what makes a DCP

Anything and everything to do with DCP-o-matic.
robert.wild
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2026 1:58 pm

what makes a DCP

Post by robert.wild »

hi all,

just want to know what makes a DCP, is it a folder that contains files of mxf's and xml's, are the xml's and mxf's always in a the same folder or can they be scattered in different folders and sub folders

thanks,
rob
IoannisSyrogiannis
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:40 pm
Location: Iceland

Re: what makes a DCP

Post by IoannisSyrogiannis »

Here is a nicely put text about that, with pictures.
https://www.cinematiq.com/posts/what-is-a-dcp

The manual is also helpful.
https://dcpomatic.com/manual/html/ch14.html

In general, keep in mind that the P on DCP stands for Package. Files all around a hard drive are hardly that, unless inbuilt the package list or the cinema-server that screens them there are pointers to those scattered files.