CineSend vs MovieTransit

[James R. Skinner]

A couple years ago we installed a CineSend CSX into our small Canaidan independant theatre. We show a mix of content including second run, indy, retro films, etc. When we installed it we where told content delivery would be free but then where soon after informed that Deluxe would charge us a fee for every movie delivered.

I understand MovieTransit is another delivery option. Is it completely free to the exhibitor? I am wondering how it all works during booking. Do some distributers send via one DCP delivery company and some via anothers? Or can you request what delivery company to use at the time of booking? Do some theatres use both? How does MovieTransit compare to CineSend/Deluxe?

Any relevant informaiton would be helpful. Sorry I realize these are somewhat newbie questions. :-) It would be nice to be able to eliminate as many extra fees as possible since we are a community run co-op theatre.

[Frank Cox]

I was invited to sign up for Movie Transit a couple of years ago, which I did. In July of 2023 (I just checked) they advised me that their order for new servers was backordered and they would send me one as soon as the next batch arrived.

And that was the last that I heard of that.

[James Gardiner]

Ok, time to get my soapbox out....
Step up...

I have been attempting to inform the industry for the last 10 years that this is exactly what was going to happen. Nothing is free. When a business gives you something for free, they are still making money from it in some way. And now, digital delivery is the standard, they are now charging BOTH ENDS of the transaction.

What we as an industry have allowed to happen is, through good old, first hit is free (A common way to get hooked on drugs), is taken on infrastructure that in the long run is going to cost the industry as a whole, lot more than otherwise.

For example, it is as if we all purchased OLD FAX MACHINES, that take the hugely expensive thermal paper, and are now stuck on this process while the rest of the world has moved to Email and have no costs at all.

And now we are stuck with it, the prices are raising as we don't have any options.
This business model was obvious from the start, and I warned anyone who listened. Taking these free delivery services (That are not really free, you just pay for them indirectly) is likely to result in a very poor outcome.. Which is now surfacing.

For example, here in Australia. We have 4 DCP delivery services on top of the cinema general internet connection. They all have a policy that the internet link has to be independent to the delivery service and the equipment owned by them. So we now have many cinemas with 5. YES FIVE, internet connections and 4 small servers eating electricity 24h/day. Any one internet link could service all DCP deliveries for a cinema. They have 5 times the infrastructure needed. Realistically, this is obviously costing the industry $10,000 per site per year of unneeded extra costs. (Link costs, network administration costs. Hardware maintenance costs etc)

$10k is a huge amount to a 1-2 screen location.

If looking at say. ACE-TMS (Comscore), it has a built-in ability to monitor Internet FTP sites for DCPs. As soon as you MAP a CPL to a booking, it will automatically download the DCP. All built into the TMS. All the distributors need to do is add their DCPs to a FTP site, tell everyone what the login is. And the problem is sorted. Using their own Internet link. Using sunk cost infrastructure.
These ideas for free, cost-effective delivery, were thought about from the start, but somehow we have let opportunistic companies sit in the middle and clip the ticket in a big way. And now, build a mote around it so we cannot get rid of them easily.

Every dollar counts. We are dealing with a permanent 20-25% reduction in attendance. We cannot afford to throw away money on this type of lunacy.

Steps down from soapbox.

[Gordon McLeod]

The Unique X MT server is a European product that I believe has a very lartge installed base. It works by them charging the studio not the exhibitor. We have them installed in all our own locations and all independents that we service as well. only about 20% of our content comes through it but it is a far more stable and reliable unit than the Cinesend CSX is

[Frank Cox]

I did get one thing from the Movie Transit guys a few months ago. Smurfs Party, I think.

But they just sent me a hard drive for it.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Was the theory with these that there would be cost savings relative to drive postage? It doesn't sound like that is exactly how it has played out in the long term considering infrastructure costs.

Having only 2 screens and part time seasonal operation as a film house, we just stick with good old postage methods and mostly Deluxe. SXSW does use SimpleDCP and delivers us a QNAP server we fire up in the booth for overnight syncs of content, but pretty old school otherwise. Every now and then we have an independent festival film we have to download from a DCP service, but it's not something we subscribe to.

EDIT: But because we only show each film once typically, we do in fact have a lot of shipping DCPs. I'd be curious how our "titles per year" numbers compare to a cinema plex.

[James R. Skinner]

Having only 2 screens and part time seasonal operation as a film house, we just stick with good old postage methods and mostly Deluxe... But because we only show each film once typically, we do in fact have a lot of shipping DCPs. I'd be curious how our "titles per year" numbers compare to a cinema plex.

We are very small as well. We only have one screen and typically have only 4-5 screenings per week. This usually means only 3 different DCPs per week. Still using CineSend has been a game changer. Not having to deal with shipping things back and forth is a LOT easier. Order the film and then it just arrives on the CineSend box. Highly recommended (Except for the Deluxe fee).

[Carsten Kurz]

It may change some day, of course, but so far we use two services in Germany. One operator pays for a dedicated cable internet line and the receiver hardware (9th year now), so we have zero cost except electrical power for a cable modem and mid-class NAS.
The other service uses our own standard internet connection and transmits feature DCPs and trailers to a windows client. We actually get a small amount of money for every feature transfer - the equivalent of 150 US$ per year approx.. Frankly, their trailer service is so useful and easy to use for us, that we would pay for it if we had to.

Of course, one way or the other, effectively we pay for these services when paying the studio, but we pay the some money wether we use broadband or receive hard disks, so...

We're a single screener and receive 2-3 DCPs per week.


We subscribed early on when these services went live, and we still operate under these same conditions. I heard that the company paying dedicated line and hardware is not so generous anymore to cinemas who subscribe now. I hear they still supply the NAS and modem/router, but prefer to use an existing internet connection at the site.