NEC NP-90MS01 - Cinelister Hangs when Scheduling

[Adam Towill]

Hey all,

Just wondering if anybody has seen, and/or dealt with this occurring before?

If you go to schedule a show in Cinelister, once you click to add it, you are met with an endless progress circle. I've left it run for hours, and it hasn't gone away.

We ended up just manually starting shows in that theatre once the problem arose, but I was reminded just now of the issue when we were checking the projectors over in storage, and thought it might be interesting to follow up on it.

Thank you all.

[Steve Guttag]

I have one site with two of them and they complain a LOT about how slow the NP-90MS01 (aka IMS1000) can be on its WebUI when it comes to scheduling. How full are your hard drives? keeping the free space at 15% or higher is important. How up-to-date is your software, firmware, Security Manager files?

[Leo Enticknap]

That, plus try a cold reboot of the entire projector and IMS, if you haven't already. Pulling the board, cleaning and sealing the PCI contacts with DeOxit (D5 followed by G100) can't hurt, either.

Another thing that might give us some leads is if you could download a log package and then upload that into Dolby Log Analyzer (your IMS is an NEC-badged version of what is actually a Doremi unit, support for which was taken over by Dolby). This screenshot shows you how to download a log package from an IMS2000: I don't have access to an IMS1000 to grab a screenshot from, but IIRC, it's very similar:

IMS2000_downloadlog.jpg

The Dolby Log Analyzer will give you a link to the results of the analysis. If you could post that here, it may enable us to make some suggestions.

[Emmanuel Nwokafor]

I've had a similar case with Doremi IMS1000 on a Barco !0s projector. During troubleshooting I noticed one of the HDD is BAD. After I replaced the HDD and also update the IMS1000 everything went to normal.

[Marcel Birgelen]

To me this sounds like a file system corruption. There is a section in the user manual that describes the process to rebuild the RAID under "Filesystem Corruption". Please notice that all content on the server will be lost.

If that doesn't help, you might want to check your harddrives individually.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Get rid of the IMS.... It's a piece of junk. Look at the GDC SR-1000 if you want the most bang for the buck, you won't have to mess with hard drives because it has 2TB of built in solid state storage and the best customer support.

[Leo Enticknap]

The OP is in Australia, which might make a difference to the quality and availability of end user support. Here, at any rate, I've found that in terms of answering calls and emails, both Dolby and GDC are helpful and usually respond in reasonable time (though you can be on hold for a while at busy times).

The IMS1000 (and its NEC-badged version) is no longer supported for hardware repairs and hasn't had a firmware or SM update for some time, and so I would certainly advise anyone still using them to make plans to upgrade before they break (for any reason besides drive failure, as those can still be replaced). But as others have pointed out, this fault is likely fixable either by reinitializing the RAID or replacing a bad drive. If Adam can get us that log analysis link I suggested above, we'll know more and should be able to make some helpful suggestions.

The IMS3000 and the SR-1000 both have their strengths and weaknesses. For an end user who is used to and comfortable with the DolReMi ecosystem, transitioning to GDC will involve more of a learning curve, which is one thing to bear in mind. IMHO the main difference is that GDCs have a lower up-front purchase cost, but GDC isn't as generous as Dolby with aftersales support for units no longer in warranty, especially for software and firmware updates.

[Steve Guttag]

Oddly, the IMS1000 and IMS2000 (the IMS2000 remains the most reliable server I've encountered...zero failures, zero lost/interrupted shows attributed to it in our service) have had more recent firmware updates than even the IMS3000. While the IMS1000 "software has stopped at 2.6.7, its firmware and Security Manager is keeping up with the IMS2000...so firmware is at 4.6.12 and SM is at 6.1.136.

[Leo Enticknap]

Misremembered - it was the server software for which IMS1000 updates were discontinued, not the media block and SM firmware. I'm not sure if NEC approves the most recent Dolby software for use in their badged units, though.

