Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DCP Hard Drives not being read

This is topic DCP Hard Drives not being read in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Daniel Kamil (Member # 8099) on 02-19-2014, 08:11 AM:

Does anyone have any experience with hard drives not being read by server? It seems that all hard drives coming from Technicolor and Deluxe are fine but when we get them from independent filmmakers and distributors particularly if they are USB powered only it does not show up to ingest. NEC900 projector. GDC server. I would appreciate any advice.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 02-19-2014, 08:36 AM:

We get this ALL the time with independent filmmakers. If the drive is not set up properly, it will not show up. I wish I knew the details but usually they take the drive back and call the server company and the company tells them what they did wrong.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 02-19-2014, 08:49 AM:

It probably has to do with the File system that the drive was set up in. FAT, NFTS, Ext2, or Ext3. G.D.C. servers are running on Fedora Core, which is Linux. Sometimes, they can be picky. So yes, refer to the above post.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 02-19-2014, 10:16 AM:

Oh, geez-
I could write a book (as could many other people on this forum)
on this topic.

Most "filmakers" AND THEATER OPERATORS have no friggin idea of what DCP
file specs are.

And my experience is that even if you explain things beforehand, it dosn't
make a differnce. They expect that you will find a way to 'make it work',
because after all, it played fine on their home computer or TV system.

I just start off assuming that whatever they're going to send ISN'T going
to work, that way, if it does happen to play back, I'm pleasently surprised.

Just this weekend, I got a call from a theater about a 'slide show" they
couldn't play at a big film festival. When I went to investigate, the
'slide show' files turned out to be an MS word document. ( ! ! ! ! )

And, no- - the theater staff didn't have clue either. You have to realize that
outside of people in this forum, most theatres are being run by a bunch of
minimum wage bozos. If they can't stick it in the server and push a button
to get to play, it's beyond their ability to comprehend, or even care.

<end of rant>

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-19-2014, 12:42 PM:

Something else that might happen is, somebody brings in a drive with more than 2TB capacity - the GDC won't recognize drives larger than 2TB. I hope they fix that issue in an update.

I had a kid bring in a "short film" that he wanted to show once. It was on a USB thumb drive and everything looked OK with regard to the DCP files...but the server wouldn't read that drive, either. I've used lots of other thumb drives in the past and never had a problem with them but this one just wouldn't mount. Never could figure that one out.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-19-2014, 12:58 PM:

Same if you off load content from a Dolby Server on to a cru. Neither a Doremi or a GDC will see the content on the drive but it does see the drive.

There needs to be some sort of standard here. The DCI guys obviously missed this.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-19-2014, 07:40 PM:

The standard is there. But the standard violations are also there. Most independent film makers do not know how to format a drive properly.

Besides format issues - USB selfpowered drives do have problems often. It's wise to have your own USB-Y cable and power supply in the booth for these drives.

When I get one of these drives and the DCI server can not see it, I usually try to mount it on my Mac. Usually I can see the files there. I copy them to the notebook and ingest over the network from there. It happens all the time with festival submissions.

Most recent Linux distributions will format ext2/3 file systems with inode size of 256 per default - DCI Servers and Desktop PCs with a WIN software base will not be able to read these, because their ext2 driver does only work with inode size 128.

BTW - the Dolby servers hold complete file packages in the /generatedPackages/ directory, including ASSETMAP and VOLINDEX

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-20-2014, 11:22 AM:

To be clear...when one copies a file off of a Dolby server to a CRU using the "Content" module, only the necessary files for a Dolby server are copied, not everything that a other server brands may need to work with the content.

What Carsten is saying is that if you use an FTP program and go into the "generated packages" folder (need user and password), and you know the uuid (look under properties of the desired content in "Content"), you can get the complete package. I have never tried it but it should work.

-Steve

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-20-2014, 11:25 AM:

Yes it works fine doing it that way.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-20-2014, 01:52 PM:

Steve,

Thats one thing I really do like about the GDC's, especially on the TMS. If you go into the data storage and click on the UUID number then you can actually see the title. On the TMS you can literally just click and copy them.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-21-2014, 06:15 AM:

the GDC will let you move content that is on the server back onto a CRU?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-21-2014, 01:09 PM:

From the TMS you can access just about everything on the network. Copy to a cru if you have one installed or to a USB.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-21-2014, 04:45 PM:

Well yeah...that is just a PC. On a Dolby server, you can move content onto as well as off of a server...granted that content will just run on another Dolby server but odds are, if you have one in the complex you have others.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 02-21-2014, 07:11 PM:

I believe the Dolby removes the Assetmap and Packing list straight away when the content is transferred. I heard of plan to stop that behaviour but last time I checked that was still the case. Has that recently changed?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-21-2014, 08:32 PM:

They do not remove it, they just don't re-export them using the standard content module. If you ftp into the Dolby, you can get it all.

- Carsten

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-21-2014, 08:40 PM:

Steve... I'd rather move it in house via a tms. It's much faster.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-22-2014, 05:54 AM:

This is about storage (moving it off to a CRU/HDD.

To move about a complex...Dolby could always do that...and yes, in terms of speed...an FTP transfer between severs on a 1-gig network will beat any form of disc transfer.

Posted by Antti Nayha (Member # 4980) on 02-22-2014, 06:24 AM:

quote: Marco Giustini
I believe the Dolby removes the Assetmap and Packing list straight away when the content is transferred. I heard of plan to stop that behaviour but last time I checked that was still the case. Has that recently changed?

Yeah, the Dolby does actually discard the original ASSETMAP and VOLINDEX files on ingest... But at the same time, it generates new ones to match the assets of the ingested DCP.

So when you re-export the DCP's through FTP (from the generatedPackages folder), what you get is strictly speaking not 100% identical to the original DCP, since your metadata files have been replaced by the new ones created by Dolby. If I remember correctly, things like sub-directory paths will get reorganized as well in some cases.

All the files remain valid, though, and the actual content remains untouched. Which is all that matters.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-22-2014, 09:04 AM:

They discard, then regenerate, then omit them for external media export? WTF...

- Carsten