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11 <book xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
14 <title>DCP-o-matic users' manual</title>
15 <author><firstname>Carl</firstname><surname>Hetherington</surname></author>
18 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
19 <title>Introduction</title>
22 Hello, and welcome to DCP-o-matic!
25 <!-- ============================================================== -->
27 <title>What is DCP-o-matic?</title>
29 <para>DCP-o-matic is a set of tools to allow you to:</para>
32 <listitem>Create <ulink
33 url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package">Digital
34 Cinema Packages</ulink> (DCPs) from video, audio, subtitle and closed-caption files.</listitem>
35 <listitem>Play and verify DCPs (see <xref linkend="ch-player"/> and <xref linkend="ch-verifier"/>).</listitem>
36 <listitem>Create KDMs for DCPs (see <xref linkend="ch-encryption"/>).</listitem>
37 <listitem>Write cinema-format drives containing DCPs (see <xref linkend="ch-writer"/>).</listitem>
43 <!-- ============================================================== -->
45 <title>Licence</title>
48 DCP-o-matic is free and open-source and is licensed under the <ulink
49 url="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU
56 <!-- ============================================================== -->
58 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
61 This manual uses icons from the <ulink url="http://tango.freedesktop.org/">Tango Desktop Project</ulink>, with thanks.
66 <!-- ============================================================== -->
68 <title>This manual</title>
71 This manual presents bits of DCP-o-matic's user interface (such as menu items or buttons) <guilabel>like this</guilabel>.
75 Notes of an advanced nature are presented like this. Ignore them unless you want to know the details.
82 <!-- ============================================================== -->
83 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
84 <title>Installation</title>
87 <!-- ============================================================== -->
89 <title>Windows</title>
92 To install DCP-o-matic on Windows, download the installer from
93 <ulink url="https://dcpomatic.com/">https://dcpomatic.com/</ulink>
94 and double-click it. Click through the installer wizard, and
95 DCP-o-matic will be installed onto your machine.
99 Use the 64-bit installer unless you are using a 32-bit version of Windows.
100 You may find that DCP-o-matic crashes if run the 32-bit version on a CPU with more than 4 cores.
106 <!-- ============================================================== -->
111 DCP-o-matic versions 2.16.0 and higher will run on macOS version 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and
112 higher. DCP-o-matic is split into eight separate applications, each of
113 which can be installed by downloading the <code>.dmg</code>,
114 double-clicking to open and then dragging the icon to your
115 <guilabel>Applications</guilabel> folder.
119 If you don't know which parts of DCP-o-matic to install, start
120 with the first (main) part.
124 If you are using macOS 10.7 (Lion) or older you will need to install the latest 2.14.x version of DCP-o-matic.
129 <!-- ============================================================== -->
131 <title>Debian, Ubuntu and Mint Linux</title>
133 <para>There are <code>.deb</code> packages for Debian, Ubuntu and Mint on
134 <ulink url="https://dcpomatic.com/">https://dcpomatic.com/</ulink>
137 <!-- ============================================================== -->
140 <!-- ============================================================== -->
142 <title>Fedora, Centos and Mageia Linux</title>
144 <para>There are <code>.rpm</code> packages for Fedora, Centos and Mageia on
145 <ulink url="https://dcpomatic.com/">https://dcpomatic.com/</ulink>
148 <!-- ============================================================== -->
150 <!-- ============================================================== -->
152 <title>Arch Linux</title>
154 Packages for Arch Linux are available from <ulink
155 url="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dcpomatic/">https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dcpomatic/</ulink>,
156 thanks to Stefan Karner.
161 <title>Building from source</title>
163 Since DCP-o-matic is open-source you can also build it yourself,
164 though this can be quite a difficult process (especially on Windows and macOS).
165 There are instructions for how to do it on <ulink url="https://dcpomatic.com/building">https://dcpomatic.com/building</ulink>
173 <!-- ============================================================== -->
174 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
175 <title>Creating a DCP from a video</title>
178 In this chapter we will see how to create a DCP from a video file using
179 DCP-o-matic. We will gloss over the details and look at the basics.
183 <title>Creating a new film</title>
186 Let's make a very simple DCP to see how DCP-o-matic works. First, we
187 need some content. Download the low-resolution trailer for the open
188 movie <ulink url="http://sintel.org/">Sintel</ulink> from <ulink
189 url="https://download.blender.org/durian/trailer/Sintel_Trailer.480p.DivX_Plus_HD.mkv">their
190 website</ulink>. Generally one would want to use the
191 highest-resolution material available, but for this test we will use
192 the low-resolution version to save on download time.
196 Now, start DCP-o-matic and its window will open. First, we will
197 create a new ‘film’. A ‘film’ is how DCP-o-matic refers to
198 some pieces of content, along with some settings, which we will make into
199 a DCP. DCP-o-matic stores its ‘film’ data in a folder on your disk while it
204 You can create a new film by selecting
205 <guilabel>New</guilabel> from the <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu, as
206 shown in <xref linkend="fig-file-new"/>.
209 <figure id="fig-file-new">
210 <title>Creating a new film</title>
213 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/file-new&scs;"/>
219 This will open a dialogue box for the new film, as shown in <xref
220 linkend="fig-video-new-film"/>.
223 <figure id="fig-video-new-film">
224 <title>Dialogue box for creating a new film</title>
227 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/new-film&scs;"/>
233 In this dialogue box you can choose a name for the film. This will be
234 used to name the folder to store its data in, and also as the initial
235 name for the DCP itself. You can also choose where you want to create
236 the film. In the example from the figure, DCP-o-matic will create a
237 folder called ‘DCP Test’ inside my existing folder <code>DCP</code> into which it
238 will write its working files.
242 DCPs can be very large (more than 100Gb for a feature-length DCP) so
243 it's important to choose a folder on a disk with plenty of free space.
249 <!-- ============================================================== -->
251 <title>Adding content</title>
254 The next step is to add the content that you want to use. DCP-o-matic
255 can make DCPs from multiple pieces of content, but in this example we
256 will use a single piece. Click the <guilabel>Add
257 file(s)...</guilabel> button, as shown in <xref
258 linkend="fig-add-file"/>, and a file chooser will open for you to
259 select the content file to use, as shown in <xref
260 linkend="fig-video-select-content-file"/>.
263 <figure id="fig-add-file">
264 <title>Adding content files</title>
267 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/add-file&scs;"/>
272 <figure id="fig-video-select-content-file">
273 <title>Selecting a video content file</title>
276 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/video-select-content-file&scs;"/>
282 Select your content file and click <guilabel>Open</guilabel>. In this
283 case we are using the Sintel trailer that we downloaded earlier.
287 When you do this, DCP-o-matic will take a look at your file. After a
288 short while (when the progress bar at the bottom right of the window
289 has finished), you can look through your content using the slider to
290 the right of the window, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-examine-content"/>.
293 <figure id="fig-examine-content">
294 <title>Examining the content</title>
297 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/examine-content&scs;"/>
303 Dragging the slider will move through your video. You can also click
304 the <guilabel>Play</guilabel> button to play the content back.
312 <!-- ============================================================== -->
314 <title>Making the DCP</title>
316 <para>In most cases, some adjustments would be made to DCP-o-matic's
317 settings once the content has been added. For our simple test,
318 however, the default values will suffice, so we can go straight onto
319 making the DCP.</para>
322 Choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> from the
323 <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu. DCP-o-matic will encode your DCP.
324 This may take some time (many hours in some cases). While the job is
325 in progress, DCP-o-matic will update you on how it is getting on with
326 the progress bar in the bottom of its window, as shown in <xref
327 linkend="fig-making-dcp"/>.
330 <figure id="fig-making-dcp">
331 <title>Making the DCP</title>
334 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/making-dcp&scs;"/>
340 When it has finished, the DCP will be written into its own folder inside the film's folder.
341 You can copy this to a projector via a USB stick, hard-drive or network connection. See <xref
342 linkend="ch-files"/> for details about the files that DCP-o-matic creates.
346 Alternatively, DCP-o-matic can upload your DCP directly to a projector
347 or Theatre Management System (TMS) that is accessible via SCP or FTP
348 across your network. See <xref linkend="sec-prefs-tms"/>.
355 <!-- ============================================================== -->
356 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
357 <title>Creating a DCP from a still image</title>
360 DCP-o-matic can also be used to create DCPs of one or more still images, perhaps
361 for an advertisement or an on-screen announcement. This chapter shows you
366 As with DCPs made from video files, the first step is to create a new
367 ‘Film’; select <guilabel>New</guilabel> from the
368 <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu and the new film dialogue will open as
369 shown in <xref linkend="fig-still-new-film"/>.
372 <figure id="fig-still-new-film">
373 <title>Dialogue box for creating a new film</title>
376 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/new-film&scs;"/>
382 Enter a name and click <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. Now we need to add
383 the content. As before, click <guilabel>Add file(s)...</guilabel>.
384 For our example, we will add a single image file, as shown in <xref
385 linkend="fig-still-select-content-file"/>.
388 <figure id="fig-still-select-content-file">
389 <title>Selecting a still content file</title>
392 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/still-select-content-file&scs;"/>
398 Most of the default settings will be fine for a simple test. The one
399 thing that you might wish to change is the length of the still.
400 Select the <guilabel>Timing</guilabel> tab and you will see a
401 <guilabel>Full length</guilabel> setting, as shown in <xref
402 linkend="fig-timing-tab"/>.
