DCP from a 4K UHD blu-ray

**Carsten Kurz** · 07-20-2022, 06:28 PM

Not a good idea. Do you have a 4k projector at all? I did some tests, and so far, DCP-o-matic is not able to convert the specific UHD/HDR color gamut to a DCP properly. These discs are usually mastered in order to be played back on UHD-TVs with brightness metadata (static or dynamic). So far, DCP-o-matic has no means to emulate this color rendering. You will get a washed out image with dull highlights.

My suggestion is, either get the standard Bluray and convert that, or, get an UHD Player and connect it to your projector for realtime playout. The player will usually detect a non-UHD/HDR capable display, and try it's best to render the UHD colors. This, of course, needs a test before the showing, while the standard Bluray->DCP conversion is straight forward.

Another costly option/improvement is a HDFury Vertex or Vertex 2. But that is nothing for just a single show.

**James Gardiner** · 07-20-2022, 07:40 PM

If you can import into resolve and now your colour space, this should work very well.. Then render from Resolve at 4x the speed of DCP-O-Matic, but you need the studio version.

**Thomas Piccione** · 07-20-2022, 07:48 PM

I've done this a few times. It is possible, but it has a couple pitfalls. Yes, MakeMKV works great to rip the MKV off the disc, but you need to have a compatible drive. MakeMKV has a list of compatible drives, I have a LG WH14NS40 that I flashed with custom firmware (follow this guide).

That part is usually pretty straightforward, the issues may come in once you try to make it a DCP. Some 4K blurays are *barely* HDR and converting them straight out of MakeMKV with DCP-o-Matic works just fine. Some do actually take advantage of the HDR gamut and will look totally wrong and very washed out. There's 2 ways I've handled this before, and they both work, but there's a higher effort, higher quality path, and a lower effort, lower quality path.

The easier way: Transcode the MKV file in handbrake, and enable the BT. 709 color space filter. Then use that in DCP-o-Matic. This works pretty well for some movies, and only OK for others.

The harder way: Color space transform in Davinci Resolve. This is a much more powerful, albeit much more involved method, but it will allow you to get the image looking exactly how you want it. There are several guides on how to do this which will serve you better than me struggling to explain it.

Neither of these are technically "kosher", but they will get the job done.

**Ioannis Syrogiannis** · 07-21-2022, 03:13 AM

Originally posted by Thomas Piccione

[...]
The harder way: Color space transform in Davinci Resolve. This is a much more powerful, albeit much more involved method, but it will allow you to get the image looking exactly how you want it. There are several guides on how to do this which will serve you better than me struggling to explain it.
[...]

Thomas, did you follow one of those guides? Would you like to share?
And, when you write "looking exactly how you want it" (underlining by me), do you mean that you have to make decisions between different outlooks and/or different parts of the video?

**Marcel Birgelen** · 07-21-2022, 03:43 AM

The 4K BluRay of Blade Runner 2049 is very much HDR... So, do youself a favor and get a NON-HDR version, as most home-made conversions are pretty bad.

We've played the HDR version on a Panasonic PT-RQ22K (a large-venue 3DLP phosphor laser machine), directly from the BluRay in several private showings and the HDR picture was pretty awesome, beats anything your average 2K DCI projector would churn out and this is coming from a "lowly" BluRay format, made for home-consumption.