Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ingesting content from old hard drive

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Posted by Christopher Perkins (Member # 8917) on 04-12-2017, 02:35 PM:

I am trying to ingest a movie that a local producer would like to show on our screen. He has provided the content on a Seagate external hard drive. For some reason my Christie Solaria One projector will not detect any content. Any suggestions on how I could get the content on to the projector? These projectors are on stand alone. NO TMS/LMS.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 04-12-2017, 03:39 PM:

It could be several things:

Is it a DCP?

What file format was used on the disk?

Have you tried hooking it to a laptop or desktop to see if the file folders show up there?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-12-2017, 11:49 PM:

There are many possible reasons why a DCP server might not see any content on a drive you've been given. In order of likelihood, in my experience:

1. The server doesn't have enough bus power to spin up a USB-powered hard drive.
2. The drive is not partitioned and formatted per ISDCF requirements, and your server cannot read the noncompliant aspect(s) of your drive partition table and storage volume.
3. The drive does not contain DCP files, but some form of alternative content (e.g. a ProRes or H.264 file).

The quickest diagnostic tool I've found is a PC or laptop running Ubuntu, with hfsprogs and exFAT utils added. Connect the drive giving trouble to that. If it appears to contain a valid set of DCP files, use GPartEd to see what sort of partition table and volume format it has. If that checks out, the problem is usually insufficient USB power on the DCP server. In any case, if you can see valid DCP files on the drive, copy them to another hard drive or flash stick that is known to work with the DCP server (or if the PC is on the same LAN and subnet and transfer speeds permit, ingest over the LAN via FTP), and that should solve the problem.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-13-2017, 07:24 AM:

The Solaria One is usually supplied with a content NAS. This NAS should have it's own GUI/OS, usually linux based. I don't know wether you have been trained on using the NAS GUI directly. You may have a chance to connect the external hard drive directly to the NAS and access/copy the content to your NAS. Of course, even if that works, it has to be a valid DCP. I have recently seen ingests failing because DCPs have initially been tested on Dolby servers and then exported from them for further distribution. This creates only a partial package on the drive, which non-Dolby DSS servers can not see. But this is not the only thing that could be wrong with this disc. It could also simply be dead...

- Carsten

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 04-13-2017, 10:14 AM:

Assuming the drive is formatted as ext2 (the "standard"), you can install etx2fsd on a Windows PC and mount these drives.
You can then see what's on the drive.
There are drive initialization issues that will prevent many servers from seeing content on a drive, even though it appears OK on another computer - the ISDCF specs will tell you what is expected but they aren't fun reading and the specs are incomprehensible if you're not familiar with the jargon.
I'm not familiar with the Solaria 1 (sigh of contentment) but they should recognize a Windows formatted drive... for a feature, that is likely NTFS - I think the FAT ones have problems with the very large files involved.
You may be able to ftp content into a Solaria 1, might need to set up an ftp server on your PC and pull it in from the server.
I doubt that the exported-from-a-DSS problem is your issue, but it could be. There's no fix for that, you would need a complete DCP package from the distributor. I don't know how to tell the difference between an incomplete that was exported DCP from a DSS and a complete version. A DSS does not ingest the entire package, just what Dolby decided it will need... and it can't export what it never ingested, so the exported package is incomplete if you try to ingest it on a different brand of server.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-13-2017, 10:41 AM:

quote: Dave Macaulay
I doubt that the exported-from-a-DSS problem is your issue, but it could be. There's no fix for that...

There is, but only if you have access to the DSS from which the DCP was exported, and that DCP is still on it.

1. In Show Manager, note the UUID of the DCP you want to export (the first few characters are enough for ID purposes), by right-clicking on the DCP and selecting properties.

2. Connect to the DSS using an FTP client (e.g. Filezilla)

3. Go to the "generatedPackages" folder, and then the folder named with the UUID of your DCP.

4. Download the CPL, ASSETMAP and VOLINDEX files, which are not copied when exporting a DCP via Show Manager.

5. Add those files to the CPL, audio and video (and, if present, other files such as subtitles) files on the drive containing them.

6. This drive should now be good for ingestion into a non-Dolby server.

I've only ever tried this with unencrypted DCPs - dunno if it would work with encrypted ones (assuming that you have a KDM for the destination media block, obviously) as well.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-13-2017, 11:30 AM:

It should work. I've done FTP transfers between brands that way.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-13-2017, 02:48 PM:

There must be a way to recreate Assetmap and Packing-List from the remaining files. Otherwise Dolby servers would not be able to ingest and use these partial DCPs on other servers. It's just a a bit complicated to go through the CPL and create these files through backward references. Definitely nothing to do by hand for real life DCPs containing many reels.

The problem is, very often you have no access to the originating server anymore, and if you don't, that DCP is lost.

- Carsten

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-13-2017, 05:37 PM:

You could also import the MXF audio and video files into DCP-o-Matic and remake the DCP that way, but it would have to be mightily important to be able to save that DCP, and you'd need to be certain of having no other way of getting hold of it, to want to try either of these two methods.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 04-14-2017, 06:04 AM:

It should be doable with a night worth of scripting and XML parsing, the CPL should contain all the info you would need.

Posted by Christopher Perkins (Member # 8917) on 04-17-2017, 09:21 PM:

Yes it is a DCP. Not exactly sure what format the drive is. Just reformatted for just the generic. Yes I can see the files on a computer.

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It could be several things:

Is it a DCP?

What file format was used on the disk?

Have you tried hooking it to a laptop or desktop to see if the file folders show up there?

Posted by Ben Schulz (Member # 9832) on 04-18-2017, 12:48 AM:

Hi Chris,

Assuming that the hard drive is in the correct format, you may find that it is one (or more) folders too deep. If the DCP is more than two folders deep than you will be able to see the Drive but not the content. That's my best guess. Hopefully it helps [Smile]

Posted by Ioannis Syrogiannis (Member # 3235) on 04-18-2017, 03:51 AM:

quote: Carsten Kurz

The problem is, very often you have no access to the originating server anymore, and if you don't, that DCP is lost.

Having back ups from the "generatedPackages" folder some times now, there is no need to use the originating server.
The exported (less than proper) DCP can be ingested to another DSS100-200-220 and the missing files will be created in the "generatedPackages" folder once again.
Then, you can harvest the full DCP with your FTP connection, as described and pass it on.

In fact, the generated packages don't actually hold the original assetmap, volindex etc. files of the package. You can read that in the text file, where it states it is generated by Dolby.
(I really don't understand the purpose, but some TMS libraries generate those files anew, also.)

So, in such cases, a Dolby DSS may save the day.

I wonder if newer IMS implementations, the ones under the Dolby logo would support ingesting such exported DCPs, but I would guess not.

P.S. The DCP-o-matic solution wouldn't work in an encrypted package, since the KDM would be CPL specific and the CPL would be re-generated. Wouldn't it?