405 <figure id="fig-timing-tab">
406 <title>The timing tab</title>
409 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/timing-tab&scs;"/>
415 This length is a ‘timecode’: it consists of four numbers.
416 The first is hours, the second minutes, the third seconds, and the
417 fourth frames. Enter the duration that you want and then click <guilabel>Set</guilabel>.
421 Finally, as with video, you can choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel>
422 from the <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu to create your DCP. This will
423 be much quicker than creating a DCP from a video file, as DCP-o-matic only needs
424 to encode a single frame which it can then repeat.
430 <!-- ============================================================== -->
431 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en" id="ch-manipulating-existing-dcps">
432 <title>Manipulating existing DCPs</title>
435 DCP-o-matic is often used to take content in formats such as MP4 and
436 make it into a DCP. It can also be used to take existing DCPs and
437 modify them in various ways.
441 <title>Importing a DCP into DCP-o-matic</title>
444 The first step in manipulating an existing DCP is to import it. Click
445 <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> and select your DCP's folder. It will
446 be added to the DCP-o-matic project. If the DCP is unencrypted you
447 can preview it in the normal way, though playback may be slow as
448 decoding of DCPs is almost as computationally intensive as encoding
453 If your DCP is a Version File (VF) (i.e. it refers to
454 another DCP's assets) you should import it as follows:
458 <listitem>Use <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> to import the VF DCP.
459 The VF DCP will be added to the content list and marked “NEEDS
460 OV”.</listitem>
461 <listitem>Right-click on the VF DCP in the content list and choose <guilabel>Add OV...</guilabel> from the menu.</listitem>
462 <listitem>Choose the folder that contains the OV DCP. The VF will now be playable as normal.</listitem>
468 <section xml:id="sec-decrypting">
469 <title>Decrypting encrypted DCPs</title>
472 DCPs can be encrypted (see <xref linkend="ch-encryption"/> for
473 details). If you import an encrypted DCP you will need a key, in the
474 form of a Key Delivery Message (KDM), to decrypt it.
478 KDMs must be prepared by whoever created the DCP. They
479 contain the keys to decrypt the DCP wrapped up in such a way that only
480 the intended recipient can read them. You will need to provide the
481 KDM creator with a certificate which identifies your copy of
482 DCP-o-matic and allows them to create a KDM for you.
486 To get DCP-o-matic's decryption certificate, open the Preferences
487 dialogue (see <xref linkend="ch-preferences"/>) and go to the
488 <guilabel>Keys</guilabel> tab. Click the <guilabel>Export DCP
489 decryption certificate...</guilabel> button at the bottom of this tab
490 and save the certificate. Send this certificate to the KDM creators
491 and they can make a KDM to allow DCP-o-matic to decrypt the DCP.
495 Once you have your KDM, right-click the DCP's name in the DCP-o-matic content list and
496 choose <guilabel>Add KDM...</guilabel>. Select your KDM and the DCP
497 will be decrypted and become available for preview.
504 <title>Making a DCP from a DCP</title>
507 In many ways, using DCPs as <emphasis>content</emphasis> in
508 DCP-o-matic is the same as using any other content. There are a few
509 things to note, though.
514 <title>Re-use of existing data</title>
517 Where possible DCP-o-matic will re-use existing JPEG2000-compressed
518 data from DCP content without modification. This has the advantage
519 that creation of the new DCP will be quick, as the time-consuming
520 JPEG2000 encoding is not necessary.
524 DCP-o-matic can do this if you <emphasis>avoid</emphasis> changes to
525 the following content settings:
529 <listitem>Crop</listitem>
530 <listitem>Scaling</listitem>
531 <listitem>Subtitle burn-in</listitem>
532 <listitem>Fades</listitem>
533 <listitem>Colour conversion</listitem>
537 DCP-o-matic will be forced to decode and re-encode your JPEG2000 data
538 if you change any of these settings on a piece of DCP content.
544 <section xml:id="sec-overlay">
545 <title>Making overlay files</title>
548 With its default settings, DCP-o-matic will take any data from DCP
549 content and copy it into the DCP that it creates. See <xref linkend="fig-dcp-copy"/>.
552 <figure id="fig-dcp-copy">
553 <title>Creating a new DCP by copying an existing one</title>
554 <mediaobject><imageobject><imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/dcp-copy&dia;"/></imageobject></mediaobject>
558 This can be inefficient in some cases. Consider, for example, a film
559 which has ten different translations for which the subtitles are
560 different but video and audio are the same. If the video and audio
561 content takes up, say, 100Gb this means that the set of DCPs for every
562 translation would be about 1Tb, with a lot of duplicated data.
566 The DCP format has a solution to this problem. One DCP can refer to
567 the ‘assets’ (picture, sound or subtitle) of another DCP.
568 For our translation example this means that we could have a
569 ‘base’ DCP (often called the OV or Original Version)
570 containing video, audio and one set of subtitles and then any number
571 of overlay DCPs (often called VF or Version Files) which refer to the
572 base version and replace the original subtitles with their own. <xref
573 linkend="fig-dcp-refer"/> shows this principle for one of our
574 translations. The DCP that we make refers to the original content
575 DCP's video and audio rather than containing a copy.
578 <figure id="fig-dcp-refer">
579 <title>Creating a new DCP by referring to an existing one</title>
580 <mediaobject><imageobject><imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/dcp-refer&dia;"/></imageobject></mediaobject>
584 To play back the subtitled DCP the projectionist ingests both the base
585 (OV) DCP and the overlay (VF) DCP, then plays the VF one.
589 To make a DCP like this:
593 <listitem>Import your ‘Content DCP’ to a DCP-o-matic project.</listitem>
594 <listitem>Add whatever replacement you want in your new DCP (replacement subtitles or audio files, for example).</listitem>
595 <listitem>Select the DCP in the content list</listitem>
596 <listitem>Tick the <guilabel>Use's this DCP's ... as OV and make VF</guilabel> checkbox
597 in the tabs for the parts of the DCP that you want to refer to in your
598 new DCP. For example, to refer to the Content DCP's video and audio you would select the <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab, click <guilabel>Use this DCP's video as OV and make VF</guilabel> then select the <guilabel>Audio</guilabel> tab and click <guilabel>Use this DCP's audio as OV and make VF</guilabel>.</listitem>
599 <listitem>Do <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> as usual and your VF DCP will be created.</listitem>
609 <!-- ============================================================== -->
612 <!-- ============================================================== -->
613 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
614 <title>Content settings</title>
617 The previous chapters showed DCP generation using the default
618 settings. DCP-o-matic offers a range of features to adjust the
619 content that goes into your DCP, and this chapter describes those
624 <title>Adding and removing content</title>
627 At the top of the <guilabel>Content</guilabel> tab is a list of the
628 content that will go into our DCP. There can be as many pieces of
629 content as you like, and they can be of the following types:
633 <listitem>Movie — a file containing some video, probably some
634 audio and possibly some embedded subtitles; for example, a MOV, MP4 or VOB.
637 <listitem>Sound — a file containing one or more channels of
638 audio; for example, a WAV or AIFF file.
641 <listitem>Still image — a file containing a single still image; for
642 example, a JPEG, PNG or TIFF file.
645 <listitem>Moving image — a directory containing many still
646 images which should be treated as the frames of a video.
649 <listitem>Subtitle — a file containing subtitles which will be
650 superimposed on the image of the DCP. These can be
651 <guilabel>.srt</guilabel>, <guilabel>.ssa</guilabel>, <guilabel>.ass</guilabel> or <guilabel>.xml</guilabel>
652 files. Subtitle files can also be used to make closed captions.</listitem>
654 <listitem>DCP — an existing DCP.</listitem>
656 <listitem>ATMOS MXFs — if you have Dolby ATMOS content in MXF format (created using Dolby's tools) you can add it to a DCP just like any other content.</listitem>
660 To add one or more movie, sound, still-image or subtitle files, select
661 <guilabel>Add file(s)...</guilabel> and choose them from the selector.
665 DCP-o-matic will automatically map a set of audio files to the correct channels if you include appropriate ‘tags’ in your filenames, as shown in <xref linkend="tab-audio-file-naming"/>.
668 <table id="tab-audio-file-naming">
669 <title>Audio file naming</title>
670 <tgroup cols='3' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
674 <entry>Examples</entry>
675 <entry>Channel</entry>
680 <entry><code>L</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
681 <entry>film-L.wav my_movie_L_final.wav</entry>
685 <entry><code>R</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
686 <entry>film-R.wav my_movie_R_final.wav</entry>
690 <entry><code>C</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
691 <entry>film-C.wav my_movie_C_final.wav</entry>
692 <entry>Centre</entry>
695 <entry><code>Lfe</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
696 <entry>film-Lfe.wav my_movie_Lfe_final.wav</entry>
697 <entry>LFE (sub)</entry>
700 <entry><code>Ls</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
701 <entry>film-Ls.wav my_movie_Ls_final.wav</entry>
702 <entry>Left surround</entry>
705 <entry><code>Rs</code> surrounded by <code>.</code> <code>_</code> or <code>-</code></entry>
706 <entry>film-Rs.wav my_movie_Rs_final.wav</entry>
707 <entry>Right surround</entry>
714 To add a directory (folder) of images, choose <guilabel>Add
715 folder...</guilabel> and choose the directory from the selector.
716 DCP-o-matic will open a small dialogue box where you can enter the
717 frame rate that the image sequence should be run at.
721 To add a DCP, choose <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> and choose the
722 DCP's directory from the selector.
726 You can remove a piece of content by clicking on its name and then
727 clicking the <guilabel>Remove</guilabel> button.
