Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: American Sniper KDM weirdness

This is topic American Sniper KDM weirdness in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-28-2015, 04:03 PM:

This past weekend was the first time we've ever had trouble with a KDM.

I had ingested the movie (or so I thought) but when we went to play it, it showed that it was not playable.

Upon looking, I found that I had accidentally ingested the wrong file (the Auro one). So, for that first night we just live-played it off of the hard drive.

The next day I ingested the proper movie file and... it still showed as unplayable. So I deleted both files (the original and the Auro) and since it was close to showtime, tried to live-play it again, but this time the KDM showed that NONE of the files were playable.

So I called Deluxe and got a new KDM, and it worked fine with the live-play. I haven't had time this week to ingest the movie again, so we've just been live-playing it so far this week, but I'll probably get that done tonight.

Not asking for advice, just sharing this story and wondering what could have gone wrong with the key between Friday night and Saturday afternoon?? Of course the server was rebooted various times during this whole process.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 01-28-2015, 06:40 PM:

Because I offer technical support to numerous theatre locations, I can tell you that KDM weirdness happens often. 99% of the time, it is the person(s)or program that created the KDM itself. I have been told not to "open" the KDM files with a program to view the XML code by Deluxe and Technicolor, but I usually do (after I e-mail it to my e-mail address so I don't corrupt the original file). More often than not, the dates for the KDM are wrong. As in the dates on the e-mail they send do not match the dates that are actually in the coding of the key.I have seen this happen numerous times.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-31-2015, 11:01 PM:

Well the strangeness continues but now I think there must be some other problem. Last night I ingested the correct file again, but upon testing it still showed as unplayable, even though the SAME FILE will live-play properly off of the hard drive. I tried all the usual rebooting and etc but it just flat won't play that file off of the server. Only from the shipping drive.

I have officially given up trying to figure this one out and will continue to live-play it all week. We only have 4 nights left anyway.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-01-2015, 03:35 AM:

What does the server say (what server is that), does it show the KDM listed on the specific CPL and what does it say?

If the KDM is NOT listed under the CPL's properties, can you check that the UUID of the KDM and the CPL you're trying to unlock match?

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 02-01-2015, 08:41 AM:

What server are you using? I vaguely remember something like GDC, am I correct?

It looks like you've encountered a rather interesting asset library management bug. In any case, you might want to file your experience and logs to your supplier so it can get fixed.

It somehow looks like the thing never got rid of the original CPL of the Auro version you ingested and therefore shows the KDM as invalid.

There could be something weird and potentially defective in the content too, like the Auro and the "normal" CPL having the same UUID, triggering this situation.

Posted by Jason Raftery (Member # 6291) on 02-01-2015, 10:06 AM:

What software version is the player on? Like Marcel, I recall you having a GDC.

If you're on a relatively recent build, you might want to try getting Content Manager to re-sync (SMS > Control Panel > Manage Content > Exit). The process takes less than a minute, but don't do it during ingest or playback as it can cause skipping. Once Content Manager comes back up, go back to the SMS and see if you can play the CPL from the RAID drives.

I had a situation last week where a feature was showing as unplayable due to a KDM issue when in fact the KDM was present and valid. The re-sync resolved the issue. There was no live-play involved in that case though.

Also, are you sure you are trying to play the original version of American Sniper at this point? If you ingested the version file but did not ingest the original version, the player will not be able to play the version file as it would be missing the assets from the OV. In a live-play situation, I believe the player can play the VF if the OV version is on the same drive, so long as you have a KDM for the VF. Then again, if you had a KDM for the VF, one would think the player would throw a different error if the OV assets were missing than a KDM problem.

Just in case, here's the difference between the CPLs:

AmericanSniper_FTR_S_EN-EN-CCAP_OV_51-HI-VI_2K_WR_20141209_DLA_IOP_OV
AmericanSniper_FTR_S_EN-EN-CCAP_OV_71-HI-VI_2K_WR_20141210_DLA_IOP_VF

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-01-2015, 02:24 PM:

Well the KDM matches the version I have ingested. If I take the hard drive out of the bay (try to play it from the server) it won't play. If I stick the drive in and mount it, then the same file will live play from the drive. I have compared the two filenames (as listed on the KDM and on the drive) and they match.

Our server is indeed a GDC. OS-SA2K-1.5.21. As I said, this movie only plays through this Wednesday so I'm not going to sweat this anymore -- we'll see what happens when our next movie (Into the Woods, I think) comes in.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-01-2015, 02:56 PM:

For yucks...what version of software are you on? 8.01 build 186 is current and there is a hotfix patch for it too.