DCP verification player

[Carsten]

So I guess you want use local DCI cinemas for screening, and you definitely need to use KDMs to secure the footage?

Well, it costs money, but FinalDCP uses Kakadu Speed Pack and is REALLY fast. Don't know if you're limited to a notebook for rendering, but you can get a nice 'still portable' dual CPU Z600 or Z620 or similiar workstation from 500-600€ up.

That said, the FInal DCP workflow is aimed at mastering, not dailies, so it is not as easy to use as DOM is, but the j2k rendering is a lot faster.

Just try the demo.

Are there other options for the DRM/playback part? Because operating cinema servers with many clips, ingest times, is not too smart a workflow either. I know all of them and they are not built for this type of application. Also, cinema server's storage is filled up most of the time in daily operations, unless you agree on special procedures with them.

NeoDCP player may be a solution, as it can play directly from your storage media.

- Carsten

[Cantar4]

Or if you really want to use DCP-o-matic you could render the video MXF using something
quicker and then import it, which should speed things up.

This would be perfect on the MacBook Pro Retina 15" of the data wrangler
[IntelCore i7, 4 cores, 2.8GHz CPU, DDR3 16GB Ram, Intel Iris Pro 1538MB Graphic, AMD Radeon R9 M370X GPU],
would you tell us which is the MacOS app. able to do this at close to real time speed?

[Cantar4]

So I guess you want use local DCI cinemas for screening, and you definitely need to use KDMs to secure the footage?

Exactly ! note that the expensive FinalDCP w/Speed Pack is much faster than needed ; the NeoDCP sales policy is almost as opaque as Kakadu's (their public screening distinction is a pure money making trick).
And... we do prefer the attributes and elegance of D-o-M.

cinema servers \..\ are not built for this type of application

Right, don't worry, the 'circle takes' come in a solid continuous spool.

[Cantar4]

you could render the video MXF using something quicker and then import it

Would the latest FFmpeg [ffmpeg-81632-g09317e3] executable** be this 'someting quicker' running on the Terminal app. of the Mac? would you give us the command line as you did in the FAQs for the DCP to .mov conversion ?

** I used it to convert a DCP to mp4 and it superbly worked.

[carl]

Would the latest FFmpeg [ffmpeg-81632-g09317e3] executable be this 'someting quicker' running on the Terminal app. of the Mac?

I very much doubt it. So far as I know FFmpeg uses the same encoding library as DCP-o-matic, and does not multi-thread encoding of J2K. I was thinking of one of the commercial packages.

[Cantar4]

OK, end of this short lasting dream... back to the DCP to MOV alternative:

In the FAQs you wrote : For example, to convert to a Prores MOV :
ffmpeg -i "some_video.mxf" -i "some_audio.mxf" -c:v prores -c:a copy "output.mov".

To get the subs needed to verify the subtitles placement, I added the 3rd .mxf file -i "some_subs.mxf",
but not knowing the -c: subtitle-insert command, there is no subtitles in the "output.mov" !
would you give us the right command ?

[Anders M Olsson]

I don't think ffmpeg supports reading DCP-subtitles from an mxf-file.

Supported file-formats are listed here:
https://ffmpeg.org/general.html#Subtitle-Formats

What you could do is tell ffmpeg to obtain the subtitles from your original subtitle script, for example a .srt-file:
-i some_subs.srt
And then the codec should be specified as
-c:s mov_text

The result will contain the same text as the DCP, but may not look the same when it comes to fonts, text sizes, positioning etc.

Alternatively use burn-in subtitles when creating the DCP, and the mp4 viewing copy will look exactly like the DCP.

[Cantar4]

Thank you Anders,
Your direct .srt clone insert into the MOV or MP4 is a great idea, I will test it Asap !

PS: I don't like to burn subs in the master ; it takes hours to make a DCP and If the verif
detects a positionning error... back to the mill again .

[Cantar4]

Hi Anders,
neither the MOV nor the MP4 show the subtitles... (image and sounds are perfect in both cases)
here below are the command lines for both formats, would you help me find the error?

/applications/ffmpeg-1 -i /users/jp/Movies/Sarah_5fps_open/Sarah5fpsOpen_SHR-1_F-178_10_2K_20160913_SMPTE_OV/j2c_85dc2c67-d072-4255-b5b5-3cd61116504e.mxf -i /users/jp/Movies/Sarah_5fps_open/Sarah5fpsOpen_SHR-1_F-178_10_2K_20160913_SMPTE_OV/pcm_73150ab1-7e07-4f8d-bb3e-31142bfc5153.mxf -i /users/jp/Movies/sarah.srt -c:v prores -c:a copy -c:s mov_text Sarah5fps.mov

/applications/ffmpeg-1 -i /users/jp/Movies/Sarah_5fps_open/Sarah5fpsOpen_SHR-1_F-178_10_2K_20160913_SMPTE_OV/j2c_85dc2c67-d072-4255-b5b5-3cd61116504e.mxf -i /users/jp/Movies/Sarah_5fps_open/Sarah5fpsOpen_SHR-1_F-178_10_2K_20160913_SMPTE_OV/pcm_73150ab1-7e07-4f8d-bb3e-31142bfc5153.mxf -i /users/jp/Movies/sarah.srt -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset slow -crf 21 -ac 2 -c:s mov_text Sarah5fps.mp4

Note: I simply removed
-i /users/jp/Movies/Sarah_5fps_open/Sarah5fpsOpen_SHR-1_F-178_10_2K_20160913_SMPTE_OV/sub_1fc33760-84ea-4024-af0a-e0f6e98a0aff.mxf
and replaced it by
-i /users/jp/Movies/sarah.srt

[Anders M Olsson]

Which player software do you use? Some players don't support soft embedded subtitles in .mp4 or .mov files.
Even if your player does support subtitles, you may have to switch them on explicitly.
- Take a look in your player's settings and see if there's an option to switch on subtitles, and also to select subtitle track if there are more than one.
- Try some other player if the one you're using doesn't support soft subtitles.