Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Converting an iTunes video to DCP

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2014, 01:37 PM:

Can anyone specify the right settings to use when converting a video from iTunes to DCP?

Currently I'm using MakeMKV to convert the file to .mkv format, then using Sony Movie Studio Platinum to render the file as an .mpg for DCP-o-Matic. But, when I preview it in DCP-o-Matic it keeps coming out with all kinds of interlacing artifacts or just crappy looking, fuzzy, blocky, depending on what settings I'm using. On iTunes it plays beautifully and also the preview window in Sony Movie Studio looks awesome.

What am I missing?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-21-2014, 02:11 PM:

I'm puzzled DCP-o-matic can't read the original file? Should be MP4 or MP4 in a MOV container?

Choosing proper compression codecs and settings is not easy and cross conversion thus should be avoided by all means.

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-21-2014, 02:12 PM:

What codec is being used for the iTunes video? And is the original video interlaced?

If you transcode the video not just once but a few times, there will not be much quality left.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2014, 05:28 PM:

I tried putting the original iTunes file directly into DCP-o-Matic but it wouldn't work -- the program reports a frame rate of "90000.0000" even though it's really 29. And the video preview window doesn't show anything.

The original file is .m4v which may have something to do with it?

I have no idea about the interlacing or the codecs on the original file -- it's just a standard iTunes music video.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-21-2014, 05:46 PM:

Hmm... Many M4V files are copy-protected beasts, so if you just bought it from iTunes, chances are this is exactly what's happening. So to be able to convert it, you first need to get rid of the DRM... If you're using Windows 7, you can usually right click on the file and get an option "Protected", it will show you if the file is DRM protected or not.

There are some tools out there, but I don't have recent experience and there's probably a lot of junk out there too, either wanting money from you or potentially loading your PC with crapware, so be a bit careful. Also, as a general disclaimer: removing DRM from files in the U.S. of A. is a federal offense according to the DMCA. [Wink]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2014, 05:53 PM:

I figured that might be the case. I did right-click and look at all the properties and can't find "protected" anywhere, so the experimenting goes on.

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 10-21-2014, 06:17 PM:

Are these files that are bought from iTunes, or downloaded for free, or ...? If I can get hold of one I maybe can work out what's going on.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2014, 06:37 PM:

It is a file I bought from iTunes. Actually I may have figured it out...I ran it through something called "convertfiles.com" which converted it to a .mov file, and that looks great in DCP-o-matic. I'll try playing it later tonight and see how it looks/sounds.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 10-21-2014, 06:43 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I tried putting the original iTunes file directly into DCP-o-Matic but it wouldn't work -- the program reports a frame rate of "90000.0000" even though it's really 29. And the video preview window doesn't show anything

Hmmm, I'm able to duplicate this with a non-DRM music video purchased from iTunes. This was with DCP-o-matic 1.76.

I'll report it to the developer.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-21-2014, 06:46 PM:

Although I am a Mac user, I have near zero experience with video downloaded from iTunes.

If there is no DRM on that file, DCP-o-matic should be able to handle it, maybe with some tweaking. And the fact that Sony Movie Studio opens it in good quality in my opinion can only mean there is no DRM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4V

Hmm, I checked my iTunes and found a couple of Radiohead videos in that format. Info dialog says 'protected MPEG4 movie'. I can still play it in quicktime player 7 and open it in MPEG Streamclip.

Opening it in DCP-o-matic gives no preview - and same as your result, indicates 90000fps and a runtime of more than 43h. Timeline shows video and audio track of that lenght, audio content shows two tracks at 44.100.

When I open it with MPEG Streamclip, correct clip properties are displayed, I can play and export it. With standard parameters, export to MP4 goes very quickly, within 2-3min on my very outdated C2D.

So maybe a strange misinterpretation by DCP-o-matic/FFMPEG?

Carl, you may have a look at this video, and Mike, for the time being, you may give MPEG Streamclip a try - it's free, available for windows, easy to handle. It's mostly used for conversion/conforming, but simple operations like track selection, trimming, etc. are possible as well. My standard MP4 export as mentioned took 2-3min and opens okay in DCP-o-matic and looks good.

I use it like this for years also for strange MPEG2 formats. Very simple yet powerful tool, suitable for more complex video format conversions prior to DCP encoding.

I think in this case MPEGStreamclip just did something like a rewrapping, not a full MP4/h.264 encode - that would have taken much longer. Seems it just reformats the file to a format that DCP-o-matic can read.
Although the resulting file is somewhat smaller than the original...
Anyway, another option without ANY recompression is to extract video and audio tracks into separate files.
Unfortunately, DCP-o-matic can not read the audio only file in mp4 format, so that would have to be converted to WAV before importing it into DCP-o-matic - but that is lossless as well.
Anyway, both ways should give you a quick solution until Carl looks into the file issue.

http://www.squared5.com/

- Carsten

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2014, 10:55 PM:

On the test run, the video looked great but I wasn't all that happy with the sound -- it needs more high end, but I can fix that one easy. Thanks for the help guys, at least apparently we uncovered a DCP-o-Matic anomoly that the crew can work on! [thumbsup]

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 10-22-2014, 04:05 AM:

Hi all,

Thanks for the investigations, and thanks David for emailing the list. This bug should be fixed in DCP-o-matic 1.76.3, which you can (shortly) get from here:

http://dcpomatic.com/test-download

Do let me know if you have any problems with that version.
Best, Carl

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-22-2014, 05:04 AM:

Sounds like great customer service [Wink]

.

I found an iTunes M4V (courtesy of the girlfriend) showing the same issues. I've installed the new test version on a Windows VM. It will take a while to complete, but I will let you know the end results.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-22-2014, 06:29 AM:

I can confirm the iTunes test clip that I supplied to Carl for a fix works now with 1.76.3

Cheers, Carl! Isn't that mad now, communicating together around the globe on overnight software improvements. Great times still!

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-22-2014, 06:49 AM:

And I can confirm it too. Looks like one bug squashed. Great work!

Now we can have the joy of iTunes music videos in the cinema at last [Wink]

Posted by Andrew Thomas (Member # 7000) on 10-22-2014, 12:27 PM:

Mike, is there a reason you don't drop the MKV file from MakeMKV directly in to DCP-O-Matic?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-22-2014, 01:06 PM:

I wanted to do some editing on it. I'm creating a "happy birthday" thing for one of our employees using her favorite song and a couple of pictures. A bunch of her friends are bringing her to a show next weekend and one of them was asking if I had any cool ideas on how to "surprise" her and it sort of went from there.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-22-2014, 03:59 PM:

Well you probably know you can do some basic composition of image and sound in DCP-o-matic as well. Not too much, but may be sufficient for the purpose. If you absolutely need to go through that video editor, denn keep it progressive, and render to a high quality mp4/h.264 codec to avoid blocking, etc., and definitely avoid interlaced stuff or target codecs.

It seems this will only be a few minutes in total, so file size or playability should not be an issue, as long als DCP-o-matic can read it properly.

- Carsten

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-23-2014, 12:26 AM:

Thanks Carsten, Marcel and Carl for the help on this issue. I am in awe of the expertise that's behind DCP-O-Matic. I've said it before, but... major kudos all around.

Posted by Andrew Thomas (Member # 7000) on 10-24-2014, 02:46 PM:

Ok, gotcha Mike. I was wondering if I had been doing it wrong all these times [Razz]