How confident can you be on the playback in DCP-o-matic?
Last year at our film festival we QC'd all our DCP's in person at our cinema, some were provided to us directly by distributors, others from DCP houses, some we made ourselves using DCP-o-matic, some were made by filmmakers. Other than a few minor issues with volumes (which we just simply adjusted by adding some notes to the projectionist) we didn't have any playback failures. If it played in DCP-o-matic Player it always seemed to play at the cinema, that was our experience anyway. But more widely to the forum community can we be confident if a DCP plays in DCP-o-matic it is going to play in the cinema? Our DCP's are ingested into a TMS server, which manages the playlist, so this question is purely asking from a home based office perspective. We don't intend to use the DCP-o-matic player for anything other than to check the playback.
With thanks
Adrian
DCP-o-matic Player reliability?
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Carsten
- Posts: 2947
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 9:11 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: DCP-o-matic Player reliability?
No, successful playout in DCP-o-matic player will not guarantee that the DCP will play okay on a cinema server.
However, if you perform the full DCP verification in player, your chances are very high that the DCP will not cause issues.
Verfication in player and playout in player are two completely different things.
This could become an interesting thread though as to what can be done with DCP-o-matic and DCP-o-matic player in a festival environment.
However, if you perform the full DCP verification in player, your chances are very high that the DCP will not cause issues.
Verfication in player and playout in player are two completely different things.
This could become an interesting thread though as to what can be done with DCP-o-matic and DCP-o-matic player in a festival environment.
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macuser
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:28 pm
- Location: Switzerland
Re: DCP-o-matic Player reliability?
I agree with Carsten, SW-Player's like Dcp-o-matic may play DCP's that even are not ingestable because of hash mismatch.
The festival I work for is playing DCP's since 2010. In my opinion the process of producing a DCP should end with a screening in a real cinema to confirm a 100% working DCP. It is in the responsibility of the manufacturer to deliver a working DCP. The festival is not a test house and doesn't have time for that.
When I started with DCP's there weren't too much information (and software) around. With the time I started to use "dcp_inspect" for basic testing. That line command tool does at least what the ingest process on a DCP-Server would do. A real good feature is the audio analysis that shows in a small graphics all the channels. It checks many other parameters that are very useful for a festival. Alongside I also used a license of easyDCP Player+ for some years.
Since 2020 I use DCP-o-matic Player and dcp_inspect for all DCP's inspection. The player is very useful to check subtitles as not all seem to apply the DCI naming convention. With the time I learnt how and what to check to find DCP's that could cause problems in a cinema. I am open to share my knowledge with other human beeings.
Kind regards
Max
The festival I work for is playing DCP's since 2010. In my opinion the process of producing a DCP should end with a screening in a real cinema to confirm a 100% working DCP. It is in the responsibility of the manufacturer to deliver a working DCP. The festival is not a test house and doesn't have time for that.
When I started with DCP's there weren't too much information (and software) around. With the time I started to use "dcp_inspect" for basic testing. That line command tool does at least what the ingest process on a DCP-Server would do. A real good feature is the audio analysis that shows in a small graphics all the channels. It checks many other parameters that are very useful for a festival. Alongside I also used a license of easyDCP Player+ for some years.
Since 2020 I use DCP-o-matic Player and dcp_inspect for all DCP's inspection. The player is very useful to check subtitles as not all seem to apply the DCI naming convention. With the time I learnt how and what to check to find DCP's that could cause problems in a cinema. I am open to share my knowledge with other human beeings.
Kind regards
Max
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Carsten
- Posts: 2947
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 9:11 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: DCP-o-matic Player reliability?
I would also like to have audio analysis/LEQ(m) in player. It would even be a useful feature in standalone verifier, especially for a festival. It would be helpful being able to drop a folder of DCPs onto the verifier, then get a nice detailed report of issues what may be worth looking at, including LEQ(m).