Release Notes for Cisco Digital Media System 4.1
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Table Of Contents
Release Notes for Cisco Digital Media System 4.1
Video Portal Concurrent Sessions
Low Memory Causes DMPs to Restart Automatically
Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines
Release Notes for Cisco Digital Media System 4.1
Revised: April 23, 2008
Cisco Digital Media System 4.1 (DMS) helps organizations of any size to:
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Create, manage and deliver desktop video content (whether live or on-demand) over an IP network to any general or targeted audience.
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DocumentThis document contains release note information for the hardware and software components of DMS 4.1. In addition, it contains ID numbers, headlines, and descriptions for each known problem, and contains a list of resolved problems. If you have a Cisco.com user account and obtained this document from Cisco.com, you can click any ID number to see the corresponding release note enclosure in the Bug Toolkit. The release note enclosure describes symptoms, conditions, and workarounds. This document contains these sections:
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This document might be updated at any time; the most recent revision is always available on Cisco.com.
Caution
Caution
What's New In DMS 4.1
DMS 4.1 includes new components, new features, and changed features.
Digital Signage
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Desktop Video
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Documentation Errata
Online-only documents for DMS on Cisco.com are updated, expanded, and corrected whenever necessary. This section describes errors and omissions in the printed user documentation for DMS 4.1 components.
78-18249-02 — Quick Start Guide for Cisco Digital Media Player 4305G:
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Video Portal Concurrent Sessions
Table 1 describes the maximum number of concurrent Video Portal user sessions that can start within a 1-minute period. These connection threshold values assume that users will receive all data directly from the Video Portal, rather than receiving essential files from a content delivery network where you prepositioned them.
Table 1 Video Portal Capacity
MCS-7825-H3
500 per minute
MCS-7835-H2
1,000 per minute
Options for Upgrading
To understand the requirements and procedures to upgrade, see Upgrade Guide to Release 4.1 for Cisco Digital Media System on Cisco.com.
Cisco Digital Media Manager (DMM) appliances
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You can upgrade from DMM 4.0 to DMM 4.1. After the upgrade is finished, you will have these software components installed:
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Cisco Video Portal appliances
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You can upgrade from Video Portal 4.0 to Video Portal 4.1. After the upgrade is finished, you will have these software components installed:
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Cisco Digital Media Players
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Firmware Release 2.43
You can upgrade the firmware on a DMP 4300G from release 2.42.x to release 2.43. After the upgrade is finished, you will have version 1.1 of the Digital Media Player Device Manager software installed. Your DMP 4300 is then identical to a DMP 4305G except that the DMP 4305G has 2 GB of storage space while your DMP 4300G still has only 1 GB.
Firmware Release 2.43.1
Firmware release 2.43.1 (which is suitable for both the DMP 4300G and the DMP 4305G) resolves two known defects, CSCsk25551 and CSCsk44959.
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/tmp/ftproot/usb_1/...–
usb_1/...•
If you are not already familiar with PMT Packets: To distinguish among, demultiplex, and synchronize the many different types of program data that they might contain, all of the constituent "elementary streams" within a multiplexed MPEG transport stream start with a structured prefix. This prefix is known as the packet ID (PID). The PID, in turn, combines four program-specific information (PSI) tables, one of which is the program map table (PMT). PMTs contain metadata and other important information about the programs in streams.
Client System Requirements
Ensure that Java Runtime Engine (JRE) 1.6.0 or later is installed on your PC. Also confirm that it is configured to use English as its language, and that it is working correctly. The JRE 1.6.0 release is part of Java Version 6.
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Table 2 describes all other client system requirements to use the software user interfaces for DMM-DSM and DMPDM.
Table 2 Additional Requirements to Use DMM-DSM or DMPDM
Windows
One of these:
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Linux
Firefox 2.0
Mac OS X
Firefox 2.0
Table 3 describes all other client system requirements to use the software user interfaces for DMM-VPM and Video Portal.
Table 3 Additional Requirements to Use DMM-VPM or Video Portal
Flash Video
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One of these:
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Flash 9
Linux
Firefox 2.0
Mac OS X
Firefox 2.0
Windows Media
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One of these:
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Flash 9 and one of these:
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QuickTime
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One of these:
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Flash 9 and one of these:
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Table 4 describes all other client system requirements to use the software user interface for Video Portal Reports 4.1.
Table 4 Requirements to Use Video Portal Reports
Windows
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Mac OS X
Firefox 2.0
Low Memory Causes DMPs to Restart Automatically
Rather than crashing when they run low on memory, DMPs are designed to restart automatically, which clears their memory and causes downtime of much less than 1 minute — as opposed to the lengthy downtime that a hard crash would cause. In the rare cases when DMPs do run out of memory and restart automatically, SWF files are almost always responsible. The known scenarios when this can occur are as follows:
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Known Problems
This section describes known problems in DMS 4.1.
