This particualar theatre uses ultra-stereo js-200 for our stereo processing, and also uses portacle dolby digital and dts units which connect to the ultra-stereo through an interface.

The problem we have is that when we hook up out dts, the ultra-stereo will switch from stereo to digital as soon as something tht is on the disks for that particular feature is read.

The only problem is, when that trailer is over and the next trailer (or one of our snipes) that does not have dts is played, the ultra-stereo switches back to stereo/sr instead of stereo, regardless of how the automation on the projector is set, which results in a theatre with no sound.

To save you the trouble of having to ask the question "why would you want it to go into stereo when almost all prints are encoded with sr?" the answer is i dont know.
the system is set up so that all the analog aound plays through either the stereo or mono buttons, and in the case of dolby digital or dts, the digital button.

So my question is, how do we set it up so that when the dts quits reading for whatever reason, how do we make it default back to stereo instead of sr?

Also, in order to switch the sound to digital for dolby digital, we have to put a cue at the beginning of the feature and set the automation on our projector to do so.
Is it possible to set things up so that the dolby digital kics in automatically and switches back to stereo when a non-dolby digital clip goes through so we can play our trailers in digital when we play films in dolby digital?

There could be two separate cables going from the DTS to the USL, or there could be one ribbon cable that branches off to two places on the USL.

One of those connectors (be they individual cables or branches of the ribbon cable) goes to the sound input of the processor. The other one goes to the automation inputs. This second one is the one you want to look at.

Is it a single PC board that just screws into the terminals? OR is it a PC board that has wires comming from it which are connected to the automation input terminals on the backplane of the USL?

If you have the second one, you're in luck. Just switch the wire that goes to the "SR" input to the "STEREO" input.

If the DTS is forcing the US to SR and you don't have SR cards, then look at the logic interface board between DTS & US. If you have a DTS-6D (3-drive unit), you should be using the D571. On this board is a jumper that steers the default (to analog) pluse to always go to "A-Type". See DTS-6D manual, page 47 (Sept28, '99). Once set, the US will always default to A-Type **EXCEPT** at show end - the DTS will still pulse the US to nonsync at show end.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

If this is the case, then you are at the mercy of the designer of the portable system. You may not have the DTS logic board to redirect the "SR" pulse to stereo. Futhermore, Dolby ALWAYS reverts to SR. How ever, there should be some sort of interface that does go to the "automation" terminals on the Ultra Stereo and the key is to move the signal to the Stereo terminal and not the SR terminal.

I know on our roll-around systems, we place a switch on the roll-around rack for DTS so the operator can program it for either A or SR fall back (our racks were designed in the day of the DTS-6, not the 6D). For Dolby, our racks had the DA-20 get a pulse on power up to have it look for digital so it would jump in when it had good signal. We also had a hidden switch for "A" fall back, just in case.

BTW, Brad is correct, that the later DA-20s CP interface module has "auto-digital" for those that want it and is programmable to retain the "only give me digital when I want it, DAMN IT!"

Steve