Help needed with Dolby server errors

[Andrew Blance]

Hello all. I am part of a student-run cinema that has a Barco DP2K-12C projector and a Dolby DSS220 server. Back when we were showing films the responsibilities of the projectionists mostly involved loading the films, making sure the correct kdms were on it, and general stuff about making the showings.

Over the course of the pandemic, obviously, the projector has not been used. Sometimes we go turn it on, to ensure it still works. However, today, a few things came to our attention today and I would really appreciate some outside opinions.

To set the scene - we have a DSS220. This is now discontinued, and we have been ensured it cannot be fixed if it breaks (I understand there may be some subtlety here, its a card inside the DSS that is discontinued I believe). This includes if it loses certification (which may happen with it spending long periods of time turned off). This already worries me, but I imagine buying a IMS3000 will be very expensive, so as long as everything works we may just continue as we are.

However, today when I went to check on the projector, the machine gave a new set of errors. These were:

• An "Array Degraded" warning - This was visible when you pressed the "!!" in the top right of the OS
• It appears that the projector could not communicate to our HDDs. We receive an error "Transport not available - error connecting to media block"

I have checked the cables, and everything looks secure. I tried turning the system on and off numerous times, but that did not help. Currently, I have a few main questions:

• How worried do I need to be about the array degrading?
• The actual error (transport not available) is a blocker to actually using the projector. We will need to resolve this somehow. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed with this?
• The projector boots up ok, shows the correct date and is not warning me about certification. Is there a way I can double-check this - is there a way to make sure it has not suffered a certificate loss?

Ideally, we would be able to continue without having to purchase a new machine - is this possible? These errors, I imagine, are things that Dolby could troubleshoot but if they are unable to fix DSS220's I am unsure how to proceed.

Thanks

ps. I hope this is the correct place to ask questions like this - apologies if it is not

[Leo Enticknap]

I'm afraid that "Transport not available" could indicate that the cat745 IMB certificate has been lost because its battery has discharged while the projector was powered down. If that's the case, I'm very sorry, but you're dead in the water until the IMB can be replaced. It doesn't necessarily mean that, but it is a possibility.

The degraded array likely means that either one (or more) of the RAID hard drives has gone physically bad, or that something got corrupted (e.g. the server was powered off while it was writing to the RAID) and the RAID needs to be repaired or reinitialized. That is definitely the lesser of your two problems right now.

Please could you download a log from your server (this should be done while the projector - and thus the IMB - is on), upload it to loganalyzer.dolbycustomer.com, and then post a link to the analysis output it gives you? Instructions for downloading the log are attached.

If your IMB has died, my suggestion for a first step would be to contact the UK's main cinema equipment dealers (when I last lived and worked in Britain, Future Projections, Bell Theatre Services, Sound Associates, Jack Roe, and Omnex would all have been places to try - but that was almost a decade ago) and see if they have a used cat745 from someone who upgraded to an IMS that they could sell you. But let's figure out if this is the problem first.

[Carsten Kurz]

A 220 with a cat745...I'm afraid, that calls for trouble in the current situation...second hand ones may be available. But before you hand over the money, make sure they do work...

[Leo Enticknap]

And also, ask the vendor to install a new certificate battery and to test that the IMB survived the replacement, before shipping it. IMBs sold new 5-6 years ago and still with their factory original batteries in them are dead IMBs walking.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It may be worth trying to replace the network cable with a new Cat6 cable. A bad connection here is known to give the "Transport Not Available" error, but otherwise I'm pretty sure we're past battery-replacement time here, because the certificate has gone the way of the dodo...

A 220 with a cat745...I'm afraid, that calls for trouble in the current situation...second hand ones may be available. But before you hand over the money, make sure they do work...

In this case, I think it's even better to opt for a second-hand IMS instead of trying to fix the setup with the DSS220 and cat 745.

[Carsten Kurz]

If the second hand 745 already has the Dolby battery mod with the stronger battery on it, it may be okay to purchase it.

