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Author Topic: Dolby DSP100 Show Player stops suddenly whilst playing trailer Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-22-2018 06:10 AM                     Peter - there is an updated version of Dolbys approved drive list. Aside from that, many drives officially not approved will still work (choose an explicit NAS drive). They shouldn't be too expensive, you can find NAS compliant drives in the 2TB range well below 100US$. What's the size of the current drives? Although the DSS100 is certainly approaching the end of it's life cycle, I wouldn't retire it just because of some problematic drives. What type of projector is connected to it? Keep in mind, these were only trailers, easy to get rid of or omit. What if a full feature suffers the same issue, and you may not be able to relocate it to disc areas without that problem? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Peter Foyster Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: ROLEYSTONE WESTERN AUSTRALIA Registered: Aug 2016 posted 01-22-2018 06:51 AM                     Thanks Carsten, The drives are 500gb I believe. The projector is a temporary loan, a Christie CP2000 M, I think, awaiting the installation of an old Christie CP2000 SB which comes with a full complement of spares. I like the loan machine as it has standby mode which I leave it in between shows. I also have an NEC 1600C sitting on the floor awaiting disposal, as the light engine and a few other bits need replacing after a power surge. A nice machine when it is running but has been rather problematic.It may yet find a home in our local cinema and TV Museum as a static display. It is rather good at that. Peter  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2018 07:16 AM                     For a DSS100, I'd put in new 1TB drives. Dolby is no longer "approving" 1TB drives (in the 3.5" form factor as used by the DSS line). The DSS servers are pretty good about running with most anything. That said, I would look at either HGST Enterprise grade or Western Digital "Gold" "WD1005FBYZ". I'd also invest in getting System 4.7 on that server (you'll likely need to purchase a software update to 4.7 for the DSP100). Your drive related problems will likely vanish.  |  IP: Logged Peter Foyster Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: ROLEYSTONE WESTERN AUSTRALIA Registered: Aug 2016 posted 01-22-2018 07:44 AM                     Thanks Steve, A relatively local Computer store advertises the WD1005FBYZ in stock at a good price. If I were to install just the one to start with, I realise that the system will only recognise the smallest drive size. Should it continue to work with the three smaller drives until I either add more new drives or change the server? Can anyone say how long I should run the server before I add a second drive? I can't afford to lose my content, or for that matter my server, because of updating a drive. Updating the software would definitely have to wait until the outdoor cinema season end. I assume that if I did end up changing all the drives and updating the software, the system would then recognise them as 1TB drives  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-22-2018 07:52 AM                     Peter - what software version is the DSS100 running now? Yes, you may replace the 500GB drives one by one with 1TB drives (but make sure you buy all 4 new drives at once). Initially, the RAID will not increase it's size, but when you re-init it later, it will double. I don't know if you are able to identify that drive issue in the logs (look up SYSTEM - THEATRE DEVICES), so, maybe you can find only the problematic one and replace that first. Then, change one drive per day, leave the server running over night. However, not every Dolby system version will do an automatic rebuild, hence my question about the version you are running. It could be very ancient... - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Peter Foyster Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: ROLEYSTONE WESTERN AUSTRALIA Registered: Aug 2016 posted 01-22-2018 08:15 AM                     Thanks Carsten, How critical is buying all four drives at once? I was going to first replace the drive that I replaced last year and see how it goes from there. I will get the software version number when I go to the cinema tomorrow. It may be a while before I reply as I am going to very busy at the cinema all day.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-22-2018 08:44 AM                     Well, it's just that you should try to get 4 identical drives if possible. Are these problematic trailers still on your RAID? You may be able to track down the disc that causes this issue in SYSTEM-THEATRE DEVICES, and only replace that drive. As a matter of fact, if ALL 4 drives in your RAID are still working (that is, the RAID is marked as healthy), you may even get rid of the halting and identify the drive by pulling it from the RAID. As it may be, a RAID working with only 3 fully healthy drives may actually perform better than a RAID with 4 drives with one of them having reliability issues. Of course, you lose failure redundancy with 3 drives, so pulling one should only be a short term measure to analyze the issue or find the faulty drive. