

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