Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Server Question

This is topic Server Question in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=001663

Posted by John Rizzo (Member # 1289) on 10-17-2013, 02:36 PM:

A Distributor is asking me if he can send out DCP S of his movie on Windows formatted hard drives,, He is telling me Yes, I was under the impression that for feature length movies the drive has to be Linux
can someone tell me if that is correct.

Posted by Paul H. Rayton (Member # 1817) on 10-17-2013, 03:19 PM:

DCI systems work with both Linux (EXT2 and EXT3)and NTFS (which is a Windows formatting). I've received a few items mastered from Macs which will NOT work. I've saved the day by taking that and re-transferring it to another drive which is NTFS, and then we're good to go. Beware of someone sending you a drive with DCP content that they mastered from their Mac!

Posted by John Rizzo (Member # 1289) on 10-17-2013, 03:29 PM:

Thanks for that.

But why is Linux said to be the standard

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 10-17-2013, 03:34 PM:

Digital cinema servers are mainly Linux bases, so are all the mastering stations.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-17-2013, 04:08 PM:

Linux/EXT2 or EXT3 for DCPs is actually not a 'real' standard, but only a 'defacto' standard and recommended practice.

http://isdcf.com/papers/ISDCF-Doc3-Filesystem-Structure.pdf

DCI left out the filesystem question completely. For a time, early servers would only support EXT2 or EXT3 filesystems. Now, to my knowledge all servers support NTFS. I still would recommend using EXT2/EXT3, but NTFS SHOULD work most of the time.

Some servers (e.g. Doremi) also support HFS+ (Mac).

It can be a bit complicated to format and write to an EXT2/3 partition from a non-Linux OS, so sometimes using NTFS is even safer to use. Usually there are EXT/2/3 drivers available for non-Linux OS's, but a driver alone usually does not allow you to format a drive, and some drivers are slow or unreliable.

There are bootable Linux systems available as free downloads, which can used from optical media or USB sticks, but then even if you have formatted a drive for DCP content, you need again access to the files on your NTFS or HFS+ volume, and then you need NTFS or HFS+ support in your bootable Linux system, etc.

For a known server or range of servers supporting NTFS, I would simply use NTFS.
For general distribution to unknown systems, use EXT2/3.

- Carsten