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Table 5 Known Problems
You must not use underscores in the appliance name when you enter it in AAI. Worldwide DNS standards do not support any use of special characters in DNS-resolvable device names.
To work around this problem, use the characters in device names that the DNS standard support. The supported characters are letters, numerals, and hyphens.
Sometimes no SWFs are shown after the sequence in a playlist uses a URL between two SWF objects. This behavior is caused by defects in the Adobe Flash browser plugin.
To work around this problem, use a sequence in your playlists that our tests have shown should succeed:
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DMPs are designed to restart automatically when their memory runs low, so that they will not hang or crash instead.
To work around this problem, do either of the following.
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The time stamp is always wrong in Syslog messages from a DMP 4300G or a DMP 4305G because they do not have internal clocks.
There is no workaround.
Video files do not play if their file names contain any spaces.
To work around this problem, remove the spaces from all file names before you upload video files to your media library.
This release supports the Windows version of Apache web server, not Microsoft IIS.
To work around this problem, install and use Apache. If IIS is installed, uninstall it.
This release does not support the linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) audio codec. Use of this audio codec might cause your DMP to crash when you play MPEG-2 files
To work around this problem, do not encode audio with LPCM. If your existing files use LPCM, recreate them without it or transcode them so that they do not use it.
All services are brought down when firmware upgrade is started.
To work around this problem, schedule your firmware upgrades to start outside your normal business hours.
If you use a static IP address on a DMP instead of using DHCP, DMPDM does not prevent the entry of invalid IP address values that make a DMP unreachable. IP addresses are valid only when they use four octets (4 bytes), but DMPDM allows you to enter and save address values that use only three octets (3 bytes).
To work around this problem, press the Reset button on the DMP chassis. The DMP will require a DHCP server, as before.
DMPs crash when their browser screen rotates 180 or 270 degree while video is playing.
To work around this problem, do not rotate the browser while you are simultaneously playing a video.
DMM-DSM does not show any error message if you try to use firmware for a DMP 4305G when you upgrade a DMP 4300G.
There is no workaround.
IE6 prompts twice, IE7 prompts five times for login after password change.
There is no workaround.
You cannot upgrade DMP firmware if the TAC Troubleshooting Access option is set to Off in DMPDM.
To work around this problem in DMPDM, enable the TAC Troubleshooting Access feature. Alternatively, do the following in DMM-DSM:
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init.startService_shell=yes&.
mib.save=1&mng.exit=14.
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To restore DMP security after the file transfer and the firmware upgrade are finished, repeat the procedure but enter exactly this in the Request field:
init.startService_shell=no&mib.save=1&mng.exit=1.The user interfaces for Java applets in DMM-DSM (meaning, Digital Media Designer and the features to schedule signage deployments) are not visible to you or your selections in them have no effect unless you use a supported Java Runtime Engine (JRE) version and your Java language settings are configured for US-English.
If your PC uses any JRE version older than 1.5 (for DMS 4.0.x) or 1.6.0 (for DMS 4.1.x) or is configured to use any Java language other than US-English, it is likely that you will have problems when you try to see or use the scheduling features in DMM-DSM. Even if you can see the user interface for scheduling, your selections in it might not take effect. It is equally likely that problems of the same kind will interfere with your use of Digital Media Designer in DMS 4.1.x.
To learn exactly which JRE release you are using and to confirm that it is working correctly, go to http://java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml.
To obtain the required JRE, go to http://javasoft.com, click Java SE, then download the required JRE version.
To understand the Java release naming conventions, which have changed over time, see http://java.sun.com/javase/namechange.html.
To work around this problem, use a supported JRE version and configure your Java language setting to be US-English.
If you use Windows: To confirm that you use the required JRE version or a later one, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Java, click the General tab, then click About. To confirm that your Java language is US-English, complete whichever procedure here applies to your Windows version: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/locale.xml. If this problem affects you even though you use the correct Java version, try the following:
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If you use Mac OS: Apple maintains and distributes its own implementations of Java software for Mac OS users. To learn if Apple has made available any JRE that is based on JRE 1.6.0, see http://www.apple.com/java. Alternatively, registered Apple Developer Connection (http://connect.apple.com/) members might find that Apple has released a preview version of a compatible JRE. We make no claims about the suitability of such software for any purpose and recommend that you test all software thoroughly before you rely on it.
Playlist synchronization relationships are missing in Digital Media Designer when you reopen saved designs.
To work around this problem, restore the relationship between the two playlists, then save your work again.
