MAKING DCP's and 3D - Craig Lees, 3D Stories.

1. MAKING DCP's and 3D - Craig Lees, 3D Stories
What is a DCP?
A collection of digital files used to store and convey Digital CInema audio, image and
data streams. Designed and defined by the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI).
The DCP root folder (in the storage medium) contains a number of files, some
used to store the image and audio contents, and some others used to
organise and manage the whole playlist.
DCP Video & Audio
These are contained in Material Exchange Format (MXF) that are compressed,
encoded & encrypted. The images are JPEG2000 compression.
Audio is Linear PCM.
Picture Files and Supported Frame Rates
Maximum Frame Sizes
2048x1080 @ 2K
4096 x 2160 @ 4K
Frame Rates
24 & 48 fps @ 2K
24 & 48 fps @ 2K stereoscopic
24 @ 4K
Aspect ratios
Flat (1998x1080 or 3996x2160) - 1.85:1
Scope (2048x858 or 4096x1716) - 2.35:1
HDTV (1920x1080 or 3840x2160) 16:9
FULL (2048x1080 or 4096x2160) - 1.9:1 - Official name by DCI is FULL
CONTAINER
XYZ colour space
Maximum Bit Rate is 250 Mbit/s (1.3 MBytes per frame at 24 fps)
Sound
Sample rate is 48k or 96k

2. sample precision 24bits
Linear mapping
Up to 16 independent channels
Asset Map File
List of all files included in the DCP, in XML format
Composition Playlist File
Defines the playback order during presentation. The order is saved in XML format.
Packing List File
All files in the composition are hashed and their hash is stored here in XML format.
This file is generally used during ingest in a digital cinema server to verify if data
have been corrupted or tampered with in some way.
Volume Index File
A single DCP may be stored in more than one medium (e.g. multiple hard disks). The
xml file VOLINDEX is used to identify the volume in the series.
3D DCP
The DCP format is also used to store stereoscopic contents. In this case, 48 fps exist
for every second - 24 for the L eye, 24 for the R eye.
Depending on the projection system used, the L & R eye pictures are either shown
alternatively (double or triple flash systems) at 48fps or, on 4K systems, both L & R
eye pictures are shown simultaneously, one above the other at 24fps.
Since the maximum bit rate is always 250 Mbit/s, this results in a net 125 Mbit/s for
single frame but the visual quality decrease is generally unnoticeable.
DCP Creation
Most film producers and distributors rely on digital cinema encoding facilities to
produce and quality control check a digital cinema package before release. Facilities
follow strict guidelines set out in the DCI recommendations to ensure compatibility
with all digital cinema equipment.
For bigger studio release films, the facility will usually create a DCDM (Digital
Cinema Distribution Master).
A DCDM is the post-production step prior to a DCP. The frames are in XYZ TIFF
format and both sound and picture are not yet wrapped into MXF files. For smaller
release films, the facility will usually skip the creation of the DCDM and encode from

3. the DSM (Digital Source Master), the original material, which can be supplied in a
multitude of formats and colour spaces. For this reason the encoding facility needs to
have extensive knowledge in colour space handling including, on occasion, the use
of 3D LUTs to carefully match the look of the finished DCP to a celluloid film print.
QC checks are performed in calibrated cinemas and often attended by colourists,
directors, sound mixers.
DCP Encryption
The AES encryption is applied to all MXF files. The encryption keys are generated
and transmitted via a KDM (Key Delivery Message) to the projection site. KDMs are
XML files containing encryption keys that can be used only by the destination device.
A KDM is associated to each playlist and defines the start and stop times of validity
for the projection of that particular feature.
DCP Delivery Methods
The most common method uses a specialist hard disk designed for digital cinema
servers to ingest from. The hard drives are usually formatted in Linux EXT2 or EXT3
format as digital cinema servers are typically Linux based are are required to have
read support for these systems. Also, NTFS and FAT32 are occasionally used.
NTFS USB Sticks are a great universal format for delivery to different brands of
digital cinema servers (Doremi, Dolby, Sony etc).
DCP and KDM Creation Tools
Doremi CineAsset - Plus a Final Cut Pro plugin has been released (PC & mac)
DVS Clipster (PC)
Cute DCP - New plugin for Adobe After Effects (PC & mac)
DCP Builder - Open Source (PC & mac)
DCP Tool (PC)
Dietrich (Linux)
DVD-o-Matic - Open Source (PC & soon mac)
easyDCP by Fraunhoffer (PC & mac) - license based and now works with Davinci
Resolve
FinalDCP (PC & mac)
OpenDCP - Open Source (PC & mac) - great tutorial and info here:
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/07/project-in-digital-theater-make-digital-cinema-
package-for-cheap-with-opendcp/
Dolby SCC2000 (linux)
QubeMaster (PC & mac)
OpenCubeDCP - Open Source
DCP Creation for Independent Filmmakers

