How time-consuming to first use DCP-0-matic?

[Guy Burns]

I may be presenting some of my audio-visuals at the local cinema which uses Barco DP2K-20C projectors. My intention is to drive the Barco from a Blu-ray disk that has been fully-checked at home, then taken to the cinema and plugged into the HDMI socket.

However, it has been suggested by people on the Film-Tech forum (http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f16/t003048.html) that I look into DCP, even though the overall opinion is that Blu-ray shouldn't cause any problems.

So, before I decide to dive into DCP, I thought I'd get an idea of what to expect. My AVs are all 1080P, 23.976 fps, stereo only.

Ques
Assume I export the complete audio-visual from Premiere in ProRes 4444 format (or any other), how many hours is it likely to take a newbie like me to get something onto an NTFS drive [?] that would work at the cinema? Not the encode time, just my "pressing buttons" time.

Meaning: once I get the software loaded, do I just select the input file, tick a few boxes, select the output disk drive, and press "Encode"?

Or is it rather more complicated than that, and I have to choose from…

• 3 disk-drive formats
• 11 different input types
• 17 different output formats
• 23 different projector systems?

… and if I choose any of the above incorrectly, the disk won't work at the cinema.

Basically, how time consuming is it going to be for a newbie to get something to work at the cinema?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[Carsten]

Well, some people will get mad at me, and if someone else would suggest this way to do it, I would probably get mad at him just the same

But I know your thread on film-tech regarding this topic, and I think that, besides having a bluray backup disc, you can also try DCP-o-matic.

As a matter of fact - all defaults of DCP-o-matic will be just right for your application. So if your DON'T play around with any of these, you should be able to get a working DCP in one run.

So, install DOM stable release 2.10.5.
Take some time - depending on your machine and feature runtime, converting the DCP could take many hours or days, and you shouldn't interrupt the process or have the machine doing other heavy lifting. Make sure your data/user data partition has enough space, something like 200GBytes.
- Start DCP-o-matic.
- Choose 'File' -> 'New'. Give a name to this project. Use a short and simple one like 'Guybo'.
- Then, under Content choose: 'Add files' and select your mp4/MOV, whatever source file. I assume it has stereo audio with it, not in a separate file.
DCP-o-matic will run some file analysis, you will see a progress bar in the lower right. When it is finished, choose 'File' -> 'Save' (this saves the project so you can reload it later for changes)
- Choose 'Jobs'->'Make DCP'. There will probably be a nag screen complaining about some things. Make a screen shot or picture of it and post it here, but click 'Make DCP' anyway'. Wait for it to finish.
- When DCP-o-matic has finished the conversion, under Jobs click 'Show DCP'. DCP-omatic will open the folder with the project data and highlight one folder with the name of your DCP, plus some added chars like FTR-1_F-178_2k etc. COPY (don't move) EXACTLY and only this folder, it could be Guybo_FTR-1_F-178_2k... to an external NTFS formatted disc. Bring this to the cinema and let them try to ingest it.
Now, it may be possible that disc won't be recognized by the cinema system. Choose a small, e.g. 256-512GB portable USB drive. An NTFS (not FAT32) formatted USB-Stick would also work, if it is large enough to hold the DCP. We can't tell you from here how big the DCP will be. Depends on your source and content length.

On some of these things, you are on your own - e.g. how to format a USB stick in NTFS format. You may know how to do this, or not. If not, find someone who is capable, or google.

Why am I suggesting this blind flight? Because it is interesting to see how well DCP-o-matic solves standard tasks with it's automatic defaults.
Of course, I am very much engaged in making DCPs not blind flight wise, but based on educated decisions. But Guy has a bluray backup, and it could be fun for him to make his first DCP.

Now, after you managed to do that, Guy, don't assume you are fit in making DCPs. You were just lucky...

- Carsten

[Guy Burns]

Hi Carsten,

So if your DON'T play around with any of these, you should be able to get a working DCP in one run.

This I gotta see!