732 <!-- ============================================================== -->
734 <title>Adding existing DCPs</title>
736 <para>Adding existing DCPs to a DCP-o-matic film is a little different
737 to adding other types of content. Most content has to be converted to
738 JPEG2000 (the compression scheme used by DCPs) which is a very
739 time-consuming process. Existing DCPs are already in JPEG2000 format
740 so do not require conversion. This means that, provided no settings
741 such as crop are used on the DCP content, picture and sound data will
742 be passed from existing to new DCP unaltered.
745 <para>Encrypted DCPs that are added as content will require a KDM
746 targeted at DCP-o-matic so that DCP-o-matic can decrypt them. You
747 should ask the creator of the imported DCP to provide a KDM for
748 DCP-o-matic's decryption certificate, which can be obtained by
749 clicking <guilabel>Export DCP decryption certificate...</guilabel>
750 from the <guilabel>Keys</guilabel> tab of the
751 <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> dialog (see <xref
752 linkend="sec-prefs-keys"/>).
757 <!-- ============================================================== -->
759 <title>Content properties</title>
762 Below the content list are the controls to set content properties. To
763 adjust the properties for a piece of content, click its name in the
764 content list. The content property controls will then become active
765 for that piece of content.
769 If you want to change the properties for multiple pieces of content at
770 the same time, select the content in the list by clicking the first
771 piece then clicking the other pieces with <keycap>shift</keycap> key
772 held down. Note that not all settings can be changed in this way.
776 The content properties are split up into four sections:
777 <guilabel>Video</guilabel>, <guilabel>Audio</guilabel>,
778 <guilabel>Timed text</guilabel> and <guilabel>Timing</guilabel>. Not
779 all of these sections will be active for all content types. The controls
780 in each section are described below.
786 <!-- ============================================================== -->
791 The <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab controls properties of the image, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-video-tab"/>.
794 <figure id="fig-video-tab">
795 <title>Video settings tab</title>
798 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/video-tab&scs;"/>
804 <!-- ============================================================== -->
806 <title>Use this DCP's video as OV and make VF</title>
809 This option is only available if the selected content is an existing
810 DCP. It allows you make a VF DCP, using the video content from the
811 existing DCP by referencing it (rather than copying). See <xref
812 linkend="sec-overlay"/>.
817 <!-- ============================================================== -->
819 <title>Image type</title>
822 The next option on this tab is the ‘type’ of the video.
823 This specifies how DCP-o-matic should interpret the video's image.
824 <guilabel>2D</guilabel> is the default; this just takes the video
825 image as a standard 2D frame. The <guilabel>3D
826 left/right</guilabel> option tells DCP-o-matic to interpret the frame as a
827 left-right pair, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-3d-left-right"/>.
830 <figure id="fig-3d-left-right">
831 <title>3D left/right image type</title>
834 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/3d-left-right&dia;"/>
840 Alternatively the <guilabel>3D top/bottom</guilabel> option tells
841 DCP-o-matic to see the frame as a top-bottom pair, as shown in <xref
842 linkend="fig-3d-top-bottom"/>.
845 <figure id="fig-3d-top-bottom">
846 <title>3D top/bottom image type</title>
849 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/3d-top-bottom&dia;"/>
855 Another option is <guilabel>3D alternate</guilabel> which takes the
856 first frame of the content as for the left eye, the second for the
857 right eye, the third for the left, and so on. Finally, you can
858 specify <guilabel>3D left only</guilabel> or <guilabel>3D right
859 only</guilabel> if this content contains only the the left or right
860 eye images. This is useful when you have the left and right eye image
861 sets in different files; you can specify one content as <guilabel>3D
862 left only</guilabel> and another as <guilabel>3D right only</guilabel>
863 and DCP-o-matic will pick up the appropriate frames from each.
869 <!-- ============================================================== -->
871 <title>Colour conversion</title>
874 The <guilabel>Colour conversion</guilabel> setting specifies what
875 colour transforms and gamma correction DCP-o-matic will use when
876 converting the selected content into the XYZ colourspace for the DCP.
880 In particular, the setting you choose here should be the colour space <emphasis>that the content
881 has been created or graded for</emphasis>. DCP-o-matic will take care of converting your content's
882 colourspace into the correct one for the DCP.
886 The easiest way to select the required conversion is to choose one of
887 DCP-o-matic's presets. DCP-o-matic knows how to convert from seven
888 common colourspaces: sRGB, Rec. 601, Rec. 709, Rec. 1886, Rec. 2020, S-Gamut3 and P3. If you do not
889 know which preset you should use, refer to the suggestions in <xref
890 linkend="tab-colour-conversion"/>.
893 <table id="tab-colour-conversion">
894 <title>Suggested colour conversion settings</title>
895 <tgroup cols='2' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
896 <colspec colwidth='1*'/>
897 <colspec colwidth='5*'/>
900 <entry>sRGB</entry><entry>Still images in RGB, e.g. photographs.</entry>
903 <entry>Rec. 601</entry><entry>Standard-definition content (fewer than about 1000 pixels across) including DVD rips.</entry>
906 <entry>Rec. 709</entry><entry>High-definition content including Blu-Ray rips.</entry>
909 <entry>P3</entry><entry>Content explicitly graded to P3.</entry>
916 For other required colour conversions, and if you know what you are
917 doing, you can choose <guilabel>Custom</guilabel> which will open the full
918 colour conversion editing dialogue box:
921 <figure id="fig-colour-conversion">
922 <title>Dialogue box for custom colour conversion</title>
925 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/colour-conversion&scs;"/>
931 Alternatively, choose <guilabel>None</guilabel> if your source files
932 are already in the XYZ colour space and require no conversion.
936 DCP-o-matic's colour conversion processes are discussed in much more
937 detail in a separate document <ulink
938 url="https://dcpomatic.com/manual/colour.pdf">colour.pdf</ulink>.
943 <!-- ============================================================== -->
945 <title>Other settings</title>
948 The <guilabel>crop</guilabel> settings can be used to crop your
949 content, which is often used to remove black borders from the edges of
950 the image. The specified number of pixels will be trimmed from each
951 edge, and the content image in the right of the window will be updated
952 to show the effect of the crop.
956 The <guilabel>fade in</guilabel> and <guilabel>fade out</guilabel>
957 settings can be used to apply linear fades into and out of a piece of
958 content. Specify the time for each, clicking <guilabel>Set</guilabel>
959 after making any changes.
963 The <guilabel>Scale</guilabel> option governs the shape that
964 DCP-o-matic will scale the content's image into. In most cases <guilabel>to fit DCP</guilabel> will do the right thing; if not, choose <guilabel>custom</guilabel>
965 and you can specify exactly how the image should be scaled.
970 <!-- ============================================================== -->
972 <title>Video description</title>
975 At the bottom of the video tab is a short description of what will
976 happen to your video with the current settings. In the example of
977 <xref linkend="fig-video-tab"/>, DCP-o-matic is telling you that the
978 video file is 720x576 pixels and has rectangular pixels (a pixel
979 aspect ratio of 1.42:1) and so its display aspect ratio is 1.78:1. Since
980 the controls specify <guilabel>to fit DCP</guilabel> DCP-o-matic scales the image
981 to 1918x1080 and pads it to the DCP's container ratio of 1.85:1 (called ‘DCI Flat’). For a 2K DCP this is 1998x1080 pixels.
985 This description also gives the frame rate of the content and what
986 will happen to it when it is played at the DCP's frame rate. See
987 <xref linkend="ch-frame-rates"/> for details of DCP-o-matic's
988 frame-rate conversion.
996 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1001 The <guilabel>Audio</guilabel> tab controls properties of the sound, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-audio-tab"/>.
1004 <figure id="fig-audio-tab">
1005 <title>Audio settings tab</title>
1008 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-tab&scs;"/>
1013 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1015 <title>The audio map</title>
1018 The section at the bottom of the audio tab is the ‘audio
1019 map’. This governs how sound from the content will be arranged
1024 Down the left-hand side of the map is the list of audio channels in
1025 the currently-selected piece of content. These are labelled with two
1026 numbers; the first is the stream index within the content and the
1027 second is the channel number within that stream. Some content will
1028 have different streams for different languages or audio mixes. Along
1029 the top is each channel in the DCP. A green box means that the
1030 corresponding content channel will be copied into the corresponding
1035 When content channels are copied into DCP channels the copy can be done
1036 with variable gain. If, for example, you want to copy a channel
1037 as-is, you can set a gain of 0dB. Alternatively, if you want to mix
1038 two channels into one, you may want to use a gain of -6dB on each one
1039 to prevent clipping when the two channels are added.
1043 The green boxes of the audio mapping view tell you (very roughly) how
1044 much gain is applied to each channel. A full-height box means 0dB
1045 (i.e. unity) gain. Any less height indicates lower gain.
