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Author Topic: Incredible shrinking shipping cases Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-13-2015 06:51 PM                        Here's the newest hard drive shipping container we've gotten from Deluxe. I would say it's about 1/4 the size of the previous gray boxes. It's about the size of a thick book. The inside has that rigid foam rather than the bouncy stuff from the previous cases; I wonder if the jarring in shipping will lead to more drive problems? A nice touch is the top is covered with that "label release" type of material that a shipping label will stick firmly, but will peel off easily. Also they have apparently done away with paperwork included with the drive (at least, there was none with this drive). It's pretty much unneeded anyway, but the credit-offset is not printed on the drive label either. C'mon guys, put it somewhere willya?  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-13-2015 07:00 PM                     I think that now they've stopped sending CRU adapters they realized their cases were crazy oversize. I've seen many with the drive bouncing loosely in the cavity with none of the smaller foam pieces.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-13-2015 08:14 PM                        I did get one of the old larger boxes with a rigid foam insert that had slots cut out for three or four drives. But yeah, the drives bounce around pretty good in the larger boxes.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 10-13-2015 11:39 PM                     Deluxe wants everyone to use their website to get the credit offset data, which if the movie is from some independent distributors will not be on that site despite the drive being shipped by Deluxe.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 10-14-2015 12:00 AM                        I had one the other day where the little locking finger on the end of the lever on the front of the drive was broken off. The lever was there but the little finger was gone. It loaded fine, though it didn't latch into the drive bay.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-14-2015 02:25 AM                        Saw one of those new cases at another theatre tonight. Didn't recognize it then. Interesting. Overall, our experience with the system has been pretty good. Even with the strangely insecure foam padding, we haven't received a failed drive. The drives generally show up on time and the keys have always worked. Just the volume of trailers we get every week and the ability to show (and change) what we want without having to pull the center of the film load out and splice things around is almost worth the cost of the upgrade. Well... that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. It was hard enough for a non-chain theatre to get the trailers they needed, even before the labs started backing off. The system does take a bit of babysitting, as did film, but not all of that is Deluxe's fault. Most often, it's a booking or holdover problem, which one might chalk up to "failure to communicate". In the few cases where a drive hasn't made it here in time to show, we've been able to borrow them from a competitor we get along with pretty well. Paying attention to what you've got and what you need, and getting on any issues mid-week takes care of nearly all problems without really much effort. As Bobby Bare sings... 'there ain't no ten'... but I'd say the system is up to somewhere around a 'B'.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-14-2015 03:36 AM                     Since Deluxe Technicolor did the merger, they prob decided on coming up with this shipment design to cut down shipping charges for both ways since we are dealing with something lighter and less expensive to manufacture. I got four of them today, but not the first time. Yet, also did receive my TMBD trailer drive in the classic orange Pelican case.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 10-14-2015 06:08 AM                     Small? https://www.cru-inc.com/products/digital-cinema/dc-mini-carrying-case/ These can snug into a letter box as a large envelope. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 10-14-2015 09:48 AM                     What is so special about the "DCmini Cartridge" that is meant to accompany the above case? Unless I'm missing something, it looks like it's just a portable USB hard drive.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 10-14-2015 11:24 AM                     I've been getting those smaller shipping boxes for a a couple of months, but then again, most of the shows I do are press, preview, or Academy screenings, and are often shipped outside of the "standard" distribution channels. I did notice that at one of the theaters I annoy people at, most of their features were coming in the the new boxes but they still seemed to be getting their trailer drives in the orange shipping cases.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-14-2015 11:40 AM                        quote: Jack Ondracek Overall, our experience with the system has been pretty good. Even with the strangely insecure foam padding, we haven't received a failed drive. In 5 years, we've only gotten one drive that outright failed to work at all, and of course it had to happen while I was on vacation.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-14-2015 01:52 PM                        In the two years we've had digital I've had at least two failed drive, possibly three (one of them a couple of weeks ago). Haven't missed a show Tech/Deluxe have been good about getting a replacement here. Just like with film, if the drive isn't in my hand by Weds morning for a Friday show, I call and check on the delivery. I've had more than enough experiences with film and digital with our show not being in the system to trust it is on its way. Only one big key snafu (disturb didn't enter the end date properly) but that was with a house full of kids at 10am.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-14-2015 02:25 PM                        I've heard of some of these issues with digital prints & keys. I think my point is that, in the same way it was possible to get defective prints, duplicate reels and, in worst case scenarios, mismatched split-shipments, it's probably unreasonable to expect perfection from digital. The boxes may look different, but it seems somewhat similar "distribution gears" are turning here.  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 10-14-2015 03:30 PM                     Speaking of things arriving late. I loved the keys to The Intern not arriving till 3:30 pm on Thursday and we had a 7pm show that night. I was on the phone several times about it. Stephan  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-14-2015 03:52 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Also they have apparently done away with paperwork included with the drive (at least, there was none with this drive). It's pretty much unneeded anyway, but the credit-offset is not printed on the drive label either. C'mon guys, put it somewhere willya? Once in a while, I'll get these without paper info in them, and as with you, I have no idea on credit offset. Thus, I create my own (and since we both have GDC) where I figure that average credit time is over 6 minutes, I'll make the credit offset 4 minutes before the end time that is listed in the edit cue window. Not the best way, but I'll get my lights up in the mean time.  |  IP: Logged

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