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Author Topic: Dolby IMS2000 Vs GDC SR-1000 Thomas Baham Film Handler Posts: 12 From: Sweet Home, OR 97386 Registered: Oct 2015 posted 02-28-2019 06:20 PM                        I am about to swap out my Christy IMB with a replacement. I purchased a new Projector a few months ago, ( NEC) and they installed a GDC SR-1000. Before plunging a bunch of cash I don't have, should I just purchase another GDC, or go with the Dolby, for the Christie Solaria One? I don't like how irritating the GDC reacts when it glitches, it takes forever to come back to life. At least twice a week it wont start a playlist and shows that the file is corrupted, and I need to start it manually. (When I do, no issues) The christie never given me problems other than the yearly replacement of the IMB (Because I guess they are pieces or garbage) This is why I am looking. Thanks for all your help, please don't go too far over my head with big words....LOL  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 02-28-2019 06:25 PM                     Have you talked with GDC tech support? This does not sound like normal GDC behavior.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Baham Film Handler Posts: 12 From: Sweet Home, OR 97386 Registered: Oct 2015 posted 02-28-2019 06:40 PM                        I have, they had me upgrade the firmware, it helped with the scheduling, but not the Corruption files" problem. I will call them tomorrow, they are easy to work with (a Positive for GDC)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-28-2019 08:56 PM                     A customer of mine installed three new SR-1000's very early on... and they seemed a bit buggy at first, but a couple firmware updates later and they have settled in. Totally different GUI than the normal GDC GUI. I personally DO NOT like NOT having touch screen capability in a server. The SX-4000 does for a bit more money. My customer also regrets installing the SR-1000's, Since they are only web accessible he has bought a laptop to talk to each one. I had nothing to do with it... he had already made up his mind. After his experience I'll only be quoting the SX-4000. The Dolbly GUI is just awful. Not at all self intuitive. Beyond that they have been reliable. I suggest going to see the Dolbly before you buy! No complaints on the SX-3000 either except the relatively short certificate battery life of three years. As long as those are changed its a reliable unit. I installed a bunch of them and only two have legitimately died. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-01-2019 06:13 AM                     I have no experience with the SR1000, yet so I can't comment on it, at this time. I can say, we are at 100% success on the IMS2000. That is, zero failures and no lost or botched shows. I'll agree with Mark that I'm no fan of its user interface (I don't like the Doremi UI in general and the web-version didn't win any points with me either). Like most everything, the more you use something, the more you adapt to it but that doesn't change the fact it isn't really intuitive. Other things about the IMS that I'm not too jazzed about are its Ethernet commands, plan on using the "wait" cue with all of them if you want reliable control. But that is about it. So, for reliability, I think there is no contest based on descriptions in this thread. The IMS2000 is, at present, more reliable and probably every bit as capable. I have not had good stories to tell about the SX3000 either. I've had (or near) 100% failure on them and every aspect of them. I've changed the IMB, the PSD /drives (multiple times, even on the same system) and the eSATA cable. Compared to the previous GDC servers that use a traditional server chassis, the SX3000 behaves like a drunken sailor and is sluggish at responding. The SX4000, I would presume is more of the same as they appear very similar to the SX3000 but with DTS-X capability (if you don't mind having no more channels than a standard 16-channel AES system. I hope they get the kinks out of the SR1000 as it does look attractive in many ways. I'm not totally against the web-UI. Really, what's the difference between having an expensive touchscreen that can fail or having a computer, likely already on site, as your user interface. Heck, one could built a cheap computer running linux with a web browser about as cheap as a touchscreen. Talk to someone that is using the IMS2000 and see what they think about the day-to-day life with it.