IMS2000 vs DSS200 Ingesting content

[Mike Reed]

Hello again,

I am wondering if maybe something is up with my IMS2000 server. I seem to always have problems ingesting content from movies/DCPs, to pre-roll ads we create with DCP-O-Matic, to flash drives with DCP's on them. My DSS200 which is older never seems to have any problems ingesting anything. Just today the DSS200 ingested Sonic 3 just fine but failed twice on the IMS2000 after maybe getting to 30% complete. A few weeks ago this happened with RedOne, same problem. Also last week we were sent a flash drive with a film from a local film maker and the IMS2000 didnt even pick it up at all when I plugged it in even though the movie was on the drive. It also has trouble when I make pre-roll ads with DCP-O-Matic. Probably half the time the IMS2000 fails to upload said ads but my DSS200 ingests them fine. Any thoughts here? Can I hard reset the IMS2000 or something? Just get frustrating week after week fighting with the projector to just ingest a movie. We do get our movies beamed to us with the satellite DCDC. They go on a hard drive which we ingest afterwards. Thanks!

[Frank Cox]

If you're putting stuff on the same hard drive to transfer it from point A to point B, have you tried using a different hard drive for that purpose? Maybe your transport drive is getting flaky.

[Mike Reed]

If you're putting stuff on the same hard drive to transfer it from point A to point B, have you tried using a different hard drive for that purpose? Maybe your transport drive is getting flaky.

So we are given a transport drive when they first hooked up the satellite system. We have already had it replaced once. We have had satellite for about 9 months now. So not a super long time.

[Steve Guttag]

I'm wondering if you have a USB port that is getting flaky on the IMS2000. No lie, the IMS2000 is the most reliable server I think I've come across. I don't get ingest issues from it, even in festival applications.

Is your DSS200 and IMS2000 on the same network(s)? Do you have a Media network for theatre-to-theatre transfer? Do FTP transfers fail? The IMS2000 can pull content from the DSS200 (and even read the names of things so you aren't just looking at UUIDs).

Is your IMS2000 on current Software/Firmware/SM?

How are the drives on the IMS2000? And by drives, I mean the three on the RAID and the internal SSD on the board itself? If you haven't, I'd pull logs and submit to Dolby for analysis to see if you have something that is starting to fail.

[John Thomas]

When the ingest fails, what error are you seeing in the Ingest Monitor screen?

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

[...]
Is your DSS200 and IMS2000 on the same network(s)? Do you have a Media network for theatre-to-theatre transfer? Do FTP transfers fail? The IMS2000 can pull content from the DSS200 (and even read the names of things so you aren't just looking at UUIDs).
[...]

I second that ("plus-one" is not a phrase anymore).
It's derailing the discussion, but it's worth mentioning:
If it's physically possible, you are missing big time not to have the servers connected and ready to ingest from one another. I won't write more in this thread about how.

[Mike Reed]

I'm wondering if you have a USB port that is getting flaky on the IMS2000. No lie, the IMS2000 is the most reliable server I think I've come across. I don't get ingest issues from it, even in festival applications.
.

Im going to try different USB ports just to check. It has 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 and an eSata. Maybe some of the 2.0's or 3.0s are not working as well anymore. I dont remember which one I plug or my wife plugs into every time. Ill try that suggestion thank you!

My IMS2000 and DSS200 are on different networks which is why I need to ingest each separately. That is how it was set up when I purchased the theater. I guess by how you asked its possible to get them on the same network? Not even sure where to begin there :/. I assumed that's how larger movieplex's worked. I was all excited to get satellite earlier this year vs waiting for DCP's in the mail like the previous owner did for 10 years. Im always learning!

[Ryan Gallagher]

I think you said there was at least one occasion of it not even recognizing the drive. But otherwise, are the transfers starting and then failing? Or are they all in the category of "DCP is not appearing to ingest"? Exact error message if given one would be helpful.

USB ingestion can be pretty picky overall... I know our GDC server sometimes sees additional partitions and defaults to the wrong one, or we have a cable that because of the plastic molding doesn't seat fully in the port.

Start with the simple things, use a different cable, different port, move media to another USB drive, verify drive capacity and file-system types are compatible with your IMS/DSS revisions/software etc.

[Steve Guttag]

Since you say you have satellite or at least Deluxe's E-Delivery...how are you getting the content from their catch server (computer) to your servers? Don't tell me you are transferring to a drive and then "sneaker netting" them to the servers.

To set up a media network in a twin...you just need a simple 1G network switch (8-port will do you)...unmanaged. Run a CAT5e or CAT6 from each server to the switch. Run a cable from the E-Delivery server to the switch...Ta-Da...it's a media network.

On each server you configure the IP for the second NIC so that they are on the same subnet. Each server will need the E-Delivery listed as a source (on the DSS, that is in Network Content, in the IMS2000 that would be in "Content Feed Manager." While, you are in there, you can also put in the DSS200's IP user/pw (will need to get its ftp credentials elsewhere though they are commonly known) and then the IMS2000 will be able to look over the the DSS200 for content. You can do likewise on the DSS200 to look over at the IMS2000's content though the DSS200 will list everything by UUID...which isn't fun.

You should have a service entity to help you out on such things. It should be a snap for them to set up or guide you through it.

[Mike Reed]

Since you say you have satellite or at least Deluxe's E-Delivery...how are you getting the content from their catch server (computer) to your servers? Don't tell me you are transferring to a drive and then "sneaker netting" them to the servers.

So we have the DCDC satellite delivery download on a removable hard drive. When it’s done downloading we take that hard drive and ingest on each projector. When done ingesting we put the hard drive back in the kencast. It can be a pain, but for us less expensive than getting hard drives mailed to us every week.

sounds easy to network between the 2. I definitely need to do this to save time and energy.

[Mike Reed]

I think you said there was at least one occasion of it not even recognizing the drive. But otherwise, are the transfers starting and then failing? Or are they all in the category of "DCP is not appearing to ingest"? Exact error message if given one would be helpful.

USB ingestion can be pretty picky overall... I know our GDC server sometimes sees additional partitions and defaults to the wrong one, or we have a cable that because of the plastic molding doesn't seat fully in the port.

Start with the simple things, use a different cable, different port, move media to another USB drive, verify drive capacity and file-system types are compatible with your IMS/DSS revisions/software etc.

Yes I’m going to try the other ports and get a new cable just to make sure. Typically it downloads to like 30-40% then fails at some point. With the USB movie it didn’t show up at all. That’s a rare case. I’ll get exact message the next time we try to ingest.

[Marin Zorica]

When dcp started to be delivered via download, i have often calls about not ingesting in one and hdd usb works fine in other server, even same type. So thing like, yesterday it ingested
fine, now same hdd won't ingest in another. So, format hdd and copy dcp again to hdd solved problem.
So i always create local ftp either on laptop/pc which is used on site, so that they when download dcp can ingest via ftp from it. Or either they can copy dcp content from flaky drivers to pc, than ftp ingest to server. That saved us and customers a lot of trouble and time. So i would advised you same, plus you have two servers and this way you can ingest both in same time.....