Trinnov Boot Screen Stuck

[Jim Cassedy]

I have a Trinnov Ovation whose screen is stuck on the 'boot screen'. However, the
unit is otherwise operating normally. It accepts and processes format change and
volume level cues from the server without any issues. So while this problem is
mostly 'cosmetic', I rely on that screen a lot during the many 'live' film and digital
events I do, because I can see from across the room if a required format change
has happened when it was supposed to (such as when it needs to switch to the
output from my mic mixer, or to the external 8ch input from the CP-650 when I run
35 or 70mm film.) I also rely on the bar graph meters, to get a general idea of sound
level feeding out to the auditorium, because my booth monitoring system is really bad,
so by glancing over at the level meters I can get a general idea of the auditorium
volume level, or even if I have any sound at all, This happened once before about
6 months ago, and completely powering down the unit, and removing the AC power
cord for a minute or two solved the problem when I reconnected it and turned it
back on. I tried that last night, and it was powered down and disconnected from
everything but its' LAN cable for over 5min, but I still can't get rid of this screen.
Maybe one of you has had this problem before and knows how to solve it.
I really need to see the normal operating screen. THANKS!

"HELP!! I'm Stuck Here"
TrinnovScrn.jpg
(This picture was taken over 8 hours ago. . . and I'm still waiting! )

[John Thomas]

I'm sure Babb will have an answer quick here, but it goes without saying: contact their support -- they're great. If you can get the thing connected to open internet, they can remote in.


There's an internal firewire 400 cable that sometimes likes to be reseated, or seated better, which they may ask you to do. Requires breaking those warranty seal stickers on the top of the chassis though, so wait until they tell you to do that.


For kicks, try booting up without the LAN cable plugged in.

[Leo Enticknap]

The internal Firewire cords often come loose in shipping, with the result that I now always open up a unit and check them before proceeding with an install. Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of installing one, and when I checked it this morning, it was OK. But I've never known one to lose a connection spontaneously after it has previously been working: either they've been DOA, or they've arrived with the Firewire cable seated OK and stayed that way.

Another Trinnov gotcha is that they ship from the factory in France with 0.5 amp fuses in their power supplies (fuse holders accessible from the back panel), intended for 230V European operation. With the unit running on 120 over here, 0.5 amp fuses are at risk of blowing at any time. I would suggest that anyone with a Trinnov in their booth in a 120V territory checks the fuses in it, and if they're the 0.5 amp ones, replace them with 5 x 20mm, 1 amp, slow blow fuses. These will work.

[Jim Cassedy]

Thanks, John & Leo for the suggestions. I tried your idea of booting without the LAN cable plugged
in and it didn't make any difference. I've informed my tech supervisor who is down in Los Angeles,
and he referred a Trinnov tech to me, who suggested hook up a VGA monitor to the output and try
a few other things. Unfortunately I was up to my ears with back-to-back events today so my plan
at this point is to go in very early Thurs morning and work more on this. I was just too busy today.
Also, I discovered that while it 'appears' to be working normally that's not really the case. Not all
the format & volume cues I send it are recognized. I'm going to pick up work on it Thurs morning.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Does that original Ovation support VNC connections? That would potentially be an alternative if you don't have a VGA monitor method handy. I know they have an app too, but not sure it supports gear all the way back to the Ovation 1. Just suggesting other ways to get booth monitoring screen back.

[Pete Naples]

Does that original Ovation support VNC connections? That would potentially be an alternative if you don't have a VGA monitor method handy. I know they have an app too, but not sure it supports gear all the way back to the Ovation 1. Just suggesting other ways to get booth monitoring screen back.

It does indeed support VNC.

[Jim Cassedy]

Hello everybody- - Last week turned out to be an extra busy one for me, as I had to deal with several
live events (a couple of them overlapping, schedule-wise) as well as a major internet outage at our
theater on the morning of a day where we were the originating venue for a 3-camera shoot which
featured a Q&A with the director of of a movie that was being released later in the week, and was
going to be livestreamed to a about a dozen locations nationwide after an advance screening late
that afternoon. - - and I had a more than usual amount of 35mm shows to show & ship last week,
so the Triinov trauma had to take a low spot on my priority list, since it was sort of functioning and
wasn't causing us to loose any shows. (although I had my fingers crossed)

> Thanks for all your suggestions. I had reported this to my tech-supervisor in Los Angeles and
he put me in touch with some Trinnov techs- - who pretty much suggested the same things some
of you did. At one point, I even disconnected the Trinnov from EVERYTHING overnight to see if
there was some external outside oddity causing the problem. (no luck with that when I booted it
up the next morning)

> I was aware that the TRINNOV can be accessed via VNC, but I have not been able to do so
since the unit started acting up last Tuesday night. I get a "connection time-out" message.
(or something close to it)

> I did hook it up a small VGA monitor that I use for testing, which was suggested by some of you
and the Trinnov tech. . and all I got was a "no signal' message on my monitor screen. I tried
connecting the same monitor to several other pieces of equipment, and confirmed that both my
monitor and the VGA cable I was using were OK.

