Making a DCP (Digital Cinema Package)

I set up the DCP Builder package, and had a problem. There's mention of a 'watermark' until the program is 'registered' with the maker, it's free, but for some reason they put the watermark there until you tell them how you are using the tool.

Don't know what that means or what... but anyway at the moment it doesn't work for me...

On the other hand, the OpenDCP program requires that the 'media' be transcoded to a TIFF formated series of images, or as an MPEG2 stream... so, that's a limitation... the DCP Builder utility uses the GPL'd libav routines to allow it to access more media types.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
On the other hand, the OpenDCP program requires that the 'media' be transcoded to a TIFF formated series of images, or as an MPEG2 stream... so, that's a limitation... the DCP Builder utility uses the GPL'd libav routines to allow it to access more media types.
Click to expand...

That is correct, OpenDCP currently performs DCP creation (jpeg2000 encoding, xyz color conversion, mxf wrapping, and XML descriptor). Much like the commercial EasyDCP and many others, OpenDCP expects content to be in the DCDM (tiff images and 24-bit wav files), which is a standard step in the digital mastering process. This workflow is used to ensure the highest quality of your content. If you can help it, you don't really want to take your content in say H264 and feed it through a DCP creator. It would be better to export your original source material to a 16-bit tiff sequence. However, this isn't always an option or your source material may only be 8-bit to begin with, so it doesn't matter. In these cases, it would be convenient to supply an video file directly to the DCP creator. I've been considering adding more formats to OpenDCP for convenience, but at the same time I want to be consistent with the digital workflow process.
 
tmeiczin said:
That is correct, OpenDCP currently performs DCP creation (jpeg2000 encoding, xyz color conversion, mxf wrapping, and XML descriptor). Much like the commercial EasyDCP and many others, OpenDCP expects content to be in the DCDM (tiff images and 24-bit wav files), which is a standard step in the digital mastering process. This workflow is used to ensure the highest quality of your content. If you can help it, you don't really want to take your content in say H264 and feed it through a DCP creator. It would be better to export your original source material to a 16-bit tiff sequence. However, this isn't always an option or your source material may only be 8-bit to begin with, so it doesn't matter. In these cases, it would be convenient to supply an video file directly to the DCP creator. I've been considering adding more formats to OpenDCP for convenience, but at the same time I want to be consistent with the digital workflow process.
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For me, probably the media that I would 'naturally' export as TIFF, as an intermediate format, would either from Blender, my 3-D modeling choice, and After Effects, my 2-D/Video compositing choice... When I'm dealing with live video, I do like to maintain 'as much' as possible,
I would probably tend to ProRez or the avid DNxHD, which does compress, but does preserve better than say H.264...

I believe there is a source form of the DNxHD codec so one could come up with a 'linux/opensource' version... the code is not GPL'd but at least for the moment it is 'open'...

Obviously going to TIFF for 'live' video is just a matter of diskspace...

When I have time perhaps today, I'll set up your OpenDCP and see if I have problems... and one other question. I didn't see the GUI source for the Mac OS X version, is that available?
 
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Definitely reading from ProRes or DNxHD would be good as they are excellent intermediates and TIFFs consume crazy space. Not aware of any open source ProRes demuxers.

The source is not posted for the GUI because it is not easily compiled at the moment and I already get enough emails about compiler issues with the CLI version. So, I decided to hold off posting the GUI source until it was more stable. The only people that generally seem to care about the source are the Linux users and most of them prefer the CLI anyway.

For more discussion/information on digital cinema...

http://www.dcinemaforum.com
 
Thanks for the feedback. My short film is in post and me and one of my tech-savvy friends will attempt your OpenDCP in a few weeks. If we run into any trouble I'll let you know; hopefully it's not too difficult. Getting a little nervous, my premiere is June 24th.
 
Denialorcoped said:
Thanks for the feedback. My short film is in post and me and one of my tech-savvy friends will attempt your OpenDCP in a few weeks. If we run into any trouble I'll let you know; hopefully it's not too difficult. Getting a little nervous, my premiere is June 24th.
Click to expand...

OpenDCP is fairly straightforward, just remember 24-bit WAV files and 8,12, or 16-bit tiff images. It has been test against all of the major servers. Still, create a short 5-10 second clip and test at the theater if you can. That could save you some headaches. Once you got the workflow done, you can go full scale.
 
Thanks Tmeiczin, for OpenDCP, just downloaded.Could you please tell me if it can convert 1920X1080 tiff sequences at 23.976 to to 2K DCP file at 24fps? Do we have to convert the frame rate to 24 fps or is it okay at 23.976?
 
nimes said:
Thanks Tmeiczin, for OpenDCP, just downloaded.Could you please tell me if it can convert 1920X1080 tiff sequences at 23.976 to to 2K DCP file at 24fps? Do we have to convert the frame rate to 24 fps or is it okay at 23.976?
Click to expand...

No, you'll need to convert the project to 24fps before creating the DCP. Things like this are tricky, because yeah it is something that OpenDCP could theoretically do. However, in a true digital workflow model, the DCP process only handles TIFF to JPEG conversion, MXF wrapping, and XML creation. Color, rate conversion, image dimensions, etc are done long before DCP process. This division of responsibilites allows for better control and flexibilty, but it does make it more involved than a press and go type application.
 
nimes said:
Thanks Tmeiczin, for OpenDCP, just downloaded.Could you please tell me if it can convert 1920X1080 tiff sequences at 23.976 to to 2K DCP file at 24fps? Do we have to convert the frame rate to 24 fps or is it okay at 23.976?
Click to expand...

I've just run OpenDCP from a 23.976 source and the frames for my picture.mxf are slightly less than my audio.mxf -- has my picture been respeeded? is there a way to test this?

cheers
Paul
 
Hello everyone!
I'm using OpenDCP for making my DCPs. It's amazing software and very easy to use. It's takes me about 3-5 hours to make a DCP for 15 min short film on my old HP 32-bit laptop, including exporting TIFF sequence from AE, 5.1 audio tracks from AU and conversion to JPEG2000 and then to actual DCP in OpenDCP.

Thanks again for GREAT software!
 
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