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Author Topic: DCP slideshow management? Gunnar Asgeirsson Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Iceland Registered: Jul 2006 posted 11-05-2018 12:31 PM                        Since playing intermission slideshow from alternative device like a regular computer is slowly disappearing from cinema if your digital projector do not have any other input except the one on the server itself for example like the DoReMi/Dolby IMS servers, where you can not switch to the HDMI input during a show (the playlist will then eject) Then i have (actually last 4 years) been playing all intermission slides as a 12 minute DCP. (for 12 minute long intermission) But this slideshow creation takes so much time having to manually line everything up each time. Is there no software out there that can create DCP slideshow advertises with some management? My dream solution would be that i could open some kind of DCP software. There i could add in name of company that are advertising on the cinema. And under that company name i could add jpeg slides 1 or more. And select expiration date of that jpeg slides. Then i create more and more company´s and add in jpeg slides and select expiration date on each slide. Lets say the advertise playlist have 15 company´s and each slide is supposed to be on the screen for 10 seconds. That means it take the 2:30 minutes to play all the slides. But i need 12 minute long slideshow.. Then i click on some "Create DCP slideshow" and i am asked how long i want this slide show to be.. And i say 12 minutes. Then all these 15 advertise clients are played over and over until it have reach 12 minutes but every time it start over again there might be new slide from that client in its placeholder. For example on the first run: McDonalds - Big Mac Apple - Iphone Amazon - Some Blu Ray Movie advertise *Loop again* McDonalds - Big Mac (again because this client only had 1 jpeg in its placeholder) Apple - Ipad ( This client had 2 slides in its placeholder so this run have new slide, but the third run will go back to the iphone) Amazon - Some book advertise (this client have 3 slides so in the third loop there will be new slides again) Hope you know what i mean, there is no problem making this slides via premiere pro or load jpeg into some dcp mastering software. I would just love to find some DCP slide show making software where i can manage the slideshow more. Having to manually line everything up every time is so time consuming. Would be so great to be able to make those DCP slideshow´s in some dedicated software instead of constantly having to manually line up every jpeg before creating the DCP slideshow.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 11-05-2018 02:00 PM                     DCP-o-matic is scriptable, there is a CMDline interface, you could set up your own system to automate things. People were trying to convince Carl to implement something like this within the DCP-o-matic GUI, but I doubt this is a good idea, since everyone seems to be confident that only HIS system makes sense... Instead on dealing with this on the DCP basis, it would make more sense to create Preshow SPLs externally. However, that would need to use the TMS APIs of all possible servers in the field, that is far beyond the level of a simple tool. Most TMS have addons to deal with this, but they are not open to everyone, and they don't help if you have no TMS. Which server do you use? I think it would be rather easy on a Doremi (SPL Export/Import). Not sure for other servers. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Carl Hetherington Film Handler Posts: 93 From: York, North Yorkshire, England Registered: Jul 2012 posted 11-05-2018 02:39 PM                        It would probably be a bit tough to shoe-horn this kind of thing into the DCP-o-matic GUI (it's full enough already...) but technically not too hard to do as a separate tool. If there's demand I might be tempted...! Like you say, it's a shame there's not a standard SPL format. There isn't one hidden away that nobody's ever heard of, is there?  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 11-05-2018 05:19 PM                     Hi Carl, at least Doremis playlist format is straight XML, looks very similar to a CPL I will send you a sample. The Doremi playlist editor offers export/save and import options. Import is also possible through FTP, and quite possibly also automatic (push/hot folder). These playlists also support blocks/sub playlists, so it should be easy to create an ad/preshow sub-playlist that can be reused in feature playlists. Feature playlists may contain server specific automation/macros, but within an ad block subplaylist, there is usually no need for this, so an ad block would only need to contain a sequence of CPLs. Our Sony offers SPL export, but I think it is not XML, but binary. As there really is no universal SPL format, a universal slideshow tool would need to solve it on a DCP/CPL level. This would involve reusing content/MXF files as much as possible for reoccurring content in order to minimize storage space and ingest time. Maybe VFs - throw together an OV containing all the 'raw data', then create ad-pack VFs referring to the raw material in that OV. That would allow unlimited reuse, incl. omitting existing content arbitrarily. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Asgeirsson Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Iceland Registered: Jul 2006 posted 11-06-2018 05:40 AM                        Yes it was probably me that suggest this feature to Carl. Today i actually use DoM to do this. It is easy to add in jpeg files and then add them again and again until i have 12 minutes of slide show and that is how i do it today. I would program something like this myself if i have some programming skills but i dont have that skill. And yes i know about the intermission on DoReMi/Dolby IMS,it can actually be programmed to loop 2 minutes slideshow for 12 minutes total for example. But since i have indeed TMS (Cinedigital) and there are both Dolby IMS1000 servers and Dolby DSS200 servers in the projection booth it will force me to have separate playlist for the same film. One for the IMS1000 servers because of the intermission there and other for DSS200 servers because of the intermission there. I do not want to do that so that is why i always create 12 minutes long DCP clip with each slide show so the same playlist on the TMS is compatible on every server.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 11-06-2018 05:55 AM                     When I've had to create a quick slide show or pre-show "sponsor loop" for an event, I simply create the show using PowerPoint or Keynote (Usually Keynote because I'm more familiar with that) I then export the show as a video file, and then convert that to a DCP. I've created a couple of templates, with various pre-built transitions, so it a pretty quick thing to drag the necessary images into the template Just drag-export-convert-play. . . it's a pretty simple workflow. The look of the final product is mostly dependent on the quality of the original slide graphics slide images are, and while I might not use this technique for a high profile prestigious event, or if it was going to wind up projected on a huge-friggn' screen, I've found that the end result is perfectly acceptable for most of my purposes.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 11-06-2018 05:37 PM                     Gunnar - your raw material is always still images/bitmaps, or video clips as well? What about audio? I guess it is rather easy to shuffle around some filenames of bitmap files to create different sequences. DCP-o-matic will compress them very quickly by frame repeating. Not as smart as VF/OV, but easy enough to do with standard operating system tools You would always use/reuse the same DCP-o-matic project with a 12min sequence, but an external tool will rename/copy the bitmap files that DCP-o-matic project uses. You could use filenames like 1_1.jpg, 1_2.jpg, 1_3.jpg, 2_1.jpg, or a_1, b_2, etc to indicate group/sequence, then it's rather easy to fill a 12min sequence following your basic rule. Stop execution after x files have been assigned, giving 12min. Then open project in DCP-o-matic and hit Make DCP (or call it through the commandline). The same would work more efficiently by manipulating the asset references of a 12min CPL containing 72 reels, one reel for each 10s ad. Manipulating the content references of a DCP-o-matic project file/metadata.xml would work just the same. All simple string operations and some counting. It is not complicated to do, but I guess it's still not universal enough to add this to DCP-o-matic. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged

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