Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Weird problem with DSS200 and NEC1200

This is topic Weird problem with DSS200 and NEC1200 in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-01-2012, 02:19 PM:

About 6 weeks ago we had a very strange problem here.

Showing a film and it had gone through all the ads, trailers etc fine but about 10 minutes into the feature the picture (and sound) stopped dead, just like if you'd pressed pause. A few seconds later (maybe 10 or 20) it started up again as if nothing had happened. But this kept happening. Just like if someone was pressing pause. It was like when you play a youtube video and it hasn't loaded far enough infront of itself so it keeps stopping.

The show still displayed on the monitor as if it was playing, but the timer stopped counting. Everything was still green and no errors from the projector at all.

I restarted the server and projector and this cured the problem.

Tonight it has just happened again, but a projector and server restart didn't help (at least not right away). About half an hour later and it was fine and we've just got the evening run on and *fingers crossed* it seems ok.

I did notice that both time it happened the server said it was "verifying RAID" when it came back on (I don't know if it does this every time you reboot the server? Normally ours stays on 24\7 as per our VPF agreement). While it was verifying the RAID the whole interface was very sluggish and even selecting a new tab (Content, etc) took a second or two to register.

We have a Dolby DSS200 server running 4.3.5.6 and an NEC1200 running 3.222.

Both times the problem occurred there was no ingesting\moving of content. All it was doing was playing the film.

The first time we didn't call anyone in to look at it or anything as I put it down to one of these glitches that seem to happen from time to time, but now that it has happened a second time (albeit 6 weeks later) I am obviously very concerned and we'll be getting a tech in after the weekend (if it's going to be a serious problem it couldn't have happened at a worse time - we've got a 4 day weekend here in the UK for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!)

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Any tips we could do ourselves? Or is it just a case of praying!

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-01-2012, 02:26 PM:

Don't think you should try something on your own since the tech is already ordered. And certainly not during this heavy weekend.

Maybe there is a weird issue with the RAID trying to access data with a device not responding quickly enough. Could indicate a hd drive failure coming up, or maybe a connector or cooling issue. Maybe the logs will give a hint.

Do you have a spare drive? Do you know how to readout the diagnostics?

- Carsten

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-01-2012, 02:34 PM:

No spare drive unfortunately. I've had a bit of a look at the logs but will readily admit that I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Posted by Kris Verhanneman (Member # 5562) on 06-01-2012, 04:17 PM:

Hello Philip,

what you write looks to me as a hard drive failure.

You can check the drive status in the system page of the TMS.

The one that causes glitches in playback will have a higher bad sector number. There also is a metion on witch one caused the last crash.

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-01-2012, 04:40 PM:

Thanks Kris, I'll have a look at that firs thing tomorrow.

We ran the second performance with no problems at all so hopefully the rest of the weekend will be fine [Smile]

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-01-2012, 05:31 PM:

Yep...HDD is the most likely source...verify that the "link" cable is plugged directly between the two link connectors and is good (I've seen where IT people have gotten involved and plugged ALL Ethernet connectors into "their" switches...the Link cable must not go through anything else).

I would also pull a log file and submit it to Dolby...they can likely see what the trouble is pretty quickly.

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-02-2012, 04:44 AM:

By link cable do you mean the ethernet cable that goes from server to projector?

Posted by Kris Verhanneman (Member # 5562) on 06-02-2012, 05:46 AM:

I guess Steve means the little (blue) network cable that goes from the server to the media block.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-02-2012, 09:19 AM:

Yes Kris, that one. I would reseat it just to be on the safe side - when the server is not playing back!

As said, check the HD status, you may find some reallocated sectors. I think that up to 50 it's considered normal, but IMHO on a server there should not be any bad sectors.
Also, check the buffer underflow value.

If Hard Drives are not showing anything, send logs to Dolby and hopefully they can find what is wrong.