1049 To map one channel to another with 0dB gain, click in the empty box
1050 and it will turn green to reflect the mapping. A second click will
1051 turn the mapping back off. To set some other gain, right-click on the
1052 box to open the gain menu. This allows you to set
1053 <guilabel>Off</guilabel> (no mapping or negative infinity gain),
1054 <guilabel>Full</guilabel> (0dB gain), -6dB gain or
1055 <guilabel>Edit</guilabel> which allows you to set the required gain
1060 Consider, for example, the case in <xref linkend="fig-audio-map-eg1"/>.
1063 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg1">
1064 <title>Audio map example 1</title>
1067 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg1&scs;"/>
1073 Here, we have two channels in the source which are mapped to left and
1074 right, respectively, in the DCP. The full green boxes show that the
1075 mapping is at unity gain (0dB) in each case. Imagine that we modify
1076 the settings to those shown in <xref linkend="fig-audio-map-eg2"/>
1079 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg2">
1080 <title>Audio map example 2</title>
1083 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg2&scs;"/>
1089 We now have the content's streams mapped to left and right and also
1090 mixed together and placed in the DCP's centre channel. The smaller
1091 green boxes on the centre mappings show that those channels are added
1092 with some non-unity gain; you can see by hovering the mouse pointer
1093 over those boxes that the gain for content channels 1 and 2 is -6dB
1094 when being sent to the centre channel and 0dB when being sent to left
1098 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg3">
1099 <title>Audio map example 3</title>
1102 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg3&scs;"/>
1108 As a final example, the map in <xref linkend="fig-audio-map-eg3"/>
1109 shows the mapping of a 5.1 source into a 5.1 DCP.
1115 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1117 <title>Other controls</title>
1120 The <guilabel>Use this DCP's audio as OV and make VF</guilabel>
1121 checkbox is only applicable if the selected content is an existing
1122 DCP. It allows you to make a VF DCP, using the audio content from the
1123 existing DCP by referencing it (rather than copying). See <xref
1124 linkend="sec-overlay"/>.
1128 <guilabel>Show graphs of audio levels</guilabel> will analyse the
1129 audio of the selected content and plot it on a graph. See <xref
1130 linkend="sec-show-audio"/> for more details.
1134 <guilabel>Audio Gain</guilabel> is used to alter the volume of the
1135 soundtrack. The specified gain (in dB) will be applied to each sound
1136 channel of your content before it is written to the DCP.
1140 If you use a sound processor that DCP-o-matic knows about, it can help
1141 you calculate changes in gain that you should apply. Say, for
1142 example, that you make a test DCP and find that you have to run it at
1143 volume 5 instead of volume 7 to get a good sound level in the screen.
1144 If this is the case, click the <guilabel>Calculate...</guilabel>
1145 button next to the audio gain entry, and the dialogue box in <xref
1146 linkend="fig-calculate-audio-gain"/> will open.
1149 <figure id="fig-calculate-audio-gain">
1150 <title>Calculating audio gain</title>
1153 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/calculate-audio-gain&scs;"/>
1159 For our example, put 5 in the first box and 7 in the second and click
1160 <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. DCP-o-matic will calculate the audio gain
1161 that it should apply to make this happen. Then you can re-make the
1162 DCP (this will be reasonably fast, as the video data will already have
1163 been done) and it should play back at the correct volume with 7 on
1164 your sound-rack fader.
1168 <guilabel>Audio Delay</guilabel> is used to adjust the synchronisation
1169 between audio and video. A positive delay will move the audio later
1170 with respect to the video, and a negative delay will move it earlier.
1177 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1179 <title>Timed text (subtitles and closed captions)</title>
1182 The timed text tab contains settings related to subtitles and closed captions in your
1183 content, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-timed-text-tab"/>.
1186 <figure id="fig-timed-text-tab">
1187 <title>Timed text settings tab</title>
1190 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/timed-text-tab&scs;"/>
1196 Depending on where timed text comes from it can sometimes be used as
1197 either an open subtitle (to be overlaid onto the cinema screen and
1198 seen by everybody) or as a closed caption (to be displayed to
1199 individual viewers using a special system such as the Doremi
1204 DCP-o-matic can either:
1208 <listitem>Extract timed text that is embedded in video files, or</listitem>
1209 <listitem>Use timed text from SubRip (<code>.srt</code>), SubStation
1210 Alpha (<code>.ssa</code> or <code>.ass</code>) or DCP XML files. You may find the
1212 url="http://www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit/">Subtitle Edit</ulink> useful
1213 for creating such files.</listitem>
1217 Embedded timed text is usually represented using a set of bitmaps,
1218 especially on files that have come from DVD or BluRay. Such text can
1219 be used as a subtitle, but not a closed caption (since the closed
1220 captioning system requires the text to be delivered as
1221 character codes rather than as an image).
1224 <para>In contrast, SubRip, SubStation Alpha or DCP text can be used as either a subtitle or a closed caption.</para>
1227 With subtitles you have the further choice of whether to burn the
1228 subtitles into the image or include them as a separate subtitle
1229 ‘asset’ within your DCP (in which case the projector
1230 overlays them onto the image on playback). The difference between
1231 burn-in and overlay is illustrated by <xref linkend="fig-burn-in"/>
1232 and <xref linkend="fig-discrete"/>.
1235 <figure id="fig-burn-in">
1236 <title>Burnt-in subtitles</title>
1239 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/burn-in&dia;"/>
1244 <figure id="fig-discrete">
1245 <title>Separate subtitles</title>
1248 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/discrete&dia;"/>
1254 The advantage of separate subtitles is that the same video content can
1255 be used for DCPs in many different languages. This means that only a
1256 small text file needs to be changed for each target language, rather
1257 than a large video file. It also means that the time-consuming video
1258 encoding need only be done once for the project rather than once for
1263 Select the <guilabel>Use as</guilabel> check-box to enable the timed
1264 text in the selected content, then choose what you want to use the
1265 text for: open subtitles or closed captions.
1269 Select the <guilabel>Burn subtitles into image</guilabel> check-box to
1270 burn subtitles into the image; if this is not ticked the
1271 subtitles will be included separately in the DCP to be rendered by the
1276 The <guilabel>X Offset</guilabel> and <guilabel>Y Offset</guilabel>
1277 controls move subtitles around within the image. These controls have
1278 no effect for closed captions. The offsets are expressed as a
1279 percentage of the video frame size; 100% X offset is the entire width
1280 of the frame, and 100% Y offset is the entire height. Hence, to move
1281 the subtitles down by half the frame height you would use a Y offset
1286 The <guilabel>X Scale</guilabel> and <guilabel>Y Scale</guilabel>
1287 controls scale subtitles. These controls have no effect for closed
1288 captions. Scale values of 1 make the subtitles the same size
1289 (relative to the size of the image) as they are on the original.
1290 Values lower than 1 make them smaller, and values higher make them
1291 larger. You can stretch the subtitles in either direction by
1292 specifying different values for X and Y scale. Subtitles from DVD and
1293 Blu Ray sources are frequently larger (relative to the video frame)
1294 than those typically used for DCP, so it is often useful to scale such
1295 subtitles down using these controls.
1299 The <guilabel>Line spacing</guilabel> control adjusts the line spacing
1300 of the subtitles. This only works for subtitles that did not come from bitmaps.
1304 The <guilabel>Stream</guilabel> control changes the subtitle stream
1305 that is used when the content has more than one.
1309 If you are using non-image (text) subtitles or closed captions you can see the
1310 subtitle text and timings by clicking the <guilabel>View...</guilabel>
1311 button, or specify the fonts that should be used by clicking <guilabel>Fonts...</guilabel>.
1315 With any subtitles you can click <guilabel>Appearance...</guilabel> to
1316 change how the subtitles look. Some of the controls in the
1317 <guilabel>Appearance</guilabel> only apply to burnt-in subtitles, as
1318 only limited control is available for subtitles rendered by the
1325 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1327 <title>Timing</title>
1330 The timing tab contains settings related to the timing of your
1331 content, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-timing-tab-detail"/>.
1334 <figure id="fig-timing-tab-detail">
1335 <title>Timing settings tab</title>
1338 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/timing-tab&scs;"/>
1344 Most of the timing tab's entries are <emphasis>time-codes</emphasis>.
1345 These are expressed as four numbers, as shown in <xref
1346 linkend="fig-timecode"/>.
1349 <figure id="fig-timecode">
1350 <title>Timecode</title>
1353 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/timecode&dia;"/>
1359 <guilabel>Position</guilabel> is the time at which this piece of
1360 content should start within the DCP. In most cases, this will be
1361 <code>0:0:0:0</code> to make the content start at the beginning of the
1366 <guilabel>Full length</guilabel> is the length of the piece of
1367 content. This can only be set for still-image content: for video or
1368 sound content, it is fixed by the nature of the content file. If
1369 still-image content is being used you can set the length for which it
1370 should be displayed using this control.
1374 <guilabel>Trim from start</guilabel> specifies the amount that should
1375 be trimmed from the start of the content. You can set this amount to
1376 trim up to the current preview position by clicking <guilabel>Trim up
1377 to current position</guilabel>.
1381 <guilabel>Trim from end</guilabel> specifies the amount that should be
1382 trimmed from the end of the content. You can set this amount to trim
1383 after the current preview position by clicking <guilabel>Trim after to
1384 current position</guilabel>.
1388 <guilabel>Play length</guilabel> indicates how long this piece of
1389 content will be once the trims have been applied. This will be equal
1390 to the full length minus <guilabel>trim-from-start</guilabel> and minus <guilabel>trim-from-end</guilabel>.
1394 Each timecode control has a <guilabel>Set</guilabel> which you should
1395 click when you have entered a new value for a timecode. The
1396 <guilabel>Set</guilabel> button will make DCP-o-matic take account of
1397 any changes to the corresponding timecode.
1403 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1405 <title>Timeline</title>
1408 The timeline window gives an overview of all the pieces of content
1409 in your film, and how they are arranged. You can open the
1410 timeline by clicking the <guilabel>Timeline...</guilabel> button
1411 next to the content list. This will open a window like the one in <xref linkend="fig-timeline1"/>.
