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Author Topic: DCP Drive Error - "No content to ingest" Steve R Pike Film Handler Posts: 66 From: Gloucestershire, UK Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-12-2013 12:41 PM                     Apologies if this has been discussed before, however for the past few months we have had about four drives sent to us that were unable to be recognised by our Doremi server. Most recently was this weekend when we received the drive for Captain Phillips. After plugging it into the dock and USB socket on the server, the Ingest manager failed to appear. Nor does an orange flickering light appear on the dock to signal activity. After some time, I went to open the Ingest Manager application manually. The system scanned anything that was plugged in, but just came back with the error "No content found to ingest". I tried re-booting the server and trying again - but still nothing. After speaking to the guy at Deluxe helpline he said that it was most likely down to the previous cinema using a Windows system and not safely removing the drive when they finished with it. He didn't have any solution as to how I could resolve it on site, instead a new drive had to be sent to us. Thankfully, as it's Panto season here, we weren't showing it for a few more days - but this could have cost us a screening. After the new drive arrived, and successfully ingested, I thought about plugging in the 'faulty' drive into our computer in the projection room (which uses Windows XP) and then proceed to 'safely remove the device' to possibly clear any errors. Unfortunately nothing happened Has anyone else had this issue with DCP drives, and if so - do you have any suggestions about how we could resolve it ON site?  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 12-12-2013 01:05 PM                        Is your Doremi server an LMS? If so, one thing you could try it to insert the drive into a local server on one of your projectors then open and close the drive. I know this option works with GDC servers and a Cinedigm LMS.  |  IP: Logged Steve R Pike Film Handler Posts: 66 From: Gloucestershire, UK Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-12-2013 01:37 PM                     Oooh now you're asking!I'm not sure... We just have the one server/projector - a Christie CP2000-Swith standard Cinelister.....  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-12-2013 02:46 PM                     It's highly doubtful that your issue is being caused by a corrupted file system. Also, if you connect it to a Windows file system, you will probably be able to see a partition on it using the Windows Disk Management and maybe even a drive letter appearing, but you won't be able to access it, unless you install the proper tools to be able to access Linux Ext3 file systems. But you mentioned this: quote: Steve R Pike After plugging it into the dock and USB socket on the server, the Ingest manager failed to appear. Nor does an orange flickering light appear on the dock to signal activity. The fact that you do not see any LED flicker, is more an indication of a hardware failure than a software failure. So I guess your USB dock, cabling or one of your connectors is to blame.  |  IP: Logged Steve R Pike Film Handler Posts: 66 From: Gloucestershire, UK Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-12-2013 03:15 PM                     Hi Marcel Thanks for your reply. The USB dock works because I used the same dock and cables with the 'faulty' drive with the working drive  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-12-2013 03:36 PM                     And did you try one of the USB ports on the back too, to make sure your USB port on the front isn't flaky? Alternatively, you could also try to put this drive into a CRU bay if your server is fitted with a CRU carrier and you have a spare lying around (or you could use one from another drive ).  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-12-2013 04:04 PM                     Marcel If for some reasons the disk has a corrupted partition, Linux won't recognize it and won't mount it. Hence no content would be displayed and no light will flicker on the unit. Windows won't be able to see a Linux partition unless you use a driver. What deluxe said is possible but I'm not sure how easy you can damage a partition simply not unmounting it. Very possible but shouldn't be so easy.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-12-2013 04:40 PM                     The light on the disk should always flicker if you connect it and something in your hardware isn't broken. There are multiple processes at work here. First of all, the OS will probe any new device connected to the USB bus and once the OS detects that the attached device is actually a disk, it will scan the disk for any active partitions. That activity alone should be sufficient to trigger a short flash of your activity LED. If your MBR on the disk isn't corrupted (I don't think any studio or lab is already using GPT, but later versions of Windows support that too), Windows will show the partition in the Disk Management, but as I already stated, it won't be able to mount the drive (unless you install something like Ext2Fsd).  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-12-2013 06:40 PM                     If I remember correctly during the mounting procedure the orange light flashes for a split second. Then the light flashes for a few seconds while the OS scans the drive. I believe this is the process Steve is mentioning. Yes, Windows should show an unknown partition available.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 12-12-2013 07:14 PM                     Last week, when I was out of town, the guy filling in for me had a similar error message with a hard drive he was trying to ingest on a Dolby DSS 200. I talked him through a number of things to try that didn't work, and then he even called tech support and they had him try a few more 'tricks'. Bottom line: The drive was either actually "empty" or perhaps the interface on its' carrier was dead, making the drive LOOK like it was empty to the server. I asked him to hold onto the drive till I got back so I could personally examine it, but he accidently shipped it out. ( D'oh! )  |  IP: Logged Harold Hallikainen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 906 From: Denver, CO, USA Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-12-2013 07:50 PM                        I find that if I plug an ext drive into a Windows, it kindly offers to format it for me. It seems pretty easy to do by accident. Harold  |  IP: Logged Richard May Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1057 From: Floral Park, NY USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 12-12-2013 08:00 PM                     Hey Steve, We have a Doremi also. We have gotten this too many times over the last 2 years especially with independent filmmakers. It has ALWAYS been the drive they send. They would send us another one and it would be fine. Exact same issue too. Ingest manager doesn't even come up unless you call it. Then it says no content to ingest. We have 2 Doremi server on 2 screens. Always does the same in both screens. It is NOT the server.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-13-2013 07:07 AM                     The problem may be, most people suggest ext2/3 formatted drives for DCP distribution. However, most independent filmmakers and smaller mastering facilities do not use LINUX, but Windows or Mac OS X for the creation of the DCP. Then they will use third party ext2/3 drivers to copy the content to the distribution drives. But these are still alien file systems for these OS's. Another potential issue is the formatting of these drives, as the free third party ext drivers have no formatting option. So people use Linux boot CDs/USB sticks, etc. to format and/or copy files. ext2/3 has a range of format options, people do not know of typical constraints for DCP drives: http://www.isdcf.com/old/ISDCF_Public/HDD_Recommendations.html inode size can be critical. In my opinion, this is unnecessary hassle going with ext2/3, as Windows and OS X can handle NTFS better. Most cinema servers nowadays can deal with NTFS drives without a problem. I would not suggest NTFS for large scale distribution, but under typical festival conditions, it is the better choice. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve R Pike Film Handler Posts: 66 From: Gloucestershire, UK Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-13-2013 09:41 AM                     Dear All Thank you for all your replies. I find it strange that, in this age of computers, that we are thrown these kind of errors. Deluxe emailed our film programmer to find out a bit more information about the errors, so it may look like they are examining it in more detail. Fingers crossed. I use the same docking station (whatever you want to call it) and cables for all ingesting. Whenever I have had this error, I tried it again but using the dock they supplied in the case - and still no ingest. Plus, I don't know about around the World, but here in the UK - Deluxe are no longer sending cables, docks and power adapters, they are only sending the hard drives.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-13-2013 10:30 AM                     Steve, If your dock works properly with a drive and does not work at all with another drive, there is something wrong with the drive, don't worry. Bad drives and bad mastering do happen. Another thing I do when I come across a drive which doesn't show any content is to put my ear on the drive while I power it up: listen for any unusual noise. I wouldn't be surprised if some of your non-working drives were not spinning at all or making all sort of clanging noise when spinning up!  |  IP: Logged

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