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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Creating a Digital Cinema Package

Mike P. said:
I'm confused; are you agreeing with me that the visual quality differences are negligible, but then giving me reasons why it's used?

I think we're talking in circles; you're trying to tell me why DCP is good, and I'm saying that it's (more often than not) a waste of time and/or money making a DCP if I have the option to project from Blu-Ray (or computer).
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I'm not trying to tell you why it's good. I'm trying to tell you that if you want to be able to play something in just about any theater in the US or many other countries without having to worry about what equipment they have, how it's set up, or whether you have access to it, a DCP is the best way to achieve that. If you're projecting from a BluRay disc, the chances are that you're not doing it in a typical theater used for audience screenings. If that's your situation, then yes, making a DCP is a waste of time. If you're just talking about "quality," you have a much better shot at being more transparent to your original source using a properly made DCP than you do using something like BluRay, if for no other reasons than compression and color space. Whether that's obvious to you or any of your viewers is largely dependent on the material and the projection environment.
 
Mike P. said:
Don't get me wrong, 4k would be a different story, but when projecting at 2k, it's hard to find a real-world benefit.
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I think the major benefit is that as more theatres go digital, the likelihood of them having a DCP compatible system is greater than having the ability to play back from a blu-ray or computer-based system. Both of the theatres I tested my DCP at were independent ones and one of them, the Mayfair, ran a crowd funding campaign for their digital projector (a Christie 2K). The stretch goal was an additional $5K to add an optical disc option. In the case of a more commercial multiplex theatre, this option probably ranks low on the list since most distributors ship out DCPs, especially for popular hollywood movies.

A specific case in point: We mastered a feature film on blu-ray for the Ottawa International Film Festival in the Summer of 2012 and the festival was run at an Empire Theatre multiplex in downtown Ottawa. We tested our blu-ray and were happy with how it looked and sounded. Twenty minutes before the show, our particular screening was moved to a bigger theatre to accommodate a larger audience. The projector in the other theatre didn't have a blu-ray player and it took a mad scramble and a long extension cord to get the screening up and running. Both of the theatres had DCP servers so had we mastered a DCP, this wouldn't have been an issue.

On a side note: If you live in Ottawa, Canada and would like to convert your independent, non-commercial project to DCP, the SAW Video Media Art Centre, a non-profit, artist-run co-op has recently purchased and installed Quvis Wraptor 3.0 in Edit Suite A which can be rented for $7.50/hour (rate current as of Dec 4/2014) if you want to try your hand at using a commercial product to create your DCP. More information at the link below.


http://dcp.treepotmedia.com/#SAWsome
 
The DCP functionality was included in yesterday's CC2014 update. I have a screening coming up next week at a theatre running a Dolby DCP server/Christie projector combo. I will update this thread with my results.
 
Exciting times, folks. We may have a similar oppertunity to make a DCP of a feature and view it at a 'regular' multiplex in the next couple of weeks. What are rendering times looking like so far?
 
Eren Ozkural said:
I hope they add 4K DCP creation within the next few months, that would be brilliant.
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I think the idea is that you get the basic DCP features for free, but things like 4K, 7.1 sound, additional frame rates, fast encoding, etc require an upgrade to Quvis' Pro Version. Quvis likes to use fancy invented marketing names such as Quality Priority Encoding (QPE) which is another way of saying JPEG2000 region of interest (ROI). As far as I know, they use the Kakadu JPEG2000 encoder, like nearly everyone else.
 
Render times

Render times

Paul Lee said:
Exciting times, folks. We may have a similar oppertunity to make a DCP of a feature and view it at a 'regular' multiplex in the next couple of weeks. What are rendering times looking like so far?
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The render time is about the same as using the free fnord j2k plug-in. My first test on a 75 minute film took around 3.5 hours (i7 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM). The advantage is that it was a one step process (although with less options) rather than a create jpeg2000 files, export audio, combine them in OpenDCP which was what I did before. My initial test looks good in Easy DCP (demo version so I can only see the first 15 seconds.) The real test will be in the cinema next week.
 
