|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: I'm curious to know why many on Film-Tech seem to be so negative on digital cinema
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Zylstra
Master Film Handler
Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007
|
posted 07-30-2008 12:05 AM
quote: Steve Guttag
BTW...I'm a bit curious...those of you that have DCinema machines running full-time....how often do you get a server freeze?
Out of our 46 machines at 3 different locations actual server freezes are very rare, there is occasional stuttering attributable to poor RAID performance (we have some of the oldes DoReMis in the field - when the stuttering happens the server gets replaced)
Some projectionists seem to think digital is "the finale" for their jobs, personally I think digital changes the booth job - instead of building prints and threading projectors you are ingesting films off HDs into the servers or TMS, setting up transfers to ensure the content gets copied into the correct screen servers, tracking down KDMs for new releases and holdovers, etc . . . . . there is also the proactive aspect of verifying every show looks and sounds good. Yes, many theatre owners believe the promises that they can run an operatorless booth - but most of these owners probably already do manager run booths so the result is less hassle for the manager on duty; those theatres that currently employ a dedicated projection staff **should** be smart enough to see the need and value in keeping the booth staff to take care of all the new digital duties as well as ensure quality presentations. Do I think that eventually we may see an operatorless booth? yes, **eventually** once everything has proven 100% reliable in terms of schedule polling from POS, automatic KDM request/delivery, show starts, etc . .. . BUT still nothing beats a trained eye or ear that can proactively fix issues before the general public notices.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 07-30-2008 04:20 PM
quote: Scott Norwood
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with software RAID and a software RAID-1 (mirrored) configuration will have significantly better read performance than a hardware RAID-5 (striped with parity) configuration, all other things being equal).
Scott,
You'll never find a motherboard in an important enterprise situation running software raid, IE IT rooms running Sun, Dell, IBM, HP or the like. I've run the gamut with motherboards with RAID 0 and 1 and settled on a hardware RAID 5 even in my home PC's. Software RAID always fails miserably and many time is un recoverable... you also have little to no communicatons with the hard drive bays and other nicities that are monitorable. You'll generally find hardware raid in important situations because its far more stable and easier to recover from a serious problem. All D-Cinema servers I work with run RAID 5 for the redundancy and greater capacity afforded. Dolby runs hardware RAID... 3-Ware Escalade which is a pretty high end board in itself. Doremi runs software raid of which I know little about in the Doremi. I wouldn't be too surprised to see some servers or at least LM's go to raid 6 in the near future for even greater capacity and more redundancy. The read speed of the present RAID 5's is quite good from all but the cheapo boards and the Dolby server actually does a check on read speed at each boot up... last one I installed could do in excess of 250 mbps... not too bad and way more than adaquate for D-Cinema. You could easily playback 4K files with that RAID speed with plenty of headroom to spare.
Write speed on RAID 5 is of course slower but we are reading 90% of the running time anyway. Interestingly the DTS server that was based on the Dell 2950 ran a RAID 1 for the OS and seperate a RAID 5 for the content. Almost all Dell servers have splie 2X3 backplanes for the hard drives and most of the Dell PERC cards can do two RAIDs at once and its a very nice feature.
quote: Scott Norwood
Would it be prudent for a theatre to have a spare server on hand? Is it possible to have two servers running simultaneously for important shows, either with automated failover or with easy manual failover? (I have occasionally done this for video shows, using two decks and two copies of the tape.) I get the impression that, at least for now, the servers are more failure-prone than the projectors. Is this accurate?
Sure... spare projectors too but if you swap one or the other out you need to get a new KDM in order for the file to play back. The KDM's are loosely based on the server and projector SN and any hash lines that one or the other may generate. I think early servers may have been prone to failure not because of bad hardware but because of software issues. Those days are past and to be honest both projector and server are extremely reliable, far more reliable than the typical booth monger that is running film these days.
quote: Scott Norwood
Edit: why does uncompressed digital sound require new speakers? I can point to lots of theatres that run uncompressed digital (non-sync CD player) through A7s and A4s.
It depends on the drvers installed and condition. You may not see them fail right away. Uncompressed digital certainly requires a gob more peak power if you're playing back at standard playback levels. I doubt those Altecs wolda survived Cloverfield ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) for very long. That mix had incredible dynamics in it and sustained low frequencies.
quote: Demetris Thoupis
Mark I have to dissagree with your opinion on the Kinoton E series. They do provide the most stable and brightest image in the market and no one can beat that.
Demetris, Show me where I stated that they didn't provide a better picture... All I was saying is that the average release print we get in the USA doesn't justify the expense nor warrant the extra quality of the E series projector. It is very likely that you see better quality European release prints.
One thing Kinoton certainly choose correctly was the E designation... E for EXTRA EXPENSIVE!
Another thing is becomming obvious... that you have yet to be exposed to a high quality digital presentation. An hour ago I finished service work on a Cinematographers personal movie theater in Montana. Recently he had been to a Carmike theater in Bozeman, MT. and had seen a movie there projected digitally and he was totally blown away by the quality. Nuff said!
Mark
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 18 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 16 17 18
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
)
Printer-friendly view of this topic