Notice From Disney on DOLBY/DOREMI

[Martin McCaffery]

October 29, 2025

Dear Exhibitor Partners,

Recently, we became aware of this urgent matter. As good partners, we wanted to make sure that you are aware of it for your information and action.

This CRITICAL NOTICE relates to the following Dolby/Doremi models:

• DCP-2000
• DCP-2K4
• Doremi IMB
• IMS1000
• IMS2000

These models MUST BE updated immediately to avoid being PERMANENTLY DISABLED.

The deadline for executing the necessary update is NOVEMBER 30, 2025, which is just one month away.

All information necessary to apply this update can be found on the following Dolby website:

https://kb.dolby.com/CinemaKnowledgeBase/s/article/Certificate-Extension

Please take immediate action to ensure your equipment continues to function after November 30, 2025. If no action is taken then starting on December 1, 2025, you will be UNABLE to perform this necessary fix and your device will be PERMANENTLY disabled, which will mean dark screens.

Please email CinemaSupport@dolby.com for support on this matter, if you have any questions or need any additional guidance.

Warmest regards,

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

[Bruce Cloutier]

Instills great confidence doesn't it?

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah expect to get many more of these as they try to reach everyone affected, I imagine they’ll convince deluxe to start sending notices too.

[Caleb Williams]

I've been getting daily emails about this lol. We took care of our fleet before summer, fingers crossed that their upgrades and cert installs did their job

[Dustin Grush]

Yeah expect to get many more of these as they try to reach everyone affected, I imagine they’ll convince deluxe to start sending notices too.

Got one from deluxe last week.

[Caleb Williams]

A minor note: We have had to replace system flash on the IMS2000 after running the Dolby-Cert_Extention package and have found that after upgrading the software version to 2.8.52 we still get a warning about certificate expiry. To solve this we have to re-run the Dolby-Cert_Extension package to clear the error. As far as I understand it the package installs a new root certificate on the media block of the IMS, so theoretically, even if for some reason you have to install new system flash with an old goldenmaster version you should still be okay to operate. However, after December I'm not sure if the extension package can still be run?

We have created in-house goldenmasters on 2.8.52, but I'm not sure just being on that software version is enough. The best outcome would possibly be to clone a failing system flash before it completely fails to regain operation without the pesky alert asking for admin credentials every time you log into the web interface. If/when we have that situation come up, it would be a question for Dolby, and I will share the answers with the class, of course.

[Steve Guttag]

We updated our clients last year and were very proactive. Between Dolby going through 2-rounds or so of warning people, deluxe and some studios. We're getting flooded with this...including for servers that are not part of the program...GDC (which also had certificate extension problems, not too long ago), Dolby DSS servers (not an issue with either CAT 862 or CAT745). I can't blame the exhibitors for being concerned but it has created more than a significant amount of work just fielding calls and emails about it.

[Ryan Gallagher]

We updated our clients last year and were very proactive. Between Dolby going through 2-rounds or so of warning people, deluxe and some studios. We're getting flooded with this...including for servers that are not part of the program...GDC (which also had certificate extension problems, not too long ago), Dolby DSS servers (not an issue with either CAT 862 or CAT745). I can't blame the exhibitors for being concerned but it has created more than a significant amount of work just fielding calls and emails about it.

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people on these recipient lists don't even know which DCP server they have. I know our programmer barely knows and he got the deluxe one. Forwarded to ask us again, even though we had informed everyone after it was patched months ago.

[Leo Enticknap]

Like Steve, we took care of all our service contract customers, and put the word out to our non-service contract customers who schedule one-time calls regularly, long ago. They're all done, but my experience mirrors Steve's in that many of them got the outreach from Deluxe and others, and then contacted us for peace of mind that they had nothing to worry about.

I'd be very surprised if any venue that regularly plays mainstream movies gets bitten in the rear by this as the result of simply not receiving the warning (as distinct from receiving it and then failing to act on it). I fear that there are a few that might, and that those will be college campus mixed use theaters, arts centers, etc. that only play DCPs two or three times a year, and when they do, those DCPs are of a little known Kazakhstani subtitled melodrama, not distributed via Deluxe; and in combination with that, the venue is one that we sold an IMS2000 to a decade or so ago, and have had no contact with since. That is the only scenario I can think of that represents a serious risk of a venue slipping through the net, in the US at least.

[Carsten Kurz]

Without the cert extension, these servers already would have had issues playing encrypted content on the 2023/2024 year change, so I guess, all operating servers should have been updated long ago.

https://kb.dolby.com/CinemaKnowledge...e/Y2K24-SM-RTC

https://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/...ear-2024-issue

[Ryan Gallagher]

Without the cert extension, these servers already would have had issues playing encrypted content on the 2023/2024 year change, so I guess, all operating servers should have been updated long ago.

https://kb.dolby.com/CinemaKnowledge...e/Y2K24-SM-RTC

https://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/...ear-2024-issue

There was a separate patch for the Y2K24 issue. It did not change the root certificate, which is still needed if all you did was the patch back then.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I understand that the latest firmware versions will put up a nag screen about expiring certificates. Ideally people see those.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Still, it will be interesting to see how many dark screens we'll end up with one month from now...

To what extend can we really blame cinema owners for this? Yeah, you should've someone competent running your booth, but on the other hand, since when did it become the norm that all of our expensive infrastructure is rigged for self-destruction?

[Ryan Gallagher]

I understand that the latest firmware versions will put up a nag screen about expiring certificates. Ideally people see those.

Yeah that nag appeared after we did the Y2K24 update, we were a few versions behind before that, but as not every title was hitting that bug, there is still a chance I suppose someone ignored it too. That one was easy to do cause cause the instructions and download links were pushed out to the public/end-user.

Not having a regular service tech we waited a bit on the Certificate Expiry update, until I sensed mgmt was not working towards it, and I finally suggested I just do it. Another tech here shared their guide and DL links which handled the cert update. Dolby then helped me via a support ticket to get the latest dolphin firmware downloaded too.

We are squarely in Leo's category of mixed-use/non-profit/independent, but run 200+ titles a year so not quite like a mothballed system in higher education, high end home cinema, etc etc.

It's the servers truly in storage I would worry about too. Perhaps venues have older backups they are not considering. One would hope the requirement to service batteries catches them too otherwise they got multiple problems.

[Aaron Garman]

Forgive me, but the Dolby KB says it was designed to expire in November 2025. My question is, why? And then why make it unrecoverable?