Hard Drive Format for DCP Delivery?

[smorgasbord]

Apparently, the software alternatives for Mac (Paragon, Tuxera) do not support inode of 128 for EXT, because that's so outdated.

My choices therefore seem to be:
1) NTFS
2) EXT3, but with an inode of 256

I've reached out to the Film Festival to see if they can get an answer, but I suspect that they won't know since they're just renting the theater out for the weekend. Since USB sticks are cheap, I may just build one of each, but does anyone have any other suggestions?

[Carsten]

A fellow filmmaker tried both ext2 and NTFS on 64GB sticks from a Mac and both worked for him. The basic trouble is that neither Paragon nor fuse-ext allows to format a disc/stick properly to ISDCF specs (that is, inodesize=128). Best way would be to run GPARTED or a Stick-bootable Linux and format the drive/stick under a real linux with the proper parameters. That's what I do.

I would suggest to use NTFS.

Though, writing to USB-sticks (especially cheap ones) can be extremely slow, and NTFS format doesn't actually speed it up on a Mac...
But if you give it time, it is reliable.

I recently bought a toshiba portable 1TB USB drive which quoted 'Mac drivers' on the box. It turned out it carries a commercial NTFS driver from Tuxera with 64Bit support. Actually a commercial version of NTFS-3G for the Mac. After installation, it is also active for all other drives using NTFS format, so it also speeds up writing to NTFS formatted USB-Sticks - actually by a factor of 3-4...
They do have a 15 days trial version, you may want to check it out.

http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/

Formatting NTFS in OS X always worked for me, also with the free NTFS-3G.
Make sure you choose MBR when erasing/formatting a disc - that option is hidden in different places of recent OS X disc utility versions.

I use fuse-ext on my Mac, though I admit this Mac still runs 10.6.8, and I am not able to enable write support, even after applying various tips from the internet. This may not be a problem on later OS X versions.

- Carsten

[KarlJ]

The most widely accepted and DCI standard is Ext2 with an inode size of 128, so you are always taking a risk by not having that. I have seen projectors not accept anything but ext2 -I 128. That being said, I would make both ext3 and ntfs for now and maybe they can sort it out. I would also get a hold of an Ubuntu distro and an old dell or something and just install it so you have linux machine to do the formatting with. You could also use a friend's windows machine with an Ubuntu Live CD to do the formatting. Once you have a linux terminal you can format correctly and easily with the command

Code: Select all

mkfs.ext2 -I 128 /dev/sdxx

where "xx" is replaced by your drive letter and number, ie /dev/sdc1, etc.

Alternatively there are places that will ship you a drive already formatted. I do that for people sometimes, and I know CRU does it as well. DM me if you are in the US and want a few pre-formatted drives handy.

[yeguita]

Hi,
i've juste completed my first DCP with DCPomatic. I've watched it with stereoscopic player on WINDOWs and seems to work fine.
Now, I must put it on a HD to deliver it to theaters.
So KarlJ you suggest to run Ubuntu to format the HD with ext2
I've never worked on LINUX. I've succeded in running Ubuntu but then I don't know what to do and where to go !
1/ where and how should I tip the command
2/ where can i find the missing "xx", the letter and number of the HD I want to format ?
then if I succeed in formatting it properly, can I just drag and drop the DCP folder into the HD ?
Sorry to ask so stupid questions but i'm feeling totally lost on Linux !
thanks for your help

[yeguita]

hi again, well i've found the terminal but when i tip the command it tells me "permission denied"
how can I "unlock" the HD ?
thxs !

[zrtyneside]

You can either edit the permissions of the drive so that you can edit this, or you can use sudo in terminal commands.
e.g. "sudo mkfs.ext -I 128 /dev/sdxx"

I tried this myself and it worked.

