Question about using Disk Writer on a Mac

[serpico009]

I'm running DOM 2.16.41 on an iMac running OS 10.14.6

I also have extFS for Mac installed on the same machine.

Background: I've been delivering an INTEROP DCP with mutiple reels to various theaters and festivals via Cinesend, and many are having trouble as Cinesend requires the downloader to re-create the subtitle subfolders, and that step is seemingly confusing for some.

So, I've had at least one request/demand to deliver a physical, formatted DCP drive.

Using extFS, I'm able to reformat an external 256GB flash drive to ext2, ext3 or NTFS.

My question: Is directly copying the DCP file package from my Mac (or from an OS Journaled or exFAT formatted external hard drive) to the ext2/NTFS flash drive a no-no? Is it true that this can introduce ._ ghost files or some other compatibility issue that will make the DCP unusable?

If so, does DOM's Disk Writer reliably copy a DCP to an external ext2 or NFTS drive without introducing these same (or similar) issues?

[carl]

I also have extFS for Mac installed on the same machine.

Is this Paragon extFS?

Background: I've been delivering an INTEROP DCP with mutiple reels to various theaters and festivals via Cinesend, and many are having trouble as Cinesend requires the downloader to re-create the subtitle subfolders, and that step is seemingly confusing for some.

I also tried this recently, as it happens, and I agree that this aspect is quite confusing.

My question: Is directly copying the DCP file package from my Mac (or from an OS Journaled or exFAT formatted external hard drive) to the ext2/NTFS flash drive a no-no? Is it true that this can introduce ._ ghost files or some other compatibility issue that will make the DCP unusable?

It should work, but we've had quite a few anecdotal reports of problems doing this with Paragon extFS. If you are going to do it, I would suggest at least verifying the DCP after the copy, assuming that's possible.

If so, does DOM's Disk Writer reliably copy a DCP to an external ext2 or NFTS drive without introducing these same (or similar) issues?

That's what it should do (and it does for me) but I don't think it has been very widely tested yet. It only supports EXT2, and it does the formatting of the drive and writing in one step.

[serpico009]

Hi Carl, thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, Paragon extFS is the program.

So far I've had two projectionists/tech people successfully test and validate the DCP download from Cinesend after following instructions for creating the subtitle folders, but it introduces the possibility of problems and that puts people off. I might email Cinesend about amending their download instructions to be more clear on this point.

Is it possible to use DOM 2 Player to reliably validate the DCP after it's been copied to the external drive using Paragon extFS?

I'm going to give Disk Writer a try today. Same question as above, can I use Player to validate?

[carl]

So far I've had two projectionists/tech people successfully test and validate the DCP download from Cinesend after following instructions for creating the subtitle folders, but it introduces the possibility of problems and that puts people off. I might email Cinesend about amending their download instructions to be more clear on this point.

Yeah I'm sure it's not easy/nearly impossible to get a browser to download a folder in any nice way but there's quite a lot of scope for error if you download an interop DCP with multiple reels and subtitles!

Is it possible to use DOM 2 Player to reliably validate the DCP after it's been copied to the external drive using Paragon extFS?

I'm not sure how Paragon works but if you can load the DCP into player directly from the mount (as if it were another volume) you can use the verifier I imagine.

I'm going to give Disk Writer a try today. Same question as above, can I use Player to validate?

Disk Writer validates the files it wrote (using the hashes), which should be enough. It doesn't check the whole structure of the DCP, but it does check that the copy worked.

[worldofcrap]

I would recommend against relying on Paragon ExtFS for... anything, really. I had a big DCP duplication project and used Paragon to copy the DCP to a bunch of hard drives. Not one was readable by the DCP servers at the theaters. I had to re-copy and re-send entirely new hard drives using Ubuntu. Was a very expensive lesson.