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Author Topic: Playback Buffer Underrun Error Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-21-2014 06:22 PM                        Christie Solaria One. Anyone run across this before? About the last 8 mins of the show last night the lamp started flashing on and off (like a bad rectifier diode in 35mm). Fortunately, the end credits are 7mins so didn't have to lose the show. Shut everything down and it started fine this morning. We've updated the software, and run the film again without problem. Any idea what caused it and how to prevent it in the future?  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-21-2014 06:38 PM                     This "Playback Buffer Underrun Error" you mention in the topic, that's the error you got? You're sure your lamp was actually flickering off and on? Or was it just the screen going black? A Buffer Underrun Error sounds like a problem with your storage not capable of providing sufficient throughput for sustained playback. That could explain the screen going dark, because the IMB went out of data to play. Did you check your logs for any problem with your storage or maybe your NAS/storage server? Maybe you just encountered a disk failure during playback. In some cases, a faulty disk can temporarily hurt the performance of a RAID array, sometimes even beyond acceptable performance levels. Once the disk has been ejected, performance usually returns to acceptable levels.  |  IP: Logged Andrew Thomas Master Film Handler Posts: 273 From: Pearland, TX, USA Registered: Jun 2012 posted 04-21-2014 06:46 PM                     I don't think there is anything to do to prevent it. The fix is to reboot the NAS.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-21-2014 07:49 PM                        Yes, that was the error message. I suspect it was just going projecting black, but didn't have the time to troubleshoot. Have heard back from Christie and they say it is a known problem that the software update should resolve. We'll see.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 04-21-2014 09:31 PM                        Yes it was just projecting black. There would be no reason for the computer to shut off the actual xenon. When you run out of buffer there's nothing to show onscreen, hence the black. Your buffer of video data has emptied and the drive has to work hard to catch up. All this talk off buffer underruns sure takes me back to the early 1990's when that was actually a thing you had to worry about when burning CDs.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-21-2014 10:31 PM                        Ha, "buffer underrun." I knew I'd heard that term before but couldn't quite place it until seeing Joe's post. Sheeze what are these projectors running on, old 80386 processors?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-21-2014 10:54 PM                     While I am sure that the software upgrade will cure the problem, it probably would not be a bad idea to check your hard drive array for bad sectors and other problems to be sure that it is running the way it should. An ounce of prevention...  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 04-21-2014 11:05 PM                     quote: Martin McCaffery Anyone run across this before Is your system using the Lenovo/Iomega E=MC NAS drives? Several months ago, one Solaria 1 system that used that type of drive at one of the theaters I take care of started getting occasional buffer/underrun error messages before the NAS finially died, and had to be replaced. It was still under warranty, so it didn't cost anything to swap out the equipment, but they did loose day-&-a-half worth of shows. In addition to the 'buffer underrun' message the staff also noticed that the picture occasionally froze or jumped for a second or so. They described it as much like the same effect you'd see when watching a 'bad' dvd disk. Don't know if you've got the same problem potentially brewing, so you might want to keep an eye on it!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-22-2014 09:06 AM                        Using the Netgear ReadyNAS 2100. Will do a sector check.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-22-2014 04:20 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Sheeze what are these projectors running on, old 80386 processors? Big chance it wasn't the IMB after all. Sure, it could be some bug that's now fixed in the latest update, but it could also be a problem with the storage machine. In an IMB setting, the storage is usually externally connected via e.g. Ethernet. The Solaria One allows you to use third party NAS hard/software via NFS to store your content. While this might sound like a very lucrative solution, the sustained transfer rates needed for flawless DCP playback might not always be totally trivial for lower end hardware. Many consumer NAS devices for example, will not perform well in a disk failure scenario and there might be other non-trivial compatibility issues that can cause troubles. If you use other devices, like switches, in between, those might also cause trouble and if you share your NAS with other clients/users, those clients might inadvertently cause traffic spikes that create problems for sustained playback.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 04-22-2014 04:48 PM                     I'm assuming the ReadyNAS is a qualified NAS for Christie. I would definitely check it, with whatever tool Netgear is providing you.  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 08-14-2019 08:32 PM                 It has been 1940 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Robert Jordan Film Handler Posts: 1 From: Trevett, ME, USA Registered: Mar 2019 posted 08-14-2019 08:32 PM                     Playback buffer underrun error hit us about once a month since February. Thought it was failing drives, so we loaded our Netgear ReadyNAS 2100 with four WD Red 4TB drives. Problem persisted. We finally got our IMB software updated from 1.6 to 1.8.6 and have had no problems since. Shame on us for not getting software updates, but more interesting to others might be that the WD Red 4TB drives are working fine with Netgear ReadyNAS 2100.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-15-2019 07:00 AM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Sheeze what are these projectors running on, old 80386 processors? Nope, a much newer processor called the Intel Atom which is the modern day equivelent of the 80386 .  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 08-15-2019 07:41 AM                     in my home "legacy" ReadyNAS I have 6TB disks - Netgear stopped investing time on those units but there is no reason for a larger disk not to work as the working protocols are the same and the OS is really not limited to a specific size. I am puzzled on why you should get buffer underrun errors out of the blue to be honest.  |  IP: Logged

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