`VERTIGO' SOUNDS DIZZIER.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Digital Theater Systems may be making a push into the market for home sound systems, but this doesn't mean the company is neglecting big sounds for the big screen.

In fact, DTS recently moved in a new direction when it participated in the highly touted reissue of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 classic, ``Vertigo,'' by providing a new, digital six-track soundtrack for the restored 70 mm version now circulating in the nation's screens. It's the first 70 mm movie released in DTS.

``It's been a really big deal for us - people are really digging it,'' said Bill Neighbors, president and chief operating officer for DTS.

Unlike other systems in which the soundtrack is placed directly on the film, DTS records the soundtrack on a separate compact disc which is played on a machine and synchronized with the movie through a series of time codes on the edge of the film.

DTS took care of the technical aspect of the process, putting the soundtrack onto the compact disc according to the specifications of Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, the noted film preservationists who restored the Hitchcock film, Neighbors said.

``We provided the same tool in 70 mm that we have provided for three years for 35 mm,'' he said.

Harris - who with Katz has restored other classics such as ``Lawrence of Arabia'' and ``Spartacus'' and runs The Film Preserve Ltd. - said that DTS was immediately recognizable as the way to go for the ``Vertigo'' soundtrack.

The system not only provides top-notch sound, but saved thousands of dollars in costs, not to mention wear and tear on the film.

``It was the perfect system for us, the prints are less expensive by a couple of thousand dollars and you have the CD-ROM sound, which is great,'' Harris said.

The cost of a 70 mm print can range from $12,000 to $20,000, he said. In a conventional system, the film must be run through a machine to put on the four magnetic strips for the soundtrack, running the risk of scratching the film, he said.

The film is then sent to a sound lab, where the sound is transferred from the original mix to the 70 mm print. ``You're handling the print again,'' he said. ``It can be scratched again - normally it doesn't, but it can.''

Finally, the film is played in real time to ensure that it sounds and looks right, he said.

``It's expensive and time consuming and every print has to be listened to,'' he said.

With DTS, the sound is recorded on a separate disc, making much of this handling unnecessary - and substantially reducing the danger of damaging the print.

And with the system, one gets a soundtrack that should last a very long time indeed. ``It should last forever, whatever forever is - unless someone sits on it,'' Harris said.