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-01-2019 09:49 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag Really, what's the difference between having an expensive touchscreen that can fail or having a computer, likely already on site, as your user interface. There is a lot of difference. While I have built the TMS systems I installed to run for the very long term, many booths just have a el-cheapo $149.00 access computer... You can't operate an entire plex on the basis of accessing all that gear though one crappy computer that is only going to fail on the day you have to ingest 5 new movies and do all the scheduling for the week. Touch screen reliability has been really good for me with only a half dozen or so failures of them out of 300+ monitors. And all those that failed have been converted to LED back light at minimal expense and are still in service, and the LED back lights should push the life span out another eight to ten years more. Not having the local monitor is also going to mean more foot work back and forth thorough a large booth if they are ingesting from HD. I don't object as much if they have a reliable TMS system to access it because that TMS is likely already network accessible at other management computers in the building or at least via an Eye Pad. Foot work costs money! Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-01-2019 01:05 PM                     Mark, You could get a micro PC (most anybody's) mount it to the back of a cheapo monitor, plug in a keyboard and mouse for what $250-$350? You could put that at each server and still be in the same ballpark price as supplying touchscreens. I'm sure there are people here that have used Raspberry Pi PCs and have a basic Linux install and again, mate it up with a monitor, keyboard and mouse and you've got yourself your user interface.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-01-2019 01:56 PM                        Similar logic applies to Q-Sys touch panels. Once you've bought the UCI license for the core, you can run the UCI on a cheap Chinese no name PC or Android tablet, which will also give you the ability to run other equipment in your system (e.g. web and VNC UIs). So, unless idiotproofing is your overriding priority (i.e. making sure that the operator does not have access to anything other than the Q-Sys UCI), why wouldn't you?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-01-2019 04:01 PM                     I believe QSYS only has an Apple app, no Android. That said, they are in pre-beta with their web-uci and moving towards beta on the next release. Once the web-uci is reasonably functional, then moving away from a touchscreen seems more viable. Using the UCI-Viewer can be a struggle, a bit, and it does require some effort on the user. I'd say it is going to be very installation dependent on if the expense of a touchpanel (and what size) for QSYS would be justified. There is something to walking past a screen and visually seeing that all is as it should be.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 03-01-2019 05:03 PM                     Getting back to the original discussion... I can understand why you would want to ditch the terrible Solaria IMB. I would go for the IMS2000, primarily because my experience with it is, that's it pretty solid. I've zero experience on the SR-1000. Usually, GDC provides a smoother UI than the Doremi/Dolby based solutions, but I'm not able to comment on that model specific.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-01-2019 06:36 PM                     quote: Steve Guttag You could get a micro PC (most anybody's) mount it to the back of a cheapo monitor, plug in a keyboard and mouse I did just that for all the Cinedigm racks I put in. The baby computers generally only lasted a couple years, a couple went past that. The touch screens could be used with the baby cmputers too. Takes standard VGA. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-02-2019 08:27 AM                     For the record, we standardized on Zotac micro PCs (Zboxes) and with rare exception, they are all still going. I think the cheap one now is the BI-326. The Raspberry Pi, is likely to last even longer with essentially no moving parts.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 03-03-2019 04:59 AM                     The biggest problem with RasPis is choosing the right SD cards for them. The boards themselves are quite durable, especially everything since the "2", but if you put in the wrong SD card you'll see them fail intermittently. You really need one of the more durable kind, or the simple logging of the Linux distribution on them will kill them.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-04-2019 08:09 PM                     quote: Steve Guttag For the record, we standardized on Zotac micro PCs Yep, same thing I used, but only on the Cinedigm racks. I had two of the three Zotacs die. Once I switched to doing all GDC TMS systems I just remoted into the TMS itself through a stand alone firewall. GDC was not flaky about accessing the TMS directly like Cinedigm was. I have never had any issues, nor has anyone ever hacked into them. I used either Dell 2950's or Dell 2900 Tower servers, now using Dell R-510's to replace some of the aging 2950's. Never had any of the Dells fail. In fact the GDC TMS interfaces really well to the DCDC satellite catch server. Mark  |  IP: Logged Thomas Baham Film Handler Posts: 12 From: Sweet Home, OR 97386 Registered: Oct 2015 posted 03-05-2019 05:30 PM                        Thank you all for your responses. Last question, off subject: Where or who do I contact to try to get digital content sent to me via satellite, or Internet. I know there is a service, just don't know where to look  |  IP: Logged

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