Film-Tech Cinema Systems
Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE


  
my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Weird problem with DSS200 and NEC1200 (Page 1)

 
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
Author Topic: Weird problem with DSS200 and NEC1200
Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-01-2012 02:19 PM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
About 6 weeks ago we had a very strange problem here.

Showing a film and it had gone through all the ads, trailers etc fine but about 10 minutes into the feature the picture (and sound) stopped dead, just like if you'd pressed pause. A few seconds later (maybe 10 or 20) it started up again as if nothing had happened. But this kept happening. Just like if someone was pressing pause. It was like when you play a youtube video and it hasn't loaded far enough infront of itself so it keeps stopping.

The show still displayed on the monitor as if it was playing, but the timer stopped counting. Everything was still green and no errors from the projector at all.

I restarted the server and projector and this cured the problem.

Tonight it has just happened again, but a projector and server restart didn't help (at least not right away). About half an hour later and it was fine and we've just got the evening run on and *fingers crossed* it seems ok.

I did notice that both time it happened the server said it was "verifying RAID" when it came back on (I don't know if it does this every time you reboot the server? Normally ours stays on 24\7 as per our VPF agreement). While it was verifying the RAID the whole interface was very sluggish and even selecting a new tab (Content, etc) took a second or two to register.

We have a Dolby DSS200 server running 4.3.5.6 and an NEC1200 running 3.222.

Both times the problem occurred there was no ingesting\moving of content. All it was doing was playing the film.

The first time we didn't call anyone in to look at it or anything as I put it down to one of these glitches that seem to happen from time to time, but now that it has happened a second time (albeit 6 weeks later) I am obviously very concerned and we'll be getting a tech in after the weekend (if it's going to be a serious problem it couldn't have happened at a worse time - we've got a 4 day weekend here in the UK for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!)

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Any tips we could do ourselves? Or is it just a case of praying!

 |  IP: Logged

Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 06-01-2012 02:26 PM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Don't think you should try something on your own since the tech is already ordered. And certainly not during this heavy weekend.

Maybe there is a weird issue with the RAID trying to access data with a device not responding quickly enough. Could indicate a hd drive failure coming up, or maybe a connector or cooling issue. Maybe the logs will give a hint.

Do you have a spare drive? Do you know how to readout the diagnostics?

- Carsten

 |  IP: Logged

Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-01-2012 02:34 PM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
No spare drive unfortunately. I've had a bit of a look at the logs but will readily admit that I don't really know what I'm looking for.

 |  IP: Logged

Kris Verhanneman
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 182
From: Belgium
Registered: Dec 2009


 - posted 06-01-2012 04:17 PM      Profile for Kris Verhanneman   Email Kris Verhanneman   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hello Philip,

what you write looks to me as a hard drive failure.

You can check the drive status in the system page of the TMS.

The one that causes glitches in playback will have a higher bad sector number. There also is a metion on witch one caused the last crash.

 |  IP: Logged

Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-01-2012 04:40 PM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks Kris, I'll have a look at that firs thing tomorrow.

We ran the second performance with no problems at all so hopefully the rest of the weekend will be fine [Smile]

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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


 - posted 06-01-2012 05:31 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yep...HDD is the most likely source...verify that the "link" cable is plugged directly between the two link connectors and is good (I've seen where IT people have gotten involved and plugged ALL Ethernet connectors into "their" switches...the Link cable must not go through anything else).

I would also pull a log file and submit it to Dolby...they can likely see what the trouble is pretty quickly.

 |  IP: Logged

Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-02-2012 04:44 AM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
By link cable do you mean the ethernet cable that goes from server to projector?

 |  IP: Logged

Kris Verhanneman
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 182
From: Belgium
Registered: Dec 2009


 - posted 06-02-2012 05:46 AM      Profile for Kris Verhanneman   Email Kris Verhanneman   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I guess Steve means the little (blue) network cable that goes from the server to the media block.

 |  IP: Logged

Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 06-02-2012 09:19 AM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes Kris, that one. I would reseat it just to be on the safe side - when the server is not playing back!

