DTS- Track Time Reading Question

[Jim Cassedy]

We're one of the theaters running the 70mm KILL BILL T-W-B-A for the next two weeks.
(All 4.5hrs & 9reels) My aging memory and lack time this week has me up against the
clock and I'm trying to remember if there is a way to read the reel running times
on the DTS 6-D without actually running the print? I thought there was a way to
step through and display them on the front panel display buried somewhere in the
menus, but I could just be 'mis-remembering', (to quote one of the Bush brothers)
I gave a quick look earlier tonight, but I'm also doing two other live Q&A events this
evening - - so my concentration was a bit divided between tasks and I didn't have
much time to muck around with the menus. THANKS!

[Michael Zarits]

I assume you're talking about the XD10, not the 6D. Afaik there is no option in the menu to display a reel's running time. It just can display the end time of a reel on the main display while the reel is actually running. However, you could insert the disc/usb into a PC/Mac and get the filesize of each reel. Divide the size (in bytes) by 110250 and you receive the running time in seconds. Alternatively if it happens that you have each reel tails out (or have access to each tail leader if it is plattered) it is possible to manually read out the timecode position at the LFOA.

[Jim Cassedy]

I assume you're talking about the XD10, not the 6D..

D'oh! Bad mis-typing on my part! I was thinking XD-10 but somehow
typed 6D, and yes, Michael, in retrospect I could have phrased my
question better, but it was a crazy night!
I was trying to remember if there was a way to see the 'end time' of
each reel, which is usually, but not always, the reel.'s running time,
on the front .panel display without having to actually run the print.
We run reels here, I can't actually see the second machine from my
desk on the other side of the booth if I need to do some work at my
computer desk, because a big Barco HDR projector blocks my view.
So if I need to work at my desk for awhile, I'll set a countdown timer
so that I don't lose track of time and miss a changeover. I guess I'll just
have to take reel-run-time notes with paper and pencil as I've done
in the past. I like your suggestion of looking at file sizes and 'doing the
math' to determine run time. I might try that just for fun when I get a
chance, but today, it's back to pencil and paper during the 1st show
if there's no way to reed reel times in advance.

[Ryan Gallagher]

D'oh! Bad mis-typing on my part! I was thinking XD-10 but somehow
typed 6D, and yes, Michael, in retrospect I could have phrased my
question better, but it was a crazy night!
I was trying to remember if there was a way to see the 'end time' of
each reel, which is usually, but not always, the reel.'s running time,
on the front .panel display without having to actually run the print.
We run reels here, I can't actually see the second machine from my
desk on the other side of the booth if I need to do some work at my
computer desk, because a big Barco HDR projector blocks my view.
So if I need to work at my desk for awhile, I'll set a countdown timer
so that I don't lose track of time and miss a changeover. I guess I'll just
have to take reel-run-time notes with paper and pencil as I've done
in the past. I like your suggestion of looking at file sizes and 'doing the
math' to determine run time. I might try that just for fun when I get a
chance, but today, it's back to pencil and paper during the 1st show
if there's no way to reed reel times in advance.

I vote pencil and paper.

This is a silly way (which my brain seems to be known for), and requires more effort than you have time. But if you have a 2nd/older phone/tablet that still works and can join the same network as your workstation, could slap it on some kind of mount and use a network camera app that supports NDI or any other streaming protocol, point it at the XD-10 LCD or whatever you need to monitor. Then could have a desktop window dedicated to watching whatever thing you need when at your desk. I only thought of this cause I just upgraded my phone (and kept the working one).

I bet there are cheapo used security type IP cameras if you preferred a dedicated bit of kit. Venue might already have some conferencing type cameras somewhere. Oldschool would just be a webcam and an extended USB or USB over cat5 balun. No network required.

From other threads it was also mentioned that it might be spitting out timecode on the serial port too, but that doesn't get you to a reel countdown necessarily without extra work and knowing the reel runtimes.

If runtimes are known, another silly approach is if your venue has any DSAN speaker timer kits? We store ours in the booth... I could be silly and set up a podium clock at each porthole and the big audience clock somewhere visible from anywhere in the booth, the control unit at the workstation (which also shows the clock). Talk about reel-end-alarm overkill. But it does have a beep function! But like you do, we all have perfectly adequate timers in our pockets.

Also rolling around in my head is an arduino based reel end alarm device, could just use a tachometer approach. Could be programmed with modes for the various formats, framerates, and core sizes. Hatke alarms being unable to cover to 70mm and larger cored 35mm. Would be an upgrade to bells potentially, because could have silent alarming modes etc.

[Jim Cassedy]

I vote pencil and paper.

There's an old story/joke about how on the first joint space station mission with
Russian and American astronauts, the American astronauts, with great pride,
pulled out some sort of sleek, fancy, high tech platinum ball point pen which
was designed to work in anti-gravity and extreme temperature environments,
and which took a couple of years and several million tax payer dollars to develop.
When they asked how the Soviets had solved the anti-gravity writing implement
problem, one of the Russian astronauts reached into his space-suit pocket and
produced a 10cent pencil.

I have, at various times considered a large mirror to see the far projector, but
even then I'd have problems with the sight-lines from my desk. I have also
considered a cheap, small, wi-fi camera, which I think would be the most
practical and do-able. Another idea is to have a small LED spotlight that
would cast a shadow of the reel on one of the walls, and allow me to see
appx how much film is on the reel. Or mounting the light so that the film
blocks it from my view until there's only several minutes left on the reel- -
but given the fact that I've already got enough work to do around here,
for now I'll stick with pencil-paper & timer rather than create more work
for myself "trying to re-invent the wheel.'

[Michael Zarits]

While a reel is running, the front display can show the total running time of the reel. Would be an interesting project to grab the data from the front panel and feed it into a Raspberry that automatically sends a Telegram message to your phone (which conveniently forwards the message to your wrist watch) 1 minute (or any defined offset) before the end of reel is reached.

DTS files do not end at the LFOA, instead there is at least a 2 sec overlap to the next reel + a few seconds silence until the file finally stops. So 1 minute before end of "file" is actually about 50-55 sec before LFOA.