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Author Topic: Suspected DSS200/cat745 bug - CPL won't play until SPL deleted and remade Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-13-2016 12:12 PM                        Thought I'd throw this out there as a heads up in case anyone else experiences a similar problem. System: Dolby DSS200 server, cat745 IMB with software version 4.8.8.4, and Barco DP4K-32B projector. DCP: CPL name = ToniErdmann_FTR-3_F_DE-EN_OV_51_2K_SPC_20160920_DTB_IOP_OV ; UUID = 4c5e8901-b943-4bf4-8b8b-7018a8085bce. The DCP and KDM were ingested with no reported errors. On Friday night, a show playlist was compiled including this CPL; it was tested, and all was good. The following day, this CPL would not play. When selected manually, Show Manager said "Checking content and licenses" for a few seconds, and then went back to "Please select a show for playback." I've had this happen once before, a few months ago (in a different theater, but also a DSS200/cat745), and on that occasion, deleting the entire DCP and then reingesting it fixed it. Not this time, however. What eventually did get this DCP to play is deleting the show playlist that had been compiled the previous night, and remaking it. With the playlist deleted, we were able to select and play that CPL individually, and then compile another playlist containing it, which we were also able to play. The festival organizers also reported that this DCP, ingested from the same drive, played without any issues at another theatre, which has a GDC server. This sounds to me like another Dolby 4.8.8.4 software bug, one which will hopefully be fixed in 4.9.0. But I thought I'd mention this, to put it online in case anyone else experiences the same problem and Googles it.  |  IP: Logged Harold Hallikainen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 906 From: Denver, CO, USA Registered: Aug 2009 posted 11-13-2016 12:46 PM                        Glad you found a workaround! One thing to point out is that it is not necessarily a bug in the playback equipment, even if another system plays it. It COULD be a defective DCP, and GDC may be more tolerant. This may or may not be the issue. Harold  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-13-2016 12:50 PM                     I have had corrupted SPLs where merely copying the SPL was enough to render a show that was unplayble, playable. Since you are on 4.8.8.4, I STRONGLY suggest you move to 4.8.9.12. No KDMs are needed for that upgrade (from that version). There are many fixes in it and it is notably more stable than 4.8.8.4. You'd have to pull the logs to see why the server rejected the SPL but I've definitely seen that before. I've had it were it played fine on one screen and when the SPL was transferred to another screen, wham no-dice until the SPL was duped. As for "it has played in another theatre without incident" means NOTHING. There are tons of non-compliant CPLs that manage to work on various systems including drives that ingest in some but not others. The key is if the drive/CPL are DCI compliant and THEN not ingest/play on a DCI compliant server.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2016 01:32 PM                     Harold, I have found that different servers are indeed tolerant, or intolerant of different aspects of DCP's. I would think by now that Dolby wouldn't have many if any bugs in it's firmware since it's pretty well aged, but on the other hand there was a recent issue with GDC not liking Screenvision ads because of the fact that screen vision used a strange non standard ID string and they all started with the same date for a given block. You could not delete any screenvision ads from any server until you took them out of the SPL list(S). GDC added a workaround to accommodate Screen vision in a recent firmware build and now they delete fine. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-13-2016 03:47 PM                     The problem, Mark, is that things are a constantly moving target. You have DCI specs that change, new equipment that come out, interpretation of specs that change...it is never static.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 11-13-2016 04:09 PM                     Steve, I'll have to disagree on that. D-Cinema is probably the most static software environment you can find. Sure, things do change but slowly and with very clear directions every time that happen. Issues with Server software has been, most of the time, unrelated to DCI changing the rules. When it comes to Dolby servers the most common issues I can think of are - Media block disconnecting - Show manager crashing - The dreadful "disconnected" message that doesn't mean anything to any normal human being unless you are a developer and you know what "connect to a database" means - Subtitles not working (yes, DCI related. That's why Doremi found a workaround by designing their own subtitle engine. Not rocket science) - Clock drifting Sure, there is badly made content around which may cause an issue but on top of my head I recall many more people complaining because their Show Manager was 45 minutes fast than content refusing to play.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2016 08:13 PM                     Steve, DCI has been cut and dry for some years now. Series 2 has made that even easier and more consistent. The only major changes introduced over the last few years have been Closed Caption and the addition of SMPTE DCP's. All projectors should see dual HDSDI links the exact same way. If they don't then its a projector manufacturer issue and not a server issue and not something a server manufacturer should change his specs to accomodate. Even IMB's all work the same way presenting the same exact signals to the TI system in any given projector. And Dolby firmware is probably the most mature firmware out there, but of lately its also the one generating the most posts on this site even though the other two server manufacturers have left them in the dust. I can understand Dolby doing this firmware work on the back burner now because it's not generating any revenue. Still, I think it odd because being the most mature system we should see very few posts about it at all. Anyway, just my observations... Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-13-2016 08:16 PM                     The fact is, prior to the DCI security crap, the system 4.3.5.9 was the most reliable server software out there (any brand). I've had it running on some servers for YEARS without a single hiccup or need for reboot. The DCI subtitles are a moving target, the need to handle both interop and SMPTE packages are a moving target and even dealing with the oddities of various projectors I've seen issues. For Dolby, of the DCI software, System 4.4.2.10 was the most stable. Starting with 4.5 they had to work with a new server (DSS220) and the IMB (CAT745) and thus started marching down the path of oddities and working with new stuff and incorporating features. I didn't like any of the 4.6es though they were better than 4.5, which felt like it was forced out to get the CAT745 going. 4.7 seemed more of a fix for 4.5-4.6 than anything else and though it had features (being able to force the Engima to barf its contents to keep it from bricking) it didn't bring much more to the table than better stability that seemed to be lost in the 4.5 range. 4.8 brought "intermission shows" which few of our customers have used but it did bring instant show-start (no more rechecking licenses when the show starts) which was universally praised by our customers. "Disconnected" has, by FAR been my biggest beef with 4.8. It prevents automatic reboots (one never knows if it is going to come back fully) and sets one up for crashes due to memory leaks. 4.8.9.12 seems to be less susceptible to Disconnected but it is too early to tell. I'm migrating all of our customers there from any other version of 4.8. I don't think any of the reboots I've done on 4.8.9.12 have come up disconnected yet but I've been told that "the fix" isn't in that version so it may be coincidence or it may be a complex problem that portions of what will be the final fix are in there but not enough to call it fixed. But more to the point, how everything interacts, including with uncontrollable hardware changes (this version of mother board is gone so now we are using this new version) all can play into the mix. Even hard drives and RAID controllers play into it.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-13-2016 08:42 PM                     Most manufacturers pre-dci firmware was reliable. I still have one site running 7.8 final on their GDC's although those stragglers are getting upgraded later this week. They have been running this since day one and going on five years untouched. At any rate all this Dolby stuff going on just seems odd... I know GDC switched motherboards at some point too, fomr quad core to six core processors, but you'd never know it unless you happened to glance at the board specs when it boots or in the bios. Mark  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-14-2016 11:45 AM                        Thanks Steve - will update to 4.8.9.12. I didn't get the email from Dolby saying that it was available, for some reason. I've had several instances of "Disconnected" after a reboot, but it has always reconnected itself after a minute or two. I've never used the intermission show feature, either.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 11-14-2016 02:14 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap I didn't get the email from Dolby saying that it was available, for some reason. Nobody did AFAIK The "Disconnected" message is very normal after a reboot. It means "The ShowManager cannot connect to the ShowStore (database) as the ShowStore is still hashing content/checking that all is good, please wait". A "Checking content, please wait" (with a little progress bar?) would have been so much better than DISCONNECTED that doesn't mean anything to the average projection person. That's what I meant with that. I still do not consider the cinema world as a 'moving target'. Yes, a few things have changed or have been introduced (HFR, Atmos) but after all, server manufacturers choose their own motherboards (I believe Dolby have 3 versions?), their RAID controllers, even the Hard Drives. This is any developers' paradise, hardware does not change and software follows a very strict set of rules. And as Mark said, D-Cinema was not born yesterday.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-14-2016 03:20 PM                     GDC Servers do the exact same checking content phase but it's at the end of booting up and before the Log In screen ever appears. Older servers just have a blank screen while this is going on but it's pretty fast and then the log in screen appears. SX-3000 actually says Scanning Content. Its also pretty fast but not quite as fast as the larger servers. If you have a bad RAID then you get the pink warning message about degraded or no RAID depending on the status of it in lieu of the Scanning Content message. Mark  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 11-14-2016 03:53 PM                     anything but "DISCONNECTED" please! You have no idea how many people have been checking the wiring when the server showed that message!  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-14-2016 08:52 PM                        Ever since I registered our servers with dolbycustomer.com, I received an email to tell me when DSS200 software updates were published, which alerted me to download and install them. Not only did I get no email with this one, but it didn't even show up on the support website: I had to open a support ticket to ask for it, and a helpdesk tech gave me a direct link to download the new software update .dlb and the cat862 KDMs. It would seem that they don't want DSS200 owners installing this one without them knowing about and approving each instance, for some reason.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-15-2016 06:45 AM                     Leo, Clearly, the site appears different for different people. 4.8.9.12 showed up for me pretty much instantly upon release. I can think of no reason why Dolby would want to hide it from anyone. It doesn't have any compatibility issues that I'm aware. As I said before, for me, it is the best version 4.8 yet which does not mean it is perfect, just better than 4.8.8.  |  IP: Logged

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