1414 <figure id="fig-timeline1">
1415 <title>Timeline</title>
1418 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/timeline1&scs;"/>
1424 The horizontal axis represents time, and you can see the time codes (in
1425 hours:minutes:seconds) along the bottom of the window. Pieces of
1426 content are represented with rectangles in the main part of the
1427 window. Content containing different types of data (e.g. a MP4
1428 file with video, audio and subtitles) have a rectangle for each
1433 Within the timeline you can select content by clicking, and drag
1434 it to change its position. Right-clicking a piece of content will
1435 open the content menu.
1439 The toolbar at the top of the window offers the following tools:
1443 <listitem>Select — to select and move content.</listitem>
1444 <listitem>Zoom in — to drag out an area that you want to see more closely.</listitem>
1445 <listitem>Zoom out — to zoom out so that the window shows the whole film.</listitem>
1446 <listitem>Snap — when enabled, content will snap to other content when you drag it close.</listitem>
1447 <listitem>Sequence — when enabled, content will be kept in sequence, without gaps, even if some content is removed.</listitem>
1451 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1453 <title>Video processing pipeline</title>
1456 This section gives a little more detail about how DCP-o-matic process
1457 video as it takes it from a source and puts it into a DCP.
1461 Consider, as a rather contrived example, that we have a 720 x 576
1462 image which is letterboxed with 36 black pixels each at the top and
1463 bottom, and the video content within the letterbox should be presented
1464 in the DCP at ratio of 2.39:1 within a 1.85:1 frame (such as might
1465 happen with a trailer). The source image is shown in <xref
1466 linkend="fig-pipeline1"/>.
1469 <figure id="fig-pipeline1">
1470 <title>Example image to demonstrate video processing</title>
1473 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/pipeline1&dia;"/>
1479 DCP-o-matic runs through the following steps when preparing an image for a DCP:
1483 <listitem>Crop</listitem>
1484 <listitem>Scale</listitem>
1485 <listitem>Place in container</listitem>
1489 First, some amount of the image can be cropped. This is almost always
1490 used to remove black borders (letterboxing and/or pillarboxing) around
1495 In our example image, we would use 36 pixels of crop from the top and
1496 bottom. This would give the new image shown in <xref
1497 linkend="fig-pipeline2"/>.
1500 <figure id="fig-pipeline2">
1501 <title>Example image after cropping</title>
1504 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/pipeline2&dia;"/>
1510 The next step is to scale the image. Since this content should be
1511 presented in a 2.39:1 (scope) aspect ratio inside a 1.85:1 (flat) DCP we would select
1512 <guilabel>custom</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Scale</guilabel>
1513 option in the <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab, then choose a ratio (<guilabel>Set ratio and
1514 fit to DCP container</guilabel>) of 2.39:1.
1517 <para>Next, we would choose
1518 <guilabel>Flat</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Container</guilabel>
1519 option in the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab.
1523 Given the scaling and container information, DCP-o-matic will look at
1524 the DCP's container size, and then scale the source image up until one
1525 or both of its dimensions (width, height or both) fits the size of the
1526 container, all the while preserving the desired aspect ratio.
1530 In our example here, the DCP's container is specified as 1.85:1 (so
1531 that the DCP will play back correctly using the projector's
1532 ‘Flat’ preset). At 2K, 1.85:1 is 1998 pixels by 1080.
1533 Scaling the source up whilst preserving its 1.85:1 aspect ratio will
1534 result in the image hitting the sides of the container first, at a
1535 size of 1998x836. This gives us a new version of the image as shown
1536 in <xref linkend="fig-pipeline3"/>.
1539 <figure id="fig-pipeline3">
1540 <title>Example image after cropping and scaling</title>
1543 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/pipeline3&dia;"/>
1549 The final step is to place the image into the DCP. In this case,
1550 since we have a 2.39:1 image that should be presented as a 1.85:1 DCP,
1551 we have set the <guilabel>container</guilabel> in the
1552 <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab to be Scope. Since the content has been
1553 scaled to 1998 x 836, and a Flat container is 1998 x 1080, there will
1554 be some black bars at the top and bottom of the image. DCP-o-matic
1555 shares out this black equally, as shown in <xref
1556 linkend="fig-pipeline3"/>.
1559 <figure id="fig-pipeline4">
1560 <title>Example image in the DCP</title>
1563 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/pipeline4&dia;"/>
1572 <title>Copy and paste settings</title>
1575 Once you have set up a piece of content it is possible to copy the
1576 settings you have applied to another piece of content. To do this,
1577 select the content to copy from and choose <guilabel>Copy</guilabel>
1578 from the <guilabel>Edit</guilabel> menu. Then select the content to
1579 copy to and choose <guilabel>Paste</guilabel>. A dialogue box will
1580 open to allow you to choose which settings you want to copy. Clicking
1581 <guilabel>OK</guilabel> will apply the copied settings.
1588 <title>Advanced content settings</title>
1591 There are a few more content settings that you can change by right-clicking a piece of content in the list and choosing <guilabel>Advanced settings...</guilabel>
1592 This opens the dialogue box shown in <xref linkend="fig-advanced-content"/>.
1595 <figure id="fig-advanced-content">
1596 <title>Advanced content dialogue</title>
1599 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/advanced-content&scs;"/>
1605 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1607 <title>Video filters</title>
1610 The <guilabel>Video filters</guilabel> setting allows you to apply various
1611 filters to the image. These may be useful to try to improve
1612 poor-quality sources like DVDs. You can set up the filters by clicking the
1613 <guilabel>Edit</guilabel> button next to the filters entry; this opens the filters selector
1614 as shown in <xref linkend="fig-filters"/>.
1617 <figure id="fig-filters">
1618 <title>Filters selector</title>
1621 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/filters&scs;"/>
1630 <title>Override frame rate</title>
1633 The <guilabel>Override detected video frame rate</guilabel> setting has some different effects depending on the type of content
1638 For video content, it sets the frame rate that DCP-o-matic will run the video at. This is useful if DCP-o-matic has mis-detected
1639 the video frame rate. For example, if DCP-o-matic says your content is 24fps when you know for a fact it's 25fps, you can set the
1640 override value to 25 to force DCP-o-matic to do the right thing.
1644 On audio, subtitle and caption content this setting behaves slightly differently. It sets the video frame rate that the content
1645 in question was intended to work with. As an example, consider a project with a 23.976fps video source and some separate audio files.
1646 Perhaps those audio files have been mastered alongside a 24fps version of your video. By default, DCP-o-matic will see the 23.976fps
1647 video file and decide to run it slightly fast at 24fps to fit the DCP standard. It will then also run the audio slightly fast so that
1648 it stays in sync with the video.
1652 In this case, though, that is not what you want, since the audio is already ‘fixed’ to work alongside 24fps video. If you
1653 override the video frame rate of the <emphasis>audio</emphasis> content to 24fps this will stop DCP-o-matic altering it.
1657 A similar situation can occur if you have video at one rate and a subtitle file that was prepared with its timing at a different rate.
1658 In that case, you should override the video frame rate of the <emphasis>subtitle</emphasis> content to the one that it was prepared for.
1659 This will mean that DCP-o-matic can get the relative timing right.
1663 Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> use this setting to change the DCP frame rate. Doing so will result in strange effects and sync problems.
1669 <title>Video has burnt-in subtitles</title>
1671 Details about subtitle language are stored in various places within the DCP metadata. If a piece of video content already has subtitles
1672 burnt into the image you can tell DCP-o-matic the language that they are in by clicking the <guilabel>Edit...</guilabel> button.
1678 <title>Ignore this content's video</title>
1680 Tick this if you have some content which includes video along with other things (such as audio or subtitles) and you do
1681 <emphasis>not</emphasis> want the video to appear in the DCP.
1691 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1692 <chapter xml:id="ch-dcp" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
1693 <title>DCP settings</title>
1696 This chapter describes the settings that apply to the whole DCP. The
1697 controls for these settings are in the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab of
1698 the main window, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-dcp-tab"/>.
1701 <figure id="fig-dcp-tab">
1702 <title>DCP settings tab</title>
1705 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/dcp-tab&scs;"/>
1711 The first thing here is the name. This is generally set to the title
1712 of the film that is being encoded. If <guilabel>Use ISDCF
1713 name</guilabel> is not ticked, the name that you specify will be used
1714 as-is for the name of the DCP. If <guilabel>Use ISDCF name</guilabel>
1715 is ticked, the name that you enter will be used as part of a
1716 ISDCF-compliant name.
1720 Underneath the <guilabel>Use ISDCF name</guilabel> checkbox is a preview of the name that the DCP will
1721 get. The ISDCF name will be composed using details
1722 of your content's soundtrack, the current date and other things that
1723 can be specified in the <guilabel>Metadata</guilabel> dialogue box, which you can
1724 open by clicking on the <guilabel>Metadata</guilabel> button.
1728 If you want to take the ISDCF-compliant name that DCP-o-matic
1729 generates and modify it, click <guilabel>Copy as name</guilabel> and
1730 the ISDCF name will be copied into the <guilabel>Name</guilabel> box.
1731 You can then edit it as you wish. The DCP name should not matter (in
1732 that it should not affect how the DCP ingests or plays) but
1733 projectionists will appreciate it if you use the standard naming
1734 scheme as it makes it easier to identify details of the content.
