A few years ago I was rushed to create a dcp and send to some festivals. I had someone overseas create the dcp, which meant that my only job was to format the drives and copy the files they made onto them. I was never told by the company that created the DCP that the formatting of the drive is so important for DCP readability. (Perhaps they were annoyed that I didn't want to purchase their ultra-secure ultra-expensive HDs). Now, looking back, I believe I formatted all the drives to exFAT....
A few years later, the film has screened at five festivals and nobody has had a problem playing the DCP. Is this just freak luck? Or is exFAT perhaps more supported than some websites would have me believe?
I'm very curious about this because I'm about to format a number of drives to NTSF, knowing that it isn't as suitable as EXT2, but that it's better than exFAT. I'm feeling terrible anxiety that these NTSF files will not play somewhere, and for some reason answering the question about why the exFAT drives might have played years ago would bring me some comfort.
You have been very lucky with exFAT. Maybe these locations simply copied your content through a computer, because they were used to this kind of complication on festivals. So, maybe this went on silently. MBR/NTFS has a much better chance. Why not ext2, if you already know about these issues?
Personally, I don't know ANY DCI server with proven or documented exFAT support.
Yes that makes sense - that the festivals copied the DCP over from their computers because they anticipated problems. I'm counting many lucky stars.
The main reason I don't use EXT2 is because I have no experience with LINUX systems and the result I get from a Google search doesn't come up with responses I feel comfortable with implementing due to my inexperience. I have a Hackintosh system that is able to run Ubuntu so I've thought about trying a few times, but ... I dunno. I'm worried about making a mistake and then hearing too late that the dcp failed.
However, I'm going to look up a few YouTube videos on the subject. Any leads would help. Do you know if I'll be able to view the content of an EXT drive on a Windows or Mac machine in order to run a DCP check?
On a hackintosh, you can use OS X fuse with both NTFS-3G or fuse-ext2 to format and write discs in NTFS or ext2. The default format of ext2 is not 100% DCI/ISDCF compatible, (inode size) but should still work on most systems.
You could also use Tuxera NTFS, which is the (faster) pro version of NTFS-3G. They also have a time limited trial for download.
I usually use a GPARTED USB bootable stick to create fully compliant ext2/ext3 discs. It's a bit cumbersome at first to get used to the right shell commands, but it's only a pattern you have to repeat. For some small money, you could buy Tuxera or https://www.cinematiq.com/dcptransfer/
A basic check is already loading the DCP into DCP-o-matic again. You should see basic color, format, and in recent test releases, will also have audio. You need a decent machine however to play DCPs near realtime.
I delved into Ubuntu last night and got further than I expected with GParted and some simple shell commands. I successfully formatted the USB to ext2, but am still having trouble with the inode size. I thought I had done it correctly, but after the formatting was complete, a scan of the USB showed that I was still stuck with the 256 inode size rather than 128. I've found a few resources that I'm going to try this morning that will hopefully help. At the preview screening at a cineplex, I'll send them the ext2 as the primary, with the NTSF as the backup. The director will have a BluRay in her purse, just in case neither work, but I think we'll be okay with one of the DCPs
Do you have any tips for getting Gparted or a Terminal Shell to format to ext2 with an inode size of 128 ?
Thanks for all your help Carsten - it's been incredibly valuable!
You can probably do everything in the terminal - my GPARTED disc has a graphical interface, which is just handy because it scans all available drives and gives me detailed information, so I am sure I am formatting the right disc. The system I am doing this on regularly has 4 internal discs, so, I want to be sure.
So I usually create an MBR ('DOS') partition table and an unformatted partition with the GUI, then change to terminal and do the 'standard' magic to create the partition and volume. All LINUX OS now default to inode size 256 nowadays, so you have to create the partition with inodesize=128 explicitly.
sudo mkfs -t ext2 -I 128 -m 0 /dev/sddN (the '-I is a capital i, the -m 0 is an -m <zero>), N for the logical drive number.
I think you can even do that in OS X after you have installed OSXfuse and fuse-ext2, as it installs the necessary commands as well.
Carsten wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:52 pm
You could also use Tuxera NTFS, which is the (faster) pro version of NTFS-3G. They also have a time limited trial for download.
I usually use a GPARTED USB bootable stick to create fully compliant ext2/ext3 discs. It's a bit cumbersome at first to get used to the right shell commands, but it's only a pattern you have to repeat. For some small money, you could buy Tuxera or https://www.cinematiq.com/dcptransfer/
Is there any disadvantage to using Tuxera NTFS? Is it not as compatible as other options?
It would appear that DCP Transfer is now subscription based...
If I have a regular Mac (12-core mac pro) w/o a PC / Linux partition can I still use the GPARTED method? (as it seems to be the safest)
and if so is there a good tutorial or documentation reference that someone that isn't crazy IT savvy could understand?
Tuxera is probably the best option for NTFS, but DCPtransfer creates ext2/3 discs. I am not fully up to date as far as fuse-ext support for current OS X is concerned - but once you have a properly formatted ext2/3 disc, you can also copy DCPs to these drives from OS X using the free fuse-ext.
- Carsten
Last edited by Carsten on Thu Sep 07, 2017 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Carsten wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:37 pm
Tuxera is probably the best option for NTFS, but DCPtransfer creates ext2/3 discs.
Thanks for the quick reply Carsten.
But I guess the question I should have asked is NTFS "good enough" in most cases (for most projectors) or should I really really try to make ext2/3 discs?
again thanks and sorry for all these pedestrian questions.
