Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DSS200 problems

This is topic DSS200 problems in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Phil Ranucci (Member # 3820) on 12-11-2016, 04:16 PM:

We've got 2 screens running 4.3.5 that have been very stable.
We haven't upgraded them in a while. We need to ensure subtitle
playback with TLS.
Anyhow, one screen will stop during playback, screen goes black for 10-15 seconds, and then resume playback, but about 20 minutes earlier in the film. Also the timer displays the time it stopped playback and does not advance. "Disconnected" error is displayed.
When this happened before, I sent the logs to Dolby. Dolby recommends reloading the software, which we will do. However we're not eager to lose all our cues, especially the NCM preshow ones.
The latest attempt to download the logs, the "export" button is grayed out and cannot get them.
Anybody else ever have this problem?
TIA

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-11-2016, 11:50 PM:

The export button will only work when you're running Show Manager on the actual server itself (keyboard, mouse and monitor plugged into the back of the DSS200), or a VNC connection to it. If you're running the Show Manager Java app on another PC on the network, but configured to connect to the DSS200's auditorium link address, it won't let you export anything.

At least, that has been my experience.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-12-2016, 06:59 AM:

The Export button works when you are on the actual server:

1) There is no show playing
2) You have a USB thumb drive plugged in.

OR

You are using the Jupiter Client application and:

1) There is no show playing.

Note, if the server is in a "Disconnected" state or cannot talk with the mediablock, your logs will likely be of little to no value since they will be partial, at best. However, once you reboot and everything reconnects, then the logs may give a clue as to what happened.

As for your cues. First back them up (you should maintain a back up anyway). The same is true if you use any of the GPIOs. To back up the cues (serial), you will need to go to the command prompt <ctl><alt><F1> and enter in "serial" (without the quotes) and then the password (don't ask ME) and then the wizard will guide you through saving the serial commands (or reloading them).

Before wiping your drives with an install disk, I'd verify that you actually got the serial commands on your thumb drive and DO NOT ALTER THE FILE IN ANY WAY. The serial file thing has been a rather weak point of Dolby's. It WILL get better in 4.9.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-12-2016, 10:48 AM:

Does that behavior differ between an 862 and a 745-based system? When trying to export logs over an 862 "black screen of death" problem last year, I'm convinced that I wasn't able to do so from the client running remotely, at all. I generally try not to do anything else while a server is playing out (ingestion, playlist building, you name it), just in case. My memory of that afternoon isn't accurate enough to say for sure, but I can say for 99.9% sure that I couldn't export the logs from a remote client, and that it wasn't playing throughout any attempt.

It would certainly make sense that you can't export the media block or IMB logs while it's playing, because while it's playing, it can't do anything else (you can't ingest KDMs during playback, either - not at all on a 745, and on an 862 it won't process them until playback has stopped).

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-12-2016, 11:29 AM:

Yes, that is true regardless of mediablock. Now, if the server thinks the mediablock is "busy" (not merely disconnected), you won't be able to pull the logs.