In Digital Media Designer, you might simultaneously lose all of your work in a newly saved design and overwrite a design that you saved previously. This happens after you select File > Save As to save your work in a design for the first time, then select a saved design to be overwritten. The old design is overwritten and its replacement does not contain any objects or actions that you included in the old design or the new design.
To work around this problem the first time that you save your work in a new design, do either of the following:
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Any DMM-DSM user can start and use Digital Media Designer regardless of his or her user role. However, authorization is required to deploy anything from DMD to your DMPs.
There is no workaround.
Although we do not support playlist synchronization for more than two playlists per synchronization action, Digital Media Designer allows it.
To work around this problem, never use synchronization actions in DMD that synchronize more than two playlists per action.
If their frame delay rate is zero, animated GIF images play too fast in DMD and use 100 percent of CPU capacity on the client system PC where Digital Media Designer is running. (The underlying cause is a known problem in the JRE.) However, your DMPs play these files correctly. It is commonplace for GIF animations to use zero as their frame delay rate.
To work around this problem, explicitly enter a frame delay rate greater than zero for each animated GIF file that you use.
After you deploy a firmware upgrade to one or more of your DMPs, DMM-DSM shows the incorrect, old firmware version number for one of the successfully upgraded DMPs. This happens when the total number of DMPs that you have upgraded is exactly the same as the total number of licenses that you have purchased to manage DMPs centrally. There is no effect on the performance or capabilities of your digital signage environment.
There is no workaround.
If you double-click any unsaved deployment job on the timeline at Schedules > Future Deployment, DMM-DSM opens a popup window that shows an HTTP status code 500 message.
To work around this problem, close the popup window, click Save, then try again to double-click the deployment job on the timeline.
The end date is extended by 2 months for a recurring scheduled job if you configure it to end within the hour preceding midnight on the last day of any month.
To work around this problem, do not schedule any job to end at any time from 23:00 to 23:59 on the last day of any month.
DMEs (1000 and 2000) stop capturing video after 30 hours when you use Save As. This problem does not affect live encoding, which can run for 5 days.
To work around this problem, restart the encoder
Volume is low when you play live video through your Video Portal.
To work around this problem, do ether of the following:
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The default audio input is set to Virtual Cable 1 when you use the AVI, Flash, and Real codecs.
To work around this problem, make sure to set the audio interface to Osprey if you use the SCX or web interfaces.
Niagara SCX defaults to the C: drive when it saves video to a file. The C drive fills up quickly because it has too little free space.
To work around this problem when you use the Niagara SCX option to save video to a file, change the default location to D:\AVFiles\Out\.
You cannot set the IP Address or gateway from the LCD when an octet in the address uses only one or two digits.
To work around this problem, use DHCP to set the IP address and gateway values automatically or connect a keyboard, mouse, and VGA monitor to the encoder so that you can configure its network settings.
The AVI codec does not encode correctly at full resolution.
To work around this problem, use a lower resolution when you use the AVI encoding format.
Video Portal does not indicate when replication has not occurred. LDAP users cannot login. Video Portal errors say that user names and passwords are invalid.
To work around this problem, perform the replication again on both your DMM appliance and your Video Portal appliance.
Program search does not work with titles that have line breaks. User can find the content, but when you select it, you cannot go to it
There is no workaround.
Video Portal client systems with low memory might hang while viewing events (live or VoD) that include more than 100 synchronized slides. (Each such slide requires approximately 2 MB of memory.)
To work around this problem, increase memory on the client system.
The interstitials on your Video Portal show nothing even though you populated them with JPEG files in DMM-VPM.
To work around this problem if you upload JPEG files in DMM-VPM so that you can use them as interstitials on your Video Portal, the files must use .JPG (not .JPEG) as their filename extension.
The displayed sizes are sometimes wrong for downloadable files on your Video Portal. This happens after administrators use kilobytes as the measurement unit when they upload files to DMM-VPM. Your Video Portal displays file sizes to you in bytes and sometimes cannot parse file sizes correctly when the measurement units differ.
To work around this problem in DMM-VPM, enter file sizes in bytes, not in kilobytes.
The Start Encoder button disappears for a DME after you use ad-hoc streaming controls to start it. You are therefore prevented from scheduling any new events for it.
To work around this problem, use the ad-hoc streaming controls to stop the encoder before you try to schedule a new event.
You do not see a video preview when you click the View Live Video link. The preview is missing if the encoder IP address changes and is rediscovered, because the link still uses the old IP address for the encoder.
To work around this problem, change your pull configurations so that they use the new IP address.
DMM-VPM does not warn you that it will not allow you to upload any file with a file size greater than 2 GB.
To work around this problem, upload files that are smaller than 2 GB apiece.
