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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

Edgar Pitts

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We are about to get our first feature film graded and finished on Scratch. It is a non-Red HD project. Terry and Omar at 12 Forward in Dallas will be working their magic to get the most out of the film. 10 Bit DPX files will be created and prepped for HDCAM-SR transfer.

We are considering our options for a limited theatrical run, and I was curious as to the process of having a DCP created for playback at DCI compliant digital theaters. Our project is 30p and can not be printed to film.

Is it a simple LUT conversion or much more in-depth? What are the initial costs involved?

Many thanks!

Edgar
 
There's a lot of different DCP creation tools out there and the answer to your question will depend on the application you choose.

Qube Cinema (http://www.qubecinema.com/) has several different options, both software and hardware. Software is PC only.

Fraunhofer (http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/EN/bf/bv/cinema/index.jsp) have a softwaretool called EasyDCP which is probably your cheapest option. They're also launching EasyDCP+ at the end of the month which also will include stereo 3d mastering and encryption. To my knowledge, EasyDCP is the only tool available for both PC, Mac and Linux.

Quvis (http://www.quvis.com/) also sell software and hardware for DCP creation. Most interesting in the budget segment is Quvis Wraptor, which is a DCP creation plug-in for Compressor. However, Quvis went bankrupt in November so their applications are no longer being updated (Wraptor does not work with Compressor 3.0.4)


With regards to your question about color I'm sure there are people better equipped to answer this then me. However, I spent a week in a digital cinema last year creating a LUT for digital cinema grading in Color with the Wraptor plug-in. Both the Color space and color gamut is very different from REC709 so there is a certain conversion that has to happen. Not sure if any of the applications provides automatic conversion from REC709.

Hope this helps.
 
according to their website the fraunhofer easyDCP software does the conversion from rec 709 rgb to XYZ.

there is also a company called light illusion that makes a software called 3D LUT builder and you can buy the color space conversion add-on. the software is fairly cheap. you can get it for around 1200$.

cheers
 
We are considering our options for a limited theatrical run, and I was curious as to the process of having a DCP created for playback at DCI compliant digital theaters. Our project is 30p and can not be printed to film.

It can't be made into a DCP either, as that format only supports 24 fps (in either 2K or 4K) or 48 fps (in 2K only). Your only real alternative here is to project from either a computer or from tape, which should be possible at any theater with a digital cinema projector. You'll have to check with the individual venue, though.

You should also be aware that 30p is not a valid video format. If you want to use a digital cinema projector, they will most likely need to convert your material to 720/60p, as these projectors do not project interlaced material.
 
24.000 or 23.976+?

24.000 or 23.976+?

It can't be made into a DCP either, as that format only supports 24 fps (in either 2K or 4K) or 48 fps (in 2K only). Your only real alternative here is to project from either a computer or from tape, which should be possible at any theater with a digital cinema projector. You'll have to check with the individual venue, though.

Is the DCP standard true 24.000fps or 23.976+fps?
 
24.000 or 23.976+?

24.000 or 23.976+?

Is the DCP standard true 24.000fps or 23.976+fps?​

True 24.000 fps.
 
Vertical sizes for DCP

Vertical sizes for DCP

Thanks for the frame rate info.

I assume 2K and 4K limit the horizontal pixel sizes to 2048 and 4096, but I was wondering what vertical size choices are? Is it just 1556/3112 or are other sizes allowed? Like 2048x1152? (I'm just trying to conserve disk space...)
 
Thanks for the frame rate info.

I assume 2K and 4K limit the horizontal pixel sizes to 2048 and 4096, but I was wondering what vertical size choices are? Is it just 1556 or are other sizes allowed? Like 2048x1152? (I'm just trying to conserve disk space...)

You can go to www.dcimovies.com and download the entire spec. It will answer any questions you have, and it will do it much more accurately than asking here.
 
