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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 :)

DCP Creation

J

JT Thurlow

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I am wondering if the freeware/cheap software method for creating a DCP is really advisable (I've read a lot of conflicting stories), or if getting a facility to do it is worth the extra expense? Some festivals we have been accepted to need deliverables at least several weeks before the screening date so if taking the DIY route we will hopefully have good time to make a new one if it's tested and problems are detected but I'm not sure if the DIY DCP route might compromise quality even if it plays without problems?

Also, I am wondering to what extent we actually need a DCP - we will probably only be able to screen a DCP at a limited number of venues (and shipping will be expensive) and I've heard some festivals are flexible about the format, even if DCP is stated as being necessary. Will a 2K DCP look and sound significantly better than a digital file or Blu-ray?

Any thoughts are hugely appreciated. Thanks!
 
I've been using a german software that
Recommends Assimilate Scratch with
No hassles.
It's free. (there is also a paied version)
You can download it at: terminal-entry.de
It's called: digital cinema package creator.

All you have to do is not messing with the color mode, in the sense that if your material is already
Converted to XYZ, it's easy to forget to uncheck.
Same if you already have your material encoded or not, like jpeg2000, you'd have to tell it not to encode.
In other words, or your MXF is ready or the software would create it correctly for you.
Very simple.

Here in Europe, most theaters are giving the service
Almost gifted when it costed a lot of money just few years ago.

Good luck. Cheers.
 
JT Thurlow said:
I am wondering if the freeware/cheap software method for creating a DCP is really advisable (I've read a lot of conflicting stories), or if getting a facility to do it is worth the extra expense? Some festivals we have been accepted to need deliverables at least several weeks before the screening date so if taking the DIY route we will hopefully have good time to make a new one if it's tested and problems are detected but I'm not sure if the DIY DCP route might compromise quality even if it plays without problems?
Click to expand...
I personally think it's better to hire a company to do it for you, provided they have a DCI-compliant screening room. Then and only then you can sit down and see and hear your project under the right conditions. Checking it on a monitor is dicey. The going rate here in LA is less than $10/minute, so you're looking at maybe $600-$700 for a 90-minute film.

Also, I am wondering to what extent we actually need a DCP - we will probably only be able to screen a DCP at a limited number of venues (and shipping will be expensive) and I've heard some festivals are flexible about the format, even if DCP is stated as being necessary. Will a 2K DCP look and sound significantly better than a digital file or Blu-ray?
Click to expand...
Well, a DCP is a digital file, so it still has to be shipped on a drive. That's gonna cost you maybe $50 for the drive and $25 for shipping. Is that expensive?
 
I wrote this a few months ago in another thread:

Hope it helps

Peter



Default 04-28-2015, 10:36 AM

Hi Jarek

DCP-O-MATIC is a free, simple to use and imho very reliable tool for making DCP's
I use it on a weekly basis for the advertising reel for a local cinema but I also used it in the past to do features.
Usually I export DNxHD 444 quicktime movies from my AVID to go into DCP-O-Matic.
But it will eat almost anything.
It's not the fastest encoder out there, but it does the job when you want to make a DCP every once in a while.
You can test if a DCP is running via the free version of the Easy DCP player from Fraunhofer (it just plays for 15 seconds though, but you can check the hashes with it.
If it runs with the EasyDCP Player it will almost certain also run in the cinema.
Another imho good playback option is the NeoDCP player which is very good and not too pricey (cheapest version with some limitations 79$)
I always check my DCP's with both of the above options.

Funny enough, DCP-o-Matic is running right now with the weekly ad-reel.

Hope that helps

Peter
 
I tend to agree with Marc.

In the uncertainty, I'd give the job
To a company. Peace of mind.
Prices have dropped-down in Europe and what
I see in Marc"s post, in the US as well.
It is affordable and the safe route, specially if you run out of time and didn't test before.

Later on, you can always check the softwares that have been pointed in the thread and see
How it goes.

Edit: Marc, I agree that viewing the film under the right conditions is best practise.
But then, it means that best would be to run tests during the post-prod stage on 1 minute
For ex and view the test-material under the correct
Circunstances, because if things go wrong for some reasons better to know it before than at the last
Minute and having time to correct.
 
Last edited:
Having seen my movie projected as both DCP and blu-ray in theaters, I can say that the DCP is much better and worth the effort to make. I used Easy DCP and it was straightforward and the DCP's worked fine. Also, my two hour movie was about 60Gb's. So I just sent it as NTFS USB sticks at $30 a pop.

