CP850 2.3.2.3 update

[Leo Enticknap]

As a heads up to those of us who are installing this update (essentially, a bug fix that can cause audio glitching when playing Atmos in a 48 FPS DCP), I've just done one in which it took 28 minutes on the "stage 7 of 9," and 34 to complete the entire process. Started the process at 7am on the nail, it began stage 7 at 7.03, moved past it at 7.31, and the post-install reboot completed and the web UI let me log in at 7.34.

The release notes state that the CP850 might stall during the reboot, and to power cycle it if it does. I was very nearly at the point just now where I was going to do that anyways (even though it hadn't got to the rebooting stage), in the belief that it had stalled, but then it started moving again. So the heads up is to give it a ridiculously long time before giving up and pulling the plug.

[Steve Guttag]

Good info Leo. Thanks!

[Marcel Birgelen]

Thanks for the heads up... I've scheduled the upgrade for our CP850 this weekend. It's always frustrating to see some update or install hanging seemingly forever, without any sign of progress. Apparently, even in 2023 it remains difficult to implement reliable progress indicators.

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[Leo Enticknap]

Even before the 2.3.2.2 to 2.3.2.3 update, I have almost never had a CP850 update go smoothly. It is the worst of any equipment I regularly deal with for updating. This morning's was the fifth 2.3.2.3 upgrade I did. Of the others, two failed to reboot with a continuous motherboard BIOS bleep and had to be power cycled (after which they booted and worked OK). The third appeared to work OK, but after the update, said that it was still on 2.3.2.2, and I had to install it a second time before it would take it. The fourth never populated the "ready to update" fields after I uploaded the file (the spinning cog just spun forever), and after around 15 minutes I had to power cycle it to get it to accept the upload. After that, the updating process ran without incident.

I've experienced the BIOS bleep on reboot with many earlier updates too, the essential takeaway from which is that it is simply unsafe to attempt to update a CP850 remotely, unless you also have a remote way to power cycle it (e.g. is is powered through a Wattbox). Knock on wood, I haven't bricked one while trying to update it so far, but live in fear of one day doing so.

Whatever the underlying cause of this software/firmware updating instability is, Dolby must have fixed it in the CP950. I've installed updates on CP950s likely around 100 times now, and every one has been completely trouble free.