Ingest to GDC from IMS1000?

[Adam Towill]

Hey all,

While I'm on a roll of sorting out annoying issues..

I have three theatres - two IMS1000 and one GDC SX2001. I have FTP ingest sources set up to go between the two IMS1000s, and from the GDC to both IMS1000s, but I've never had one to go back the other way.

I've set one up last night, and after finding the username and password that brought up the correct directory, I'm finding its listing out all the content in the /home/assets folder firstly under a unique value, which is meaningless to the human eye, followed by the actual DCP name.

Is there a way of doing this, or showing this in a manner that excludes those unique value folders for ease of use?

The GDC has the only internal CRU so it's the quickest for initial ingests, so generally material tends to start on that server and last the longest on that server, so don't need the ability very often, but it's a little annoyance that I'd like to be able to fix in a coherent fashion in case I do ever need to move anything back the other way.

Thank you in advance.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Most playout servers aren't really designed to serve as a DCP catalog. To achieve what you want to do, you would probably require some kind of scripting that strips the UIDs from the name and creates a new folder listing for you. I could imagine a bunch of bash or Python script doing this.

I'm not aware of any FTP client that could strip them from your actual view and allow you to access the underlying folders directly, but maybe someone else comes up with an elegant yet simple solution for this.

[Adam Towill]

Thank you.

It's a pity, because it works quite nicely the other way around. It's just annoying if we ever have to move anything back again, and we are no longer holding the DCP for it, as happened yesterday.

I'll leave it be and use it sparingly, I guess.

[Greg Routenburg]

If you're not able to swing the purchase of some TMS software to manage your DCPs between your servers, you might be able to achieve what you need by adding an inexpensive NAS with USB 3.0 on it. You could "ingest" your DCPs directly to the NAS first and then use it as an FTP transfer source for all of your screen servers. Just create a new folder on the NAS for each piece of content you are ingesting. Most NAS units have a nice WebGUI these days and if you're using an IMS1000, you'll need a computer on the network anyways to control it. Just a thought.

[Steve Guttag]

The other thing you can invest in is a TMS program like CineDigital. That probably will let you move content about as you desire and by human readable names. It has a bit of a classic Doremi feel to its user interface. They will also let you try it out for 30 days or so to see if it is a good fit.

[Greg Routenburg]

The other thing you can invest in is a TMS program like CineDigital. That probably will let you move content about as you desire and by human readable names. It has a bit of a classic Doremi feel to its user interface. They will also let you try it out for 30 days or so to see if it is a good fit.

Yep, CineDigital is a great, affordable option with excellent support. I run it at all of my sites. The nice thing about it is that if you decide to try a NAS first, you can integrate it into a CineDigital installation down the road as a Library to simplify things even more.

[Adam Towill]

It actually looks really great, but I can't get past the "Select Language" window on installation.

Edit: Don't mind me. Java dependency.

[Steve Guttag]

You do need to get a license even for the free period, I believe. Reach out to them, they are quite helpful.

[Adam Towill]

What does it mean when it says that one auditorium must be allocated as a reference auditorium for Macros and Blacks? Our three theatres are all set up quite differently, so what one does wouldn't reflect well on another, I shouldn't think.

[Steve Guttag]

With a TMS...you need some form of unity so cues and the like transfer. If you have say a "Scope" cue, it should be that same name on all servers, regardless of brand. So you have to point the TMS at one of your servers (the one that has the most commonality, I'd think. You will be referencing the other theatres to it for cues and what "blacks" are. Doremi type servers often use "Patterns" (and Barco servers REQUIRE them)...where as most others use actual DCPs that have no picture or sound (Barco and Doremi can use those too but Barco treats their black pattern as special and one can run those, and only those, while not selected to a DCP format on the projector).

Basically, you have to choose one server as the reference by which you will compare the others for cues.

[Greg Routenburg]

Like Steve said before, the CineDigital interface mimics the Doremi UI. When you're building your playlists, you can use the Black Pattern in their playlist builder but in order to make that compatible with the GDCs, you'll need to "reference" some black clips for the GDC to substitute in for the patterns when the playlists are transfered to a GDC server. You'll want to get 1 Second, 5 Second and 10 Second Black MOS clips ingested on your GDC and then reference those when you're installing the TMS. Just make sure that they are exactly the same length as advertised. Some 10 Second black clips are actually a frame or two short of 10 seconds and if you use one of those it can throw off your macro positions if you're placing them on the black clips. I've made my own using a black jpeg in DCPomatic.

The auditorium that you reference for Macros will provide the list of macros that will be availabe in the playlist builder. If you have an auditorium that has extra macros for special event stuff or 3D, you'll want to reference that auditorium. There's also a section in the Configuration Wizard that will allow you to predefine macro substitutions between screens if your macros are named differently on your different servers. If you don't configure the substitution section, you will be prompted to select the macro to substitute when you transfer the show from one screen to the next.

[Brad Miller]

You can't push content into a GDC, but you can pull content into a GDC. You have to go into the GDC interface and setup an FTP source (being the Doremi). It's been forever since I had any need to do this, so I can't remember if the listing shows you actual package names or UUIDs. Regardless that will work.

I will give you a bit of warning, GDC to my knowledge has never fixed the issue of limiting speed when pulling content from their servers. For example if you are moving content into a GDC and it is playing, it will severely throttle your incoming speeds to prevent playback issues, but if you are pulling content out of a GDC and it is playing, you could end up with stuttering, skipping or other playback issues since there isn't a throttle. Doremi throttles both directions.

[Adam Towill]

Just to follow up on this one, it was only showing UUIDs, but it was working. It was something of a pain in the arse though.

I think I've come across that stuttering issue once or twice. I was always of the understanding that all machines throttled, but it's good to know.

Lastly, with the software upgrade to the GDC, there's an option to select whether you want UUID or to have it index out. I don't recall seeing it before, so maybe it came as part of the upgrade. In any case, it's made things substantially easier. I thought I'd note that in in case anybody else runs into the same issue.

Thank you all for your help on this one though.