Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Can A/V (Non-DCI) Projectors play DCPs?

This is topic Can A/V (Non-DCI) Projectors play DCPs? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-05-2019, 07:35 AM:

We have two A/V Barcos in our screening rooms. They are used primarily to play student created films, student film festivals as well as BluRays, DVDs and other non-theatrical content. We may be adding an additional screening room and I have seen some visiting filmmakers saying they have their film on open DCPs (no key necessary). Do any of the major DCP-compliant projector manufactures who also offer a line of A/V projectors, have any that are capable of processing open DCPs? Or is there a work-around with some kind of computer software that is capable of playing DCP content and feeding it to an A/V projector, say, possibly via an HDMI input?

It also would be nice to encourage film students to output their work in a professional cinema format instead of BluRays or Vimeo files. I believe Adobe Premiere can output content as a DCP. It would be an advantage to be able to play that back in the screening rooms.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 09-05-2019, 08:01 AM:

If there is no obligation to play encrypted content from the major studios, you can use either a software player running on a decent computer (e.g. NeoDCP), or a second hand DCI server (DSS200, Doremi DCP2000/2k4) with transport security disabled, connected to any projector. Software players will typically connect through HDMI or DisplayPort, for the DCI servers you would need a special arrangement to support their Twin-HDSDI connection. One simple way is to force the connection/playlist to 3D, which then enables a more compatible color model on a single HD-SDI.

I don't know if it makes sense to offer a DCP playback option if the intent is not to force/enable students to create fully formally correct/compliant DCPs. If that is the plan, I would probably opt towards a 'real' DCI playback solution (e.g. a lower cost UHP projector with integrated server, like NEC1000 or Barco 2K-6E+ICMP).

- Carsten

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 09-05-2019, 01:17 PM:

If you never want to show a "normal" feature film then something like NeoDCP is a fine option. You do need a pretty decent PC with a decent GPU to run it without artifacts.
Some versions (the more expensive ones of course) will play encrypted DCPs but no major film distributor will ever give you a KDM key to play their movie. Software players and A/V projectors are inherently insecure, and movie producers are notoriously paranoid about content security. If your students make encrypted DCPs and can generate KDMs, then that's fine. The issue is getting a KDM key, not the ability to play back encrypted content.
I don't know of any free way to play a DCP. VLC will play the image but not the sound. DCP-O-Matic has a player but it's not meant or good for actual screening use, just intended to check how a DCP project worked out.
Buying an obsolete cinema server is an option, but there's that "obsolete" thing - plus "out of support" and "no parts available" as well.
Recently I was contacted by someone who purchased an $80,000.00 4K A/V projector with the intention of showing first run movies. They were not exactly happy when I told them this is not possible.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-05-2019, 02:00 PM:

Another option would be to convert the DCP to something else. DCP-o-matic can do this, as can ffmpeg. This gets more complicated with multichannel sound mixes, though.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-05-2019, 04:00 PM:

quote: Dave Macaulay
VLC will play the image but not the sound.

Are you sure that isn't the other way around? The last time I tried playing a dcp with VLC it showed the first image in the file and played through the entire soundtrack with that first image constantly displayed.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 09-05-2019, 04:52 PM:

It depends on how you load the file. You can just double-click an MXF file, or open the DCP/CPL.

That said, the playback performance is very bad, you need a very fast machine to get decent playback performance. I still use VLC to open J2K MXF video files occasionally, because it is easy to perform single image grabs with the video snapshot function at DCP/source resolution (these are not screengrabs, but actual J2K decoded images with sRGB color conversion applied).

- Carsten

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-05-2019, 04:59 PM:

Thanks guys -- good to know if someone walks in with an open DCP, there is a fairly simply means of playing it (the software/computer solution). As for students authoring out to DCP, that was just a left field idea that I thought might benefit students -- the professors teaching post production or editing would need to see that as something they'd want to work into the syllabus...or not.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-05-2019, 05:01 PM:

If you want a playback solution that is somewhat representative of a professional playback solution like a real DCI playout machine/IMS, then I only see NeoDCP Player and easyDCP Player as viable option.

Dolby also has a CineAsset Player, but my experience with it is limited.

VLC works reasonably well on MXF files, but is not a reliable playback solution for theater usage.

Another downside: None of those solutions can easily integrate with building automation.