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  • Peter Foyster
    replied
    Aah... that would seem to be the cause of the problem. Thanks for that. The main server has always been set to SMS which I guess didn't matter when it was the only Show Store. So setting Server 1 to TMS should fix the problem.

    When I last updated the config script in auditorium 2 I tried setting the addresses to 'auto'. When it booted up, the Show store address and Theatre link address had both changed to 192.168.241.100. It seems that whenever I save the script it changes the IP address. I gather that I should actually type in the addresses, which I had done originally but was clutching at straws when they still would not connect.

    I have always been reluctant to mess with any of the settings in the main cinema system as I have no technician available to assist if I stuff things up. Still, I have six months to fix it if I do.

    I'll have another crack at it next week.

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  • Mike Renlund
    replied
    If everything is default, the theatre network auditorium 1 should be 192.168.241.3, 255.255.255.0; Auditorium 2 should be 192.168.241.4, 255.255.255.0, Default gateway of 192.168.241.3 (which points it at auditorium #1). You would then run the config script on auditorium 1 and set it to be the TMS on the network. auditorium 2 should remain as SMS (you never want two TMS units on the same network). About 10 mins after booting up, you should see the units start talking to each other and able to share content between the two Show Stores. If both units are in SMS mode they won't ever connect to share content/cues/schedules/etc.

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  • Marcel Birgelen
    replied
    Like mentioned before, have you checked if the subnetmasks on both machines match each other? They absolutely need to be the same on both machines, or otherwise there will be trouble.

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  • Leo Enticknap
    replied
    If, on the theater LANs, the two servers' addresses are 192.168.241.3 and 4 (i.e. their factory defaults) and they still won't see each other to transfer content, the only other things I can think of to check are that both are running the same version of Show Manager, and that both have the theater LAN designated as the management network.

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  • Peter Foyster
    replied
    I gave some incorrect information in my last post. The NTP Configured server on Server 1 is actually 192.168.241.2. No wonder Leo questioned it.

    I put a replacement drive in server 2 and after it booted up it rebuilt the array with four good drives (well..one still with 1 reallocated sector.)

    The time on server 2 was about a minute or more out after having set it correctly last week so today I went into the config screen and changed the NTP server address to Show player 1's IP address, 192.168.1.2.
    When it booted up and I logged into Show Manager, the Theatre time on Server 2 was now exactly the same as Server 1. The system screen in Server 2 now shows the NTP configured server as 192.168.1.2 and the NTP connected server as the same. After half an hour or so it was about 1 second out so I logged out and then back into Show Manager at which point the time was again synced to server 1.
    (I would have thought that the server clock would not drift so far out in such a short time).

    So there is certainly a connection there but I still can't get the two DSS100s to see each other's content.

    It appears that there is a setting incorrectly configured in Server 2 but I have no idea what it is. It would help if I knew exactly what all the address settings in the config screens actually related to.

    The other issue I have is with my Christie projector (CP2000 ZX) which comes up with a red error light when I power up the UPS. Last season it did the same but then one day the error just cleared itself. The last few weeks were OK in that the projector came on line each time I powered it up. Of course this means that I am currently unable to play any test content.

    I could leave the equipment on full time as I did during the season but the power bills tend to be astronomical.

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  • Marcel Birgelen
    replied
    Originally posted by Leo Enticknap View Post
    With everything on their factory defaults, the two theater network NICs hooked directly to each other (either using a straight shot crossover cable or through a switch - I don't know if those NICs are modern enough to be able to deal with a straight shot patch cable), both servers running the same version of Show Manager, and the theater network designated as the management network on both servers, they should be able to see each other and transfer DCPs between each other. However, if one of them does have 192.168.1.2 set up as the NTP server, then someone has been changing settings from their factory defaults in the past; so all of the above needs checking out.
    Those ports are 1000Base-T. The 1000Base-T standard uses all 8 wires of the UTP cable and to "simplify" things, Auto-MDIX (auto-crossing) has been made a mandatory feature. So, yes, a "straight shot" cable should work. In practice, though, I've found many of the older generations of Gigabit Ethernet adapters, especially those without firmware updates, having trouble with Auto-MDIX, especially between vendors, but that shouldn't be the case here.

