Barco ICMP image slowed playback

[Marin Zorica]

I have very strange problem with barco 10s projector and ICMP (2nd generation). While playind dcp, no mater is it trailler, feature etc picture is kinda a bit lagging and slower.....like it's playing from 18 to 24 fps and sometimes bit slower bit normal, while sound is in sync. So sometimes like it's kinda playing 18fps, mostly notticable on fast scenes.
Anyway i did reseat all the boards, updates few times both projector and icmp, cleaned contacts, reseat connectors and cable, even reinitialize raid....still same. Projector is green, no erros, no warning nothing.
I swapped ICMP with doremi IMB and barco ICP and projector is then running ok, so i tought, ICMP is off course problem.
I came back from site and put that faulty ICMP in barco 19B, from which i take IMB and ICP, and there all dcp's are playing fine.
So i even update alltogether one more time, did get back ICMP in 10s but again, play back is slow, so i put IMB/ICP and is working fine. Get back to my site, Put ICMP in 19b again and again ICMP is also ok.
This is most strange aituation i ever came. I do not know does formatter to icp/icmp connections are same, so that it could be something with backplane, or orther difference is that 10s is 0.69" dmd and 19B is 1.2" dmd.....
Any usefull advice is welcome, as i do not have a other icmp at hand to give it a try in that 10s at the moment.

[Miguel Moreno]

it may need an upgrade

[Marin Zorica]

it may need an upgrade

As I did wrote i did update firmware both on projector and icmp few times, but same.

[Marco Giustini]

you're saying sound is in sync so the picture is not lagging, it just feels the framerate is not right, right?

That's bizarre. All I can think is to try on a fresh base backup for the projector, on a channel set to all standard files.

It's been a while on a Barco, can you check in the diagnostics at what framerate the content is being played?

[Marin Zorica]

I did try to reintialize everything and set up from scratch but still same. As for sound in sync.....yes, like framerate is lower than again maybe is dropping some frames so it get back sound in sync, as for that i did not check longer on screen with sound to be 100% sure about sound sync. To be honest, i did not check frame rate in diagnostic, don't know can i look at data while dcp is playing on icmp!?

[Carsten Kurz]

Was this ICMP (X?) playing ok previously, or did it do this right out of the box? Is it running the original set of RAID drives, or have they been replaced with a different disk type? Not sure, but the ICMP log should show something.

[Marin Zorica]

Was this ICMP (X?) playing ok previously, or did it do this right out of the box? Is it running the original set of RAID drives, or have they been replaced with a different disk type? Not sure, but the ICMP log should show something.

This is ICMP (2nd generation board, no DP inputs) and no, is not new, projector was working just fine for 3 or 4 year now and it came just suddenly when they wanted to start weekend show.
Drives are original since first day. ICMP log do not show anything abnormal or even strange, support also don't have a clue while looking logs, now I did send one's from 19B with that ICMP so they would try to compare. I did also spend time trying to read out something from logs, but nothing, it just say normal playback, 24fps, etc.....
Only thing I could came up to is signal backplate or power supply......but power supply has normal voltages, and barco tells me same pinouts is shared like ICP or ICMP concidering signal path.....
Best would be to check that 10s with another ICMP, but at the moment I only have doremi IMB for spare....

[John Thomas]

Are you certain that every DCP you are playing is a 24fps DCP?

[Marin Zorica]

For test after complete raid reinitialization I have left only one DCP trailler for test which is 24fps. But, I don't think that matters, as both HDMI inputs are effected too, and problem persist even with different HDMI resolution, refresh rate etc...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Is it possible to capture the phenomenon with a camera? If you record at 60 FPS, then I guess the problem should become visible in the recording.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Basic question. This is happening with all titles and content suddenly? Or just having issues with one feature? You said it happens with hdmi too but you could have been using the same feature to test with just another media.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

That's an interesting issue!
Apart from the DMD size, another notable difference between the 10S and the 19B is that the first has no cooling pump. Instead, relies on the Peltier system (that VTEC). And that is why the Cinema Controller board is unified with the Fan Controller one. It's not something unheard of for a Cinema Controller board to go bad. What we are talking about here, is the cooling of the DMDs and the most part of interfacing with the user.
I wonder. Wonder, I do...

[Marin Zorica]

That's an interesting issue!
Apart from the DMD size, another notable difference between the 10S and the 19B is that the first has no cooling pump. Instead, relies on the Peltier system (that VTEC). And that is why the Cinema Controller board is unified with the Fan Controller one. It's not something unheard of for a Cinema Controller board to go bad. What we are talking about here, is the cooling of the DMDs and the most part of interfacing with the user.
I wonder. Wonder, I do...

Well yes, but i cannot have any clue why that should effect, as temperatures are ok and voltages too!? My idea that signal backplane is problem is based on that backplane is only thing that differes 10s and 19b. Besides formatter and dmd, but i did not suspect on engine, since it effect all there colours. Support told me icp and icmp shares same connections pinout on backplane, even that is true it could be maybe a problem that something like bad solder could effect icmp more than icp.
My another clue was maybe power supply issue, and since icmp probably takes more current because of hdd, controller etc, but i doubt that projector would not show voltages correct.

Also for content, it happends with all kind of dcp content and as well with both hdmi inputs on different sources as well different content. It also effect from power on, and no mather if projector is just powered on or powered for some time, problem is always there.

I need to get another icmp and go to site, than to try take out some cam and rec at 60fps which is good idea.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

A great disadvantage for troubleshooting here, is that you have no other video input than ICP and Media Player on the 10S. Which both are integrated in the ICMP and the ICP doesn't help much with refresh rate (even though it should have the alternative checkboard, that wouldn't make much sense here). On its older "brothers", you could have used the DVI inputs to check whether alternative sources have issues as well. In this case, HDMI equals ICMP. Hence, the issue being on HDMI inputs as well only indicates that the issue is probably not with the storage. Yet, there seems to be an induced bottleneck somewhere, and one of the first ideas that came to your mind was to inspect and clean the contacts. And from the two levels of contacts, the "IMB" level would probably be the culprit.
There is an oxymoron here. If it's the power supply, or a solder gone bad, then one needs to question the availability of all voltages necessary. Even more, when voltages in question are not on the projector itself, but the ICMP.
Really interesting!

[Ryan Gallagher]

I'm probably out of my depth to continue suggesting anything just being a projectionist that has no ICMP in my booth.

I'd be tempted to verify the problem also occurs with the 3G-SDI inputs too. Probably will since it sounds like some kind of processing bottleneck specific to when the ICMP is installed in the THAT 10s (definitely the weird part).

For forcing the issue to be as noticeable as possible, I would be tempted to display a 4K30fps or 2K60fps translating grid pattern on an input that supports it that rate, or some other moving test pattern where it is easy to spot frame timing issues. Point being to make it work as hard as possible while displaying content where you can easily see the drops. Lacking a pattern, any crawl would be a good place to look.

Maybe trigger an ingest while playback is rolling and see if the problem is gets even more exaggerated?

Being a computer that is still displaying it, but not at the intended frame rate, it might even be something like thermal throttling on the processor?... But your testing of it in a different projector seems to say otherwise, unless the cooling situation is better in that location.

If it was a laptop I'd apply new thermal paste, check temps/airflow, and check the memory. It's certainly not the kind of error that makes me think about bad electrical connections, except maybe at the RAM. Things like taking it off the network too... maybe there is some misbehaving network traffic that is bogging it down. Is there any status page that will show you realtime CPU/Memory utilization? I'm so used to having that in the taskbar on an DCP2K4 at all times.