Combiner, Player and Disc Writer feedback/suggestions

[carl]

What kind of sorting does combiner apply?

As far as I can see it's just the order that the DCPs are added...

I made some Mantis entries for your other suggestions

[Carsten]

Okay, I'll check this on our servers, but in that case, I'd say leave it as it is? Or offer simple up/down buttons?

[jdent02]

That would certainly be interesting; just the XML files would be good to see... carl@dcpomatic.com

What's the best way to get those to you? Edit: Nevermind. I can't see my nose in front of me apparently.

FYI I'll be doing a more thorough test tomorrow ingesting both the individual DCP's and the combined one. But there's definitely screwy stuff going on. A CPL I loaded yesterday off the combined DCP didn't show any errors in the content lists, but it wouldn't play tonight.

Regarding multi PKL or single, our server allows you to view DCPs by either PKL or CPL lists. 99% of the time I use the CPL view.

[carl]

Thanks for sending the files. It would seem that the only differences between the CPLs in the combined DCP compared to those in the individual DCP are:

• the CompositionMetadataAsset has a different ID
• the signature is removed

which are both bugs but I can't see how they should cause anything too screwy to happen. I'll be interested to hear the results of your next test.

[jdent02]

So I did my test, not as in depth as I would've liked though.

Ingested three CPLs from a consolidated DCP. All three ingested without error and were 'green' in the media browser, which usually indicates a good file. One thing that was different however: on our browser there is a 'j2k' or 'j4k' icon next to JPEG2000 containing media items. Those logos were missing on the ingested CPLs. So that was odd. Sure enough, none of them played. The server would hit them in the playlist and immediately stop playback. No errors were generated.

Ingesting the same three CPLs off self contained DCPs, on the other hand, worked just fine.

I did not try VF DCPs

So there's something about the consolidated DCPs that an SX2001a with 7.83 firmware doesn't like, but it's not being exactly helpful as to what.

[carl]

Strange ... could be the lack of signatures; I'll make a new version with that fixed shortly.

[Carsten]

Not trying to be mean - but, GDC 7.83 is from the stoneage - 2012ish or so?

[jdent02]

No worries, you make a good point. I don't know why it hasn't been updated other than "If it ain't broke....." as we've never had any ingest problems with commercial films.

But as I'm sure you noticed from that little Voyagers s**t storm over at Film Tech, nobody's been proactive with technical stuff at our theater until I started working here. They just left it alone until it broke.

Edit: I just got the lowdown from our installer. We had purchased the servers used so we likely never bought the GDC hardware and software warranties, and they are expensive. The installer also didn't think the issue I'm seeing was software related.

[Carsten]

You have no trouble playing SMPTE content?

I guess you rarely play DCPs with encrypted subtitles?

Well let's see what Carl can do about combiner. It's hard to understand how these combined DCPs would cause these issues.

The trouble is - while the file format for DCPs is specified, the way servers read and ingest a DCP is not. Servers may go from the Assetmap, or from the PKL, or even start from the CPL backwards. Depending on how they do it, they may trip about something that is perfectly formally correct.


- Carsten

[jdent02]

We're a two screen theater in small town USA, subtitled films don't stand a chance... Hence we've never had to test it.

But yes, we can ingest SMPTE. Although it's still debatable as to exactly how many SMPTE features Hollywood uses since they're still trying to ensure maximum compatibility. And as old as our software is I'm pretty sure there are still Interop only theaters in dusty corners of the country.