It can't be made into a DCP either, as that format only supports 24 fps (in either 2K or 4K) or 48 fps (in 2K only). Your only real alternative here is to project from either a computer or from tape, which should be possible at any theater with a digital cinema projector. You'll have to check with the individual venue, though.

You should also be aware that 30p is not a valid video format. If you want to use a digital cinema projector, they will most likely need to convert your material to 720/60p, as these projectors do not project interlaced material.

I directed a concert DVD for David Crowder Band in fall of 2007...right before the DVD release they secured a 1-night 100 screen theatrical release. It was to be a DCP master, not video.

The concert was shot XDCAM HD (for budget), and 30P (because I was told I'd be incorporating handycam footage into the finished concert, which later never happened). 30P was fine for the DVD.

Anyway, I had to get the 30P concert to 24.000 for the DCP process. We tested a Teranex, which did not do a very good job at all, but all thought prior would solve the problem. The Teranex could not distinguish between 29.97i and 29.97P and therefore was doing some serious judder.

Anyway, in the end I ran the whole concert through Compressor for 30P to 24.000P using motion compensated frame rate conversion In smoother pans there were some minor judder issues, and a few "morphing" artifacts, but it was deemed acceptable for the purpose. BTW, it took 40 hours to render a 75 minute concert on a quad Intel.
 
30P was fine for the DVD.

Yes and no. As I said, 30p is not a valid video format (it's data only, same as 720/24p). It can be accommodated for a DVD by converting to 60i (which is what I'm guessing was done), which in most cases, would not be particularly noticeable because there is no temporal conversion going on.

...in the end I ran the whole concert through Compressor for 30P to 24.000P using motion compensated frame rate conversion In smoother pans there were some minor judder issues, and a few "morphing" artifacts, but it was deemed acceptable for the purpose. BTW, it took 40 hours to render a 75 minute concert on a quad Intel.

Converting to 24p is an alternative. But as you discovered, going from 30p to 24p has issues that will affect the material, in some scenes more than others. It is much easier to go from 60i to 24p for a number of reasons. But if one wants the material to be as faithful to the original version as possible, it's probably a better approach to find some way of presenting it without the need for temporal conversion and interpolation that going to 24 frames inevitably requires. Hence my suggestion to find a way to project from either tape or a computer file at 60p. The downconversion in terms of resolution will likely be far less harmful than frame rate interpolation.
 
So I now know that I can not create a DCP with 30p content. We want to have a HD screening at a Dallas local theater with several 4K screens.

What is the highest quality way to project on a Sony SRX-R110?

We are creating a SR master as a deliverable. Would renting an SR deck for the theater screening be the easiest approach for 30p playback?

Many thanks.

Edgar
 
However, Quvis went bankrupt in November so their applications are no longer being updated (Wraptor does not work with Compressor 3.0.4)

Wraptor actually works best with Compressor 3.0.4. It is Compressor 3.0.5 that broke Wraptor. Please see my post (ID #19) "Wraptor crashes after FCP/Compressor update?". This explains how I downgraded FCS & Compressor so that it still works with Wraptor.

Curtis Drake
Ex-QuVIS
 
Has anyone tried to re-create the same work flow using stereo (realD) systems? I went to download FhG_easyDCP+ since they claim this app can interlace frames but... I´ve read in another forum the images need to be interlaced from 2 sources as in "left-right-left" image sequence for 1 second or so for the following scenes...

Anybody has had experience with this?
 
Wraptor actually works best with Compressor 3.0.4. It is Compressor 3.0.5 that broke Wraptor. Please see my post (ID #19) "Wraptor crashes after FCP/Compressor update?". This explains how I downgraded FCS & Compressor so that it still works with Wraptor.

Curtis Drake
Ex-QuVIS

Confirmed.
With 3.04 you get full speed on all cores.

As to the LUT Helge refers to, and workflow: Have a look here:
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34776

Gunleik
 
Resurrecting an old thread here. Now that a couple years have passed what would be the best way to convert 23.98 to true 24 (no Teranex) without audio slip for home system DCP creation?
 
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