Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DCP in the 3rd world

This is topic DCP in the 3rd world in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Lincoln Spector (Member # 6835) on 03-28-2017, 03:00 PM:

I recently watched a documentary called The Cinema Travelers, about travelling cinemas in rural India. (Excellent film doing the festival circuit.) They traveled with circus tent, big, old 35mm projector, and movies on what I think were 6,000-foot reels.

Over the course of the doc, they made the switch to digital. The acronym DCP never appeared in the subtitles, but it was clear that that's what they had. But the projector itself looked like a cheap, portable, consumer model.I doubt it could properly light the large screen they had.

I know that in the USA, theaters have to buy large, expensive DCI-compliant projectors. Is that rule waved in poor countries?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-28-2017, 03:49 PM:

Table-top DCI-compliant projectors do exist, which use a small (e.g. the NEC iS8-2K uses a 1.25kW bulb) xenon bulb, and will work on a 240v, single phase supply.

However, they are designed for use in smaller multiplex screens, post-production houses and private screening rooms. I don't know how big the screen in this tent cinema is, but if it's more than around 15ft by 8, one of these projectors would not be able to light it to 14ft-l.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 03-28-2017, 04:46 PM:

There was (is?) a lot of "D-Cinema" in India. This is not DCI, they use home type projectors and the content is not packaged exactly as a DCP although it often comes on a hard drive.
Are you sure what you see in the documentary is from a DCP?

Posted by Lincoln Spector (Member # 6835) on 03-28-2017, 07:51 PM:

Here's why I think it's a DCP:

1) They have to connect a computer (ie, server) to the projector.

2) There's a mention of having to plug a hard drive into the computer.

3) The setup won't let them show a movie until they get permission over the Internet.

I think the projector was, in fact, an NEC, but I'm not sure.

btw, it's an excellent film, and really fun if you like to look at old projectors and people who can fix them. If you live near San Francisco, it's playing three times at the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival. http://www.sffilm.org/festival/lineup/the-cinema-travellers#.WNnUVzsrKM8

Posted by Jose Angel Velasco (Member # 4706) on 03-29-2017, 02:17 AM:

Is possible to use a NeoDCP player on a PC, and connect this to a non-DCI projector. Exists a version of NeoDCP that accepts DCP and KDM ingest, and some small distributors, accepts this, but not the majors.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-29-2017, 08:58 AM:

For a while, India had more digital installations than the rest of the world, as cinema/bollywood is so extremely famous there. Of course they couldn't afford DCI systems, so many different E-Cinema 'systems' were and are in use there. The better ones were hybrids of 'near DCI' systems like Qube XP-E. I think MPEG2-Interop is still used a lot there.

The projectors they choose is what they can afford. The crowd doesn't care, as long as it is colorful and loud.

- Carsten