When your DME2000 is running two or more encoding sessions simultaneously, the Encoder Dashboard can only stop one encoding session.
There is no workaround.
Slide deployments fail if the Deployment Root Directory location uses backslashes. This happens because the improper use of backslashes prevents DMM-VPM from creating the required /slides subdirectory automatically on your deployment server.
To work around this problem, do either of the following:
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Resolved Problems
This section describes problems from earlier releases that are solved (or are not problems) in DMS 4.1.
Table 6 Resolved Problems
When you play MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video files that are stored locally (on the SD card or on a USB flash memory drive), playback stops approximately 5 to 10 seconds before the file actually ends.
You might think that the Reset button on a DMP 4300G chassis should restore the factory-default settings, but that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to reset (restart) the device.
Zoning application cannot play 3 GB MPEG2 video file.
DMP cannot play video in web server port other than 80 for zoning application.
Failover SD playback sometimes MPEG2 pauses in zoning application.
Templates sometimes do not work well with analog inputs: SVideo/NTSC_M.
Upgrade firmware status not updated automatically using IE.
Sometimes DMP has sound only, without video, from UDP multicast MPEG1 video file.
Zoning application sometimes does not play Flash from SD card.
If you deliver an empty playlist from DMM-DSM to a DMP, the DMP restarts repeatedly.
Delete and recreate ACNS channel with the same name causes HTTP 500.
Tiny content selection box in zoning application GUI.
DMM-DSM in ACNS multichannel environment, stop and start command in race condition and sometimes cause DMP to stop playing.
DMM-DSM Scheduler applet slows after you configure multiple tasks.
DMM users do not see scheduled live events on the Encoder Dashboard page in DMM-VPM. Audience members cannot see scheduled live events on their Video Portal. (Digital signage is not affected.) On a DMS appliance or a Video Portal Appliance that was already configured, an administrator used AAI to change the time zone setting. However, the administrator did not then restart the appliance, even though a restart is required.
DMM-VPM sometimes shows the wrong duration for Flash Video (FLV) files.
Uploading two video types at the same time causes both of the fields to be populated with the same file name.
The system cannot play videos using RealPlayer and Windows Media Player when the interstitial sequence contains zero interstitials.
The video player pauses at the end of the playback.
When playing Real video on an Apple Macintosh using the Safari browser, the video never loads.
It is possible to schedule a transcoding job in the past.
The DMM Video Portal Preview popup window does not open in the display.
The dashboard shows status for only a single transcoding job at a time.
Automatic duration calculation for Flash/FLV does not work for files bigger than 150 MB.
HTTP Status error when creating more than 21 users.
The Video Information link disappears for an FLV video after you view it at full-screen size, then return it to its normal size.
Related Documentation
To see all user documentation for DMS products, go to http://www.cisco.com/web/psa/products/tsd_
products_support_troubleshoot_and_alerts.html?c=268438145&sc=280889186.Notices
The following notices pertain to this software license.
OpenSSL/Open SSL Project
This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/).
This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com).
This product includes software written by Tim Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
License Issues
The OpenSSL toolkit stays under a dual license, i.e. both the conditions of the OpenSSL License and the original SSLeay license apply to the toolkit. See below for the actual license texts. Actually both licenses are BSD-style Open Source licenses. In case of any license issues related to OpenSSL please contact openssl-core@openssl.org.
OpenSSL License:
Copyright © 1998-2007 The OpenSSL Project. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
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"This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/)".
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE OpenSSL PROJECT "AS IS"' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OpenSSL PROJECT OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com). This product includes software written by Tim Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
Original SSLeay License:
Copyright © 1995-1998 Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com). All rights reserved.
This package is an SSL implementation written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com).
The implementation was written so as to conform with Netscapes SSL.
This library is free for commercial and non-commercial use as long as the following conditions are adhered to. The following conditions apply to all code found in this distribution, be it the RC4, RSA, lhash, DES, etc., code; not just the SSL code. The SSL documentation included with this distribution is covered by the same copyright terms except that the holder is Tim Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
Copyright remains Eric Young's, and as such any Copyright notices in the code are not to be removed. If this package is used in a product, Eric Young should be given attribution as the author of the parts of the library used. This can be in the form of a textual message at program startup or in documentation (online or textual) provided with the package.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
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"This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com)".
The word `cryptographic' can be left out if the routines from the library being used are not cryptography-related.
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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ERIC YOUNG "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
The license and distribution terms for any publicly available version or derivative of this code cannot be changed. i.e. this code cannot simply be copied and put under another distribution license [including the GNU Public License].
Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines
For information on obtaining documentation, obtaining support, providing documentation feedback, security guidelines, and also recommended aliases and general Cisco documents, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses. Any examples, command display output, and figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.
© 2006 - 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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