[Leo Enticknap]

It's going to depend a lot on what dealers have available and how much they want for it. We have found that the resale value of used IMSes (apart from IMS1000s) increased significantly after support for the DSS line was discontinued. Customers on limited budgets want to upgrade to something that is still in active support. That having been said, we've had a lot of inquiries about used cat745s, too, many of them from people wanting a spare. Another factor here is that Andrew's DSS220 may also need one or more of the RAID drives replacing, which could be an argument against trying to fix this system.

I've only once been able to fix a "Transport not available" error by replacing the link data cable, and that was because the cable in question had been trailed along the floor and around a corner between the rack and the projector, and someone had placed a 70mm transit case containing two reels of Baraka spliced together (i.e. around 80-90lb) on top of it. In the absence of immediately visible physical damage, I've never known that to work. In my experience, a transport not available error that isn't caused by a misconfiguration, and can't be fixed by rebooting the server and projector, is almost always caused by certificate loss. Still, let's see if Andrew can give us a log analyzer link, just in case there is something wacky going on that we haven't thought of.

Where replacing a link data cable can help is in the very short patch cable that connects the board of a cat862 to the jack on the back of the chassis of a DSS200. It goes around a very tight (almost 90 degrees) turn, and is often zip tied tightly enough to put serious pressure on the cores within. On three or four occasions I've replaced this cable with a slightly longer one, routed a bit more gently, and this has cured a loss of connection between server and media block error.

[Gordon McLeod]

I have regularly found that depending on the enviroment cat5 connectors often start to make poor contact after a while and need to be plugged and unplugged a couple of time and often sprayed with deoxit or MG chemicals cleaner. That has fixed a lot of transport unavailable errors

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's going to depend a lot on what dealers have available and how much they want for it. We have found that the resale value of used IMSes (apart from IMS1000s) increased significantly after support for the DSS line was discontinued. Customers on limited budgets want to upgrade to something that is still in active support. That having been said, we've had a lot of inquiries about used cat745s, too, many of them from people wanting a spare. Another factor here is that Andrew's DSS220 may also need one or more of the RAID drives replacing, which could be an argument against trying to fix this system.

Recently, I've seen quite a few interesting offers for a batch of used IMS2000s. I've even considered buying one as a spare for us. But yes, availability in your region may vary. Like indicated, you'd really want to make sure the battery has been replaced on the Cat 745. Problem is checking beforehand if the certificate is still good...

I've only once been able to fix a "Transport not available" error by replacing the link data cable, and that was because the cable in question had been trailed along the floor and around a corner between the rack and the projector, and someone had placed a 70mm transit case containing two reels of Baraka spliced together (i.e. around 80-90lb) on top of it. In the absence of immediately visible physical damage, I've never known that to work. In my experience, a transport not available error that isn't caused by a misconfiguration, and can't be fixed by rebooting the server and projector, is almost always caused by certificate loss. Still, let's see if Andrew can give us a log analyzer link, just in case there is something wacky going on that we haven't thought of.

Where replacing a link data cable can help is in the very short patch cable that connects the board of a cat862 to the jack on the back of the chassis of a DSS200. It goes around a very tight (almost 90 degrees) turn, and is often zip tied tightly enough to put serious pressure on the cores within. On three or four occasions I've replaced this cable with a slightly longer one, routed a bit more gently, and this has cured a loss of connection between server and media block error.

I agree that it's not likely a replacement Ethernet cable will fix this particular problem, but like Gordon indicated, those things (and their connectors) do fail and it's about the lowest hanging fruit you can get, as a spare Ethernet cable is just peanuts and some cheaply made RJ45 connectors have a tendency to oxidize...

[Leo Enticknap]

The 2000 has another four years of support left, so if a good, used one is available for significantly less than a new 3000, it would be a sensible option for upgrading from a rack server plus IMB on a tight budget, assuming that you don't need or want any of the features it doesn't have but the 3000 does (e.g. 2160p HDMI).

Cleaning the RJ45 jacks and trying a new cat cable for the link data connection is a darn sight cheaper than replacing the DSS220/cat745 combo, so there is nothing to lose by trying it.