my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Screen going black intermittently

Author Topic: Screen going black intermittently Nate Anderson Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Stillwater, Maine, USA Registered: Sep 2004 posted 02-03-2011 12:56 PM                        2 months ago we installed a Christie Series 2 projector with a Dolby DSS 200 processor on one of our screens. It has run fine until we started playing "Black Swan" a couple of weeks ago. Twice in the past 2 weeks, while the feature is playing the screen will go black for a split second and then comes back on. I checked the bulb and that is not the problem. So I figured the content had to be corrupted. I deleted the content and uploaded a fresh copy and that seemed to solve the issue. However it did the exact thing again the other so I repeated the delete and reload content procedure, but it seems like I'm treating the symptoms and not the disease. Any ideas?  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-03-2011 01:53 PM                     Have you tried rebooting the server?  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 02-03-2011 02:29 PM                     Our Barco series 1 has this issue and we traced it back to loose coax from the server to the projector.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-03-2011 03:20 PM                     Note...on a series 2, you also have an enigma board in there and one of the things it CAN do is blank the screen. Certainly cables are a place to look, including the Ethernet cables and all of the go-betweens. Have you tried looking at the logs to see if there was anything noted? If you think it is an HDSDI cable issue, there should be errors growing on that log. -Steve  |  IP: Logged John Gavin Film Handler Posts: 12 From: Machida, Tokyo, Japan Registered: Nov 2010 posted 02-09-2011 02:20 AM                     Check for SMPTE link errors particularly on the B-Link ( usually the projector has a page or tab in the diagnostics section or tab ). Alternatively, you could try longer coax cables ( 3m or longer ) SMPTE link errors tend to cause black-outs in 2D content and green-outs in 3D content and be random.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-09-2011 06:29 AM                     To the best of my knowledge, the cable length related issues were a phenomenon of the Series 1 projectors. Something to do with proximity of the traces causing chatter if the signal strength was too large on the 292-B input. I have not heard about any issue on series 2 projectors. Again...check the 292 error logs...they will tell if it is related to the cables. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-09-2011 11:39 AM                        Stupid semi-on-topic question: what is the failure mode in a D-cinema system if one of the two HD-SDI links is lost? Does the picture go away entirely, or does it come out in black and white or with incorrect colors? Or does something else happen?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-09-2011 12:06 PM                     It all depends... In 2D mode...you will have either no picture or funky color picture. The "A" port is carrying 4:2:2 information but port "B" is carying 0:2:2. One BIG problem with DCinema is the complete lack of redundancy in everything. About all that seem to have some form of back up are power supplies and even that isn't anywhere near universal. If any part of the projector breaks (except maybe a lamp power supply if it is a multi-module supply like Barco) you are down. If anything fails in the server/player, you are down. Even the sound system is no longer backed up. With film, there was always an redundant path for the audio to eek through, in some form. Even old Mono sound systems had spare amps or the exciter supply had an AC "bypass" mode. Not so with digital and DCinema...with the exception of maybe USL's JSD100, there is simply no back up. And again, unlike film cinema were the equipment is mature and spare parts can be had for most any of the projectors in typically hours, not days, DCinema is still evolving so fast few have any spare parts anywhere...you are waiting for something to be "reded in" I had a projector go down on a Friday and I've had a media block go down on a Friday now. You feel so helpless because you can't do anything without the replacement parts. -Steve  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.