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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Aligning Sound Heads
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 09-14-2008 11:51 PM
There are several issues here.
At a protocol level, ethernet requires a degree of address management that isn't necessary for RS232. This means DHCP or carefully assigning static IP addresses, and a lot of variations that may not work well in all environments. It just adds annoying complexity. This might be a one-time cost if you're permanently connecting two devices (e.g. cobranet), or a frequent annoyance if you're moving a laptop between different machines.
(Yes, it's possible for the CP650 to run a DHCP server and assign an address to your laptop if you plug it in. But that sort of strategy could wreak havoc if you plugged your CP650 into the building network that already had a DHCP server. etc. etc.)
Beyond protocol issues, ethernet has synchronization issues. It's not really designed for reliable transmission, which means that protocols that sit on top of ethernet have to be designed to buffer data until it is acknowledged. That adds a lot of complexity compared to RS232 where you don't need to do that kind of buffering. That complexity is significant for small embedded devices.
It's also more difficult to do realtime activity with Ethernet. Because of the buffered nature of TCP/IP, a long-running stream might fall behind -- it would be poor if WinDRAS displayed data that lagged your adjustments by an entire second. These problems are surmountable (obviously Cobranet does it for audio!), but the solutions are substantial effort (development cost), and they don't have the kind of canned simple solution that RS232 provides.
To be honest, the biggest annoyance I see is the vendors who provide Windows software that doesn't work with USB serial ports (The last one I recall having problems with was Harman/JBL/DBX). Hopefully those all go the way of the dodo.
Some nits with prior comments:
- Moving from serial to USB or Ethernet is a big step. Even if the issues associated with the new technology were addressed, the work to rewrite the code and manage the transition would not be trivial.
- USB is no more "processor dependant" than RS232. You get a USB driver chip and talk to it and away you go
- USB is technically half-duplex, but that's an unimportant technical detail. It does not mean you cannot achieve high-speed bidirectional communication.
I much prefer the PL2303-based USB/serial adapters (like the IOGEAR 232A to the Kensington. Much smaller and more compact....)
--jhawk
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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today
Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99
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posted 09-14-2008 11:53 PM
Steve, you wandered into the Land of Confusion with that last post. Perhaps you do not understand the concept of connecting straight to a single unit via a crossover cable. Is it really that difficult to understand? There is nothing proprietary about it.
quote: Steve
that doesn't seem to apply to much outside of computers on the internet or office LANs. When you need to access specific devices, they are generally assigned a fixed address and your DHCP thing falls apart.
I really don't think you are capable of wrapping your mind around what I am saying, but I will try one more time. You know how you plug your computer into a router? Isn't it amazing how you don't need to know the router's IP address in order to get things functioning? Sure, you can type it in as a URL in a web browser and tinker with the functions for a router, but the Dolby software would take care of that as it would know what the IP address of a CP650 would be in crossover mode (which would always be the same IP unless it were networked). So it would be as simple as plugging in a crossover cable, running DRAS and and tinkering with the settings, saving and closing... assuming your laptop was set up for DHCP and it would have to be if it were a laptop and not just plugged in at home all the time. Want to have all of the CP650s on a network? No problem, you could modify this in the CP650's settings itself so that they each have a different IP (which could be assigned). You would only ever have to do this once and only in network mode. DRAS would let you save the information for each theater. So you call up The Baltimore Boringplex 10 in a file saved by DRAS on your laptop (which could be e-mailed to any other tech), it knows that theater #1 is 192.168.1.01 and theater 10 is 192.168.1.10. You log into theater 7 just by plugging into a switch with a normal ethernet cable and tamper with its settings, raising the center channel 20db for no good reason. No DB9 cable needed. The fact that the CP650 is not a personal computer or an office LAN has nothing to do with anything and is completely irrelevant to this hypothetical argument (note: the situations in the argument are hypothetical, not the argument itself). Your laptop won't give a shit if it is in an office or not, it will still work. I kid you not. It's not magic!!
Of course this is all likely WAAAY beyond what the CP650 is physically capable of, to my knowledge.
quote: Steve
Could this be overcomed?
"Overcomed"? LOL. You winned with that one!
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