1738 The <guilabel>Content Type</guilabel> option can be
1739 ‘feature’, ‘trailer’ or whatever; select the
1740 required type from the drop-down list. On some projection systems
1741 this will affect where your content appears in the projector's server
1742 user interface, so take care to select an appropriate type.
1746 The <guilabel>Encrypted</guilabel> check-box will set whether the DCP
1747 should be encrypted or not. If this is ticked, the DCP will require a
1748 KDM to play back. Encryption is discussed in <xref
1749 linkend="ch-encryption"/>.
1753 If you use encryption DCP-o-matic will generate a random encryption
1754 key for you. To specify your own key, click the
1755 <guilabel>Edit..</guilabel> button next to the key.
1759 The <guilabel>Reels</guilabel> and <guilabel>Reel length</guilabel>
1760 controls specify how the DCP will be split up into
1761 ‘reels’. See <xref linkend="sec-reels"/>.
1765 The <guilabel>Standard</guilabel> option specifies which of the two
1766 DCP standards DCP-o-matic should use. If in doubt, use SMPTE (the
1767 more modern of the two).
1771 The <guilabel>Markers</guilabel> button opens the Markers dialogue,
1772 as shown in <xref linkend="fig-markers"/>.
1775 <figure id="fig-markers">
1776 <title>Markers dialogue</title>
1779 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/markers&scs;"/>
1785 This dialogue allows you to specify times for when certain things happen
1786 within your DCP. These times may be read by projection systems to automate
1787 actions such as setting house light levels.
1791 The <guilabel>Metadata</guilabel> button opens the Metadata dialogue,
1792 which allows you to specify various information about the DCP that you are
1793 making. Some of these data will be included in the DCP's files, and others
1794 used to make up the ISDCF name for the DCP (if that option is being used).
1798 At the bottom of the DCP tab are a further two tabs, one each to
1799 contain the settings for the DCP's video and audio parts.
1803 The <guilabel>Container</guilabel> option sets the ratio of the image
1804 in the DCP. If this ratio is different to the ratio used for any
1805 content, DCP-o-matic will pad the content with black. In simple cases
1806 this should be set to the same ratio as that for the the primary piece
1807 of video content. Alternatively, you might want to pillarbox a small
1808 format into a Flat container: in this case, select the small format
1809 for the content's ratio and ‘Flat’ for the DCP.
1813 The <guilabel>Resolution</guilabel> control allows you to choose the
1814 resolution for your DCP. Use 2K unless you have content that is of
1815 high enough resolution to be worth presenting in 4K.
1819 The <guilabel>Frame Rate</guilabel> control sets the frame rate of
1820 your DCP. This can be a little tricky to get right. Ideally, you
1821 want it to be the same as the video content that you are using. If it
1822 is not the same, DCP-o-matic must resort to some tricks to alter your
1823 content to fit the specified frame rate. Frame rates are discussed in
1824 more detail in <xref linkend="ch-frame-rates"/>.
1828 The <guilabel>3D</guilabel> button will set your DCP to 3D mode if it
1829 is checked. A 3D DCP will then be created, and any 2D content will be
1830 made 3D compatible by repeating the same frame for both left and right
1831 eyes. A 3D DCP can be played back on many 3D systems (e.g. Dolby 3D,
1832 Real-D etc.) but not on a 2D system.
1836 The <guilabel>JPEG2000 bandwidth for newly-encoded data</guilabel>; setting changes how big
1837 the final image files used within the DCP will be. Larger numbers
1838 will give better quality, but correspondingly larger DCPs. The
1839 bandwidth can be between 50 and 250 megabits per second (Mbit/s).
1840 Most commercial DCPs use bit rates between 75 and 125 Mbit/s.
1844 <guilabel>Re-encode JPEG2000 data from input</guilabel> governs
1845 whether or not JPEG2000-encoded data from a piece of content (usually
1846 a DCP) will be re-used in the output data as-is or whether it will be
1847 decoded and re-encoded by DCP-o-matic. If the option is enabled
1848 DCP-o-matic will decompress any JPEG2000 data it finds and re-encode
1849 it. This is useful if you want to reduce the bitrate of a DCP.
1850 Usually you will achieve better quality and quicker results by leaving
1851 this option switched off.
1855 The <guilabel>Channels</guilabel> control sets the number of
1856 audio channels that the DCP will have. If the DCP has any channels
1857 for which there is no content audio they will be replaced by silence.
1858 You can only set an even number of channels here, since that is
1859 required by the DCI standard. If you want an odd number of channels,
1860 set the DCP channel count to one greater than you need and the
1861 unused channel will be filled with silence.
1865 The <guilabel>Processor</guilabel> control allows you to select a
1866 process to apply to the audio before it goes into the DCP. One process is currently provided:
1870 <listitem>Mid-side decoder — this will take a L/R
1871 stereo input and extract the common part (corresponding to the
1872 ‘Mid’ in a mid-side signal) into the DCP's centre channel.
1873 The remaining L/R parts will be kept in the L/R channels of the DCP.
1874 This may be useful to make near-field L/R mixes more compatible with
1875 cinema audio systems.</listitem>
1878 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1879 <section xml:id="sec-reels">
1880 <title>Reels</title>
1883 A ‘reel’ in a DCP is a subsection of the DCP, in the same
1884 way as a 35mm reel is a section of a film. A DCP can be split up into
1885 any number of reels and the joins (the equivalent to 35mm splices or changeovers)
1886 between the reels are seamless.
1890 There is no reason why you can't just use a single reel for the whole
1891 of your DCP, as there is no limit to their length. Many people choose
1896 There are, however, some possible advantages of splitting things up
1902 The picture, sound and subtitle data of the DCP will be
1903 split up into more smaller files on disk, rather than fewer larger
1904 files. This can be useful if the DCP is to be transferred on storage
1905 that has a file size limit. The FAT32 filesystem, for example, can
1906 only hold files smaller than 4Gb. A 6Gb DCP with a single reel could
1907 not be transferred using a FAT32-formatted disk. If that DCP were
1908 split up into two 3Gb reels it could be transferred.
1911 It is easier to re-use DCP components if they are in reels. Consider,
1912 for example, a film company who wants to put a 5 second ident onto the
1913 beginning of DCPs that they distribute. If they receive a feature
1914 film DCP they can modify it to add their ident as a separate reel.
1915 This is easier than attaching the picture data to the feature's existing data.
1920 DCP-o-matic offers three options for setting up the reels in your DCP:
1921 <guilabel>single reel</guilabel>, <guilabel>split by video content</guilabel> or <guilabel>custom</guilabel>.
1925 <guilabel>Single reel</guilabel>, as its name suggests, keeps the whole DCP as one reel.
1926 This is a perfectly good option if you have no particular reason to
1931 <guilabel>Split by video content</guilabel> puts each piece of source
1932 video content in its own reel, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-reels-by-video"/>.
1935 <figure id="fig-reels-by-video">
1936 <title>Making reels using split by video content</title>
1937 <mediaobject><imageobject><imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/reels-by-video&dia;"/></imageobject></mediaobject>
1941 Here we have three video files (<code>ident.mp4</code>,
1942 <code>feature.ts</code> and <code>cred.mov</code>). With
1943 <guilabel>split by video content</guilabel> DCP-o-matic makes a new
1944 reel to hold each video file.
1948 <guilabel>Custom</guilabel> splits reels by the size of the files that
1949 will make up their video content. With <guilabel>Custom</guilabel>
1950 you must specify a reel length in Gb. Then no file in the DCP will be larger than this reel length.
1956 <!-- ============================================================== -->
1957 <section xml:id="sec-show-audio">
1958 <title>Show audio</title>
1961 The <guilabel>Show Audio</guilabel> button will instruct DCP-o-matic
1962 to examine the audio in your content and plot a graph of its level
1963 over time. This can be useful for getting a rough idea of how loud
1964 the sound will be in the cinema auditorium. A typical plot is shown
1965 in <xref linkend="fig-audio-plot"/>
1968 <figure id="fig-audio-plot">
1969 <title>Audio plot</title>
1972 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-plot&scs;"/>
1978 The plot gives the audio level (vertical axis, in dB) with time
1979 (horizontal axis). 0dB represents full scale, so if there is anything
1980 near this you are in danger of clipping the projector's audio outputs.
1984 There are two plot types: the peak level and the RMS, which can be
1985 shown or hidden using the check-boxes on the right hand side of the
1990 The channel check-boxes will show or hide the plot(s) for
1991 the corresponding channels in the DCP.
1995 The smoothing slider applies a variable degree of temporal smoothing
1996 to the plots, which can make them easier to read in some cases.
1999 <para>Underneath the plot are shown some precise numbers for peaks and other measurements. A peak value displayed in red means that it is greater than -3dB.</para>
2002 The audio plot is no substitute for listening in an
2003 cinema, but it can be useful to get levels in roughly the right area.
2011 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2012 <chapter xml:id="ch-templates" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
2013 <title>Templates</title>
2016 If you frequently make DCPs with similar settings you may find it
2017 useful to use templates.
2021 Say, for example, you often make 4K feature DCPs from video files in
2022 ’scope at 25fps. You can speed up this process by following
2027 <listitem>Create a film with any content and set it up how you like;
2028 in our example, set the content to scale to DCP, the DCP resolution
2029 to 4K, and so on.</listitem>
2030 <listitem>Choose <guilabel>Save as template...</guilabel> from the <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu.</listitem>
2031 <listitem>Enter a name for your template.</listitem>
2035 Then in the future you can create a new film, tick the
2036 <guilabel>Template</guilabel> box and choose your previously-saved
2037 template. The basic film's settings will come from your template, and
2038 when you add some content it will take on the settings of the
2039 first similarly-typed piece of content in your template.
