DTS-CD $99 Creative DTS external ENCODER!!

Wow! What a strange product!

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=207&product=14191

Sounds interesting. I wonder if there's a cable limitation as I need about 30 feet to get from my PC to my receiver. Luckily I'm on a crawl space so I can drill holes in each room and run the cable under the house. That's how I have my remote speakers wired.

Barry

JonUrban said:

Wow! What a strange product!

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=207&product=14191

Click to expand...

The web page does not give much detail. For instance is the output .waw or .dts (so called "little endian" and "big endian")? When you connect the analog, is there a way to set levels or is there a built in compressor? (I presume the latter, regrettably). Otherwise it is an interesting device at a very reasonable price for making quick DTS copies of any type of multichannel analog.

Creative Labs?
Odds are very high it will be DTS files, not DTS-WAV as most Creative Labs products seem to all use a 48KHz sample rate.

neil wilkes said:

Creative Labs?
Odds are very high it will be DTS files, not DTS-WAV as most Creative Labs products seem to all use a 48KHz sample rate.

Click to expand...

I sent them an e-mail to get some info, I will report back when/if they respond.

Can this be used to archive decoded quad vinyl onto DTS CDs? The multi channel analog inputs would work. Decoders would feed them. But how do I get the DTS bitstream into my computer for disc burning?

KevinD9052 said:

Can this be used to archive decoded quad vinyl onto DTS CDs? The multi channel analog inputs would work. Decoders would feed them. But how do I get the DTS bitstream into my computer for disc burning?

Click to expand...

If the unit works
I would put the digital input into
The back of my CD recorder and not use a computer
I am waiting to see if it is possible
Ron

All you really need is a spdif port that will allow uncompressed audio (ac3 / dts) at 44.1kHz. My expensive RME audio sound card allows me to play ac3 and dts wav files and I'm sure there has to be other cheaper spdif ports or sound cards that allow this.

You can also just burn the files to a cdr and put it in your dvd desktop player, or just connect your computer's CD/DVD ROM drive S/PDIF output, the two prong connector on the back of most CD/DVD drives, directly to a coaxil S/PDIF input and get that way as well.

I got mine yesterday and did a quick test .

well it works and yes it works into the back of a stand alone cd recorder.!!!

I plugged in 2 stereo tracks into the front left and right inputs (which are a minijack on this item) and connected the rca digital out to my stand alone tascam cd recorder...
I recorded for about one minute...then i finalised the disc and played it back
through a normal dts receiver(via digital lead) ...the receiver decoded the cdr as a dts track and played back the music ...perfectly.....

this means that if you have a stand alone cd recorder , then for just an extra $99 usd you can make a dts cd , in the time it takes you to play the surround music...you can do track indexing on the cdr machine as you go............no need for a computer with multichannel sound card and a surcode dts program. .......well if you are decoding qs and sq via the computer you still need a surcode program...

so in short...this encoder works! and it works straight into the back of a cd recorder!

now to flogg my 8 channel multichannel sound card on ebay..

Guys, where can I find one of these? Canada or the USA ... either is OK, but I would like to try bricks and mortar for a change. I am not opposed to the Internet, but I remember back in the old days it used to by kinda fun to go into ... what were they called again? ... oh yeah ... stores!

I think that this thingy would be a great addition to my Yamaha CDR/HD recorder. It has an optical digital input, and I can record to the hard drive to see how it came out before burning/wasting a CDR.

I use a pair of Burwen TNE7000 click and pop removers from the outputs of my quad decoders, and I could connect the tape outputs of the Burwen units to the inputs of the DTS encoder.

I will be back in the US at the end of March if there is nowhere in SW Ontario I can get one.

Cheers, Mike.

NOBODY can tell me where I can get one?

Quadzilla said:

Guys, where can I find one of these? Canada or the USA ... either is OK, but I would like to try bricks and mortar for a change. I am not opposed to the Internet, but I remember back in the old days it used to by kinda fun to go into ... what were they called again? ... oh yeah ... stores!

I think that this thingy would be a great addition to my Yamaha CDR/HD recorder. It has an optical digital input, and I can record to the hard drive to see how it came out before burning/wasting a CDR.

I use a pair of Burwen TNE7000 click and pop removers from the outputs of my quad decoders, and I could connect the tape outputs of the Burwen units to the inputs of the DTS encoder.

I will be back in the US at the end of March if there is nowhere in SW Ontario I can get one.

Cheers, Mike.

Click to expand...

Quadzilla said:

NOBODY can tell me where I can get one?

Click to expand...

Mike, Jon's original post has a link that takes you right where you need to go to buy this device.

The creative site in the USA will only sell in the USA (and perhaps Canada)..
they have also been listing these items on ebay over the last few weeks but wouldn't sell outside the USA to Australia.....I tried to convince them in an email but to no avail...
Creative in Australia didn't have one to sell....
Trying other Creative Asian outlets proved to be the same problem as the USA one...they just won't sell outside of their own market...even if the market is not being serviced properly..

Then I got lucky...
Upon searching ebay I found one for auction in the UK, where the seller (who isn't a creative store) would sell to me...
not only that but I got it for $105 Australian about $72.00 USD plus airmail freight of about 20 UK pounds..

and the units great....nothing beats instant real time encoding..

Thanks guys. I was really hoping to find a retail store that carried them. The web site wanted US$35 for shipping to Canada. I ordered one anyway, since the exchange rate is pretty cheap now. US$135 converts to less than CDN$160 but I just couldn't see why it would be $5 to ship to the US and $35 to Canada.

It still seems like a bargain anyway, especially if you guys recommend it so highly. It is certainly a LOT cheaper than the "traditional" way of DTS conversions with Surcode on a PC. My Yamaha CD recorder makes a lot better CDs than my computer, and I would prefer not to use my PC for music.

Thanks again, Mike.

It is strange, it does DTS with 44.1 kHz sampling rate? I was sure that will be a 48kHz and the CD's won't work with that...
More details about the device:
http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/anc/anc348.html

Hi,

Could I record any stereo QSD-1'd output to this device and make my own DTS discs?

That is how I would use it. More than transferring quad stuff to discs.

SoNic said:

It is strange, it does DTS with 44.1 kHz sampling rate? [/url]

Click to expand...

Yes.....and quite nicely too

newbyquad said:

Hi,

Could I record any stereo QSD-1'd output to this device and make my own DTS discs?

That is how I would use it. More than transferring quad stuff to discs.

Click to expand...

You can make any dts disc you like with this one....

So with this device, I can play any stereo recording into my QSD-1 and then output that 4 channel QSD-1 information into this and it will automatically make a 4 channel DTS recording?

newbyquad said:

So with this device, I can play any stereo recording into my QSD-1 and then output that 4 channel QSD-1 information into this and it will automatically make a 4 channel DTS recording?

Click to expand...

It outputs a DTS-encoded 16 bit, 44.1 kHz digital stream via optical or coaxial SPDIF. You can take that output to a PC's sound card for recording and subsequent DTS CD construction. Or, as Christopher noted earlier, you can input directly to a CD recorder for "real time" DTS CD construction. This was not the intent of this device, but it will work.