4. It is very possible to now not pay a facility to make your DCP for you as long as you
know what you're doing.
Here are some tricks.
25 to 24 AV
With 25fps material, you will need to convert or conform your AV to 24fps base.
Some servers / cinemas say that they can do 25fps but my experience has shown
that this is not the case.
To do a 25 to 24 conform picture-wise it is very easy.
On Mac, open FCP7, Tools Window, Conform 25 to 24. Done.
Now this will make your film shorter (by 1/25th) which will put your audio out of sync.
Quick method is to change the speed of your audio to 96% in the timeline but this is
not best practice as you are doing this process based on speed as opposed to time.
ProTools and other audio programs are much better at doing this as you lip-sync will
be far more accurate.
Here are instructions on how to do the 25fps to 24fps conversion for an audio
file in Pro Tools. The instructions apply to Pro Tools 10, so some minor details
may be different in earlier versions:
25 to 24 audio conform in ProTools
• To convert audio from 25fps to 24fps, the file must be lengthened without changing
pitch.
• To do this you set up a Pro Tools project and put the audio track to be converted
onto the timeline.
• Then click in the track to be converted to select it and choose 'Pitch Shift' from the
AudioSuite pull down menu.
• This will open a floating AudioSuite window with four labelled sections: AUDIO,
TIME, TRANSIENT and PITCH.
• Click in the SPEED box in the TIME section and make it indicate 96%.
• This will increase the length by exactly the right amount without changing the pitch
of the audio. Then hit return/enter.
• The file in the timeline will then jump to its new increased length.
• Then bounce the track to disc to generate the required WAV file.
DIY DCP Mastering
• Use proven Open Source Software. This is much easier on Windows where
programs such as OpenDCP are now quite good as they have been around
for a while or on a small budget, you can buy programs such as Final DCP
which are very good or Doremi CineAsset which is excellent.

5. • Remember to convert your colour space to XYZ! You can do this from any colour
grading software such as DaVinci Resolve, Speedgrade, FilmMaster,
Baselight, Mistika etc.
• TIFF image sequences, though big in size, are best practice. DPX is also very
good if your software can accept the format. Avoid Video codecs IF you can
(such as Quicktime/DNXHD).
• Copy your DCP onto an NTFS USB. This is a universal fail safe option to get your
film on ANY Digital Cinema Server. You can buy 256GB USB Sticks from
Amazon which will easily fit a 3 hour 2K film @ 250MBit/s.
• Get friendly with your local digital cinema staff (particularly the manager and
projectionist) and they may well let you test a short sample of your film on
their system between screenings. Sometimes this might involve a small fee or
a big crate of beer! Avoid asking big commercial chains though such as
Odeon, IMAX, VUE as they may not be so willing.
DIY 3D DCP Mastering
Some programs such as CineASSET from Doremi require you to split the L&R eyes
sequentially as an interleaved pattern, i.e.:
Your original stereoscopic rendered .tif image sequences for L&R eyes will look
something like:
YourMovieL_01.tif
YourMovieL_02.tif
YourMovieL_03.tif
...
YourMovieR_01.tif
YourMovieR_02.tif
YourMovieR_03.tif
These will need to be renamed as:
YourMovieL_00.tif
YourMovieR_01.tif
YourMovieL_02.tif
YourMovieR_03.tif
To do this, there are some programs which can simplify the process:
On Mac you can use automater to rename files adding numbers at the end. When
you rename the Left eye use even numbers (start at zero and increment by 2), when
you do the right do the odd numbers starting at 1.
On PC you can use XN View or Bulk Rename Utility which has a batch rename
feature to do the same thing.