2043 For example, if the template has a piece of video content and some
2044 subtitles, any video that you add to the new film will take on the
2045 settings of the video in the template. Similarly, any subtitles that
2046 you add will take on the settings of the subtitles from the template.
2050 The following settings from the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab are saved
2055 <listitem>“Use ISDCF name” checkbox</listitem>
2056 <listitem>Content type (FTR, TLR etc.)</listitem>
2057 <listitem>Container</listitem>
2058 <listitem>Resolution</listitem>
2059 <listitem>JPEG200 bandwidth</listitem>
2060 <listitem>Video frame rate</listitem>
2061 <listitem>Encrypted checkbox</listitem>
2062 <listitem>Audio channels</listitem>
2063 <listitem>Standard (Interop / SMPTE)</listitem>
2064 <listitem>Audio processor</listitem>
2065 <listitem>Reel type and length</listitem>
2069 In addition, the settings (but not the filenames) of any
2070 content in the template are stored, as discussed above. The status of
2071 the <guilabel>Keep video and subtitles in sequence</guilabel> checkbox
2072 from the timeline is also preserved.
2078 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2079 <chapter xml:id="ch-export" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
2080 <title>Export</title>
2083 As well as creating DCPs from the content you specify, DCP-o-matic
2084 can also export projects to ProRes and MP4 files. This is most
2085 often useful to convert DCPs to a file that is smaller and easier to play back.
2089 To convert a DCP to ProRes or MP4, the first step is start a new
2090 project and import the DCP (see <xref
2091 linkend="ch-manipulating-existing-dcps"/>). Then, choose
2092 <guilabel>Export...</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel>
2093 menu to open the export dialogue, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-export"/>.
2096 <figure id="fig-export">
2097 <title>Export dialogue</title>
2100 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/export&scs;"/>
2106 From this dialogue you can select the required output format,
2107 output file and, in the case of MP4, the quality of the output
2108 file (by setting the <ulink url="https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264#crf">CRF value</ulink>).
2112 The useful range of CRF values is from 17 (high quality but large file size) to 28 (smaller file size and still reasonable quality).
2116 The time needed to export, and the resulting size, depend partly on the DCP resolution set in the project. To change that, see <xref linkend="ch-dcp"/>.
2120 You can also choose whether to mix down multichannel sources to stereo and whether you want to write separate reels to separate files.
2124 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2125 <chapter xml:id="ch-encryption" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
2126 <title>Encryption</title>
2129 DCP's do not have to be encrypted, but they can be. This
2130 chapter discusses the basic principles of DCP encryption, and how
2131 DCP-o-matic can create encrypted DCPs and KDMs for them.
2135 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2137 <title>Basics</title>
2140 DCPs can be encrypted. This means that the picture and sound data are
2141 encoded in such a way that only cinemas ‘approved’ by the
2142 DCP's creators can read them. In particular, this means copies of the
2143 DCP can be distributed by insecure means: if a bad person called
2144 Mallory obtains a hard drive containing an encrypted DCP, there is no
2145 way that he can play it. Only those cinemas who receive a correct key
2146 delivery message (KDM) can play the DCP.
2150 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2152 <title>How it works</title>
2155 This section attempts to summarise how DCP encryption works. You can
2156 skip it if you like. You may need some knowledge of encryption
2157 methods to understand it.
2161 We suppose that we are trying to send a DCP to
2162 Alice's cinema without a third party called Mallory being able to
2167 There are two main families of encryption techniques. The first,
2168 symmetric-key encryption, allows us to encode some data using some
2169 numeric key. After encoding, no-one can decode the data unless they
2174 The first step in encrypting a DCP is to encode its data with a random key
2175 using symmetric-key encryption. The encrypted DCP can then be sent
2176 anywhere, safe in the knowledge that even if Mallory got hold of a
2177 copy, he could not decrypt it.
2181 Alice, however, needs to know the key so she can play the DCP in her
2182 cinema. A simple approach might be for us to send Alice the key.
2183 However, if Mallory can intercept the DCP, he might also be able to
2184 intercept our communication of the key to Alice. Furthermore, if Alice
2185 happened to know Mallory, he could just send her a copy of the key.
2189 The clever bit in the process requires the use of public-key
2190 encryption. With this technique we can encrypt a block of data using
2191 some ‘public’ key. That data can then only be decrypted
2192 using a corresponding private key which is
2193 <emphasis>different</emphasis> to the public key. The private and
2194 public keys form a pair which are related mathematically, but it is
2195 extremely hard (or rather, virtually impossible) to derive the private
2196 key from the public key.
2200 Public-key encryption allows us to distribute the DCP's key to Alice
2201 securely. The manufacturer of Alice's projector generates a public
2202 and private key. They hide the private key inside the projector where
2203 no-one can read it. They then make the public key available to anyone
2208 DCP-o-matic has a similar arrangement except that it stores its
2209 private keys in the user's configuration file. See <xref
2210 linkend="sec-decrypting"/> for details of how to share DCP-o-matic's
2211 certificate so that others can make encrypted DCPs for DCP-o-matic.
2215 We take our DCP's symmetric key and encrypt it using the public key of
2216 Alice's projector. We send the result to Alice over email (using a
2217 format called a Key Delivery Message, or KDM). Her projector then
2218 decrypts our message using its private key, giving the
2219 symmetric key which can decrypt the DCP.
2223 If is fine if Mallory intercepts our email to Alice, since the only
2224 key which can decrypt the message is the private key buried inside
2225 Alice's projector. The projector manufacturer is very careful that
2226 no-one ever finds out what this key is. Our DCP is secure: only Alice
2227 can play it back, since only her projector knows the key (even Alice
2235 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2237 <title>Encryption using DCP-o-matic</title>
2240 There are two steps to distributing an encrypted DCP. First, the
2241 DCP's data must be encrypted, and secondly KDMs must be generated for
2242 those cinemas that are allowed to play the DCP.
2246 The first part is simple: ticking the <guilabel>Encrypted</guilabel>
2247 box in the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab will instruct DCP-o-matic to
2248 encrypt the DCP that it makes using a random key that DCP-o-matic
2249 generates. The key will be written to the film's metadata file, which
2250 should be kept secure.
2254 A DCP that is generated with the <guilabel>Encrypted</guilabel> box
2255 ticked will not play on any projector as-is (it will be marked as
2256 ‘locked’, or whatever the projector manufacturer's term
2261 The second stage of distribution is to generate KDMs for the cinemas
2262 that you wish to allow to play your DCP. There are two approaches to
2263 this within DCP-o-matic: using the project, or using a DKDM. These
2264 approaches are now described in turn.
2268 <title>Creating KDMs from a DCP-o-matic project</title>
2271 You can create KDMs from inside a DCP-o-matic project using the
2272 <guilabel>Make KDMs</guilabel> option on the <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel>
2273 menu. This will open the KDM dialogue box, as shown in <xref
2274 linkend="fig-kdm"/>.
2277 <figure id="fig-kdm">
2278 <title>KDM dialog</title>
2281 <imagedata scale="35" fileref="screenshots/kdm&scs;"/>
2287 In order to generate KDMs for a particular projector, you need to know
2288 its <emphasis>certificate</emphasis>. These are usually made
2289 available by the projector manufacturers as text files with a
2290 <code>.pem</code> extension.
2294 DCP-o-matic can store these certificates along with details of their
2295 cinemas and screens within those cinemas. Each screen has a
2296 certificate for its projector (and optionally certificates for other
2297 trusted devices, such as the sound processor). DCP-o-matic can
2298 generate KDMs for any screens that it knows about.
2302 To add a cinema, click <guilabel>Add Cinema...</guilabel>. This opens
2303 a dialogue box into which you can enter the cinema's name, and
2304 optionally an email address. This email address can be used to
2305 get DCP-o-matic to deliver KDMs via email.
2309 Once you have added a cinema, select it by clicking on its name, then
2310 click <guilabel>Add Screen...</guilabel>. The resulting dialogue
2311 allows you to enter a name for the screen and load in its certificate
2312 from a file. The certificate should be in SHA256 PEM format.
2316 Alternatively, certificates for projection systems made by some
2317 manufacturers can be downloaded from databases provided by the
2318 manufacturer. Currently this is supported for Doremi, Dolby, Barco,
2319 Christie and GDC equipment (through downloading Barco, Christie or GDC
2320 certificates requires you to have an appropriate account set up in
2321 DCP-o-matic's preferences). If you are targeting a screen with
2322 equipment by one of these manufacturers you can click
2323 <guilabel>Download</guilabel> then enter the serial number of the
2324 server in the screen and click <guilabel>Download</guilabel> again
2325 and, all being well, the certificate will be fetched. Most cinema
2326 projection or technical departments will know these serial numbers.
2330 Note that the reliability of the manufacturers' certificate databases
2331 cannot be guaranteed. It is vital that KDMs are tested by the
2332 destination cinema will in advance of show time to identify any
2336 <!-- XXX: this is a sudden introduction of CPL as a concept -->
2338 Once you have set up all the screens that you need KDMs for, select
2339 the CPL that you want to create the KDM for. You can use the
2340 drop-down list to select the CPLs in the current film project, or load
2341 a CPL from somewhere else. Select the cinemas and/or screens that you
2342 want KDMs for and fill in the start and end dates and times.
2346 You must also select the type of KDM that you want to generate. If in
2347 doubt, use <guilabel>Modified Transitional 1</guilabel>.
