Doremi showvault re-cert

[Armand Daiguillon]

Hi all,

Can someone direct me on who to contact or how to contact whoever handles re-certification of Doremi showvault IMb's ?

I need to swap one into an existing system and I had an extra GDC SX-3000 that had been on a shelf with dead batteries and was in contact with GDC to re-cert it as they had done with some others in the past, but they said this one was damaged and could not be repaired.

I also have 4 Doremi/Showvault IMB's that have been sitting on a shelf for about a year, I'm sure their batteries are dead and will now need to be re-certified as well but I'm not sure who to contact.
I understand Dolby bought Doremi, but I have no clue who to contact on this.

Any help appreciated !

Thanks !

[Leo Enticknap]

You would need to contact a Dolby official dealer, who would handle the inquiry and give you a quote. However, their current listing looks somewhat ambiguous.


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I read this as possibly meaning that they will now only repair/re-cert IMBs that are covered by an active warranty, and that one-time recertification service is no longer available. However, it can't hurt to contact a dealer and ask the question.

The PDF linked above is here.

[Steve Guttag]

They will no longer recert the SV/IMB and since the max warranty on them is 5-years, and I think it has been out of production about that time (June 2020...so during the C19 year), it is unlikely that they will be in warranty. I suspect that Dolby kept enough RXO units to ensure they were covered for extended warranty clients until all of those expired.

[Leo Enticknap]

Some medium and larger chains negotiated longer warranties out of the gate at purchase, either as part of a VPF agreement or because the sale went direct through the OEM, and not via a dealer. I was recently sent to do a PM call on a 'plex down in Imperial County, because the 10-year warranty on their projectors was about to expire, and if any of them were in need of any new parts, they wanted that claim initiated while the warranties were still in force. They ended up getting two sets of air filters and a lamphouse cathode adapter receiver to replace one that had almost seized solid out of the deal.

So I guess it's possible that Dolby may still have active warranties on a set of SV/IMBs like that somewhere and, as you write, be holding on to just enough of them to be able to replace one or two if they bite the dust before those warranties expire. Or they might just provide an IMS3000 in exchange in that scenario, given that it would exchange relatively easily and use the same automation API.

But sadly, it would appear that Armand is out of luck. As I wrote, though, he has nothing to lose by asking one of the Florida Dolby dealers what the score is.

AFTERTHOUGHT - if these IMBs have only been on the shelf for a year, their batteries could be OK. Official guidance is that a battery is good for four years. It's definitely worth putting them into a projector to check, and if you're lucky, giving them a new battery immediately.

[Armand Daiguillon]

These units were set to have their certs expire in early 2024, I replaced them with GDC's I had from another location because of certain features the gdc's had that were needed for film festivals. (those gdc's needed to be re-certed too and gdc did that) I'm hoping that Dolby will help with that for this unit, this is for the California theater, so I'll guess I'll be contacting the company you work for Leo, they handled my TMS license also.

Thanks !

[Steve Guttag]

To be clear, there is a certificate expiring and needing an extension, for which Dolby was VERY proactive getting the word out with free files to allow certificate extensions (I did all of the ones in our service and without issue)...this kicks the certificates out to something like 2036 or so (well beyond the service life of the affected servers). What Leo and I are talking about are certificates that are outright lost because the battery that holds a charge for keeping the certificate has gone flat. That is what needs Dolby's support to replace (the serial number will get a suffix like -01 or -02 appended to it.

I forget the consequences of merely letting the certificate expiring will cause the server to brick...if it does, then yes, it is dead (on a SV/IMB and that vintage server). GDC had a certificate extension due to mere expiration too. They charged for theirs but one could update it in the field and one got 1-year of "software warranty" at a discount included with the certificate extension.

Leo may very well be right that the big-boys get special warranty deals. I think that sucks. If they can offer such a warranty to large chains, they can offer it to everyone. GDC, for one, does offer up to 10-years on the SR-1000 to everyone (at least in the US, I don't know their policy worldwide). Dolby normally caps their warranty extension to 5-years total from the date of original sale (so 2-years additional on top of the 3-years included).

[Carsten Kurz]

Cert battery draining and the cert extension program has been discussed on this forum for years over and over. I don't understand how Armand could have missed that.

Whatever - One should put these IMBs into a projector one after one and check wether their certs are still there. Then perform the necessary battery swap.

- Carsten

[Leo Enticknap]

These units were set to have their certs expire in early 2024

If their batteries are still OK, these IMBs will not currently work, but they can be rescued as long as this is done before November 30:

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My suggestion would be to install them in a projector and see if the certificates are still there. If they are, the batteries can be replaced and then the SV/IMB combos updated such that they're fully operational again.

...this is for the California theater, so I'll guess I'll be contacting the company you work for Leo, they handled my TMS license also.

Is this the theater near Palm Springs? If so, the SV/IMBs are on site there, and you feel this would be a way forward, you could call Jim and schedule us to go out there and check them out for you (we have field call availability over the next couple of weeks), and do the battery swaps and updating for those that are still OK. However, I would suggest getting a definitive answer as to whether or not any IMBs that have dead batteries can be repaired by Dolby. If the answer is no, I'm guessing that you won't want to spring for the cost of a call, only for that to establish that all four are dead and can't be fixed.