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  • Leo Enticknap
    replied
    I'm guessing that 192.168.1.2 refers to a switch, gateway or router, or a PC that has been configured to act as an NTP server. Someone will have done that, and for a reason: the server won't have been that way out of the factory. The factory default setting is 192.168.241.2, which is the factory default address of the TMS on the theater network, if there is one (which in your case there isn't, which could explain why this got changed).

    However, by factory default, the address of a DSS100 on the auditorium network that is configured as Screen 1 is 192.168.1.129, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128. That "half a subnet" means that it can't see any device with an address of 192.168.1.XXX, where XXX is below 129. If there really is a device at 192.168.1.2 that can give the server an NTP sync, the server's subnet mask on the auditorium LAN should be changed to 255.255.255.0, if it hasn't been already.

    With everything on their factory defaults, the two theater network NICs hooked directly to each other (either using a straight shot crossover cable or through a switch - I don't know if those NICs are modern enough to be able to deal with a straight shot patch cable), both servers running the same version of Show Manager, and the theater network designated as the management network on both servers, they should be able to see each other and transfer DCPs between each other. However, if one of them does have 192.168.1.2 set up as the NTP server, then someone has been changing settings from their factory defaults in the past; so all of the above needs checking out.

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  • Peter Foyster
    replied
    Co-incidentally, I also recently unearthed a DSS100 and a DSP100 that had been sitting in my bio box for 5 years and, prior to being given to me, who knows how long was left unused.

    The DSS100 MB battery was not actually flat but two of the drives were useless. I managed to dig up two random drives. Just to be sure, I replaced the battery, and booted the DSS100 to the BIOS settings where I set the correct time (using UTC time as Leo stated).

    I was able to rebuild the array. I then set about installing the latest OS.

    The server booted up OK and the software update was successful. The array state indicated 1143 reallocated sectors in drive 3 and 1 in drive 4. (Drive 3 caused a degraded array a few days ago and I have located a good drive that I will replace it with next time I am at the cinema).

    I changed the auditorium number to 2 and connected the servers through the Theatre network via a switch that also was lying around unused.
    The addressing seems to be correct. I set the main server as the NTP server for AUD 2 and whether by coincidence or not, both DSS100s now show the exact same Theatre time, albeit 30 seconds out from the actual time.

    Server 1 shows the NTP configured server as 192.168.1.2, however I have no idea what device this refers to. Its Auditorium time previously displayed the time to the exact second and ‘secure time’ was enabled. This is now greyed out and no time is displayed. I’m not sure what my meddling has done but hopefully it can be rectified before the outdoor screening season starts in November. (Yes, I am in the southern hemisphere!)

    Whilst it appears that server 1 and server 2 can see each other, I have been unable to view content between the two. Unless, and until, I can sort this out I will have to be content with swapping content via removable hard drive between the servers.

    Although the DSP100 software seems to have been updated it keeps searching for the Show Store without success. That is not a major problem as I have no real need of it other than a source of replacement PSUs.

    I had been hoping to move all the content (including DCPs that I had ingested prior to being shut down by the Govt. in March due to COVID-19 restrictions and which I plan to reschedule later in the year) from my main server to server 2. Although I have all 1TB drives in server 1 the array is only recognised as around 1TB as I had replaced the original 500GB drives one at a time previously so as not to lose content. The idea is to rebuild the array to get, hopefully, the maximum storage capacity and then copy the content back. This may entail re-installing the OS.
    If nothing else, I have learned a lot more about these units than I did, in no small way thanks to assistance from Leo.

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  • Leo Enticknap
    replied
    Originally posted by Mark Gubrandsen
    It is likely a Bios setting that needs to be set correctly in order for the OS to load on to the raid. You may also have to create a new virtual drive on the RAID before the Bios sees it as a virtual drive and can load the OS
    I don't think this was the problem that Steve was having, but the DSS100 is picky about the BIOS settings under some circumstances. As coincidence would have it, we had one in the shop last week that its owner sent to us for repair. This was a spare machine that they wanted available for use in case their main one failed, so they sent it to us to look over and repair if necessary.