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-02-2012, 10:22 AM:

I've checked the HDD status.. no reallocated sectors on any of them.

In the 'Cat 862' section in the system tab it says "debug (buffer underflows): 2"

Thinking back to the previous time it happened, I do recall an error came up very previous in the "alerts" section. It came up red and did say something was disconnected I think.. Almost as soon as I had clicked on it it was gone again and I can't remember exactly what it said. I do remember it only flashed up after I'd restarted the server. No such errors when we had the problem yesterday. Could this be to do with the cable you are talking about?

And can you be really specific about where to look for the cable please? We've only had the digital in a few months and this is the first major problem we've had so it's all still very new to us.

Do dolby have a specific email address to send issues to?

Thanks to everyone for all the help so far.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-02-2012, 11:58 AM:

On the back of the DSS200, there are two ports labeled "link" there should be a short cable (about 1-foot in length) that connects those two ports. More often then not, it is blue in color. If you do not see a cable that links two ports on the back, then you may have found a possible source of the problem. Dolby does have the ports labeled so look for one with the main group of ports like on any PC and the other should be on the same card that has the AES audio coming out of it. There are three, I think, variants of the DSS200 rear panel.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-02-2012, 01:44 PM:

I have highlighted the LINK ports for you. Without those ports connected your server won't work!
Check on the server the disconnections number as well. I think it should reset when you reboot the server, it must say 1. If more than one it means your cat 862 is disconnecting from the server every now and then.

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-09-2012, 03:52 PM:

Thanks for the diagram Marco - I checked and the link cable is plugged directly from one to another and is secure.

We referred this problem to our NOC that we get through the VPF scheme we're on, and the company who did installation.

Both asked for the server and projector logs and both reported that they couldn't see any errors that would explain what was happening. They couldn't even see that there had been a problem - only that we had rebooted the server.

All they could reccommend was upgrading the software on the server and projector which they have apparently ordered to be done some time or other.. (the NOC didn't seem too concerned really :/)

The issue actually occurred again on Tuesday after running 15 shows in that auditorium, during the same film at roughly the same time (I can't be sure if it was exactly the same time as I wasn't here that evening). We didn't lose the show that time but the audience did have to wait the 10 minutes or so for everything to reboot..

Since then I deleted the film in question and re-ingested it and now the problem has not happened again *touch wood*

Could it have been a dodgy ingest causing it? Or is that more likely to be a coincidence?

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-09-2012, 06:26 PM:

it could depend on the content, but I've seen this issue before and sometimes it's hard to troubleshoot.

If you are authorized to open the unit, I would also reseat the ethernet cable coming from the 862 to the internal connection board.

If it keeps happening, I'd recommend a full install of the software - not only an upgrade - including a full install of the 862.

If that does not cure, you'll have to RMA the unit to Dolby before you lose more shows.

Posted by Yinghong Wu (Member # 6908) on 06-11-2012, 03:20 AM:

The same thing happened in our digital cinema.When the film is end and I press the DSP 100's stop button and the SYSTEM will dead,The dsp 100 screen will display the message"searching for show store",And i must shutdown the UPS and restart.Anthor thing just is "time stop" i call this.After the film is begin about five or six minutes the picture and sound will froze and about several seconds the film will go on,like nothing have happened.So we call the dolby service and they give us author DSS100 to replace.Now our system is 4.2.1.(3),everything is ok.(btw:we use 4.3.5.(13) the system is have problem,so we use 4.2.1.(3)).So i suggest 4.2.1.(3). [Razz]

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 06-28-2012, 02:37 PM:

Update to this - the problem occurred again on Saturday night and this time the VPF company agreed that the problem was too serious to play "wait and see" any longer.

They overnighted us a new server on Monday and our service company fitted it Tuesday morning [Smile]

They also upgraded the software on both projectors and the server in the other screen so hopefully that's the end of the problems!

Thanks to everyone who offered help and advice in this thread.