The last thing to keep in mind is that most theaters are set to run DCP's and the blu-ray set-up is a back-up that isn't used that often. One screening the projectionist didn't know how to work the blu-ray and couldn't fix the aspect ratio, so my movie was shown with the sides cut off. Horrible. The DCP system is much more consistent and much harder to mess up because os it's strict standards.
 
Just in case you are a Adobe-user: with CC2014 there came integrated DCP output (Quvis Wraptor DCP lite).
 
Thanks very much for the info...

In regard to DCP resolution...we edited the project in a 1080p timeline and a great deal of the framings (of the 4K footage) were changed, so it would take a lot of time to get everything re-framed correctly if using a new 2K sequence...but I take it that 2K is the minimum for DCP (but if not perhaps will look noticeably better)?

If we should go 2K - I am wondering if flat, scope, or full would be the best option for 4K footage?
 
most theaters can mask off 1080p , decent dcp software will take a 1080p file and give you black pillar boxing on the sides. not every theater will ingest from NTFS drives. the only universal method is an EXT2/3 linux partition with an inode value of 128. dcp o matic works but its slow. even on a fast rig 6 to 8 hours to encode. digitall from australia has a pro dcp player for $250 and a free one with some features removed http://www.digitall.net.au/dcpplayerfree/ but its windows only. you'd go with flat 2k 2048 x 1080
 
Carefull with the DigitAll Player.
In my experience the colors are interpreted completelly wrong.
The XYZ back to RGB colors is done in a very strange way which result in completelly off colors.

The easiest way to accurately check the colors of your final DCP are the free versions of the EasyDCP Player from Fraunhofer and the NeoDCP Player.

Yes DCP-O-Matic is a little slow but it is a 'one button' solution.
Drop in a file (anything from an .mp4 up to a ProRes 4444 4K file will work) and hit render.
As simple as that.

Like I said I use it on a weekly basis for the advertising reels of our local cinemas.
Never had a hickup with it on each of the servers installed there (Sony R320 internal media block, Old Solo3G's and Doremi servers)
I do deliver the DCP content on a USB3 Stick by the way.
Longer programs I deliver on a NTFS formatted Harddrive to severals cinemas all over Switzerland. No problems so far.


Of course there are other options out there, but just to play around a little with your own DCP's the combination of DCP-o-Matic, EasyDCP Player and the NeoDCP Player is unbeaten IMHO.

By the way: the by far fastest DCP software I know of is the FinalDCP by a german company calles 'Innovative Pixels'.
It renders a DCP on an old HP Z400 Workstation with a wooping 15-18 frames per second!
And its also Drag and Drop.

Other option are the CuteDCP Plugin for After Effects and Premiere from Fandev.
And of course the mother of all free DCP Tools: OpenDCP

I tested terminal-entry's DCP tool several times in the past.
But I was never able to produce a DCP without a lot of workarounds and unnecessary preparation steps and what not.
In my eyes it is to complicated to work with (apart from also being slow)

m2c

Peter
 
Peter,

I use finaldcp , its expensive and fast. usb sticks are the best method as some servers won't boot from bus powered drives. unfortunately in the US there are huge differences in the age of systems and servers. a lot of older ones are usb2 only. an ingest can take up to 8 hours on those for a feature and some will not read ntfs. europe took longer to move to digital so the servers in places like switzerland tend to be newer. you need a broadcast monitor with the ability to monitor in p3 color space or a grading theater to be truly happy with the colors and brightness/contrast you get on the other end. digitall is great just to see if the thing works at all. but easydcp is also useful for seeing 15 seconds of play.
 
I've used Wrapter DCP built into Premiere Pro and it works very well and fast. Another 1 button solution.
Compared to OpenDCP, which you need to take several steps and re-time audio to get it to work.

- test the finals and color check in NeoDCP, free software
- and output to a Linux drive, used a USB bootable Linux OS from my MAC and everything worked like a charm
 
I've said before: making a DCP is much harder and more time-consuming than most people think it is. I think you're far better off hiring a company that specializes in doing this work and paying a reasonable fee to get the DCP done quickly and without any problem. Quite a few of the companies on the West coast will turn around a DCP in less than 48 hours and charge between $5/minute and $10/minute and give you files that are guaranteed to play on all pro cinema servers out there.

To me, the consequences of screwing up a DCP are far too risky to try to do it all yourself. One company I'd recommend as doing good work at a reasonable rate is SimpleDCP in LA:

http://simpledcp.com/home/
(213) 375-8327

They're nice people and do a lot of work for indie producers and production companies, plus they have a terrific attitude. They also deliver to all the major theater chains and distributors and know the tech specs and rules backwards and forwards.
 
Anyone struggling in mastering their DCP can PM me. We're doing quite a lot of feature/short films, and we've got a decent fiber connection for any remote work.

Kristin
 
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