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Author
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Topic: DCP creation questions
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Phil Ranucci
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 236
From: Carpinteria,CA, United States
Registered: May 2006
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posted 01-15-2013 09:37 PM
We're about to start a film festival which will be about 80%DCP. I've been getting lots of questions about DCPs and don't know the answers. It would appear that many filmmakers are doing this themselves, which is why they don't just ask the labs that do this for a living.
Here are some of their questions.
- Do you have special hard disc drive specifications?
- can you play both formats: SMPTE and inter-Op?
- does the film need 24p or is 25p also good?
This guy wants to know:
- SMPTE format, no key encryption
- 2K Flat (either 1920x1080 or 1998X1080) 24fps
- 6 channel sound 48k, 24bit
- Surround channels L,R,C,LFE,Ls,Rs or L,R,Ls,Rs,C,LFE
(which?)
- 1 Reel
- Bare SATA hard drive formatted as NTFS
(Why bring an empty drive?)
Can they input from a bare sata hard disk formatted as NTFS (Microsoft Windows)?
Do they want a dialnorm or LUFS value for the loudness level?
(What is that?)
Another asked:
- DCP flat 1920X1080
- 5.1 surround L,R,C,LFE,Ls,Rs
- at the head of the film I'll put a slate with -20bd tone, pix and channel info and a countdown leader with 2-pop. At the tail I'll put a black and count down leader.
(This sounds like a real DCP, except for the leaders and pops)
I have no idea what the answers are, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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John Roddy
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 114
From: Spring, TX, United States
Registered: Dec 2012
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posted 01-15-2013 11:03 PM
What do you mean by "special hard disc drive specifications?"
I believe that most servers can handle both, but Inter-Op isn't technically supported anymore. You may want to check with your server's manufacturer on that.
24 is strongly preferred, but certain servers can handle 25 as well. Again, check with the manufacturer to be sure.
FLAT is 1998x1080. 1920x1080 will work too, but you'll have to adjust your masking for it. Stick with standard flat if at all possible.
I believe it's L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs. The DCP creation software should set all of that though. The best practice is to start from six separate audio files—one for each channelŤ—rather than hope one big file was created correctly.
A length of one reel shouldn't be a problem.
The file system depends on the server. EXT3 would be more universally compatible, but NTFS will probably work with a few. That's a good question for the manufacturer.
No clue what an LUFS is.
I'd recommend against putting any leader before or after a DCP. I genuinely can't see any reason for that.
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Bajsic Bojan
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 190
From: Ljubljana, Si, Eu
Registered: Aug 2008
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posted 01-16-2013 03:30 AM
quote:
- Do you have special hard disc drive specifications?
- can you play both formats: SMPTE and inter-Op?
- does the film need 24p or is 25p also good?
This all depends on your server. Yes EXT 2/3 is standard, but some servers can take more (FAT, NTFS, some even the dreaded mac format thing). What you want to do is tell them which ones you DONT want.
SMPTE and interop are both standard, tho some newer servers might not play interop. You should specify if you cannot.
Same goes for 24 and 25. 25fps is pretty damn normal in 70% of the world, and yes, even for DCPs (gasp!). Again, some servers dont seem to handle it all too well. You should specify if you CANNOT play the standard 25fps.
quote: Phil Ranucci
This guy wants to know:
- SMPTE format, no key encryption
- 2K Flat (either 1920x1080 or 1998X1080) 24fps
- 6 channel sound 48k, 24bit
- Surround channels L,R,C,LFE,Ls,Rs or L,R,Ls,Rs,C,LFE
(which?)
- 1 Reel
- Bare SATA hard drive formatted as NTFS
(Why bring an empty drive?)
No key encription is standard for festival prints, shorts, whatever. Why is this a problem?
1920x1080 can be played on the flat setting without cropping. The sides will have 78px of black. It is pretty standard to do it this way if you have a HD 1.78 transfer and dont want to scale/blur the picture to 1.85. Again, no problem.
Regarding the sound channels and reels, standard, as mentioned in previous post.
Bare sata drives are not really useful (unless you have your own set of CRU enclosures). Either get them in a CRU bay or make them ship it in an enclosure that has usb or esata connectivity. Another option is ofcourse a standard sata external drive with usb connectivity, formatted like you want.
quote:
- DCP flat 1920X1080
- 5.1 surround L,R,C,LFE,Ls,Rs
- at the head of the film I'll put a slate with -20bd tone, pix and channel info and a countdown leader with 2-pop. At the tail I'll put a black and count down leader.
(This sounds like a real DCP, except for the leaders and pops)
The slate and pops are there in most DCPs, pretty standard practice. The thing is they are 'masked' inside the CPL, where it is set where the picture/sound starts. Again, no problem.
Long story short, if you cannot do anything they ask you to, tell them before. Hope you get materials 2 weeks before screening and that you have ample time to check it all before.
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Antti Nayha
Master Film Handler
Posts: 268
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: Oct 2008
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posted 01-16-2013 05:15 AM
quote: Bajsic Bojan
SMPTE and interop are both standard, tho some newer servers might not play interop.
Are there actually any of those yet?
For an example, all DCP’s in regular distribution in Finland are still 24fps Interop. There are still a few screens in the country equipped with Dolby DSS100’s, which cannot handle 25 or 30 fps at all, even with the latest software. I try to avoid using those for any kind of a film festival, but sometimes there’s no choice.
That said, the festivals I am running still receive mostly 24fps Interop DCP’s. When you’re talking about international arthouse/mainstream feature films, the festival DCP’s are practically 100% 24fps Interop, most of them encrypted with a KDM. The key management is a lot of work if you’re running several venues.
25 fps, SMPTE and/or unencrypted DCP’s are more common with shorts, student films and other low-budget stuff, which is also more commonly ”home-made” instead of having been mastered at a professional DCP facility. Naturally, those are also the ones that have most problems with subtitles, weird framing etc. 2.0 audio is also common.
It would be great to have a comprehensive list of DCI equipment that doesn’t support 25/30 fps – perhaps we should compile one here? I’ll start with the Dolby DSS100/DSP100. All the other Dolbys can handle 25/30 fps fine.
I know all the Doremi servers support 25 and 30 fps, although I’m not certain if a specific minimum software version is required…
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Antti Nayha
Master Film Handler
Posts: 268
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: Oct 2008
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posted 01-16-2013 08:33 AM
Wow, talk about progress… It doesn’t seem to keep Dolby from stating 30 fps support on their website though:
quote:
JPEG 2000 Frame Rates Supported
4K 2D: 24, 25, 30
2K 2D: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60, 96, 100, 120
2K 3D: 24, 25, 30, 48, 60
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