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Author Topic: DOLBY SERVER = QUESTIONS Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-30-2014 08:04 PM                     Steve - yes it's more that the older boards won't do TLS. A Doremi engineer told me the non-reversible thing was official DCI policy - removable software could not be compliant - so I'm surprised that Dolby will allow it.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-30-2014 09:09 PM                     GDC is also reversible to 7.81 non DCI but only the tech support can do it. By remote, usually. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-01-2014 07:58 AM                     For GDC...it isn't just GDC's tech support but also authorized technicians. If you check the release notes for 4.7.1.x...it makes no mention of the DSP100 being a 1-way upgrade. That is not the case for the DSS200 (CAT862). If the studios were that worried...they could just make their DCPs only work on DCI compliant servers...thus you can downgrade all you want but they wouldn't play unless you were in DCI mode. As it is, you CAN turn TLS off and run unencrypted content on any projector. As for the clock...the KDMs only care about the "secure clock" in any system. For Dolby, that has always been the Mediablock (DSP100, CAT862, CAT745). The Show clock can be any clock you want since the KDM is tied to a secure clock that has heavy restrictions on what it references from and how much it can be moved per year. You want to set your show clock to something other than local time...go ahead...it won't help you for your KDMs and when they expire. GDC used to use their BIOS clock for their secure clock...for DCI...they had to move it to their mediablock to make it less accessable for DCI. GDC also seems to have only had the one clock to reference...for reasons beyond me (why not keep the show clock on the Bios clock)...so after they went to 8.01, the GDC...which used to lock onto NTP real well...now is typically about 15-seconds off (give or take 5 seconds). I believe it only updates AT SHOW START or it did when 8.01 up to build 108 was running. Not the end of the world but it seems odd that they could not let the show clock remain locked to NTP and let the secure clock just do its thing in the background for the KDMs. They could still have it check itself to NTP to stay accurate at show starts. For the life of me, I don't know why Dolby can't have their CAT745 check itself to NTP periodically...it has the worst clock ever made...sun dials are better references. Compared to the DSP100 which was very accurate but at a price.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-01-2014 10:21 AM                    With regard to the end of support for the 100 coming soon, I presume that is referenced to when they stopped selling them. How many years has that been? When the time comes for the 200, is it likely to be the same time frame or might it be longer given the larger number in service?  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-01-2014 03:21 PM                     The DSS200 is still being sold. That, of course doesn't make your question irrelevant. I don't know if Dolby has a straight published or internal general timeline that would predict end of support deadlines for their digital cinema products. Given the way these products and markets develop, I would doubt it. I guess they decide on a case-by-case basis. Actual replacement part availability, remaining stock, failure rate estimates, etc.... As these servers are built in large parts from externally sourced general computer parts, they also depend on availability of parts that Dolby can not control themselves. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-02-2014 05:52 AM                     Steve, I believe Carsten is correct on the end of life. It would really be on a case-by-case basis. The DSS100/DSP100 ceased production in mid 2009 so we are talking about support 5-years after the last one came off the line and about 10-years after the first one...which for a computer based product is pretty good. I think another issue on the DSS100/DSP100 system is that it was designed in a different era...before JPEG2000 was to become the standard...its content ingest was originally via the "Promise" drive, not the CRU...it had to live through the evolution to where we are now. You then have the issue of having all software going forward being compatible with what is becoming an antiquated computer. At some point, having backwards compatibility in the software becomes a bit of a ball and chain. When a new version comes out, they have to test it on ALL previous models to see if a conflict pops up. As it is, there are some features that the DSS100/DSP100 system are already not supporting...like 4K and "I think" ATMOS. The most likely things to fail in it are the HDDs, fans and the power supplies...both available in abundance still. I would say the real killer would be if the DSP100 fails internally...that would pretty much kill the system if Dolby won't repair it anymore since one CAN'T repair it themselves (beyond the fans)...it was designed to keep people from tampering.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-15-2014 07:56 AM                     Here is a recent statement from Dolby regarding drives >2TB on DSS200, after an incident of lost content: --- Dear xxxxxx, As you say, there is no trace of anyone having deleted the content manually, and no signs of it having been deleted by the system, so this was a bit of a mystery. However, I notice that the server has 4x 3TB hard drives installed. The RAID controller in the DSS200 is not compatible with 3TB drives and can only address a maximum of 2TB of space on each drive. There are many errors reported in the RAID logs relating to the inability to access sectors of the drive and many disc checks being run which indicate problems. This will explain why content is going missing. I would recommend replacing the drives with 2TB maximum per drive. --- - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-16-2014 05:41 AM                     And one more statement from Dave Edwards from Dolby: --- The DSS200 will only address hard drives of 2Tb or smaller. There is no option for larger drives due to limitations of both the operating system and RAID card type. Using larger 2Tb drives will mean the RAID utilities like rebuilds etc may take a large amount of time to complete. --- - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-16-2014 01:21 PM                     quote: Carsten Kurz There is no option for larger drives due to limitations of both the operating system and RAID card type. Incorrect. I've done it, but you must be past version 4.5 which updates the raid card to a better version that was released last year and incorporated into the installer. Obviously it must also be a clean install, not some sort of upgrade/drive swap. quote: Carsten Kurz Using larger 2Tb drives will mean the RAID utilities like rebuilds etc may take a large amount of time to complete. Well duh. Eating a 4 course meal will also make you poop more than if you just ate a candy bar too.  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 05-16-2014 02:58 PM                       Yech, but funny!  |  IP: Logged Matt Fields Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 545 From: Ohio, United States Registered: Jun 2005 posted 05-16-2014 03:11 PM                     Tried to order a spare power supply for my DSP 100 (cat 901z) and Dolby told us they were out. Do any dealers out there have one in stock?  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-16-2014 05:16 PM                     quote: Brad Miller Incorrect. I've done it, but you must be past version 4.5 which updates the raid card to a better version that was released last year and incorporated into the installer. Obviously it must also be a clean install, not some sort of upgrade/drive swap. Is that documented somewhere? Wondering why two different Dolby techs say it's not possible? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 05-16-2014 05:58 PM                     I've recently updated a DSS200 from 4.3 to 4.8 and I believe the installer did not upgrade the controller FW. Maybe it depends on the board installed in the server?  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-16-2014 06:47 PM                     A fellow tech tells me that both very old and recent DSS200 he looked into have the same LSI 3ware Raid Controller 9650SE-4LPML. If you look it up, it quotes 64Bit addressing capability, that means, larger drives than 2TB should be possible. I'm just wondering why these Dolby techs are so strict about it being not possible. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-17-2014 12:08 AM                     quote: Carsten Kurz I'm just wondering why these Dolby techs are so strict about it being not possible. They don't want you throwing some crap-O drives in them and then barking at them that something didn't play right. The servers are tested with specific drives and anything else you do is "at your own risk". You can also replace the 9650SE-4LPML raid card with a 9650SE-8LPML raid card and get double the storage. Here is a picture with 8, 2TB drives loaded into one..... Double that if you go to 4TB drives! And if you're feeling particularly awesome, you can replace the raid card with a 9650SE-24M8 and add a 16 bay raid cage such as the Supermicro CSE-8361-R800B for a total of up to 24, 4TB drives totaling about 86,000GB! (Disclaimer, I haven't actually tried the 24 drive theory yet. There could be some sort of limitation in the Dolby software, but it sure would be sexy.) You just can't have any fun like that with those silly software raid servers.  |  IP: Logged

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