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Author Topic: Doremi and CRU William F Green Film Handler Posts: 84 From: Brighton, East Sussex, UK Registered: Jun 2005 posted 08-14-2012 02:46 PM                     Having had a good grumble today it's my turn to give some info which might help others avoid our mistake. Forgive me if this is already well known but in case it isn't.. If you have a Doremi DCP2000 using an Intel Entry Server mainboard (the earlier black-fronted one) then this does not support port-multipliers as used in some CRU 2 x drivebay (rackmount). We've wasted a week trying to get this to work only to have it finally confirmed that it will never work on this particular hardware. However, for those with older servers looking for a quicker way to ingest I can confirm what does actually work. Not sure if it's the same elsewhere but in the UK feature hardrives always come with a CRU movedock attached to the drive. If you connect a SATA cable to the single spare mainboard connector and then connect the other end to the SATA port on a movedock then you have roughly double the ingest speed of USB 2. Yeah, I know it means opening the server etc but only once to connect a cable - and then it's done. If you feed a flying lead out the back of the server this needs to be secured with at least a couple of cable ties to prevent the cable pulling on the mainboard socket. There is no configuration to do as the mainboard does support hotplug for SATA. The only thing is to make sure the movedock is OFF when the server boots. If the server is already running then it will be recognised as soon as you power-up the movedock or plug the cable in. Of course you open the server and connect cables at your own risk etc etc. Anyway, hope that's useful info for somebody (wish I had known this a couple of weeks ago!)  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-14-2012 08:17 PM                     There is a mod available for the CRU 2-bay unit that removes the multiplexer and comes out with two SATA cables. that gets around the problem that this multiplexer doesn't work with some motherboards.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-15-2012 08:43 AM                     Wouldn't it be easier to just use a single CRU mount ;-) What do you gain from having dual CRU on a Doremi? Of course, if you already bought a Dual-CRU... - Carsten  |  IP: Logged William F Green Film Handler Posts: 84 From: Brighton, East Sussex, UK Registered: Jun 2005 posted 08-15-2012 01:59 PM                     Thanks for the comments/suggestions guys. You don't gain much speed-wise by having a dual-bay CRU with port multiplier but it does allow you to go away and leave two features ingesting rather than one. I did ask CRU specifically if the port multiplier 2 bay unit would work with our server and they said yes. Obviously they said that in good faith - but it turns out unfortunately it does not work. Funnily enough a 2 bay CRU unit is not much more expensive than a single CRU unit. However they are all way, way more expensive than a simple CRU movedock - which has the same speed capabilities (we tested one) but without a cooling fan or pretty box. Yes, CRU have offered a conversion kit to bypass the port multiplier which then gives 2 x single SATA's or ESATA's out of the back of the unit - but as there is only one SATA port on the Doremi (meaning only one extra drive can be connected) then over £400 is a lot when comparing it to a £35 movedock which can essentially do the same thing. We thought we were doing something that would be convenient and easy to use with the CRU port-multiplier unit, but it wasn't to be. This is why I want to make sure others are aware that there are far cheaper ways to get a single drive to work with a Doremi. Even CRU were unaware that our Doremi would not support the port multiplier. However, all credit to CRU who have been extremely helpful throughout. We originally wanted to speed-up our ingesting because we will be screening anything up to 6 different features each weekend with limited advance access to the server. We thought we might be able to manage with USB ingest but honestly it's just too slow - we did an ingest of 'The Help' which took (alarmingly) over 3 hours to ingest, but just 1hr 40mins via SATA.  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 08-15-2012 05:32 PM                     quote: William F Green ....we did an ingest of 'The Help' which took (alarmingly) over 3 hours to ingest, but just 1hr 40mins via SATA. And yet, in 35mm it would take about 40 minutes to build and inspect that print...ain't technology wonderful?  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 08-03-2013 06:21 AM                     Any advice on my problem on an older Doremi DCP200? I have connected an exernal cru caddy via a sata lead to the free sata socket on my entry level intel motherboard and all appeared fine on my first ingest from Pearl and Dean, and the ads went in in no time at all. Then I tried world's end, which though appeared on ingest manager failed not far in. I took the drive out of the CRU caddy and it said no content to ingest. Tried a reboot, still the same. Tried USBing the CRU and the film went ingested fine. Then I tried another drive this week via sata and again no content to ingest, however the screen showed up the content from the previous weeks drive. Is there something i should be doing with sata ingest to clear or "eject" the drive with the content (such as command line?) If anyone else has had any problems with this method Id love to know if you resolved it. Possibly due to the fact I have a 1m eSata lead and this is causing hickups? I decided to give this a try as i had 4 features to ingest in a very short space of time between delivery of the drives and the show, and during the school holidays i have shows all day, so was trying to speed up the process, being just a single screen cinema (cottage road in leeds). The only free sata connector is just to the right of the red sata cable in this picture http://www.film-tech.com/uploads/uploads0503/serverinsideleeds.jpg Having only just moved to digital after using 35mm for 25 years, and maintaining and making up shows, I cant believe what a slow backwards step ingest is! Though the picture and 7.1 sound are a big improvement, I'm sad to say!  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 08-03-2013 06:48 AM                     quote: Tony Bandiera Jr And yet, in 35mm it would take about 40 minutes to build and inspect that print...ain't technology wonderful? I've had film on screen within five minutes of the print entering the building before now. I don't like to do it that quickly, but it is possible with two machines. I've only 'ingested'(I hate that term) digital content a few times, but it does seem painfully slow. I'm not a great fan of e-SATA; SATA was not intended for external use, nor for removable devices, but until recently it did have the advantage of being the fastest interface around. However, we now have USB 3 and Thunderbolt; are these available on cinema equipment yet? USB 3 would have the advantage of being compatible with USB 3 or older USB 2 equipment. For shifting content quickly over data networks is anybody using 10 Gigabit Ethernet yet? Nothing to do with cinemas, but we recently installed a new iSCSI storage array on our SAN. 48 disks, 46 in a RAID set and two hot spares, and two controllers, one active with two 10 Gb. links, and second one on standby, with another two links. It's fast; I haven't yet managed to fully load those two 10 Gb. links. Most of the time it's running at about 5%, but that will increase in future.  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 08-03-2013 06:51 AM                     Stephen, same here with 35mm, had reel one on screen whilst making up the rest of print and changing over to the rest of the film on a tower... that was fun and exiting watching the last minute of reel one running out as lacing up. Happy days  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-04-2013 05:19 PM                     quote: Steve Moore Then I tried another drive this week via sata and again no content to ingest, however the screen showed up the content from the previous weeks drive. Is there something i should be doing with sata ingest to clear or "eject" the drive with the content (such as command line?) Steve - do you leave your server running 24/7? Could be a hotplug-issue - the server will not recognize a changed drive on that particular SATA port before a reboot or unmont/mount command. Happens often when hotplugging SATA drives on systems that are not built for it or on ports that do not support it. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged

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