    We found two problems - the BIOS battery had gone flat, and two of the RAID drives were bad. After replacing the battery and drives, and trying to boot the 4.7.8.7 clean install CD, it booted, but stalled just before installing the OS - it couldn't see the RAID controller card to partition it.

    After trial and error, we established that if the BIOS battery goes flat and you lose the settings, and you want to run a clean install or upgrade CD after replacing it, you have to configure the boot settings in the BIOS such that the optical drive is first in the boot sequence, the Transcend 500 MB flash drive is second, and all other devices in the boot order are totally disabled. Not just shunted down the boot order, but completely disabled. If either of the 3Ware cards (the RAID controller and the card that the CRU reader is connected to) are present in the boot order, the operating system, once booted from something else, won't see them.

    The other gotcha is that after losing the BIOS settings, you need to set the BIOS clock to UTC, not local time. Presumably if there is a DSP100 connected, the DSS will pull the time from its secure clock and use that; but if there isn't, it'll display the wrong time in Show Manager (assuming that the time zone has been set correctly in Show Manager).
    Last edited by Leo Enticknap; 05-08-2020, 03:41 PM.

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  • Mike Renlund
    replied
    Hi Greg and everyone,

    I think we can simplify this a little bit with a bit of an announcement.

    Dolby understands that this is a difficult time where keys for previously played content have expired, and no keys for future content is available until the cinema is about to reopen. But there is a large desire to test encrypted playback during this shutdown...and before reopening (so there is time to repair/upgrade/replace components).

    To help with this, we've just published an encrypted trailer along with keys for all Dolby Media Blocks so you can test whenever you want. The name of this clip is the Dolby Encrypted Content Tester. Information for this is found in the latest version of our Power Maintenance document (version 1.4) found here: https://dolby.box.com/v/Dolby-Products-During-Shutdown

    Steve, you can now test encrypted playback to know for sure if the DSP100 is good.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

    Mike at Dolby

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  • Greg Routenburg
    replied
    Originally posted by Mike Renlund View Post
    another option is to look in Show Manager. Click on SYSTEM, then THEATRE DEVICES. Scroll down to the DSP100, and you should see a line called:

    debug (certificate_present) <yes/no>
    When I look at my DSP100s running software version 4.0.10.38 I have the following line items...

    IP Address
    status
    hardware (publickeyhash)
    hardware (serial number)
    version (hardware version)
    version (software version)

    Is it safe to assume that the presence of a long string of random characters beside the publickeyhash line is an indication that the certificate is valid?

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  • Mike Renlund
    replied
    Thanks Mark,

    FYI, the best number to contact us is 1-415-645-4900 (option 3 for cinema)

    I'm trying to remember (and don't have any equipment near me as I'm working from home). I thought that you just arrow off to the right, the cursor disappears, and you press enter.

    another option is to look in Show Manager. Click on SYSTEM, then THEATRE DEVICES. Scroll down to the DSP100, and you should see a line called:

    debug (certificate_present) <yes/no>

    I don't have any 100 series servers online that I can access remotely, so I am not sure if this line is there (it is on CAT862).

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  • Mark Gulbrandsen
    replied
    Steve,

    Call Mike Renlund in Dolby Tech Support for help getting it running again. It is likely a Bios setting that needs to be set correctly in order for the OS to load on to the raid. You may also have to create a new virtual drive on the RAID before the Bios sees it as a virtual drive and can load the OS. 1-415-558-0200 If it can run again after sitting so long, he is the guy that can help you get it there.

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  • Steve Kraus
    replied
    Thank you but there's no getting the cursor (highlighting) off the right end on the user interface.

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  • Mike Renlund
    replied
    For the DSP100...if you have the Dolby Media Block application and can connect to the unit via USB, the top left corner of the app shows the public certificate hash. If that information is there, the internal security is still good.

    Another way to look at this is in the front panel user interface. IF I remember right, you start at the searching for showstore screen, then navigate to the right until the cursor disappears. Then click the middle "enter" button. This should put you in the debug menu. You should be able to navigate down the list to see the same public certificate hash.

    Hope this helps.

    Mike

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