DCP verification player

[Cantar4]

Q: can you make a DCP player? A: I could... however at the moment
the available open-source JPEG2000 decoding software is too slow to decode DCPs in real-time
on all but the very fastest computers.
I discovered your application two days ago, I have never seen before a free software so
ordinate and so well documented/commented by litterate authors. Thank you.

I am launching a project in which young and less young inhabitants of a Marseille suburb
will use their e-Phones to learn the cinematographic language. An essential (because attractive)
component of this 'socio educative' class is the deal I got from a local cinema accepting to give us
for free a morning hour to sit the 'students' and project their dailies ('2 minute max each).
You see the importance of being able to make our unencrypted dcps and verify them
(whatever the time it takes) days before giving the disk to the projectionnist...

In fact playing back five seconds of image and mono sync-sound would be sufficient to validate each rush.
Is there any hope?

[scorpio81]

Hi.
If you just want to verify your DCPs, you can download trial version of Fraunhofer EasyDCP Player - it plays first 15 seconds of unencrypted DCPs. It supports GPU accelerated JPEG2000 decoding. However color conversion XYZ -> RGB is disabled in trial but if you have set source color space correctly then there's no need to worry about color.

[Cantar4]

thank you scorpio, I downloaded easyDCP demo which shows a blurred image
after 15 sec, i.e. the announced behaviour of this free demo.
But unexpectedly it does that only once, thereafter it refuses to correctly play the start of take again:
images are blurred as mad, and no sound ! it is useless for verifying audio sync.

The DigitAll dcpPlayer at 50€ would be perfect but not for us Macintoshists.

[scorpio81]

Well, this is strange. EasyDCP should not behave like this.
Try other players from here: http://dcpomatic.com/faq?id=9

[Cantar4]

Comparing the pro & con of these five solutions, Macsochists but not to death,
we opted for "dcpPlayer+" (50€) and will buy a Win laptop.
Knowing that we want to verify audio-sync of 4K DCPs in realtime but on a low-res 13" screen,
knowing that we will only play our own "DCP-o-matic" encoded films with no KDM,
the DigitAll vendor told us we don't need a GPU equipped laptop, I am a little puzzled.
May someone using dcpPlayer recommend us the minimal configuration
we need in a Lenovo or Asus low cost laptop?

[Carsten]

The DigitAll/MORGAN Player indeed does not need a powerful CPU or GPU to work. You should demo it on your system to make sure it is working. You wouldn't need to buy a Windows laptop, you could just as well install Bootcamp/Windows on the Mac Laptop. DigitAll should be able to supply their Demoplayer for a test on your hardware.

There is also the Doremi Cineplayer Demo (Mac and Windows).


I do, however, question the idea of producing DCPs for 'dailies'. You could just as well play the original footage through HDMI. That gives a much quicker turnaround/workflow during these sessions, using e.g. Quicktime Player or VLC.
Common cinema servers have a rather clumsy GUI to deal with so many short clips. You will be wasting a lot of time for this during your admitted time slot.

I would create DCPs towards the finalizing of these works only. Plus, 4k is certainly wasted here...

- Carsten

[Cantar4]

thank you Carsten,
now that doremi has been eaten by a monopolistic hog there is no more access to
their Cineplayer. FreeDownloadManager only delivers the two year old version 7.0
which doesn't worK on MacOS El capitan... bad day, another closed door.
For the time being I will follow your good advice, i.e., use the hdmi route
and provisionaly abandon DoM

We should not forget the fundamental DoM raison d'être in the defense of the independanr filmmakers;
would it be acceptable to ask users and supporters to save 50<->150$ to offer Carl the jpeg2000
fast reader licence necessary to build the reader that we need to complement/enforce DoM ?

[Carsten]

I think there was never a more recent demo player than 7.0.0.

Yes, Dolby pulled the plug on the old Doremi website, and the remaining FTP sites do not hold the player software or demos.

Not sure what Dolby is going to do with the player. Maybe there are compatibility fixes for El Captain if you bought the license.

Other than that, there is Quvis, and FinalDCP player. Neither of which is free or cheap.

On my windows system, the DigitAll Player was not too stable, but it did support subtitles. So I guess running it in Bootcamp or a virtual machine could be a solution.


None of these available player is a real verification tool, though. dcp_inspect is.

Regarding a commercial/faster J2K license - as far as Carl told me, it is not just a matter of money for him, but one of his personal dedication towards open-source software. Another issue is - there are already a number of commercial player solutions available. The only platform with a real need, though, would be Linux.



- Carsten

[Cantar4]

personal dedication towards open-source software

understood, in this case what about a D-o-m realtime coder/player using OpenGL
to exploit the GPU of recent laptops ?
Quite cool for the last minute Festival's DCP doctor ackwardly seated on the booth three foot stool...
--jp

[Cantar4]

Hello Carsten,
on my Macbook Air, after reopening a just made DCP
(i.e. while the audio+video content is still there on the disk)
and hitting the play button, I can watch the film running with its subtitles brought
by my .srt added file ... but no sound at all !

Knowing that it takes more CPU power to show an image and build a subtitle
than playing audio, I am surprised.

Not willing to divert one sec. of Carl's DOM-nurturing time, could you suggest me
a trick to listen to at least one sound track?
(any single track would be enough to verify the audio-sync correctness).
--jpb