DCP from DPX sequence and separate sound elements

[rtX]

Is DCP-o-matic capable of producing a professional cinema-ready encrypted DCP from a DPX sequence of say, 150,000 individual files/frames and separate 5.1 sound elements (one wav file per track)? The DPX sequence is in a single folder and is some 1.1TB in size. The sound files are/each track is about 1GB each. I only mention size in case that has a bearing on capability.

I have tried the program running it on Linux Mint 16. I created a project, and pressed the Add folder button, and added the folder with the DPX sequence. The program crashed (seemingly) - it just disappeared. I re-ran it and used the Add file(s) button instaed. I waited until the dialogue box had 'seen' the 143000 files in the DPX sequence, pressed ctrl-A to select them all, and then pressed Ok. The dialogue disappeared but I do not see the content in the content box, and I cannot select or press any buttons etc. I am wondering if the program has crashed or if it is doing something. I can see that the HDD is occasionally being accessed via its LED flashing, but there is no other indication of anything happening. I have been waiting a few hours.

Similarly, can it produce a Blu-Ray and/or DVD from the same source material or would it be better to use a pro-res Quicktime as the source material for the Blu-Ray/DVD?

Many thanks.

[carl]

Hi,

The first method (using "Add folder") should have worked: it sounds like there is a bug in DCP-o-matic. What version were you using? It should be possible to do what you want...

At the moment it doesn't generate anything except DCPs, so you would need to use some other software to generate your Blu-Ray/DVD.

[rtX]

Thanks for the response. I used v1.66.0, specifically the Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit deb.

Since my earlier post, in which I mentioned I had used the Add files... button, and the program seemed to hang for hours, the DCP-o-matic window has once again disappeared and the program does not seem to be running. There are no messages, though. This some 5 or 6 hours since I selected the files as described. If you need any further information, please let me know and I'll happily help as much as I am able.

[rtX]

I downloaded and ran 1.66.0 Windows version (running it on Windows 7 on another computer). I tried to Add folder... (using the Windows version) of a different DPX sequence from that which I used for the one tried in the earlier post. The size is identical however - same number of DPX files and they are all of the same size individually. The number of files is exactly 142,582. Each DPX file is 7.9MB. I'm afraid the Windows version acted identically to the Linux version - although I got a Windows message saying it had stopped working and then the program closed itself.

I hope this is of some use.

[carl]

Thank you for testing that. It's interesting that the crash happens on both Linux and Windows.

I will make a large DPX file set here and try to reproduce the crash.

[carl]

Hi again. There was a silly bug with DCP-o-matic's use of DPX files. That should be fixed in 1.66.16, which is building now and will appear here over the next couple of hours. Can you try that and let us know if you still have problems?

Thanks!

[rtX]

Thanks for the prompt response. Will do.

I'll revert later.

[rtX]

I tried running the test version you suggested with the same (original) DPX sequence on my Linux box. It did not fall over in the same place but I subsequently got a file write error. This may have been something to do with the fact I was writing from Linux to an NTFS formatted HDD. I've noticed that sometimes I get errors when copying large numbers of files from a single directory to another, and so I am not sufficiently certain that this is a DCPomatic issue.

Anyway, I recently downloaded 1.67.1 and am now running that. I also chose to write the DCP to an EXT4 formatted HDD instead of the NTFS formatted drive. So far it seems to be working. I'm also using Encoding servers running on two networked Windows 7 machines. In total, I have 10 CPU cores available and calculating. In addition to doing the JPEG2000 compression, I am also encrypting. Before adding the extra 6 cores on the Windows machines, the program was suggesting it would take 90 hours to complete. 7 hours later and with the Windows machines serving, it is now saying 61 hours to go and 9% done. It may be a while before I can advise if it worked...

Curiously, I noticed the Linux 4-core box on its own was averaging 0.4 frames per second. With the two Windows boxes this seems to have only moved to 0.6 frames per second. Using a CPU activity monitor, I also noticed that the four core Windows machine was not using the processor anywhere near its capability and that there seemed to be a lot more activity on one core than on the other three. The Linux box shows that this particular server is 4 threads. Is this something I should be concerned about or can tweak?

Many thanks again. The interface is easy to understand and the manual is really good.

[rtX]

Well, it completed! As it is encrypted, I'll need to use the key management features etc. and find somewhere to test/play what I have. I'm optimistic. Thanks.

[carl]

Curiously, I noticed the Linux 4-core box on its own was averaging 0.4 frames per second. With the two Windows boxes this seems to have only moved to 0.6 frames per second. Using a CPU activity monitor, I also noticed that the four core Windows machine was not using the processor anywhere near its capability and that there seemed to be a lot more activity on one core than on the other three. The Linux box shows that this particular server is 4 threads. Is this something I should be concerned about or can tweak?

How were these machines networked together? With cable? What speed?