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Author Topic: Firmware and Software Updates Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-13-2014 06:01 AM                     when Cyan came out an engineer had to install a new light source on your projectors, didn't they? Consider that as the 35mm 'software upgrade'. On Digital you could have supported Cyan soundtracks with a SW patch!  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-13-2014 09:59 AM                     Ahem.... I told everyone then...that the whole Cyan thing was a big waste of everyone's time and money and didn't do a damn thing! It was a pitiful attempt to keep film around just a wee bit longer by removing one annoying process from the processing stage that helped the exhibitor not one bit. As a result, we will forever have to handle cyan/non-cyan in the archival world (different crossmods) all for the last 10 years of film's mainstream use (and only for 35mm). It was stupid. If nothing else, it was a primer for the studios forcing exhibitors to change the way they do things, spend their money on a whim.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-16-2014 06:48 PM                     I see now why you said "tons of fixes for the 745" on the 4.8 release... WHY Dolby are not sending a notification email to notify when a new SW is released??? It looks promising!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-16-2014 11:49 PM                     Probably didn't want to look bad due to 4.7 having issues after 4.6 ...  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-17-2014 06:16 AM                     they never send notifications, you have to go and discover new versions by yourself! I saw the issue corrected but I don't know what kind of issue to be honest. Another thing to be discovered  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-17-2014 06:34 AM                     4.7 was not a bad release, in my opinion. The fixes in 4.8.1 to the CAT745 go back to the CAT745's debut. 4.5 and 4.6 was not Dolby's finest moment, for sure. 4.7, for us, was reasonably stable. 4.7 address numerous problems too. 4.8.0 was buggy, in my opinion. It never got out of our beta test site for us. 4.8.1 has been glitch free for us, so far but we've only been playing with it for a few weeks. I agree Marco...it would be nice if Dolby and Christie and well...all of them got on the same bandwagon that Barco is already doing and announce software updates as they become available. It is not that I advocate always updating...far from that. But one should know that a new release is out, be able to look over the release notes to see if there is a fix for a problem you are having. What I wish was a DCI requirement was a set of release notes to be required for each release. Sure most will send you something if you beg but you shouldn't have the ask. You took the time to release a new version...why not post what it does? At least Dolby gets that right...there are always release notes with each release.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-17-2014 08:32 AM                     Excactly Steve, I don't like upgrading without testing it first but if I am upgrading and a new release is supposed to fix something I have been having trouble with, I'd like to know asap! And to be fair, and to go back on topic, I don't really like this behaviour: a X.Y.0 for 2 weeks and then the final release out with all the bugs fixed. I'd call it 'field beta testing'.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-17-2014 10:36 AM                     I agree with you on that one too. That is one reason that we beta test it ourselves for a month before pushing it out to other theatres. It should be noted...that on Dolby's software, the third digit is not necessarily a fix for an earlier version. That is, 4.8.1 is not a fix for 4.8.0. At some point, you define what a release will be and assign a number to it and it is stuck with that number and only the build number can grow...so if you see an x.y.z with a build number that is higher...then that is a bug fix for the same version. Witness 4.6.0 (31) and 4.6.0 (32). Generally, with Dolby the second digit denotes some sort of new functionality. With 4.8, it was the "intermission" feature. So any versions that have the intermission feature is going to be 4.8 or higher. So if anything, when they increment that second digit, that is when the software is bound to be its weakest. They added something and possibly all of the ramifications are not yet known.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-17-2014 02:06 PM                     yes, I got the picture when I installed 4.6.0-x and the 862 was displaying a white field when selecting content! 4.6.1 took just two weeks to replace that. Note to self: never install a x.y.0-z version again.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-17-2014 04:19 PM                     The problem is not the x.y.0 versions though. Sometimes, they are very solid. 4.4.0 (48) was not particularly bad though I preferred 4.4.2 (10). 4.7.0 (42) was good too. The CAT862 firmware didn't change through all of the 4.7.x...though the DSP100 did! so you can get an idea of what they were working on there. 4.7.3 (3) is where the DSP100 will be leaving off...so hopefully it is good for those running DSS100/DSP100s.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-17-2014 05:37 PM                     With all of us who are now working with digital and its related areas, a common situation has come to the surface with this. The situation is: before when we were handling film related issues, almost the majority of the issues that we had to "be in radar range", were from human error. Now, the issues that have surfaced in the digital realm, has almost totally reversed itself to where these issues are coming up that are well out of our hands and beyond our control. Yet, the common denominator for both, is that we're still getting the pointing finger and being blamed for it - we have to fix it. With film, our repairs did work. With digital, we have to see what happens. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-17-2014 05:57 PM                        quote: Steve Guttag I agree Marco...it would be nice if Dolby and Christie and well...all of them got on the same bandwagon that Barco is already doing and announce software updates as they become available. Sounds like a new forum category or at least thread for Film Tech;>  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-19-2014 04:16 AM                     4.7.3-3 is another one I wasn't aware of - Ok, it's been on the site for a while but I thought 4.7.2-1 was the last one. Dolby must understand it's not just them over here. I do check every now and then but they can't expect me to check every week. Barco is now releasing a new version of their ICMP every week!! (understandable, but at least you get a handy notification) It's frustrating, sending an email would be an easy thing to do. As it is, they are not helping their customers.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-19-2014 07:06 AM                     Actually, 4.7.3.3 was announced about a month in advance. In a newsletter, they said that there would be one more final update for the DSP100/DSS100 system to be released by June. The site claims it was there on the last day of May or something like that...It wasn't on the site until sometime into June. But yes, it would be nice if there was an automated email notification of new software releases or field bulletins. Oddly enough, I do make a point of checking the various manufactures about once per week to see if anything is about. It doesn't take much time and it keeps me informed of what is going on. Yes, the ICMP is going to have rapid fire updates at this point...all NEW stuff gets rapid fire updates once it hits the streets. The S2K projectors got rapid fire updates when they came out, Series 2 projectors got rapid fire updates all through 2010. There is nothing new there. I suppose an argument could be made that if your software is running in a stable manner...there is no reason to worry about an update. It might tempt you to put an unstable version on.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 07-19-2014 11:41 AM                     I do check as well, but not once a week. However, it looks like it has to be done.  |  IP: Logged

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