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2018 12:48 PM                     Peter, Your game plan SHOULD be: Procure a suitable sized HDD to back up your entire server (with 500GB drives you are at 1.2TB total storage so a 2TB drive will do it but you could go bigger and have a 4TB drive since they are not that much money anymore). Put that drive in a CRU chassis and proceed to offload your content. Note, if you have a suitable computer with enough storage capacity, you could FTP over the entire "Generated Packages" folder to get the content off. Then take out the 4 drives and mark them and keep them as a set. Why? Because you can ALWAYS just put them back in as a set and the server will wake up as if it was never done. Put in new 1TB drives as a set (4 of them). You will NEED the "INSTALL" disc version of the software you are using. Again, I recommend moving up to the current version of 4.7 (the latest that will run on a DSS/DSP100. This will ensure that your RAID card gets whatever updates are available to it for the larger drives. That said, if you are on a Pre-DCI version like 4.3.5.9 (my favorite), by all means, stay there for now but you will STILL need the Install version of that software to configure the drives and load the OS on. That would be your safest bet (keep the original drives as a set so they could be merely reinstalled and staying the same software/firmware though you may run into issues if it is old enough). As others have noted, you'll need to back up your serial commands (if any) and note how your server was configured (if it is different than Dolby's default configurations). You'll still need to run the "config" script to specify your projector make/model. I would NOT merely change drives one at a time. You are going keep problems that way too. One thing running an Install disc does is flush problems away.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-22-2018 04:37 PM                        quote: Steve Guttag Note, if you have a suitable computer with enough storage capacity, you could FTP over the entire "Generated Packages" folder to get the content off. That could take a very long time, unless A - the connection is wired, and just through a dumb switch, not a router B - the connection is gigabit (so through the theater network interface, not auditorium, which I believe is only 10/100, on some hardware revisions of the DSS100, at least) C - the destination computer's LAN card supports jumbo packets, and the DSS's theatre network card is configured to use jumbo packets But yes, if all of the above are "checks," then offloading the content that way is the easiest option, especially if you don't have a spare CRU cartridge to hand. Using a USB hard drive will take a helluva long time.  |  IP: Logged Peter Foyster Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: ROLEYSTONE WESTERN AUSTRALIA Registered: Aug 2016 posted 01-23-2018 01:07 AM                     Thanks guys, I will have to keep this brief as I have just come back from the cinema and need to return for a show tonight. It is a 90 minute round trip. The Show store software version is 4.3.5.9 and the Show Player 4.0.8.10. I checked the RAID array again and noticed that in addition to 7 re-allocated sectors on Drive 4 there is now 1 re-allocated sector on drive 3. I thought that, following Carsten's advice I would purchase 4 new drives and install them one at a time, to avoid having to have a re-install, a lengthy and very costly exercise for me. Now that Steve and Leo have added to the mix, I am not so sure any more. The fact is that I have purchased a second hand Doremi Server and was going to have it installed in April. Perhaps that is what I should eventually be replacing the drives in and getting a software update for. So, whether to replace the drives and carry on until the Doremi is installed or persist with the Dolby server. One thing I like about the DSS100 is the CRU drive bay , whereas the Doremi can only ingest via USB, which is going to slow things down a bit. At the moment I am running every piece of content before screening to provide some assurance that it won't stop on me. I will have to give this some more thought on how to proceed. It really comes down to time and, unfortunately, money.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-23-2018 06:00 AM                     4.3.5.9 is a very good version and quite stable. As such, that is where I'd start. Seriously, if you need to keep your content. Purchase a suitable sized drive and mount it into a CRU chassis (they are typically under $100US). I don't recall if the Dolby software had the CRU formatting script in it at that point getting the drive formatted properly may be a bit of a trick. If you know how to login on the Command Line interface (CLI) as an Administrator, then if you go to the scripts directory, if the script: formatStore.sh is there then you can likely have the DSS100 format the "new" CRU drive you will create. Note, it takes a while to format a drive this way. I did a 4TB drive and it was just over 20 minutes and there are not friendly little progress numbers letting you know what is going on. You just see the amber LED winking on the CRU bay letting you know it is busy. Once done, however, the CRU will mount. Once you back your content up, install the new 1TB drives and run the INSTALL disc for 4.3.5.9 and you should be good to go to transfer content back. Personally, I'd take a DSS100/DSP100 over Doremi anything, but that is just my opinion. What the Doremi brings is more compatibility with improperly formatted/made DCPs but with nasty interface that is quirky, to say the least.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-23-2018 06:49 AM                     Sounds as if that Doremi will be an IMS, as Peter mentions 'no CRU'? However, no IMS will work with the projectors he mentions... With the DSS100 staying at 4.3.5.9, he'll probably be in trouble soon when SMPTE DCPs will become the norm. Steve - it may be a piece of cake for you to do fresh installs, but for Peter, giving credit to his abilities, availability of proper setup discs, and his options to have techs on site, I don't think it's a good idea. If the problematic trailer is still on the RAID, I would try to isolate the drive that is problematic by pulling it, playing, reinsert, pull another, etc., until he found the one that is/may be causing the issue. Then first exchange that drive. And of course start with the one that shows the most bad sectors. It appears that his systems otherwise is doing well, so why should he do a full reinstall, if a drive swap can possibly fix the issue? