Thanks everyone for the feedback. DTS cinema discs can be had from a few places, but yes, not always easy to find nowadays. The content on them is digital, and are playable in a DTS cinema processor. That processor with the discs syncs to specific films via a printed timecode on the print. The beauty of the system was that the sound was off the film, and away from potentially being damaged. Since the timecode is simple and also very close to the picture, it was well protected.
The compression rate was something like 4:1 I believe, so our source for this project was technically lossy, but the final product was preserved in DTS-MA as to not lose any more quality. As for the LFE, it was in the surround channels (also helped save on disc space) and filtered out at 80hz. The DTS processor itself had this low pass filter built in, so it actually output 6 channels to a given cinema processor. ElDonate applied a similar filter and extracted that bass information so that we could make it a true 5.1 track for home use. The worry was that someone would have their surrounds not set to pass 80hz or below to a sub, and damage their speakers. He also adjusted the levels of the surrounds and sub based on how a DTS cinema processor was calibrated since that also differs from a home system. I'll let him explain that a bit more since I wasn't the one actually doing it. We based that information out of a DTS manual that we found.
This plugin for winamp is ancient, and never got updated when DTS started encrypting their CD-ROMs after about 04-05, so only films prior to that with DTS tracks could be utilized. I remember screwing around once with Kill Bill Vol. 2 when I first discovered it. I just never thought of putting it to any practical use.
In this case, this means the 97 special edition soundtracks could be ripped and preserved, if anyone can find the discs. I'd be up for doing that if someone can find them. I can only rip though, as I have no knowledge on how to edit it all together. ElDonate is a saint for doing the work he did!
I haven't done an A/B yet with the LaserDisc, but honestly, this mix does sound a bit different to my ears in a very very good way. It's perfect and just how I remember this movie sounding. Why Universal could not have done this is just beyond me.