Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NC900c schedule editor slow

This is topic NC900c schedule editor slow in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Gunnar Asgeirsson (Member # 3882) on 10-14-2016, 10:08 AM:

Hi,
We have three screen cinema. NC2000c with dolby server and then we have two NC900c.

We have had this for 3 years.
We do not have any TMS.

But i have always find the schedule editor in the built in NC900c DoReMi server so slow.
I just use the browser (Chrome)
When i open the schedule editor it takes a lot of time to start showing me the current schedule, when i click new and add a new show it take a lot of time for the show to appears, and if i click to quickly to something else everything freeze and i have to restart the projector.
And sometimes when i open the schedule editor the show does not appears at all and the schedule do not appear.

It takes so much time to add in the schedule.
Meanwhile i can make the entire schedule for whole week in Dolby since it is just drag and drop and no waiting time.

Is possible to deal with this schedule in NC900c/DoReMi in some software rather than using this slow browser feature.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-14-2016, 11:43 AM:

Nope...that is the "joy" of the IMS1000 (or the NEC equivalent). Its web interface is what it is. I think I found that Firefox did as well as any with it.

I'm surprised that you didn't go with DSS200/220s all of the way around. It would have gotten you the GUI you liked AND they would have all networked together so you could schedule all three at once. The Dolby Show Manager will handle up to three system designating one screen as the "TMS" for a mini-plex.

Posted by Gunnar Asgeirsson (Member # 3882) on 10-17-2016, 10:45 AM:

That is sad to hear.
I was hoping to find some solution since this interface it pretty bad as it is.

Hopefully we can get the Dolby TMS here soon.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 10-17-2016, 05:30 PM:

look at the french cine digital
http://www.cinedigitalmanager.com/cdm/en/

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-18-2016, 08:28 AM:

quote: Gunnar Asgeirsson
I was hoping to find some solution since this interface it pretty bad as it is.

Replacement is the best option. Not sure an external TMS will help offset all of it's drawbacks....

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-18-2016, 08:34 AM:

The man is complaining about scheduling, not about reliability so how is your advise of any value there? Gordon was showing a TMS that would be brand agnostic (he has different servers) such that having a unifying TMS would possibly negate the scheduling issue and actually unify his equipment.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 10-18-2016, 12:04 PM:

Doremi TMS is the "old" Doremi TMS and it works with multiple server brands, definitely Dolby & Doremi.

There's a webGUI update (1.1.26) for the IMS that seems a bit faster and fixes some oddball bugs like the local vs UTC KDM confusion.

Agreed that the GUI is not the IMS's best feature.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-18-2016, 01:19 PM:

quote: Steve Guttag
The man is complaining about scheduling, not about reliability

He's only complaining that its slow, apparently you missed that. I doubt a TMS is gonna help the slow situation, it will only allow for a hands off mode. It's slow because it's web server based. If there is a way around that then fine, but I doubt it... Web is always slower, so unless you have a real live GUI you're pretty much stuck in slow mode. It's on board processing power is also quite disgusting.

The couple of these I have to deal with have had the GUI update and it really did not help very much... Both theater owners regret ever having bought them...

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-18-2016, 01:45 PM:

I did catch it. However, if the TMS is good, then the UI of the individual server is irrelevant. The user only interacts with the TMS and if it is fast, then their experience will be as well. You don't really think there is an API for the IMS1000? How do you think a TMS interacts with screen servers? Through the web GUI?

Do you discount the SX3000 because it is notably slower than the SX2000AR and SX2001 servers? If you use the GDC TMS, how often does one actually have to go the individual screen to interact with the UI?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-18-2016, 01:53 PM:

Actually, considering what the SX3000 is running on it's doing pretty dam good. The only time it's noticeable slower is when you go to save a setting, then, yes.. it takes a few seconds.

Of course the IMS web gui isn't interfacing directly to the tms, but the slow action of the web gui is no other fault than that of the main (very slow) processor. If you ran that web gui on the processor the SX-3000 has it would be ten times faster. So I'm not so sure you'll see any better performance of the IMS through a TMS. If there was any real advantage then places that have lots of them would all be TMS only. But they are not, and I suspect there is a good reason why.

Sorry, there is no defending this piece of crap. It is what it is and way too many theater owners unknowingly got stuck with them.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-18-2016, 03:27 PM:

Almost all of our multis have a TMS of some sort, regardless of server brand. We have one 4 plex that has a mix of Doremi (2K4, IMS1000 and IMS2000). Check this out, they use the web interface on the 2K4! At this time, they do not have a proper TMS so using the web GUI provided a degree of uniformity between three models.

The SX3000 is slower in just about all interaction, not just saves. The IMS stuff feels as fast.

Posted by Gunnar Asgeirsson (Member # 3882) on 10-20-2016, 10:37 AM:

I found a video from Dolby where they show exactly this schedule editor.
In this demonstation video from dolby this schedule editor is much faster, everything happen after the mousclick.
That have never been the chase on this 3 years we have had this projectors (and servers)

Here is the video from dolby:
https://vimeo.com/162302504

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 10-20-2016, 04:49 PM:

the video shows an IMS2000 though.

Posted by Ian Freer (Member # 1940) on 11-01-2016, 04:43 PM:

Gunnar, which software versions are the servers running?

If they're three years old and haven't been updated during that time there could be a number of improvements to be gained from upgrading.

As everyone has already pointed out, the IMS interface is not fast, but a year or two back I had a couple of sites reporting these servers getting slower and slower to respond, and eventually being almost impossible to access for a time.

After having software upgrades to the most current versions at the time, the response improved enough to actually work relatively reliably.

It will probably never be as fast as the Dolby GUI, but it should at least be useable without constant crashes and hours of waiting to enter a schedule...

Ian

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-02-2016, 02:30 PM:

A three pound hammer aids in getting the correct upgrade done in a shortest amount of time.

Mark

Posted by Leslie Hartmier (Member # 7053) on 11-03-2016, 04:33 PM:

Perhaps a solution for the two NC900Cs is to avoid having to use the WebGUI by getting a free license from CineDigital Manager (two or fewer screens, they give a free license which must be renewed annually), and using it for that.

I know you have three auditoriums, which if you would like to unify all of them, you'd need to buy the pro version (a lot more functions, including DCP creation, signage control, and remote control via iPad/Android, as well as delayed content transfer (we use that to transfer content overnight when staff are gone, and the machines are not in use), and other useful things), but if nothing else, the free version can help you avoid having to spend as much time using the WebGUI.

I confess, I am quite the proponent of CDM, but then again, they have some pretty neat things internal to their TMS, like being able to provide subtitles for multiple languages simultaneously for one movie to a free iPhone/iPad or Android app on a customer's phone, Packs, which allows you to substitute entire playlists that you are guaranteed to want (preshows are a good example), and when you remove an outdated CPL, it removes it from all SPLs that contain that pack (Sausage Party preview sitting on Frozen, anyone?), as well as PlayList Templates that allow you to make up a playlist in twenty seconds or less (including cues). They have a fair initial cost for the pro version, but once you buy it, there are no annual fees.

Anyway, just a thought regarding bypassing the WebGUI on the IMS1000s.