Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Question about Digital Cinema package (DCP)

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Posted by Gary Davidson (Member # 2198) on 02-21-2008, 10:17 AM:

Layman’s question about digital cinema:
The Digital Cinema package (DCP) contains content as well as metadata about that content. Is pre-show (meaning trailers, video rolling stock) part of that package or is it dealt with separately?

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 02-21-2008, 05:38 PM:

A DCP is a set of files that make up a particular piece of content. So when you receive a hard drive with a feature and several trailers, each trailer will be a separate DCP.

I have not seen anyone yet run the preshow on a digital cinema system. (Someone please speak up here if they have.) Once that starts happening (which probably will at some point in the future), it is likely that each segment of the program (each ad or featurette) will have it's own DCP. This is purely speculation. The providers of the content could create the entire preshow as one package, but that would make it more difficult to update the content each week (or however often it is updated).

EDIT: When I speak of preshow in the above paragraph, I do not mean trailers. Those are distributed by studios same as features are. I'm talking about advertising such as rolling stock ads, PSA's, and entertainment pieces that many preshows feature.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-21-2008, 05:55 PM:

Everyone arouund here does... not that it looks any better... just brighter, still scaled NTSC.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 02-21-2008, 05:58 PM:

But does it play off the digital cinema server, or some other system just run through a second input on the projector?

Posted by Mike Renlund (Member # 4675) on 02-21-2008, 07:20 PM:

We run pre-ad through the digital projectors but via the DVI connection. Not through the digital (Dolby) server.

Most of the content we receive is several trailers, separate from the feature. Occasionally, we will get an "attached trailer" built into the CPL (Composition Play List) of the feature....but that is few and far between.

Different movie houses/companies have different ideas as to how many trailers and ads to play, I for one am glad that we have a lot of control over how much/how little we play in front of a feature.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-21-2008, 07:42 PM:

Ken,
Most places use a scaler feeding the DVI input. Some of the latest projectors don't necessarily require an outboard scaler since thety can auto-scale to a point. Feeds can be from almost any source... DVD or PC is common but other companies also supply pre-show stuff. Generally, unless its trailers its not going to be comming off the server... unless the chain has it encoded and so on to be able to run from there.. it is possible but expensive to do. This is one good use for the DTS XD-10... if you stop to consider that most of them will becone $7,000 dollar door stops in the near future the XD-10 can do HD Video with an accessory board although getting the pre-show content encoded by DTS to be able to load into the player is quite costly to be honest. My feelings about lamps being left on is that if you don't have at least 1 hour to leave the lamp off then you're better off leaving it on... I always did this when I did dailies and special showings with film systems. So with the lamp on excepting long time periods perhaps at dinner time why not use the D-Cinema projector for the pre-show. Lamps for the small DLP projectors are also dam expensive and rarely meet their warranty hours anyway, in fact most of the small DLP lamps warranties are basically meaningless!

Mark

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 02-22-2008, 05:29 AM:

DCP seems like a variation of the MXF file container.

The nomenclature differs, but basically the DCP or MXF file contains some form of encryption, media description, and the actual audio and video (referred to as essence).

On the DVI input subject:

I've used This Box many times. It does a great job of scaling advertising and alternative content on a regular basis. They can be purchased for less than 250 bucks. They scale up to 1920x1200 and will accept component video as well. Don't rely on them to produce a perfect picture, but they get the job done nicely.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 02-22-2008, 05:57 AM:

Okay, I have seen scalers used to run the preshow through the digital cinema projector. But it was still coming from some other source (client PC, DVD, etc...). When I said digital cinema "system" in my first post, I was referring to server (Dolby, Kodak, Doremi, etc) together with the proojector.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-22-2008, 08:42 AM:

Ken,

Other than attached previews I don't know of anyone running pre-show off the normal server. Probably why entire companies have divisions to supply pre-show content... DTS has a seperate division that does this and I think Access-IT does as well.

Mark

Mark

Posted by David Zylstra (Member # 4230) on 02-22-2008, 11:39 AM:

The AccessIT preshow system is run through the DoReMi - AccessIT bought Unique Screen Media to be able to offer another service to their customers.

When you assign a preshow to a playlist on the AccessIT LMS the scheduler (if being used) will calculate the start time to make the preshow run before the programmed start time. They also did some type of on the fly ingest/content management based on a variable CPL - as a result watch out for normal content that is tagged as advertisement because the DoReMi will delete it if it is older than 60 days (we had the flat portion of our mt.com trailers get deleted at one of our locations due to this "feature") - this was programmed for a preshow where they can change the CPL and the system will ingest the newly added content and eventually delete the old clips - I can't speak to how well it works since we don't run our preshow through the digital projectors yet (it adds a lot to the yearly operating costs).

Back to the original question - pretty much each content title is it's own DCP - i.e. typically there will be a DCP for just the feature and one for each trailer. But a DCP could include multiple titles - i.e. bundled trailers or advertisements.

Posted by Gary Davidson (Member # 2198) on 02-22-2008, 12:55 PM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Some of the latest projectors don't necessarily require an outboard scaler since thety can auto-scale to a point. Feeds can be from almost any source... DVD or PC is common but other companies also supply pre-show stuff.

Mark, when you say DVD or PC, with PC do you mean an IT connection or CD?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-22-2008, 10:22 PM:

Gary,

What I should have said Gary is that the source can be just about be any external DVI signal... where it comes from or how it originates is up to you or the theater owner.

Mark