Once this is complete you can then check that the inode size is correct using:

dumpe2fs -h /dev/sdxx | grep 'Inode size'

Zach

[smorgasbord]

OK, so I got a Linux geek at work to format the USB stick as ext2 with inode=128 for me, and I was able to use ExtFS for Mac to copy my DCP package onto it.

I found a small theater that has a Doremi DCP-2000 server and they're willing to ingest the movie overnight (it's 64 minutes long) and then project the next day for 10-15 minutes for me to see. So this is at least one real world test.

I still don't know what they're using at the actual Film Festival venue (which is at LA Live's Regal Theatres at 1000 Olympic Blvd LA, in theater #13 if that helps).

How old/new/compatible is the Doremi DCP-2000? If it plays there does that give a high confidence at playing elsewhere?
Does anyone know what they're using over at LA Live Regal? That's a full blown modern theater, so I imagine they have something pretty high end and recent.

One reason to test is for color balance. I left it at the standard Rec.709, but no-where in Premiere did I ever get to specify the color space. I build Apple ProRes 422 files in Premiere and imported those into DCP-O-Matic.

Thanks again!

[Carsten]

It is safe to assume that Premiere will use rec.709 when exporting to Prores by default, so, if you used rec.709 in DCP-o-matic, you should be fine.
In recent versions, DCP-o-matic will show file properties when right-clicking on the file in the content tab. You may find 709 there.

Testing in a cinema is always best. You may select some criticial passages (very dark, very bright scenes) in advance (note their timecode). The Doremi allows to cue to these positions, so you can check these quickly within your assigned time frame.

Also check start and end of your movie, as well as audio levels. Ask them to use their standard listening volume on their audio processor.
In most cases, classical audio leveling from typical audio editing applications for typical festival-type content (non-action) is too loud for typical cinema levels. They will usually be able to adjust levels in a festival situation, but of course, it is always best to get close to the typical listening reference levels right from the start.


The Doremi is very common, although there are small differences between all servers, and it does happen that some (non-professional) content ingests/plays fine on some servers but not on others.
Luckily, there are not so many different servers around (only 4-5 actually). If you haven't used the more exotic features of DCP-o-matic, it's output is 'very compatible'.

It is always advisable to use a 'clean' workflow if you don't have the option for lot's of testing sessions on DCI systems. Don't play around with parameters/checkboxes you don't understand, leave them at their defaults. Before creating the final DCP after your tests, always delete everything in your project folder except the metafile and maybe the logfile. If you played around with a lot of different versions of DCP-o-matic, reset preferences once and set them up again from scratch (or leave at reset-defaults). While creating the DCP and copying to external media, don't touch the machine.

Call the festival location and ask them for their server type. Try to get through to their projectionist or technical manager. Most chains use only a single server type.

- Carsten

[smorgasbord]

Well, it apparently played just fine on the Doremi, although I didn't get to see it personally (my father in law, a retired projectionist, saw it). He said the image was a bit blue, but the projectionist there said his Doremi is always that way. The sound was just 2 channel stereo and he said it sounded great in the theater. They played about 20 minutes.

[Cantar4]

[Carsten] : Make sure you choose MBR when erasing/formatting a disc - that option
is hidden in different places of recent OS X disc utility versions.

Hello Carsten, here is a question from the Cinémathèque de Grenoble (DoM addicted)
using a Sony server LT300 on a SRX-R320 4k projector ; apparenly the same
configuration as yours.
" When we load a DCP on a new NTFS disk formatted by the manufacturer,
the LT300 server has no problem reading it. But when we load it on a disk formatted
by Paragon/MacOS or Win-OS, the server remains stuck to a small partition
which can't be opened nor erased, --thus can't have access to the DCP.
The Sony's french vendors pretend they never heard of such a behaviour....
Do you know how to format a disk in NTFS without this blocking phantom ? "
Is the secret in this MBR, of which there is no trace in the toy-like disk utilty
of MacOS 10.11.n, nor in Paragon ? " Thank you --jp