As said, check the HD status, you may find some reallocated sectors. I think that up to 50 it's considered normal, but IMHO on a server there should not be any bad sectors.
Also, check the buffer underflow value.

If Hard Drives are not showing anything, send logs to Dolby and hopefully they can find what is wrong.

 |  IP: Logged

Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-02-2012 10:22 AM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've checked the HDD status.. no reallocated sectors on any of them.

In the 'Cat 862' section in the system tab it says "debug (buffer underflows): 2"

Thinking back to the previous time it happened, I do recall an error came up very previous in the "alerts" section. It came up red and did say something was disconnected I think.. Almost as soon as I had clicked on it it was gone again and I can't remember exactly what it said. I do remember it only flashed up after I'd restarted the server. No such errors when we had the problem yesterday. Could this be to do with the cable you are talking about?

And can you be really specific about where to look for the cable please? We've only had the digital in a few months and this is the first major problem we've had so it's all still very new to us.

Do dolby have a specific email address to send issues to?

Thanks to everyone for all the help so far.

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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


 - posted 06-02-2012 11:58 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
On the back of the DSS200, there are two ports labeled "link" there should be a short cable (about 1-foot in length) that connects those two ports. More often then not, it is blue in color. If you do not see a cable that links two ports on the back, then you may have found a possible source of the problem. Dolby does have the ports labeled so look for one with the main group of ports like on any PC and the other should be on the same card that has the AES audio coming out of it. There are three, I think, variants of the DSS200 rear panel.

 |  IP: Logged

Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 06-02-2012 01:44 PM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
 -

I have highlighted the LINK ports for you. Without those ports connected your server won't work!
Check on the server the disconnections number as well. I think it should reset when you reboot the server, it must say 1. If more than one it means your cat 862 is disconnecting from the server every now and then.

 |  IP: Logged

Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011


 - posted 06-09-2012 03:52 PM      Profile for Philip Jones   Email Philip Jones   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks for the diagram Marco - I checked and the link cable is plugged directly from one to another and is secure.

We referred this problem to our NOC that we get through the VPF scheme we're on, and the company who did installation.

Both asked for the server and projector logs and both reported that they couldn't see any errors that would explain what was happening. They couldn't even see that there had been a problem - only that we had rebooted the server.

All they could reccommend was upgrading the software on the server and projector which they have apparently ordered to be done some time or other.. (the NOC didn't seem too concerned really :/)

The issue actually occurred again on Tuesday after running 15 shows in that auditorium, during the same film at roughly the same time (I can't be sure if it was exactly the same time as I wasn't here that evening). We didn't lose the show that time but the audience did have to wait the 10 minutes or so for everything to reboot..

Since then I deleted the film in question and re-ingested it and now the problem has not happened again *touch wood*

Could it have been a dodgy ingest causing it? Or is that more likely to be a coincidence?

 |  IP: Logged

Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 06-09-2012 06:26 PM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
it could depend on the content, but I've seen this issue before and sometimes it's hard to troubleshoot.

If you are authorized to open the unit, I would also reseat the ethernet cable coming from the 862 to the internal connection board.

If it keeps happening, I'd recommend a full install of the software - not only an upgrade - including a full install of the 862.

If that does not cure, you'll have to RMA the unit to Dolby before you lose more shows.

 |  IP: Logged

Yinghong Wu
Film Handler

Posts: 32
From: Suzhou Jiangsu China
Registered: Apr 2012


 - posted 06-11-2012 03:20 AM      Profile for Yinghong Wu   Email Yinghong Wu   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The same thing happened in our digital cinema.When the film is end and I press the DSP 100's stop button and the SYSTEM will dead,The dsp 100 screen will display the message"searching for show store",And i must shutdown the UPS and restart.Anthor thing just is "time stop" i call this.After the film is begin about five or six minutes the picture and sound will froze and about several seconds the film will go on,like nothing have happened.So we call the dolby service and they give us author DSS100 to replace.Now our system is 4.2.1.(3),everything is ok.(btw:we use 4.3.5.(13) the system is have problem,so we use 4.2.1.(3)).So i suggest 4.2.1.(3). [Razz]

 |  IP: Logged



All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.

© 1999-2020 Film-Tech Cinema Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.