NEC NC900 failure

[Steve Guttag]

Yeah, the killer is the Top Side Security Enclosure Open. There are physical tamper switches on both the top and bottom covers (I forget if it is 2 or 4 switches each). Once tripped, the board commits suicide and is done.

[Carsten Kurz]

Yeah, these DCI security tidbits cost us money twice - once when buying, twice when replacing oversensitive lemons.

[Leo Enticknap]

Is there a way to bypass the Enigma in order to play unencrypted content from the Doremi on the NC900?

If you have the pre-DCI hardware variant of the Dolphin board, yes; it involves entering some command lines. The last and only time I did this was in 2015 or '16, and so I can't remember them - sorry. I don't know if it's possible with the later (DCI) Dolphin. It can be done with the Dolby cat865 (even after upgrading to DCI-compliant firmware), and used DSS200s are now pretty cheap, if that's any help.

[Carsten Kurz]

It's a Dolphin 1.0, so, without Security Manager. Don't know wether I'll be able to try this out one time.


Aside from that - a German cinema integrator was able to dig up a used Enigma and sent a technician along, and the projector is working again.

Does anyone know wether LD-Boards/Enigmas can still be ordered from manufacturers as 'new'?

[Leo Enticknap]

In the USA, NEC gave us a hard no the last time we asked, about 3-4 months ago. The customer ended up having to buy an IMS3000. Not sure about Barco and Christie. But the situation in Germany may be different: suggest asking your local vendor/integrator.

[Steve Guttag]

Barco and Christie still lists them as spare parts. You might find that some dealers/service companies might be harvesting Enigmas that have been liberated from systems that replaced their servers with IMB/IMS/ICMP systems.

[Carsten Kurz]

We had a lot of laser installations in recent 2-3 years due to a public funding program in Germany. I expect a lot of HD-SDI systems have been retired. I just fear that many Enigmas, ICPs and Dolphins are forgotten in storage and will die soon or have already.

[Carsten Kurz]

As far as I know, NECs S2K machines (NC900, NC1000/1100) have a standby mode which is the default operating mode after external power has been switched on. If NECs document about extended off time maintenance is true, then these machines will not charge the Enigma in standby mode. That means, there is no simple automated way to power these machines periodically with e.g. a simple timer switch - they would need to be powered up fully from standby mode by additional means in oder to keep the Enigma operating during storage. Same probably for Barcos DP2K-6E or DP2K-10 (when equipped with Enigmas/HD-SDI and not ICMP).