Playing DCP made in open DCP

[compadrese]

I am a fresh user of DCP-o-matic and have some questions that may seem stupid to you veterans, but I will get smarter using the program and being educated by you fellows. So please forgive my innocence. I have formerly made DCP:s in Open DCP of my future length documentaries and they have played fine in cinemas over the festival world. Now I am trying to play these DCP:s in DCP-o-matic and get the error message "Could not open film at /Volumes/DCPNHTWO/NationenBio_T:DCP/metadata.xml does not exist." The DCP bin I am trying to open contains only six files and as I said above, works fine in all the cinemas where it has been projected. Now, the first test DCP I made myself in DCP-o-matic contains a LOT more files in several bins, and as separate documents.This DCP plays just fine in DCP-o-matic. I have attached screenshots of the content of the respective DCP:s. So then this is not only the question of why the old, working DCP does not play in DCP-o-matic but also a question of what content should be copied from all the files created when I made the new DCP in DCP-o-matic. There is a bin that contains EXACTLY the same type and number of files as the ones used in the old DCP ( that does not play in DCP-o-matic but plays in cinemas). See the comparison in content in attachment 3. If I separat this bin from the newly made DCP and try to play it in DCP-o-matic it fails and gives the same error message as when I try to play the old DCP.
So what's the trick?

All the best
Mikael Wiström

[carl]

Hi,

Your top 3 screenshots are DCPs, and your bottom one is a DCP-o-matic project.

To play your DCPs, either:

• load them into the DCP-o-matic Player, or
• create a new project (File -> New) in DCP-o-matic, then click the "Add DCP" button and specify your DCP folder.

Let us know if you have problems.

[Carsten]

In other words - the 'File'-> 'Open' Menu is not meant to load DCPs with DCP-o-matic, but to load a DCP-o-matic project file. That command expects to find a metadata.xml file, hence the error you see when you point the file open dialog to a DCP directory - a DCP directory simply doesn't contain a metadata.xml project file.

Look here:

https://dcpomatic.com/manual/html/ch13.html

The 'File' - 'Open' Menu in DCP-o-matic PLAYER will expect a DCP directory, and that should be your preferred way to open and play old and new DCPs. It will not open a DCP-o-matic metadata.xml project file or a project directory, though...


- Carsten

[compadrese]

Thanks for the very pedagogical answer. I had already figured out that I had not downloaded the player , thinking that the player was integrated in the main program. Now I am also better informed.

Best
Mikael