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Author Topic: "Ghetto" DCP playback solution with automation Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-14-2017 06:24 AM                     For a small-scale film festival I've been looking at a mobile, "cheap", DCP playback solution. Distributors and/or filmmakers will not be too picky about non-DCI compliance, in fact they will probably be happy to have their movies shown. It would also be great if the player would support some alternate formats, since you never know what kind of format some film-maker will come up with, even if you give them the specs. So there's plenty of flexibility. It would be great if it could support DCPs though. KDM support would also be a plus. There are plenty of players available, like NeoDCP or easyDCP, but what I'm looking for is a playback solution that allows me to put some automation cues into the playlist, like in a proper DCI compliant cinema playout server. Almost anything will do... RS232 commands, remote API invocations, something communicating with the outside world in a reasonable way would probably be great already. The alternative would be to simply rent some dedicated DCI equipment, which is seriously being considered. Still, it would be great to know if some of you have any experience with alternatives.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 04-14-2017 08:18 AM                     I only know two possible solutions, the first is ruled out by the lack of full DCP capability (will only play raw MXF files) - Stereoscopic player (there is a basic automation capability). The second is the A-Cinema GUI for the Fraunhofer Player. This has automation capability, KDM support, alternative content, and is free - however, it needs a commercial/discounted license of the Fraunhofer EasyDCP player, which is 1500€ minimum. I would think that NeoDCP will come up with basic automation (e.g. raw serial/network) sooner or later. Did you ask them? They are pretty smart in adding useful features. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-14-2017 04:34 PM                     Thanks for your input anyway. I have not contacted NeoDCP yet, but I will certainly do so. They seem to constantly add new features to allow this product to become a fully fledged DCP playback solution for actual shows, so it might at least become a focus for a new version if there's sufficient demand. My Google skills might have left me, but I can't find anything regarding the A-Cinema GUI for the Fraunhofer EasyDCP player. I've not yet tried the Stereoscopic player and the lack of proper DCP support might complicate matters quite a bit, but I was under the impression it only allowed serial remote control and serial output via an effects track. It would make sense to include some more generic automation though. I will definitely have a look.  |  IP: Logged Manuel Acevedo Civantos Film Handler Posts: 26 From: Québec, QC, Canada Registered: Mar 2013 posted 04-16-2017 12:42 PM                        If you are considering that the distributors are not picky, then they would probably have some other copy like a prores, high bitrate H264, bluray, etc. Quite a few options for the automation in that case. My approach is actually the opposite. You have access to an already DCP equipped venue, or you have to get ready for some DCP-only bigger films. Then is better to transform everything to DCP. It's doable even for the smaller festivals, actually easier than in the big ones  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-18-2017 04:11 AM                     Having evaluated the options, we'll most likely just rent DCI equipment. I will make sure to have some Blu-Ray players and at least one "alternative content" player at hand for cases where DCPs fail to materialize or end up being otherwise unplayable. quote: Manuel Acevedo Civantos If you are considering that the distributors are not picky, then they would probably have some other copy like a prores, high bitrate H264, bluray, etc. Quite a few options for the automation in that case. Having experienced DCP incompatibilities with those indie movie makers before, we'll ask everybody to deliver a backup copy on Blu-Ray if possible. Many outlets don't have the resources to properly test their DCP releases on all the equipment out there and end up with broken DCPs. I've also asked to burn-in subtitles whenever they're needed, because most unsolvable/hard to solve problems I've had were with improperly encoded subtitles. We'll see what happens. Still, I'm curious what other options you would propose for a non-DCP setup.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2017 06:50 AM                        You could accept DCP files and make other formats out of them using free software (ffmpeg in this case): ffmpeg -i pix.mxf -i track.mxf -vcodec mpeg4 -b 20000k video.avi The process is slow-ish, but it works acceptably well.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 04-18-2017 07:02 AM                     The last festival I've been involved with converted all entries to DCP on their own (they were able to use about half of their entries in DCP format as received, and remade the other half to meet their specs). They had a few venues with DCI equipment, and used NEO DCP Player on their non-DCI venues. The problem is, you now get many digital files in 50p or 60p. Now, what do you do? 'Remastering' for festival is bad enough, but do you decide to convert 50p to 25p or 60p to 30p in order to show them? Some of your equipment may be able to show 50p or 60p content, but not all. Now some festivals say: 'strictly 24p only'. What if that 60p beast is a fantastic piece of art? Do you reject something like that for stupid technical reasons? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-18-2017 07:26 AM                     Two of the venues will be equipped with a bunch of Epson 3LCD projectors I will provide myself as a backup, they're capable of handling most common framerates and if really necessary, we can still "upconvert" to 60fps, if they're willing to accept a certain amount of frame-doubling. They're not in any way DCI compliant and just barely manage to get the screen filled, given the available throw ratio and placement options, but it's better than no movie at all. The same venues will also host some presentations, most likely Power Point affairs. It's not the way I want to roll, but if really necessary, you can still hook up a PC and play the content from there. They'll have to accept stereo audio only though. Let's just hope the oddball frame-rates are limited to just a few entries at most. quote: Scott Norwood You could accept DCP files and make other formats out of them using free software (ffmpeg in this case): ffmpeg -i pix.mxf -i track.mxf -vcodec mpeg4 -b 20000k video.avi The process is slow-ish, but it works acceptably well. As long as the files aren't encrypted this should indeed work. I'm not sure what happens to the multi-channel audio though with those command line options. I've never tried to de-encrypt a DCP before, even with a clear-text key available. It should be "plain" AES128 in CBC mode, so it should be doable with a bunch of command-line tools also. But decoding DCPs is something I clearly want to avoid, especially because many of the movies will have subtitles. If they aren't burned in, I'll be having a hard time getting them back in there.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 04-18-2017 08:11 AM                     I'd go with NeoDCP and 'some other' video player software. Add some file/presentation logistics, playlist management, and it should work. It also depends on who is actually going to run the shows, how many trained people you need, etc. VLC can do great things, but is also great in f'up a presentation in the hands of an untrained person. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged

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