Lots of DTS setup discs

[Javier de Blas]

Hello everyone! To get my dts set up working at home I asked a technician to lend me the dts setup disc from his days installing this system in commercial theaters. To my surprise, he didn't only lend me the set up disc. He gave me all his dts discs to test! Looking through the warehouse I see that I have a couple at hand that are not over there. So with his permission I made copies of all of them and upload them to drive.
Here you have them:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dMa13BC3TVhIznQu6YuJp8s8Bbr1fmP3?usp=sharing

Every disc data has an image of the disc attached.

I hope it's helpful and can be uploaded to the ware house so future cinema fans have an easier job setting up their dts systems.
(IActually, there're enough discs to do a complete setup in the warehouse, but who doesn't like to have extra gimmicks right?)

[Marco Giustini]

ah so cool thanks!
I wonder what the DTS 6/6D upgrade does. I'd imagine it's a BIOS upgrade for those "custom" motherboard they sourced to replace the old intel i386 motherboards?

[Javier de Blas]

ah so cool thanks!
I wonder what the DTS 6/6D upgrade does. I'd imagine it's a BIOS upgrade for those "custom" motherboard they sourced to replace the old intel i386 motherboards?

I think that the upgrade was necessary to play the later watermarked discs with .APX files instead of .AUD files. Non of the films in my collection have discs like that so I'm not 100% sure. But I'll inform in the future if I find myself in the situation.

Best regards, Javier

[Marco Giustini]

What are APX files? Are they by any chance the "discrete" aptx100 discs, where LFE and surround were not band limited?

uhm... maybe not as that would require an extra aptx100 IC in the unit, correct?

[Javier de Blas]

What you're talking about are SV or special venue discs. That's a topic I'm really interested in. The only thing I've seen about it is the article on in70mm.com . Indeed my DTS 6D has an empty slot for the sound processors that seem to fit the specification. But if I added that extra processor. How do you output those two extra channels? Soldering cables directly ? The output was pre-ready but it simply not specified in the regular manual? I don't know. Lots of mysteries about it.
APX files don't have anything to do with this the mixes on special venue discs are also on AUD files. For what I know (correct me if I'm wrong) APX files are basically the same files but watermarked for each disc. That way if dts found a copied disc somewhere they could identify from whom was copied.

Also, if someone has worked with an spcial venue dts setup please let as know more about it.

[Marco Giustini]

Many many years ago, it was DTS (Karen ) confirming that to add a discrete LFE channel, they just need to "add an IC" - I don't know if that would also require some other HW modification. But from a manufacturing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to create a board with an empty socket for an extra IC if that configuration could not be used in a relatively simple way. I'll take a look next time I have my 6D open.

Interesting about APX files, I was not aware the format had changed after AUE was introduced. And does that also work on 6 and 6D?

[Javier de Blas]

IMG_20260922_095056324_HDR.jpg Here's a photograph of my dts 6D from 98. As you can see indeed there's an empty socket for another APTX processor. (Sorry for the picture but is a pain to get that board out).
Also, looking at the manual it's is true that contrary to dolby not all pins that are not signal are ground.
output.jpg
"Right extra" sounds interesting by itself and the other empty ones may carry a signal too. If I get another broken 6D to get the extra chip I'll test them out. Thanks to David Ferguson's Time Code generator I could try my 2001 special venue disc not owning the film.
If I find anything in the future I'll let you know.

[Javier de Blas]

Many many years ago, it was DTS (Karen ) confirming that to add a discrete LFE channel, they just need to "add an IC" - I don't know if that would also require some other HW modification. But from a manufacturing perspective, it wouldn't make sense to create a board with an empty socket for an extra IC if that configuration could not be used in a relatively simple way. I'll take a look next time I have my 6D open.

Interesting about APX files, I was not aware the format had changed after AUE was introduced. And does that also work on 6 and 6D?

Same thing with APX. Non of my current films have discs with such files. But I do have data of discs with this kind of files. So again, a matter of testing them generating the timecode.

[Marco Giustini]

I never considered the idea of borrowing an aptx100 chip from my DTS-6 and using it in the 6D ?

The APX subject is intriguing. DTS is no more so that means the APX thing was baked in the players when they stopped the development but never used?

[Tj Hopland]

Wasn't there some switches that had to be flipped to switch between SV mode and 5.1? I seem to recall getting a SV unit and it 'not working' in 5.1 but after I was told they existed was able to open it up and flip em to get it into the diestired mode. This could have been a 6, not a 6D. 6's had the output transformers? It been just a few years since I spent a lot of time in these things.

[Marco Giustini]

turns out the SV manual is here on FT!

https://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/DTS6DSV.pdf

I don't see mention of switches, it seems like the software can detect standard DTS or SV DTS which is indeed a discrete 6ch system with all channels 20-20K frequency response. I'd imagine this is what modern movies also feature when available in "discrete" mode like the last Spielberg movie?

The output is the same - just that LFE is a discrete channel now. I'd imagine now that you have 6 discrete channels, in theory you could use them as you'd like. That is, it says "DTS Sub Bass" on it but you could wire a Centre-Top speaker if you want.

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