Barco S4 1.7.8 firmware has been released

[Steve Guttag]

The new Barco 1.7.8 has been released. It would appear to mostly affect the ICMP people. Here are the purported bug fixes:

Bug Fixes:

• Fix an internal logging issue.
• ICMP: Fix an issue where the “Play Now” button was not always displayed correctly.
• ICMP: Improve audio/video synchronization during pause repositioning.
• ICMP: When a Live IP streaming license is present, a notification will now appear if the video mezzanine is not up to date or is not functional.
• ICMP: Improve subtitle handling of Interop content when playing on “Play Now” mode.
• ICMP: Add support of wireless HDMI device (improve signal sync of such devices).

It does not claim any new features or product support. Disturbingly, in the release notes, it is called out as a "Beta Release." I presume that is a clerical error as I'm sure all are considered "beta" until they are actually released.

[Elia Orselli]

Now in the release note is "service release"

[Magnus Eriksson]

And there is 1.4.4.10 for ICMP.
But I see nothing about a fix for the masking issue in older ICMP:s

/M.E.

[Leo Enticknap]

Given what happened with 1.7.4, I'm not going to install this one anywhere until a few weeks have passed and no issues have been reported, unless a site is directly affected by one of the issues listed and actively requesting an attempted fix. I can only think of one that I look after, which uses an ICMP+ with an wireless HDMI extender for laptop on stage gigs (they had a wired one, but some bright spark decided to bury the transmitter under the stage, the transmitter broke a few years later, and replacing it would require taking up the carpet and floorboards of the stage to gain access to the bloody thing). I had to put an HD Fury between the receiver and the scaler in the rack to get it working reliably, but ever since then it has done and I've heard no complaints.

[Steve Guttag]

As a general rule, Unless I have a specific problem that the new version fixes, I do not install new releases for at least 2-weeks to a month. Even then, it is on one system to see if the benefits are there or if there are any "side-effects." If that works for 2-4 weeks, I'll then try the rest of the complex. Again, if that goes well for 2-4 weeks, I then deploy across all.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

I had to update an S4, due to hardware swapping and by demand of Cinionic. I have to say that -indeed- the synchronous playout when pausing instead of stopping is better (to say the least).
It's not something that would cause trouble when "on schedule", but the number of times that I was briefly fooled to believe there was something wrong with a DCP is embarrassingly bit.
And when introducing to personnel that controls movies it is always something to remember to point out.

So, thumbs up!

[Leo Enticknap]

And there is 1.4.4.10 for ICMP.
But I see nothing about a fix for the masking issue in older ICMP:s

After today, I'm pretty sure it's OK.

I've just installed a mk. I ICMP (two DisplayPorts and one HDMI) in a refurbished DP4K-23B. As this was a "from scratch" install, I took the view that if 1.4.4.10 buggered up the screen files, there would only be a trivial time penalty in rolling back to 1.4.4.6 (last known good), after discovering the problem. This was an arthouse venue, at which, per the customer's request, I created lens and screen files for F-137, F-166 (to match aperture plates for film projectors, with masking on all four sides, so they were significantly different), F, and S. After all was done, I flipped between them (along with flipping the physical screen masking) and checked with a test pattern: the image was OK.

Obviously that is no guarantee that an ICMP+ will behave the same way, but from what I saw today, 1.4.4.10 with an original, mk. I ICMP is OK - at least, from a clean sheet install.

[Volkan Sezer]

I installed it in the cinemas where I provided technical service, I tested it, it seems there is no problem.

[Abdulaziz Saleh]

We are dying from this SW we have an Issues with calling the macros, will fail till we reboot the projector, we are downgrading to 1.7.4

[Steve Guttag]

I have it installed on all SP4K systems we support. Zero issues. Note, all of ours are ICP-D systems.

[Leo Enticknap]

I've installed it into some ICMP-X systems, too: again, no problems or issues observed by me or reported by end users.