[Steve Guttag]

NEC is perpetually behind on their posting...but all you have to do is ask them for it and they'll provide their verison and DLMs. I have one site with a DCP 2K4, two IMS1000s and one IMS2000. As such, I have to keep up with what can do what.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Oddly, the IMS1000 and IMS2000 (the IMS2000 remains the most reliable server I've encountered...zero failures, zero lost/interrupted shows attributed to it in our service) have had more recent firmware updates than even the IMS3000. While the IMS1000 "software has stopped at 2.6.7, its firmware and Security Manager is keeping up with the IMS2000...so firmware is at 4.6.12 and SM is at 6.1.136.

How many servers total Steve? I can pretty much say that about all the GDC servers.... except at sites that don't watch the date on the cert battery. YHowever GDC will also keep those going if you have extended the hardware warranty. $500 a year sure beats paying for a new Media Block. I also had one customer try out an IMS-2000, courtesy of another dealer. He ended up buying 3 SR-1000's and also got a grand apiece credit for trading in his old servers..

[Gordon McLeod]

How many servers total Steve? I can pretty much say that about all the GDC servers.... except at sites that don't watch the date on the cert battery. YHowever GDC will also keep those going if you have extended the hardware warranty. $500 a year sure beats paying for a new Media Block. I also had one customer try out an IMS-2000, courtesy of another dealer. He ended up buying 3 SR-1000's and also got a grand apiece credit for trading in his old servers..

Mark the hardware warranty is not being extended on many of the older GDC models only software warranties

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Gord, It still is on the SX-3000. And GDC will fix the older units IF they have the parts. Apparently Dolby won't even repair DSS-200's any longer. And Dolby offers no trade in.

[Gordon McLeod]

they will not repair sx2000 Imbs or SX2000AR IMBS

[Steve Guttag]

The DSS servers are down to replacing Supermicro boards/power supplies or memory sticks. Even the CRU or DVD tray can be replaced with off-the shelf parts. The GDC to DSS200 death ratio isn't even close, for us. We've had SX-2001s and SX-2000AR die and they are not repairable (unless a motherboard or memory stick or HDD). In fact, I just had a service call on an SX-2000AR...reseated the memory sticks and was good-to-go! A handy troubleshooting tip on either the GDC or Dolby DSS servers is that they will boot up on one memory stick so try them one at a time if reseating them doesn't fix it.

Dolby gave 3-years notice from the last unit made about discontinuing support of the DSS servers. They gave 6-years past the last CAT745 being made before they stopped doing the battery upgrades. GDC...6-months on the SX-2001 (but honored warranties...just no parts for out of warranty) and a whole year on the SX-2000AR.

We invested in the GDC lithium battery holder and have done our best to replace all of the batteries in the field. Likewise for the 2000AR or SR-1000...even if they were not near expiration knowing that they likely drained a bit during the down time.

As for the IMS2000, I have a few out there but again, zero complaints about it. Zero lost shows, Zero issues. Also no batteries to change.

As for your customer that didn't like the IMS2000 UI. I respect that. I'm no fan of it either. I'm not jazzed about the SR-1000 UI either and boy is it slow...oh my god it takes its sweet time to do anything. I see a fair number of similarities in the IMS3000 and SR-1000 interface...complete with more a "Cinelister" sort of Editor/Playback/Scheduler menu structure. There are things I like and things I dislike about both Web UIs. They are also very slow to boot up (fully). The IMS3000 keeps you out...the SR-1000 teases you...you can log in but you can't do much until it all comes up. I really don't have a problem putting in either the IMS3000 or the SR-1000 and would tend to continue with whatever the customer already has. An exception would be for Dolby Atmos. I like the IMS3000 for Dolby Atmos because we use Q-SYS in our Atmos systems. Things are reasonably well integrated. I'm not sure what a CP950A would bring to the table for us, besides for the GDC SR-1000 customer so as to keep an SR-1000 theatre all SR-1000 (which would be my preference). There will just be this interloper of the CP950A for the sound go-between. Then again, if I ever do a "cookie-cutter" Atmos theatre, I might just use the Dolby DMA amps and make that part cookie-cutter too. But, thus far, my Atmos rooms have wanted a bit of A/V too and Q-SYS makes that easier.