DCP file copy windows

[fredjonze]

Hi,

We've dcp'd all the festival films and are copying to a 4TB CRU drive to injest into the projector. I'm using Paragon ExtFS to use/mount the CRU drive.

However, I'm having a problem in windows and it is balking at copying the large DOM files over a couple of GB. The error I get is 'insufficient resources'. This googles to memory issues. I'm trying to get more info from Paragon without luck. It seems like a common problem in Windows. I've tried the various fixes for memory adjustments with no luck. I've tried a dozen different file copy apps. Only RichCopy seems to handle the big files, but it is cumbersome to use for transferring a hundred folders of DOM films.

Anyone experienced this and have solutions?

One other solution I have is to use my Ubuntu thumb drive to boot into Ubuntu and copy the files there....but that's not a long term solution unless I want to convert the whole process to Ubuntu.

Thx,

Jim

[Carsten]

Hmmm, that's weird. Are you sure you are only copying the bare DCP folder within the DOM project folder? I never had that issue. It may be a problem that occurs in combination with the Paragon software. What I find on google about this issue is mostly related to a specific windows server issue, it's not a general windows copy problem. It seems that the Paragon Software doesn't handle large file transfers efficiently, or there is a combination issue with a huge target drive/partition.


Which server will you use for the festival to ingest the dcp data to?




- Carsten

[Guddu]

This has to do with the Paragon Software. I'd suggest you NTFS format your CRU Drive and copy the package folders directy onto it using Windows. There is no reason why it would not work. Have they specifically asked you that it must be ext2 formatted?

I used Paragon Software just once and gave up on it. I instead used a Ubuntu installation on my Virtual Box to ext2 format my disk and copied files over from Windows Host to the Ubuntu Guest. But now a days I am just delivering NTFS formatted discs instead.

[fredjonze]

I booted the workstation in Ubuntu in try mode on a USB stick, mounted the ext2 CRU drive in read/write, and successfully copied all of the DOM child directories that were giving me problems and errors. The theater projector only accepts an ext2 formatted CRU drive.

I agree the problem is most likely related to the Paragon ExfFs software. It was unable to format a GPT 4tb drive. I had to use Ubuntu for this. I also tried the open source ext2fsd, along with partition master pro software, and it had very slow write performance.

After the festival i’m going to make the workstation dual boot and migrate DOM processing over to Ubuntu.

Thanks for the feedback.

Jim

[Carsten]

Jim - what server is used at the festival? I don't know any that is not able to read NTFS drives. While I still advocate the use of ext2/3 for 'distribution', NTFS is completely okay if you use it for ingest on a specific machine as in this case.

Bear in mind though, that some servers/systems/tools choke on drives larger than 2TB and GPT/UUID partition tables (as you have experienced yourself). I would strongly recommend to only use 2TB drives for this job and make sure MBR is used, no matter wether you use NTFS or ext2/3...

Certainly not a bad idea to use Ubuntu for DOM processing, that way, DOM can write directly to the ext2 CRU drive, and the file hashing during dcp creation is performed on the actual ingest drive, which adds another safety layer. But, that would work in Windows as well, using NTFS on the CRU drive.

- Carsten

[fredjonze]

Carsten,

I'll check and see. My initial tests with USB thumb drives and external USB drives showed they needed to be ext2. Rejected NTFS and Fat/ExFat. The theater owner checked with the equipment dealer/service group and they said the CRU drive needed to be ext. They said 4TB was OK, even though they only have a 2TB RAID. We didn't know if the whole festival would fit on the 2TB RAID, so we opted for 4TB in the event we needed to not injest and instead play the content directly from the CRU drive. Right now we're sitting at 1.6TB for the content with 2 more feature length films to go, so it will be tight.

JIm

[Guddu]

What did you have on the NTFS formatted USB? If there are files other then the DCP package folder then some TMS systems have issues with that. Learnt it the hard way when I gave a Trailer DCP with the poster image on the root of the drive.

Also, is playing directly from the CRU without having to do an ingest is even an option? Would it work that way?

[Carsten]

Depends. Some servers offer a dedicated direct play option, some don't. If the drive is working solid, it's no problem. But manufacturers advertise it as an emergency option only, e.g. if there was no time to ingest the content before the presentation.

Jim - I know from personal experience that >2TB work for Barco ICMP, Sony, Dolby DSS, but fails on Doremi 19" servers (and there are very many in the field). That's a hard limit for these servers. Another one for other servers is UUID/GPT. I know one server that actually trashes the content of UUID/GPT drives the moment the drive is connected to it. Not nice...
As you can't use drives larger than 2TB without as well using GPT/UUID partition maps, one should stay away from them in a DCI working environment. max 2TB, MBR, single partition is the general rule. No, putting a 2TB partition onto a 4TB drive is no help.

As I said, if you only work for a specific festival equipment, it is of course okay to do whatever is proven to work on that equipment.
Just don't consider it universally applicable. Would be very surprised if any server actually fails to support NTFS. Maybe a combination problem with 4TB and UUID/GPT ?

- Carsten