> The LED's above the LAN connection are not showing any network activity- - despite there being
a signal on the cat 5 cable if I connect it to something else. I discovered that my Sonydigitalserverthingy
could not "see" the Trinnov if I manually sent it command string macros and returned a 'connection fail'
message, despite having the correct IP configured in the Sony.

> I also discovered that while the Trinnov was not responding to the volume macro command strings
sent over IP, it WAS responding to format changes from the server, which are triggered via GPIO
contact closures.

> Due to tight scheduling constraints and my absolute need to take a 'mental health break' over the
weekend, I came up with a workaround which got them through the weekend. There was mostly only
one movie playing in that auditorium all weekend. Some of the Trinnov format options have volume
settings programmed into them. (So, for example if you select format "Feature 5.1" the Trinnov volume
will automatically go to "6.9" - - The format triggers for the pre-show and trailer content also have some
of their own levels built in) So I just built a special playlist to trick the Trinnov into playing back at the
closest level I could come up with using format cues. I informed management that they were going
to need to play "Mr Volume Control" for every show in that auditorium. So, while it wasn't an ideal
situation, and I"m sure the volume wasn't where I would have put it, it was the best I could do for them
under the circumstances, and with being partly brain-dead by the end of the week. (I think that by
Friday, I was already into 'double-overtime' pay territory)

> This morning (Monday) I came in a 5:45am, and pulled the Trinnov outta the rack and popped the
lid, inspected the inside with a bright light and magnifying glass, to check for overheated/burned
components, or bulging capacitors, etc. - - and everything looked OK. . . and YES, I re-sat that fire
wire cable and almost all the several other board-connectors just for fun, and none of it made any
difference when I put it all back together and back in the rack.

>Where we are at now, is that the Trinnov tech has a spare unit - AND he apparently has the set-up
config files that were used when our unit was first installed. I think the plan is that he's going to dump
our setup info to that unit and I will swap it out later this week (another 5:45am shift for sure!) I assume
that we will be shipping our unit out for them to repair. - -

. . and just to make my week even more fun, somebody bumped one of my Kelmar bench rewind shafts
with a ladder AND BROKE IT! (and of course, this had to happen on week where not only did I have a
heavy 35mm schedule- - but two of the flicks arrived on cores ) aggggggahhhhh!

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

. . and just to make my week even more fun, somebody bumped one of my Kelmar bench rewind shafts
with a ladder AND BROKE IT! (and of course, this had to happen on week where not only did I have a
heavy 35mm schedule- - but two of the flicks arrived on cores ) aggggggahhhhh!

At my very first multiplex projection job, I learned on the first day to ALWAYS take the shafts out of the table when not in use...One, to prevent what happened to you, and second, in our smaller booths the space was tight and I got tired of getting poked in the ribs when walking through.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited> I learned on the first day to ALWAYS take the shafts out of the table when not in use..

Well, Tony, me too- - except on that day, when I was 'multi-tasking' several events, I had to stop
mid-way through inspecting a reel and run upstairs to one of the other auditoriums to work lights
and microphones for a live film intro, and it was during the 10-15min I was away that the shaft got
broken. But normally, just as you say, those shafts are not in place unless I'm actually using them.
I even instruct the occasional 'guest projectionist' to do the same- - but wouldn't you know, the one
time i didn't follow one of my usually inviolate rules, I got shafted. (or 'de-shafted' I guess)
And yes, I've been in tight booths too. Almost everyone I know who at some point has worked the
booth at The Balboa Theater here in SF, has what we call a "Balboa Birthmark", a sort of bruise
that never seems to go completely away, caused by backing or bumping into one of the rewind
shafts in their tight booth.

[Ryan Gallagher]

If I get permission, I might have one with the keyway sheered off you could rebuild. Will have to look around tomorrow.

[Ryan Gallagher]

VGA monitors can be pretty picky unit to unit about resolution/refresh ranges that they support, but the nicer ones will tell you the signal is out of range when that happens. With everything else you mentioned would not shock me if it was just sending no signal.

Good Luck! That workaround was clever. I’d be outta luck here, nothing talks to my AP20 over GPIO.

Have you tried the serial console to see if it is responsive?

[Leo Enticknap]

I can go one better than Jim: I once managed to (involuntarily, I hasten to add) sodomize myself with a Kelmar reel shaft. It was at the Egyptian during Cinecon, when an insane amount of film was passing through the booth. I was taking advantage of a DCP show being in progress to prep as much film as I could to stay ahead. I pulled a 16mm shaft off one end of the Kelmar, and placed it on a chair momentarily, while I retrieved the 35mm shaft I needed next. At that moment the phone rang. During the call, I sat down at the desk to look up some information the caller was asking for ... whereupon the 16mm shaft scored a direct hit, where the sun don't shine! "Look on the bright side: at least it wasn't a 70mm one. That would really have hurt," was the somewhat unsympathetic response of a co-worker.

[Mike Babb]

I am on it, cloned and MiT shipped a spare for swap. Coincidentally I am in the Bay Area so I am visiting Jim in person. This was one of the first US demos 8 years ago and it made a nice improvement in a room where they were struggling with sound quality.