How to turn an MP4 to a DCP with a Range of JPEG 2000?

Anything and everything to do with DCP-o-matic.
COgilvy
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2026 12:20 am

How to turn an MP4 to a DCP with a Range of JPEG 2000?

Post by COgilvy »

I am new to using DCP -o - matic and DCP files in general so I apologize if I am asking something that has been previously discussed upon or is obvious, but I need a concrete answer as when looking it up online I get conflicting or confusing answers.

I am attempting to convert a MP4 file to a DCP file. So far all the desired qualities that the DCP can be made with (FPS, Resolution, Standard, Container, etc.) are all satisfactory. However, the DCP I want needs a Range of JPEG 2000, and the highest range option available is JPEG 0-255.

Does the DCP output have the range of JPEG 2000? And if not, which is I believe is most likely the case, what can I do to get a DCP with the desired JPEG 2000 range?
barber
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:03 pm

Re: How to turn an MP4 to a DCP with a Range of JPEG 2000?

Post by barber »

Hi,
The "Range" list in DCP-o-matic refers to the source's range. The resulting DCP will always be full range 12-bit.

When converting from a MP4 file, the source range is most of the time Legal/Video range. Is that the one DCP-o-matic detects for your file? Usually, you can just leave the default (detected) range.
Note that the numbers 0-255 and 16-235 are expressed on an 8-bit scale, whether the source bitdepth is 8, 10, 12, 16-bit...
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COgilvy
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2026 12:20 am

Re: How to turn an MP4 to a DCP with a Range of JPEG 2000?

Post by COgilvy »

Thank you for your response. I want to ask two more questions to clarify things:

1. Is full range 12 bit mean that the DCP file has the desired JPEG 2000? I am under the impression that 12 bit is color depth, while JPEG 2000 is image compressing and file formatting.

2. I made a DCP file of an MP4 and set the range from the default MPEG 16-235 and changed it to JPEG 0-235. Would that botch the final product in a movie theatre environment and necessitate a redo of the conversion?
Carsten
Posts: 3127
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 9:11 pm
Location: Germany

Re: How to turn an MP4 to a DCP with a Range of JPEG 2000?

Post by Carsten »

There is no full range 12 Bit option there - DCP-o-matic always creates 12 Bit JPEG2000 files in a range of preset resolutions (flat/scope/2k/4k) as necessary/specified in DCI requirements. This is the only way to create a correct DCP.

The 'Range' option in source settings offers a manual overide in order to tell DOM the applicable SOURCE color value range. Tyoically, video formats SUCH AS MPEG (but also MP4, QT, MJPEG, H.264, etc.) use limited range/16-235 values.

Still images (as e.g. created with Photoshop, or JPEG Photos, TIFFs) use full range 0-255.

Typically, DCP-o-matic detects and sets this value correctly from the source file type or metadata. Only if you notice that this went wrong should you change this parameter. A wrong setting will usually result in crushed or brigthened blacks and blownout or muted highlights.

As a beginner, you should trust DCP-o-matics default settings. They are correct most of the time.

If you chose full range for a plain vanilla MP4 conversion, this was wrong. You should probably redo the conversion and apply default settings.