So… I am going to give it a go, following your instructions, with a single chapter from one of my AVs (about 6 minutes). I'll let you know how it goes. I'm intrigued to find out if it can be as simple as you say.

Guy

[Guy Burns]

Right, Carsten, I got all keen and tried it straight away on a short file.

I got all the way through to the end, first time, as you said. But… there seems to be a few minor bugs in DCP.

1. The Examine Content blue bar, goes to the end, but the message under the bar says: "Ran for 0:00:00". That doesn't sound right.

2. File > Save doesn't do anything. But maybe it shouldn't, because I haven't done much at this point.

3. Jobs > Make DCP appears to work. Took about a minute for a 10-second ProRes file.

4. Jobs > Show DCP doesn't work. It comes up with a message "Could not show DCP"

5. However, a folder is actually created with the name I gave it, Test, and inside are 7 items, two of which are called Test FTR-1… and Video.

6. The Test folder is 110 MB, and the Video folder is 96MB. The others are very tiny.


Ques
How come I only have to move the Test FTR-1… folder to an NTFS disk? Shouldn't I have to move the main folder, Test, containing all 7 items?

[scozz76]

Have you tried reading the DCP-O-MATIC manual?
http://dcpomatic.com/manual/pdf/dcpomatic.pdf

[Carsten]

Hi Guy,

as I suspected, all went well. 'Ran for 00:00:00' is quite normal for a 10s piece analysis. That time measurement doesn't need subsecond accuracy. It will take longer for your main piece. But DOM will only do this once for new content you add. It simply looks into the video and audio to see what's in it.

Did the hints/warning come up when you did 'Make DCP'?

Why do you think 'Save' doesn't do anything? You already gave the project a name, so 'Save' simply saves it, what else should it do...

I learned you are on a Mac, as I am myself. Those small quirks don't matter, you found the folder. The 'Show DCP' does work on my DOM 2.10.5 in Sierra, though. You have to wait of course for the DCP creation to finish, and you need to still be in the current project.

You only have to copy THIS subfolder with the name you gave it 'Test FTR-1_F-178...', All the other stuff, video, analysis, metadata, etc. are DCP-o-matic project data, the cinema projection system can not make use of it. All you need is that subfolder with the pkl, cpl, Assetmap, Volumeindex, XML and j2k/pcm MXF files in it. That is a DCP. Now go on and try with your main feature exactly the same way.

As you are on a Mac, you need to find a way to format an external disc or stick with an MBR NTFS partition. Depends a bit on the current state of your OS X installation wether NTFS is available or not. As new, OS X can read NTFS, but not write to it.

You need to download and install Fuse for Mac OS (previous versions were named OS X fuse or Mac fuse).

https://osxfuse.github.io

and then http://www.tuxera.com/community/open-source-ntfs-3g/

You could also try Tuxera NTFS for OS X - it is the pro version of NTFS-3G and much faster in transfers. But for what you are going to do, the free version is sufficient. If you need a fast NTFS driver for other projects, Tuxera NTFS is worth the little money. Tuxera NTFS comes free with some Toshiba portable USB drives. You have to look it up on the box wether it says 'Mac OS X support', though...

NTFS-3G/Tuxera NTFS will also allow you to format a drive in NTFS with the normal OS X disc utility. Make sure you partition your drive first to a single partition, and, do so using MBR, not GPT/GUID! After installing fuse and NTFS-3G or Tuxera NTFS, you will see a format option for NTFS, besides the usual HFS, FAT, etc.

I guess you understand that making a working DCP, and transferring it successfully to a cinema server are two different things. Make it one at a time. If DCP-o-matic finishes the conversion without errors, you have a working DCP. Then go ahead and solve the drive/format puzzle.


Now - for all other people reading this: DCP distribution drives SHOULD be formatted in linux ext2/ext3. But this is not easy to do for the average non-linux user, so, NTFS works on nearly all DCI servers and is the safer way in this case. NTFS should not be considered a standard for DCI cinema distribution.


