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Topic: SR-D "On film" Firmware upgrade

John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-05-2002 09:39 AM

Does anyone have some general info on how this works? My understanding is Dolby can put newer firmware on with the SR-D soundtrack, and the unit will reconize and load it. At least 20min must be played; it's smart: it will ignore an older version, etc.

Also, is there a record somewhere of what each upgrade was for and about the time it was released? I am particularly interested to find out if there was a firmware release done sometime around last Oct-Nov.

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 04-05-2002 11:16 AM

Yes its true, the Dolby firmware does automatically upgrade itself via films being played in SRD. The update is supposed to be as 'stealthy' as possible, reading the data from the film then the DA10/20/CP500/CP650 will automatically reboot itself and if the firmware supports the upgrade and it wa successfully flashed life continues as normal. I was told by Norm Cerda that Dolby supplies the upgrades to the labs and they place them on random titles (I too wanted to know when I was getting a upgrade) and he said that the labs, not Dolby, decides which titles get the upgrade data added.

If you have a very old DA20 and you get one of these on-film upgrades it *WILL* crash your DA20, (the LED will read 'HELP 0' and the unit will cease to function) requiring you to get new firmware chips (that will support the newer versions of the on-film upgrade without crashing) from Dolby.

The last film I know of for sure that contained an upgrade was 'William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet' (the film that crashed one of my DA20s)

-Aaron

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 04-05-2002 12:55 PM

I believe postion "2" on your DA-20 or CP-500 rotary switch will tell you which firmware update you are on...I think they are on either 2 or 3 now.

Steve

I'm sure Ken J. will have more info here.

------------------
"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 04-05-2002 01:01 PM

Out of curiousity, what makes the older DA20's crash? I know of a setup where SDDS is the primary sound format (DFP3000 processor), and SRD is the backup (before optical) running on a DA20. Even if SDDS is playing, will the SRD track still be read and the DA20 be updated if the film contains an update?

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 04-05-2002 04:48 PM

I was told that the older DA20s had flash ROM chips that were of a certain size, and the newer upgrade versions were larger than the flash ROM coulkd fit, therefore it loads the upgrade, maxes out the capacity of the ROM, flashes it anyways, and reboots. Of course the complete firmware program is not there due to the undersized ROM chips and as a result the thing crashes upon reboot. The newer flash ROMs are much larger in capacity and should handle most if not all future firmware upgrades.

If the DA20 is on and the film is running thru the SRD reader, the upgrade should still occur regardless of what format you are actually playing the film in.

-Aaron

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