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-23-2018 08:03 AM                        quote: Carsten Kurz Sounds as if that Doremi will be an IMS, as Peter mentions 'no CRU'? However, no IMS will work with the projectors he mentions... The DCP2000 does not have a built-in CRU reader, so we could be talking about one of those. One could be added either by using an external reader connected by USB2, or by FTP network ingest from a PC with a built-in SATA one. I guess it could be possible to add an eSATA card to the Doremi's motherboard, and add a CRU reader that way, if USB2 ingest speed is a problem, but I don't know how the software would react to that. The other thing Peter will need to check, given that he's still running a pre-DCI version of the server software (4.3), is that his projector will support Cinelink II TLS link encryption. I'm not a Christie expert at all: I'm afraid that I don't even know if the CP2000M is Series 1 or 2. According to Christie's website, it is discontinued and was launched in 2009, so I'm guessing 1. Peter - this issue is to do with the way the image data is encrypted as it passes through the dual SDI wires from the server's media block and the projector's secure input board. Very early digital cinema projectors can only use a method called Cinelink II DH, that DCI later outlawed, claiming that it isn't secure enough. As a result of this, later versions of server software (in the case of Dolby DSS servers, versions later than 4.3) do not support it. The most commonly used method now is Cinelink II TLS, but a few server and projector combinations that don't support DH can use Cinelink I. You can see which method you currently have in use, by going to the system > theatre devices tab in Show Manager, and looking under the entry for the DSP100 show player. If the link encryption method says Cinelink II TLS, you have no problem, and can update the server's software, and/or replace the server, without worrying about this. If it says Cinelink I or Cinelink II DH, then you could have a problem. In this scenario, it's important to consult a Christie expert to be sure that your projector can use TLS, before upgrading the server software to anything later than 4.3, or replacing the server with another one that might have a software version that cannot do TLS, such as the Doremi you're thinking of installing.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 01-23-2018 08:31 AM                     A CRU-less DCP-2000 may be expanded with an external SATA slot, there is even the official part still available from Dolby I think. However, anyone with decent computer building skills can insert a standard cable/slot available on ebay or other places, as it operates driver less on one of the free SATA connectors on the mainboard. The cheapest way then to proceed is to use a CRU Movedock, as the older, cheaper USB 2.0 MoveDocks ones offer a SATA connector on the back in addition to USB (the most recent v.3 MoveDock with USB 3.0. offers eSATA again, but at a price). The Christie CP2000 units are all series 1, but their compatibility with the necessary encryption protocol is based on their board set, a nice wrap-up is here: http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f16/t001506.html Another issue not being mentioned so far is that Peter is from Australia. Australia is a PAL (25fps) country. It may be that quite a few ads/trailers/shorts/features he receives are 25p. As the DSP100 does not support 25 frames per second in J2C/DCP (and never will), it is possible that some of the issues he experiences with the unit are caused by this (of course not those he mentions with the StarWars Trailers). The Doremi, admittedly has the more clunky GUI, but at least doesn't suffer from that issue and will play 25fps content fine. If Peter doesn't have to sell the DSS100/DSP100 in order to finance the Doremi, he should probably keep both. Again, so far, Peter seems to do fine with his DOLBY, and the only issue so far seems to be a tipsy disc. So, as a short term measure, I would try to identify and change only this disc. This is also something that Peter has performed in the past, so he certainly is able to do it again without external help. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Peter Foyster Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: ROLEYSTONE WESTERN AUSTRALIA Registered: Aug 2016 posted 01-23-2018 09:31 AM                     Thanks Guys, I just got home from the cinema where I was greeted earlier by 2 red LED drive lights and a warning that the RAID was degraded. I had left the server earlier in the day ingesting Star Wars: the Last Jedi for this weekend.( what has Star Wars got against me!!)The panic set in as I had a huge show ahead of me this evening. The system showed that Drive 3 was the most degraded, however it appears that drive 4 which was actually a new replacement drive last year was not "As" seriously degraded and this was a timely warning to take action. I was able to get through the show as drive 4 was actually flashing orange. So the first thing will be to get down to the computer shop and try to pick up 4 of the drives that Steve suggested. I'm not sure how long it will take to rebuild the array but hopefully by replacing drive 3 I can at least get through the next show on Thursday. I guess the trailers stopping was just the first warning of things to come, which you guys obviously could see even if I couldn't. One of the issues with the Dolby unit is that it will only play DCPs at 24fps so I have to convert any videos that I need to create a DCP for before running DCP-O-Matic. It won't even ingest a dcp running at 25fps. The main reason for going with the Doremi is that I can get local service and replacement parts. I do like the Dolby Server and would prefer to keep it but I think it is just too old.  |  IP: Logged

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