Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SMPTE packaging

This is topic SMPTE packaging 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=002223

Posted by Jorgen Larsen (Member # 5302) on 02-23-2015, 10:22 AM:

A brief question:
Has anyone heard anything about a new DCP format called "SMPTE packaging"

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 02-23-2015, 02:30 PM:

There is a change "coming" from interop to smpte DCPs. There are a few changes but the main one I have been hearing about is the audio channels will be identified somehow, and the server should be able to automatically route DCP signals to auditorium channels. We should not need to reroute 11 and 12 to 7 and 8 for 7.1 BSL and BSR for example, but then it would again be wrong if an interop package was played... more confusion? Current Doremi software can supposedly handle this routing but I haven't seen it working.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-23-2015, 05:37 PM:

ISDCF is working on the transition for a couple of years now. Basically the idea is to arrange software updates for servers and projectors, audit them using test material from studios and mastering facilities, and make the transition as transparent as possible for exhibitors.

Some very few releases have been distributed as SMPTE DCPs already, e.g. the last two Hobbit HFR Releases. HFR and ATMOS DCPs have to be SMPTE.

http://www.isdcf.com/ISDCF/Home.html

It is not an entirely new DCP format, more a graceful transition between an intermediate, DCI defined initial packaging towards a more formal SMPTE DC28 defined format.

There's a couple of features attached to SMPTE packaging, and current server software supports an increasing subset of these features, as Dave mentions, e.g. audio channel routing.

Some older servers at some point will probably be left out from updates enabling these format changes. This could lead to incompatibilities of these servers with future SMPTE format variants.

Currently, the biggest issue actually is to offer an incentive to exhibitors to update their systems, which usually has to be paid for, and may introduce quirks. It's a classic chicken or egg problem.

It was easy for HFR and ATMOS, because exhibitors wanting to show HFR and ATMOS releases simply had to install or update to new equipment. But for the majority of installed systems the exhibitors don't see any benefit.

- Carsten

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-28-2015, 04:06 AM:

I thought SMPTE was the standard now, and that interop was pretty much obsolete, but recently I've noticed that we still get a lot of interop packages, though we get plenty of SMPTE ones as well; I couldn't put a percentage on it. All of the DCPs which I've created have been SMPTE.

If SMPTE is the new standard why is interop still being used? Are there any disadvantages to SMPTE?

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 02-28-2015, 09:43 AM:

As I recall from a recent ISDCF meeting, the first general release is about to go out as a SMPTE package with Interop packages ready for people who have problems. Atmos releases have all been SMPTE. HFR has been a mix, I think. The first Hobbitt had problems with audio routing in the field, so they went back to Interop. The goal is to move completely over to SMPTE packaging, but distributors don't want to get a bunch of calls that stuff does not work. ISDCF has test content at http://www.isdcf.com/t that can be used to see if your installed equipment supports SMPTE packages. I believe that the current software for all systems supports SMPTE packages, but not everything in the field is updated to the latest.

Harold

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-28-2015, 10:06 AM:

Right - as I wrote above, it's transitional. The full set of SMPTE options in the packaging still wait's to be implemented. The problem is the old systems in the field running old software versions. You can not do a single-inventory SMPTE-only release with all these systems not being updated to current software release standard.

The only SMPTE packages on our Sony during the last two years have been those DCPs that I created on my own. If you see IOP at the end of the DCP name - it's interop. That's still most of the releases, at least in europe.

- Carsten