Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Here...Play This JPEG

This is topic Here...Play This JPEG in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-18-2019, 02:21 PM:

A studio sent me a “slide” as a .jpg with a request that I put on a USB stick, and load it on the projector and play it ahead of a screening. Never mind the distinction between server and projector, I know I cannot do that. The server wants DCPs and the disk players want disks. One could display it from a laptop I suppose but the best solution in this situation is to make a DCP with DCP-MATIC.

My setup is an NEC NC1200C with a Dolby DSS200 (media block within server).

What I would like to know, just out of curiosity, now that there are internal media blocks and internal servers, is there any setup where this is possible? Just walk up with a jpg or other media file on a USB stick and play it?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-18-2019, 03:08 PM:

DVI Input via a laptop or computer.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-18-2019, 03:23 PM:

Some Blu-Ray players will do it.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-18-2019, 03:24 PM:

But never by plugging it into a server or media block, right?

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-18-2019, 03:26 PM:

Many Sony Bluray players have USB input and can read .jpg still images. I believe other brands also have this capability.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 11-18-2019, 03:37 PM:

You're lucky- - at least you got a JPG. I've been handed "slides" people
wanted on screen that were MS-WORD or PDF documents.

Here's my suggestion:
Take the JPG slide & make a "still" DCP using DCP-0-Matic.
It's VERY simple to do, and I've had to do this so many times under
similar circumstances that I can now churn one out in 5 min or less.

You can specify a particular run length, and even fade in & out.

I had to do one of these last minute just a week or so ago.

I was given a JPG image of a logo the client wanted to appear as
a slide on screen as people entered the theater and during the show
intro, and come up on screen again after the feature during a Q&A.

> I made a 20sec DCP of the slide with the fade in & out and added it
to the playlist just before, and again after, their main feature.

> I also programmed a [PAUSE] into the playlist. so that the 20sec
slide would pause half way through & stay on screen as long as needed.

> After their live intro, when it came time to start the show, I hit [PLAY] on
the serverthingy and had 10sec to deal with taking out stage & house lights
and killing microphones, etc until the logo slide faded out & feature began.

> At the end of the festure, I again attached the DCP Logo clip, which played
10sec and paused then automatically paused agan & stayed on screen
for the length of the Q&A.

As I said earlier, I've had to do this so many times, and always it seems
at the last minute, that I have sort of a 'template' I've made in DCP-O-Matic
so that all I pretty much have to do is name the project and put in the
image file, and the rest (fades, length, etc) are already 'programmed'.

Works like a charm! [thumbsup]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-18-2019, 03:41 PM:

Oh, I immediately went to DCP-O-MATIC and made a DCP which runs just fine. I was just curious whether this is ever possible.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-18-2019, 04:06 PM:

A cinema playback solution is something different than a home media player, which will just work when you plug in the USB stick and select the JPEG.

If there would be support for still images in modern playback servers, they at least need one extra option and that's how long to show the JPEG on screen.

I think your DCP-o-Matic solution was the most reasonable and I'd taken the same approach.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 11-18-2019, 05:13 PM:

I don't know any DCI server that plays a JPG (or any other common media file) without prior conversion. Yes, some 'projectors' can display still images as test images, but these need to be PNG, not JPEG, and you need installer/tech tools to use them that way.

Some servers are able to play h.264 oder VC1 video, but, usually, not as plain files, only when wrapped DCP style (similar to deprecated MPEG2-Interop), or using streaming methods.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-18-2019, 05:27 PM:

It would be handy if BDs and DVDs (or specific files therein) could be played on a server and even incorporated into a timeline.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 11-18-2019, 06:38 PM:

That would be interesting. Just plug a USB Blu Ray ($25) into the internal server and somehow play stuff off it. You could avoid all the HDMI issues...

Harold

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-18-2019, 07:22 PM:

I always kind of wanted a D-cinema server that would take a Blu-Ray or DVD and make a DCP out of it. It's easy enough to do this on a computer, but a fully automated process (insert disk, wait 12-24 hours, DCP is ready to play) would be so great.

I'm not sure why this isn't a basic function of the equipment.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 11-18-2019, 07:39 PM:

Something like "ingest from DVD."

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 11-18-2019, 08:00 PM:

Such function would only be useful if it could deal with encrypted DVDs and Blurays, and that process is illegal in many countries.

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-18-2019, 08:12 PM:

Basically all countries that have implemented something like the DMCA. But it would sure be great to have something like a DVD/Blu-Ray/external playback solution that could be better tied into a playlist.

I guess once alternative content becomes more of a dominant thing in average cinema operations, those features will eventually materialize. In that case, your playback machine will become more of a central show-controller than just a DCP playback machine.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-19-2019, 09:04 AM:

I would be happy enough if it worked only with unencrypted DVDs and Blu-Rays. The home-made ones that show up for "film" festivals and rentals are usually the most problematic. If there were a dead-simple way to make these into DCPs, that would be good news for everyone.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-19-2019, 09:55 AM:

Its a lot less work to just play it back from a computer via the DVI input. You can use any photo processing program to do it.

Mark

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 11-19-2019, 01:27 PM:

quote: Scott Norwood
I would be happy enough if it worked only with unencrypted DVDs and Blu-Rays. The home-made ones that show up for "film" festivals and rentals are usually the most problematic. If there were a dead-simple way to make these into DCPs, that would be good news for everyone.

This is pretty much exactly how DCP-o-matic started out (hence it's early name DVD-o-matic). You could put a DVD in the drive and press a button and ... something would go wrong. It turns out that writing software for ripping DVD/Blu-Ray is an art all of its own (before you even get onto encryption, unskippable trailers, subtitle and audio track selection, DTS decoding, yada yada yada...)

Posted by Jesse Crooks (Member # 9389) on 11-19-2019, 02:25 PM:

quote: Marcel Birgelen
I guess once alternative content becomes more of a dominant thing in average cinema operations, those features will eventually materialize. In that case, your playback machine will become more of a central show-controller than just a DCP playback machine.

I use the servers for every Blu-ray show. I run a playlist that automates the transition and runs a DCP slide of our theater logo before switching to the Blu-ray. Adjust the cue volume after testing the disc, and all you have to do when it’s time to run the show is press play.

I also use the Blu-ray player to run JPG slides for overtures, intermissions, and entr’actes for our auditoriums that don’t have a screen curtain. I build a playlist that switches from DCP to the Blu-ray player for just picture (ex., when there’s an overture without a title card) or picture and sound (ex., when having to add an intermission between acts). In the case of overtures and entr’actes, using DCP-O-Matic isn’t an option because you need the audio from the feature. Not as good as a curtain, but better than showing a naked screen.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 11-19-2019, 04:03 PM:

Jesse - what Bluray player do you use?

- Carsten

Posted by Jesse Crooks (Member # 9389) on 11-27-2019, 12:20 AM:

Carsten,

We use Oppo Blu-ray players. I believe they’re mostly BDP-103s, with the exception of one of a different model that we bought to have in reserve when they ceased production.