Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SMPTE DCPs Not validated in Sony servers/projectors

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Posted by Alexandre Salvador (Member # 9437) on 05-04-2017, 12:49 PM:

Hi all,

I'm currently receiving a lot of complains from several Cinema theatres saying our SMPTE encrypted DCPs are not being validated into Sony servers. In other servers/projectors the same DCPs work fine. In Sony systems, the DCP is ingested 100% but shows a message that DCP can't be played as it is not Validated. Also, in the DCPs list, it is marked as an incomplete DCP. Do you know if there is any specification or guide with a way to validate the DCP or to generate a DCP compliant with sony servers and projectors ? Thanks!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-04-2017, 01:40 PM:

This only affects the 320 models.

Yes there is a way to add to the SMSMgrServer_custom.ini file for it to automatically validate, but I've found it doesn't work on all 320s (even if the version of software running is the same as other machines that do auto-validate). I am currently waiting for a robust solution for the 320s to auto-validate. In the meantime you can do it manually.

On the touchpanel CONTENT > MANAGE DCPS
Find your content in question, highlight it, then press the VALIDATE button.

This will take a good 45 minutes for a typical movie.

Things you should be aware of:
A show can NOT be on screen during content validation. If a show starts during validation, the validation process will be cancelled and you must re-start validation from the beginning again after the show.

The validation progress percentage is displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the touchscreen during validation. This will give you a ROUGH estimate of how much more there is to validate before that SMPTE DCP becomes playable.

Content cannot be validated if it isn’t loaded onto the screen servers.

Content does NOT has to be unlocked (valid KDM) to validate it.

Once the content is deleted from a screen server, if it is reloaded onto that screen the content must be re-validated.

Posted by Bajsic Bojan (Member # 4928) on 05-04-2017, 01:49 PM:

Would like to add this is a common problem also on R515. Problems occur with 'SMPTE' packages from various creator sources (have had fails from DCPOMatic, easyDCP, cineasset,..)

sometimes shows could be ingested and played but started exhibiting random issues (speed changes!, out of sync audio, frame jumping...)

solution was: make the DCP IOP.

Havent checked up on the problem lately, maybe some new sw/fw version has had this fixed in the last couple of months.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 05-04-2017, 02:11 PM:

quote: Alexandre Salvador
I'm currently receiving a lot of complains from several Cinema theatres saying our SMPTE encrypted DCPs are not being validated into Sony servers.

Which software are you using to create these SMPTE packages (and why are you creating SMPTE packages)?

- Carsten

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-04-2017, 09:01 PM:

I can't speak for Alexandre, but the only reason I've ever created SMPTE DCPs is when I need to use a frame rate other than 24. Even then, I've made 25fps and 30fps Interop DCPs using DCP-o-Matic as an experiment, and they play without complaints on all three of our systems (Barco DP4K-30L + Alchemy ICMP / Dolby DSS200/cat862 + NEC NC2500 / Dolby DSS200/cat745 + NEC NC3240S). But I don't like to break rules if I don't have to, and so select SMPTE for DCPs where the source video is something other than 24.

Posted by Brian Woods (Member # 3521) on 05-05-2017, 10:10 AM:

Guardians of the Galaxy came in SMPTE format. A lot of Disney movies like Beauty & the Beast came also in SMPTE format. It's Soon Only, Not Yet that has the issue of having to validated the content before you play it. There are interop versions out there, but you have to request them if you get your content over satellite. Also another tip with SMPTE is that once you validate content on one projector, if you do a screen to screen transfer, you don't have to revalidate the content on the destination projector. This is handy if you need it on multiple screens.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-05-2017, 04:24 PM:

Disney was one of the first to go to SMPTE due to the requirements of the ATMOS file, which can be processed in SMPTE only.

Advantage with this is that the ATMOS file can be saved as a VF file. Thus, as a patch file, it can be added to the shipment drive, ingested together in the server, making the server see the basic 5.1 file an ATMOS file and process it as such.

This eliminates the dual drive send of an IOP drive and a SMPTE drive for the one feature.