DTSCD ReadMe 8/12/2006 by Steve Cox

To play these DTSCD files, you can

CD-R/RW:
1.  Burn them onto a CD-R/RW as an audio CD. You can put as many files on the CD as space allows ie more than 10 songs.
2. Play the finished CD in any modern DVD player that has a digital spdif (coax or optical) output that is connected to a 5.1 surround receiver's spdif input. The receiver will decode this DTSCD bitstream into  DTS 5.1 surround sound.
3. You may need check your DVD player's setup, to make sure that it will pass through the DTS bitstream undecoded, to the spdif output port, instead of decoding it and downmixing it into a pcm stereo bitstream.
4. You might be able to also play this DTSCD in most CD players, if you follow the previous instructions.

QuickTime and iTunes:
1.You can also play these files on the Mac (and probably on the PC) via QuickTime Player or iTunes.
2. To play them this way, you must connect the spdif digital output of the Mac to the spdif digital input of a 5.1 surround sound receiver.
3. For QuickTime Player, make sure that the volume level is at Max and that the bass and treble are at nominal values and that the equalizer is out.
4. For iTunes, see the following link
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93870

Other:
There are other ways to play these files eg through a PC's SoundBlaster or similar, but I won't go into those here.

How these files are created:
DTSCD is a special format that allow you to put 5.1 surround sound playable files onto a CD. To do this, the individual surround files (the 5.1) have to be in 44.1k/16bit format. The DTS encoder will encode these files into a DTS stream with a slightly reduced bitrate ie about 1.2Mbits/sec vs DTS's normal 1.5Mbits/sec.

Mixes are done in ProTools Accel HD3 5.1 surround, generally at 48k or 96k sampling rates and 24 bit samples. The discrete 5.1 files are then sample-rate converted to 44.1k/16 bit files, then encoded by the DTS software encoder on the Mac, which creates a DTSCD .wav file that is easily burned onto a CD. Surprisingly, you can also play these files via QuickTime and iTunes out of the Mac's spdif port. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason (I've consulted with DTS and Apple on this) QuickTime and iTunes cannot properly play a normal DTS encoded stream out of the spdif port,  ie where the input files are 48k/24-bit. We cannot figure out why, but suspect that it's due to something due to the volume control or spdif packing, etc. Also, normal DTS files cannot be put on a CD due to sample rate, bit rate, sample size, etc. Normal DTS files must be put on a DVD-V, which is much more cumbersome, than the procedures outlined above.

DTSCD's definitely don't sound as good as DTS, DVD-Audio, or the discrete 5.1 original mix, but they do sound very good, better than Dolby Digital, and are very easy to work with.

Bass Management:
These tracks are all mixed using bass management, so you should setup your 5.1 surround sound receiver for proper bass management.