DTS DTS-6 Channels don’t sound balanced, Hear thumping noise when DTS print playing in optical

SYSTEM TROUBLESHOOTING

2.(continued) DTS digital movie defaulting to optical (analog) and not staying in digital.

•If the reader’s green LED is solid and the DTS still defaults, look at the lights on CD-ROMdrives themselves. They should blink sporadically when their disc is being read. If the drive light is on solid, this means the drive cannot read the disc. Try another disc.

•If the problem goes away, the original disc may be bad. Inspect disc and/or replace it.

•If disc needs cleaning, use a clean dry cloth to wipe off disc, wipe from middle straight out. Carefully place disc in caddy and close the door until it snaps in place. Load caddy into drive and try playing it.

•If disc is deeply scratched or marked, it’s not useable. Replace disc.

•If disc won’t play, replace it.

•If using a caddy, eject it from the drive and verify the caddy’s silver door opens easily. Carefully open the caddy door and verify the disc is OK. Be sure no paper is in the caddy. Caddy should close completely.

•Replace any bad caddy.

•If using a caddy-lessdrive, eject the disc from the drive and inspect it. Clean the disc if necessary. If deeply scratched or marked, it’s not usable. Replace disc.

•If the problem continues, the drive is bad. If the light on the drive comes on, it means it cannot read the disc. Cleaning the drive might help. Use a CD-ROMLaser Lens Cleaner (disc). This will clean off the laser’s window (lens) to the disc. If cleaning the drive doesn’t help, replace it.

•Be sure the theater is not using an old trailer disc. The DTS.EXE file on all discs should be current. Current EXE files slow down the speed of drives making the disc easier to read.

*Last resort is to force the CP to play in optical sound format and replace the DTS player.

3.Channels don’t sound balanced.

*If same in optical, not a DTS player problem.

*If only in DTS, check DTS SPL settings. Set SPL meter to “C” and “slow”.

Use DTS Setup Disc to test channel output in theater: Screen channels should be 85dB SPL, subwoofer should be 91dB SPL, and the surround channels should be 82dB SPL. The B-chain must always be adjusted first, then adjust DTS levels inside the theater.

4. Channel(s) are mixed together or coming out of the wrong speakers.

Force the DTS player to play in optical sound format by selecting either 04 or 05 and powering off DTS player.

*If channel(s) still wrong, not a DTS player problem. Are all amps powered on? Are they correctly wired?

*If the problem goes away, then play movie in optical until there is time to troubleshoot.

•Was DTS player moved? Is DTS JM21 (DTS-6) or ANALOG OUT cable (DTS-6D) plugged correctly into CP? Are cables pushed down on all connectors? Inspect DTS audio board and wiring.

•Use DTS Setup Disc to test each channel’s output from DTS player. Listen in theater to verify pink noise is coming out of the correct speakers. Use multimeter to track signal path.

•Verify signal outputs from DTS when disconnected from CP. Inspect DTS audio board and wiring.

•Reconnect DTS and verify channel inputs to CP and speaker amplifiers.

•Verify ground connection is good and that the correct ground is being used.

*If DTS surrounds playing mono and stereo is needed, verify DTS output is properly wired to CP.

•DTS-6, verify the 3 programming jumpers/switches inside unit (transformer board) are set to STEREO (all up). All switches down is for MONO surround.

•DTS-6D, verify DTS audio breakout board’s jumpers are correctly set and board is correctly connected to CP.

5.Hear thumping noise when DTS print playing in optical.

Sound head picking up timecode track. Sound head needs lateral adjustment until thumping stops. Thread up buzz track and make adjustments. A complete “A” chain alignment is recommended.

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