If you are using the built in Wraptor plug-in in CC14, Quvis recommends updating the bundle to their latest version that is currently in Adobe's pipeline for a future update. I tried it and it is quicker and the colours look better on a quick test. I will be testing my DCP on a Dolby DCP server in the next few days and I will post my results. Here's the link to the update on the Quvis website. http://www.quvis.com/dcp-tools/
 
Adobe CC14 + updated Wraptor plug-in DCP test

Adobe CC14 + updated Wraptor plug-in DCP test

The test was a success.
You need to update the Wraptor plug-in that is currently part of the CC14 release to one from Quvis (that will be included in the next incremental release from Adobe).

Details of my test at: http://treepotmedia.com/treepot-dcp-guide/#CC14DCP

 
One tip, when exporting the TIFF sequence of a feature length film out of After Effects, add a few extra integers to the sequence ( so 000000001 instead of 000001 ) before moving into the OpenDCP stage. If you don't you may find your trailer DCPs play fine, but the feature DCP may be screwy and some frames play out of sequence. Learned this from the first in-cinema test-run of the BLOKES DCP. Hope this helps. DCPs straight off the timeline will be a huge boon to independent filmmakers and a much welcome addition from Adobe. Regards, Adrian.
 
Adrian Van Rossum said:
One tip, when exporting the TIFF sequence of a feature length film out of After Effects, add a few extra integers to the sequence ( so 000000001 instead of 000001 ) before moving into the OpenDCP stage. If you don't you may find your trailer DCPs play fine, but the feature DCP may be screwy and some frames play out of sequence. Learned this from the first in-cinema test-run of the BLOKES DCP. Hope this helps. DCPs straight off the timeline will be a huge boon to independent filmmakers and a much welcome addition from Adobe. Regards, Adrian.
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Thanks for the tip, Adrian. The CC14 integration with Quvis' Wraptor plug-in has essentially reduced the whole process to a couple of clicks and the fact that the integration is in Adobe Media Encoder means that this common functionality is also available to other apps in the suite like AfterEffects as well as Premiere Pro. Users are limited to 2K unencrypted DCPs in the free version but there are no other restrictions or watermarks so this is a great addition, especially for indie filmmakers.
 
Yes, this has proven to be VERY easy! Has anyone got a good player solution? I see Quvis has there own, and also note that Resolve has a 'free' ability to view DCP at low quality with no sound.
 
Paul Lee said:
Yes, this has proven to be VERY easy! Has anyone got a good player solution? I see Quvis has there own, and also note that Resolve has a 'free' ability to view DCP at low quality with no sound.
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The Quvis player is very handy and it works really well. It is a bit pricey, though. I live in Ottawa, Canada and am fortunate to have an artist-run media centre called SAWVideo that rents suites that include the player for a very reasonable $7.50/hour--great for testing your final DCP before it hits a theatre. There are a few other players I have experimented with, all with free trials that are crippled in some way. Most only show a few seconds of your film. I am also on the hunt for a good Open Source or relatively inexpensive player for OSX. Let me know if you come across any. Here's the list of the other players I have tried:

Digitall DCP Player
EasyDCP Player
3DTV's Stereoscopic Player
 
One of the main hurdles for a good open source or low-cost player is the jpeg2000 encoder/decoder. As of right now, you kinda need one of the commercial encoders to get the performance and that costs a lot of money. I've looked into it before with OpenDCP and it would require charging at least a few hundred dollars per license just to hopefully break-even.
 
Hi all,

I think that we need to mention a NeoDCP Player here as well. The quality of output is the best of all other software dcp players. Here is the link: www.neodcp.com

Trial version is free and it is really worth of trying.

Ian
 
Ian M. said:
Hi all,

I think that we need to mention a NeoDCP Player here as well. The quality of output is the best of all other software dcp players. Here is the link: www.neodcp.com

Trial version is free and it is really worth of trying.

Ian
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NeoDCP isn't available for OSX. Unfortunately, I never had much luck with it, kept crashing or was choppy. I personally found EasyDCP Player to be better based on the trial versions.

Edit: I should add this was 4-5 months ago, so NeoDCP may have improved since then.
 
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