- Carsten

[Guy Burns]

Thanks, Scozz76 and Carsten, for your responses.

In reply to Scozz
Thanks for the link to the manual. I purposely hadn't read the manual when I posted as I wanted to be reasonably confident that DCP-o-matic was going to be of use to me. When I think of the hours I've spent downloading software, reading manuals, and then testing, only to find that the particular software was too buggy, or not enough features…

So now I ask first.

In reply to Carsten
Did the hints/warning come up when you did 'Make DCP'?
No hitches at any point.

You already gave the project a name, so 'Save' simply saves it
The reason I tried Save was because it was a part of your instructions, and I was following them pretty closely. DCP-o-matic doesn't follow the typical Mac protocol. A lot of programs on the Mac –- I just tried iText Express, Photoshop and Audition, in case I was mistaken –- after you create a new file and sometime later select Save, a window pops up asking you about the Save conditions, or you get a window showing the save progress. When DCP-o-matic didn't do that, it threw me.

The 'Show DCP' does work on my DOM 2.10.5 in Sierra, though
I'm running OSX 10.9. Maybe that's why Show DCP doesn't work.

You need to find a way to format an external disc or stick with an MBR NTFS partition.
Already done! My Oppo Blu-ray player only works with NTFS, so years ago I had to find a solution. All the freebies at that stage weren't up to scratch, so I bought Paragon's NTFS for Mac. Best $20 I've ever spent.

Now for a few questions:

Ques 1
I've now skimmed through the manual and it appears that I can rely on the default settings completely. But I'm not sure about one, under DCP > Video > Container.

All my AVs will come out of Premiere as 1920 x 1080. For the most reliable, least problematic presentation at a cinema, should I choose the 16:9 format (1920 x 1080), or leave it at the default setting of Flat (1998 x 1080), or choose the Full Frame setting (2048 x 1080)?

Ques 2
Where did the term "Flat" come from?

Ques 3
I don't fully understand why DCP-0-matic offers all the features it does. I came to it thinking: "Someone's got an AV ready to go, they want it converted to a format suitable for cinema projection, and they won't want anyone changing it". Then I read the manual, and discover that DCP-o-matic also has a heap of editing functions (cropping, fading, scaling, filtering…).

For my AVs, if I wanted to edit I'd go back to Premiere and re-render.

In what circumstances are all those editing tools needed – and by whom?

[Carsten]

Flat is 1998*1080 - your 1920*1080 fits into that, no rescaling. Many of the container formats DOM offers are unusual and may leave the occasional projectionist confused (yes, that happens). Flat or Scope are common, so they know what to do. But Scope will be a bad choice for 1920*1080.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen#Types

Now, if no hints/nagging came up, it seems your audio levels are either just right, or too low. Usually a warning comes up for content that hasn't been mixed to cinema specs. But maybe your short snippet did not contain much audio. You can load your full version and check Show audio levels under the Audio Tab. But, playback volume can be adjusted by the projectionist. For DCPs that need to be shown multiple times under regular conditions, I would advise to get the levels right in the DCP, DCP-o-matic allows you to adjust this if necessary. For a single screening, it's not so important.


DCP-o-matic is used by many different people - very often they have no video editor at hand, or they don't have access to original source format in an editable form. That's why it has some basic editing functions. So that e.g. if you want to show a still/slide, you want to be able to fade from/to black.
But these functions are limited intentionally. DCP-o-matic will not grow to a video editor.

Again, if you format a disc, make sure it uses the MBR partition table, not the now common GUID/GPT scheme.

- Carsten

[Carsten]

4. Jobs > Show DCP doesn't work. It comes up with a message "Could not show DCP"

That's a small bug in DOM - 'Show DCP' doesn't work when there is a space somewhere in your project file path.

E.g. if your project path is: /user/movies/My DCP Test/Test

It would work with

/user/movies/MyDCPTest/Test

- Carsten

[Guy Burns]

Same here under OSX 10.9. Bug is there with spaces, but 'Show DCP' works if there are no spaces.