NTFS works on GDC SR1000

[Frank Cox]

I just received some content for a special screening on a NTFS-formatted flash drive. Thinking that I was probably going to have to copy it onto something else, I plugged it into my SR1000 without much hope of being able to read it, and it worked fine.

I'm pretty sure that the last time I plugged a NTFS-formatted flash drive into a GDC server it didn't work. But that was quite a while ago and it works now. At least this time.

[Ryan Gallagher]

NTFS has been the standard for box server ingests for quite some time outside of ext2 CRU drives. It mounts them read-only I would presume.

All our ingest utility USB drives are formatted NTFS on purpose.

[James Gardiner]

NTFS has effectively become a standard and widely recommended file system for the non mainstream market.

For self distributors and emerging filmmakers, it works seamlessly on home computers and allows USB disk copies to be created relatively cheaply and independently, because it simply works, without inode size issues or other Linux formatting complications.

All modern DCI players can read NTFS without issue. However, ext2 remains the specified requirement under ISDCF recommendations.

[Frank Cox]

I'm pretty sure the last time I tried this was quite a few years ago and it was a no-soup-for-you situation. Now I'm wondering if there was some other issue with the flash drive at that time, but on the other hand there's been a lot of updates issued over the years as well.

Now that I know NTFS works it'lll save me doing a lot of explaining or having to re-copy stuff when things like this crop up in the future. "Just copy it onto any old flash drive and hand it to me" is a lot easier to deal with than "Well, the first thing you need to do is format your flash drive...."

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's not just the format of the partition itself that's important, but also the type of partition table. MBR is generally supported, while some older software will have trouble reading GPT partitions. MBR is becoming increasingly challenging, as the maximum partition size is 2TB. While that's large enough for the average DCP, it's a problem for Avatar-alike releases... a 3h+ movie, in 4K, HFR, 3D and 10+ variations.

[Steve Guttag]

The big zingger one is exFAT...that Mac users like to use...those are a no-go on numerous servers. EXT2/EXT3 and NTFS, generally, just work. The fussier servers are dying off through attrition too.

[Leo Enticknap]

All modern DCI players can read NTFS without issue.

Assuming that the other ISDCF requirements are met, most importantly an MBR partition table (not GPT), and the partition holding the DCP content being the only or first one. If you were to buy a typical flash drive from Amazon or Office Depot and just reformat the content partition to NTFS using Windows File Explorer, it probably couldn't be read by a DCP server. Most of these drives come from the factory with a GPT partition table, an EFI partition, and sometimes a small partition before the main one containing crapware. For one of those to work in a DCP server, you'd need to erase it totally (e.g. by a clean command in diskpart if using Windows, or PartEd in Linux), create a new MBR partition table, and then a single content partition.

Agreed with Steve about exFAT. Aggravating the problem is that the popup dialogue in MacOS during the format process informs the user that if they choose to use exFAT, the resulting drive "can be used in any computer" (or words to that effect). What MacOS actually means is "can also be used in a Windows computer." Furthermore, the fact that MacOS can read NTFS but cannot write to it gives Mac users the option of creating drives either as HFS+ or exFAT, neither of which can be read by the vast majority of DCP servers. Dolby DSS servers with the later software versions could read exFAT, but those are the only ones I know of, and are now almost extinct.

[Jim Cassedy]

I've been using NTFS on GDC's and practically all other servers for some years.
Early on in the theatrical conversion to digital technology, I do recall a server or
two which didn't recognize or 'gagged' on NTFS, but I haven't had that happen
in years. Most of the time, when dealing with "home-made" DCP's, during festivals,
the issues I ran into most were people having their DCP nested in a folder that
was a sub-folder of another folder, which also contained copies of their script or
editing notes and other garbage text files. Another big issue was people using
drives that were formatted on a MAC--puter, with one of the MAC IOS's, which,
as far as I know, still can't be recognized by any professional digital cinema server.

That being said, I was formerly a die-hard PC guy, but switched to Mac's of various
types over a decade ago. ( Dolby, where I did a lot of contract work used a lot of
Mac's and I-pads for in their screening rooms and I figured the best way to become
fluent with the Mac IOS was to buy an i-mac and a macbook pro for myself and start
using them at home - - and I've been using them ever since. )

- - but Mac's don't natively 'do' NTFS. So all my mac-machines have a 3rd party
software to read &write NTFS and even EXT-2. But the one bugaboo, is that
mac's will leave behind a couple of extra files on an external or USB DCP drive
when you eject it, that can cause problems with some digital cinema servers.
(Unless that issue has been resolved by now too?) I think the extra files have
something to do with Mac's file indexing system or something. So I also have
a 3rd party 'cleaner' on al my macs, which automatically removes all the extra
mac-stuff when I eject a USB or external hard drive that I use for DCP distribution.
The software program wasn't free, but it was only a few $$ per machine, and I've
found it well worth it.

[Leo Enticknap]

The only operating system I use regularly that can read and write anything is Ubuntu. It installs with the ability to read and write ext2/3/4, all flavors of FAT, and NTFS, and free plugins can be installed to add exFAT and HFS+. For this reason, my computers are dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. There are several software packages I use that are not available for native Linux-based OSes and don't run reliably under WINE, meaning that I can't ditch Windows completely, hence going the dual boot route.

[Tj Hopland]

For spinning drives that were USB powered I think having enough electrical power available was also often an issue with with many of the servers. They would appear to spin up and be 'on' but you would not really get any signs it was working in the server. I assume the solid state drives don't need as much power so that should no longer be an issue.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Out of the box, MacOS X only reads NTFS but doesn't want to write to it, apparently they never bothered to implement full NTFS support, it shouldn't be THAT hard for Apple to do so... I'm using NTFS for Mac and extFS for Mac from Paragon Software and never had any real issues with it. They do cost money, that's the problem if you go commercial software. Mastering DCPs to drive or USB stick is done from Linux systems. Like Leo indicated, they have the proper tools available to both natively mount ext2/ext3 partitions and also read and write NTFS.

As for the GPT v.s. MBR partitions: Any somewhat recent server should nowadays be able to read GPTs. AFAIK, Doremi implemented their patch back in 2011 and the Dolby DSS line of servers got GPT and exFAT support somewhere starting with version 4.7.

[Stefan Scholz]

The SR 1000 could read NTFS, MBR and GPT disks for the tiome I worked with them. EXTFAT was never supported, like anything not Win or Mac, eventually due to licensing reasons.

Another interesting find on my desktop, a Multi CPU core, 512 GB Ram, with a matching Win 11, this could read and write EXT 2/3/4 without need for 3rd party software. And I also remember, my small hp 2 in 1 tablet does on Win 11.
For these Cinema devices, Ext2/3 or NTFS for most.

[Leo Enticknap]

Out of the box, MacOS X only reads NTFS but doesn't want to write to it, apparently they never bothered to implement full NTFS support,

I once read somewhere that read only for NTFS on MacOS is because Apple doesn't want to pay the license fee that Microsoft was demanding for them to implement full read/write capability. However, I would have thought that some versions at least of NTFS are now old enough that the relevant patents have expired.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah I wouldn't be trusting/relying on client NTFS drives (unless they are a studio, distributor, or festival team) without adequate time to transfer if they have the wrong partition table, as others have pointed out. But it does save time when things all line up for ya!

[James Gardiner]

There are large content service entities that use NTFS for DCP distribution in my region. You don't get much more of a approval stamp then that.

Yes, you need to completely wipe and creat the basic MBR partition table. But thats a given.