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

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » KDM Issues

Author Topic: KDM Issues Geoff Power Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Pershore, Worcs, UK Registered: Apr 2012 posted 04-13-2012 12:25 PM                    I'm a newby here, and joined because I've encountered lots of issues with our digital setup which I've tried to get my head around. We're a small rural art-house cinema, and converted to digital just over a year ago, running DoreMi on a DCP-2K4. I'm a volunteer projectionist and do some ingesting and playlisting. One set of issues concerns KDM failures - twice recently a feature has failed to activate because they sent us the wrong KDM, and this week only narrowly avoided disaster. The only feedback we got was "we've identified the problem and are on it" - I believe it was the wrong version number of the feature. On another occasion the KDM was sent by a different distributor to the one who supplied the film. And keys often arrive, or activate, too close to the show date for us to preview the show. Are these issues normal, or are we just unlucky  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-13-2012 03:02 PM                     You're just as unlucky as everyone else.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-13-2012 04:00 PM                        There are several different things you can do on your end to help eliminate KDM issues. The first is to ensure you are ingesting content and keys as soon as you get them. Don't wait around until Thursday afternoon. The second is to ensure that when you receive your keys, you are very careful about ingesting the right key. I will sometimes receive as many as 12 different keys for a given feature: Feature 5.1 Feature 5.1 CC Feature 5.1 OC Feature 7.1 Feature 7.1 CC Feature 7.1 OC 3D Feature... There is no consistent rule for which you should use for your location. Sometimes is the feature version, sometimes it's the closed captioned version. When in doubt, I would just ingest all the keys. Third, do not ingest your keys until after you ingest your content. Fourth, your media server should have some way to verify the keys, even if they are not active yet. There should be a screen which identifies when keys are active, whether a feature has a key associated, and so forth. Our GDC servers will even identify content which requires a key but does not have one, and keys that expire within a week. I'm not suggesting that you are not receiving bad keys, just that you have to make sure you are doing things right on your end to eliminate operator error.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-13-2012 04:21 PM                     ..and to add: If using multiple servers, the serial number in the key must match the server's serial number, or the key will not work either.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-13-2012 04:37 PM                        ...also If you are using the CC or OC versions, those often have to be ingested after the FTR version.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-13-2012 08:17 PM                     Justin, that must be some quirky GDC thing. For example on a Dolby, you can ingest all keys if you want, before or after or during content ingestion, and yes you can ingest version files first too...it doesn't care. It just works. That being said I'm not aware of any issues ingesting a key before content on a GDC.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 04-13-2012 08:41 PM                        I have a GDC server and have never run into this issue. The keys for this week's movies arrived about a week ago for some reason so I ingested them then. I received the hard drives yesterday, ingested those, and everything plays fine.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-13-2012 09:42 PM                     Ours arrive via FTP days before the HD's in which the KDM's are already in the servers .. and no issues either.  |  IP: Logged Adam Holland Film Handler Posts: 66 From: Oak Grove, LA Registered: Nov 2007 posted 04-15-2012 08:50 AM                     I have run into several issues recently with keys as well. Mainly from Technicolor. Had an issue with my keys for the LORAX last week, loaded and built Lorax before ingesting keys. Key screen said it was good, but build and control screens didn't recognize it. People from Deluxe had me delete my play list, reboot and reload the key and it worked. Said the play list sometimes acts as bubble and keeps the keys from activating the feature.  |  IP: Logged Antti Nayha Master Film Handler Posts: 268 From: Helsinki, Finland Registered: Oct 2008 posted 04-15-2012 08:53 AM                     Adam, what’s your server?  |  IP: Logged Joris Springer Film Handler Posts: 83 From: Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands Registered: Feb 2007 posted 04-15-2012 01:40 PM                     In other words, KDM's are just tiresome, annoying and it makes you wonder, can't they invent a more interactive sort of security because sometimes you even have to rush to get new keys because they forgot the movie is playing even longer . It is a good way of protecting the content but there has to be an easier way to renew the keys and also don't make them valid on the day that movie has to play but do it a couple of days before that. I also love that Doremi has at the moment a problem that makes the server say "KDM is valid for 0 Hours" in red even though when you check the key it is still valid for 101 days for example.  |  IP: Logged Harold Hallikainen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 906 From: Denver, CO, USA Registered: Aug 2009 posted 04-15-2012 09:54 PM                        There's a proposal to automate KDM delivery. Details are at http://isdcf.com/papers/ISDCF-Doc8-TheaterKeyRetrieval-TKR-v03.pdf . Harold  |  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.