2351 The differences between the three KDM types are fairly subtle.
2352 <guilabel>DCI Specific</guilabel> and <guilabel>DCI Any</guilabel> add
2353 a <code><ContentAuthenticator></code> tag to the KDM which
2354 allows the exhibitor to check that the DCP and KDM have come from a
2355 bona-fide source. In addition, <guilabel>DCI Specific</guilabel> adds
2356 information on trusted devices to the KDM. This allows the KDM
2357 creator to specify devices (such as sound processors) that are allowed
2358 to use keys delivered by the KDM. At present it is not clear how
2359 widely the <guilabel>DCI Specific</guilabel> and <guilabel>DCI
2360 Any</guilabel> features are supported (or even tolerated) by servers
2361 so you are advised to use <guilabel>Modified Transitional
2366 Finally, choose what you want to do with the KDMs. They can be
2367 written to disk, to a location that you can specify by clicking
2368 <guilabel>Browse</guilabel>. Alternatively, if you choose
2369 <guilabel>Send by email</guilabel> the KDMs will be zipped up and
2370 emailed to the appropriate cinema email addresses. Click
2371 <guilabel>Make KDMs</guilabel> to generate the KDMs.
2377 <title>Creating KDMs using a DKDM</title>
2381 It can be inconvenient to need a whole DCP-o-matic project just to
2382 create KDMs for its film. Perhaps you want to archive the project to
2383 save space, or create KDMs on a different machine. In such situations
2384 it is easier to use a DKDM. This is a normal KDM, but instead of
2385 being targeted at a projection system (to allow it to decrypt the
2386 content) it is targeted at a particular user's certificate. This
2387 means that the certificate owner can create new KDMs for other users.
2388 The DKDM holds everything that is required to create further KDMs.
2392 Sometimes it is useful to create DKDMs that can be used by
2393 DCP-o-matic. If you create such a DKDM you can keep it and then, at
2394 any point in the future, use DCP-o-matic's standalone KDM creator to
2395 make KDMs for the DKDM's film for any cinema.
2399 In other cases a DKDM is sent to a third party so that they can create
2400 KDMs for your films. This can be useful if, for example, you have a
2401 distributor who provides 24-hour KDM support to cinemas and can create
2402 KDMs for anybody that requires them at short notice.
2406 To create a DKDM for DCP-o-matic, open your encrypted project and
2407 select <guilabel>Make DKDM for DCP-o-matic...</guilabel> from the
2408 <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu. Select the CPL that you want to make
2409 the DKDM for and click <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. This DKDM will then
2410 be available in the KDM creator. This is a separate program which you
2411 can start from the same place that you start the ‘normal’
2412 DCP-o-matic. Its window is shown in <xref linkend="fig-kdm-creator"/>.
2415 <figure id="fig-kdm-creator">
2416 <title>The KDM creator</title>
2419 <imagedata scale="30" fileref="screenshots/kdm-creator&scs;"/>
2425 To create KDMs, select the cinema(s) and/or screens that you want KDMs
2426 to be created for, the date range, the DCP that the KDMs are for and
2427 the destination for the KDMs and click <guilabel>Create
2432 By default the <guilabel>DKDM</guilabel> list will list any DCPs for
2433 which you have clicked <guilabel>Make DKDM for
2434 DCP-o-matic</guilabel> in the main DCP-o-matic program. If you have
2435 other DKDMs you can add them by clicking <guilabel>Add...</guilabel> and
2436 specifying the file containing the DKDM.
2440 If another organisation wants to send you a DKDM they will ask you for
2441 a target certificate. You can get DCP-o-matic's target certificate by
2442 opening <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> and clicking <guilabel>Export
2443 DCP decryption certificate...</guilabel> in the <guilabel>Keys</guilabel>
2451 <title>Encryption keys</title>
2454 You should be careful when using encryption not to lose important keys.
2458 If you are making KDMs from a DCP-o-matic film you
2459 <emphasis>must</emphasis> ensure that you have a backup of the
2460 <code>metadata.xml</code> file from the project, as well as the DCP
2465 If you are using a DKDM you <emphasis>must</emphasis> ensure that you
2466 have a backup of DCP-o-matic's <code>config.xml</code> file, since it
2467 contains the only key which can decrypt the DKDM. The
2468 <code>config.xml</code> file location depends on your operating
2469 system; possible locations are listed in <xref linkend="ch-config"/>.
2475 <title>Should I encrypt?</title>
2478 The question of whether encryption is appropriate for a given
2479 project is a tricky one.
2483 On the one hand, if you distribute an unencrypted DCP it is easy for
2484 anybody to take it and do whatever they want with its contents.
2485 They could use DCP-o-matic to convert it to a MP4, show it in
2486 their cinema, or even edit and redistribute it in ways that you
2491 Encryption prevents this, but brings its own problems. It will be
2492 impossible for a cinema to screen your DCP unless they have the
2493 correct KDM. This is easy enough if things work as they should,
2494 but problems can occur. For example, cinemas may substitute
2495 broken playout servers with new ones without telling you: then the
2496 KDM that you sent them will be invalid, and a new one required.
2497 If the cinema can't get in touch with you, or somebody else who
2498 can create a new KDM, they can't screen your DCP. Often these
2499 problems are only discovered very close to showtime, with little
2504 If you are distributing encrypted DCPs widely it is worth thinking
2505 about who will make the KDMs, and who will provide quick-response
2506 technical support. It may be a good idea to engage a company who can
2507 provide such services.
2514 <title>Encryption overview</title>
2516 <figure id="fig-encryption-overview">
2517 <title>Overview of encryption</title>
2520 <imagedata fileref="diagrams/crypt&dia;"/>
2530 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2531 <chapter xml:id="ch-preferences" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
2532 <title>Preferences</title>
2535 DCP-o-matic provides preferences which can be used to modify its
2536 behaviour. They are described in this chapter.
2540 Preferences can be edited by choosing
2541 <guilabel>Preferences...</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Edit</guilabel>
2542 menu. This opens a dialogue which is split into tabs.
2545 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2547 <title>General</title>
2550 The general tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-general"/>.
2553 <figure id="fig-prefs-general">
2554 <title>General preferences</title>
2557 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-general&scs;"/>
2563 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2565 <title>Language</title>
2568 If you tick the <guilabel>Set Language</guilabel> checkbox and choose
2569 a language from the list, that language will be used for DCP-o-matic.
2570 You will need to restart DCP-o-matic to see the new language.
2574 The translations for DCP-o-matic have been contributed by helpful
2575 users. If your language is not on the last, visit <ulink
2576 url="https://dcpomatic.com/i18n.php">the DCP-o-matic website</ulink> to
2577 find out how to contribute a translation.
2582 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2584 <title>Number of threads DCP-o-matic should use</title>
2587 When DCP-o-matic is encoding DCPs it can use multiple parallel threads
2588 to speed things up. Set this value to the number of threads
2589 DCP-o-matic should use. This should normally be the number of
2590 processors (or processor cores) in your machine. DCP-o-matic will try
2591 to set this up correctly when you run it for the first time.
2597 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2599 <title>Number of threads DCP-o-matic encode server should use</title>
2602 This is the number of threads that the encode server should use when
2603 it is running and helping another copy of DCP-o-matic to speed up its
2610 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2612 <title>Configuration file</title>
2615 This is the location of DCP-o-matic's configuration file on disk. You
2616 can use this to share configuration between several copies of
2617 DCP-o-matic: across a network share, for instance.
2621 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2623 <title>Cinema and screen database file</title>
2626 This option allows you to change the file that DCP-o-matic uses to
2627 store details of the cinemas and screens used to make KDMs.
2632 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2634 <title>Play sound via</title>
2637 The checkbox to the left of <guilabel>Play sound</guilabel> enables or
2638 disables DCP-o-matic's use of sound. On some machines there will be
2639 multiple options in the drop-down menu to decide how the sound should
2644 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2646 <title>Integrated loudness</title>
2649 If <guilabel>Find integrated loudness, true peak and loudness range
2650 when analysing audio</guilabel> is ticked, DCP-o-matic will do extra
2651 work when analysing audio. Leave this ticked if the extra parameters
2652 are useful to you. If not, untick it to make audio analysis faster.
2657 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2659 <title>Automatically analyse content audio</title>
2662 If this checkbox is ticked an audio analysis will be run whenever content is added that contains sound.
2666 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2668 <title>Updates</title>
2671 The <guilabel>Check for updates on startup</guilabel> option, if
2672 enabled, will tell DCP-o-matic to check on <ulink
2673 url="https://dcpomatic.com/">dcpomatic.com</ulink> to see if there are any
2674 newer versions of DCP-o-matic then the one you are running. If so, a
2675 dialogue box will open with a link to download the new version.
2679 The <guilabel>Check for testing updates as well as stable
2680 ones</guilabel> option will also check for test updates as well as
2681 those that are formally ‘released’.
2687 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2689 <title>Defaults</title>
2692 The defaults tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-defaults"/>.
2695 <figure id="fig-prefs-defaults">
2696 <title>Defaults preferences</title>
2699 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-defaults&scs;"/>
2705 The options in this tab simply allow you to set up default values for
2706 various properties of new films.
2711 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2713 <title>Servers</title>
2716 The servers tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-servers"/>.
2719 <figure id="fig-prefs-servers">
2720 <title>Servers preferences</title>
2723 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-servers&scs;"/>
2729 If <guilabel>Use all servers</guilabel> is ticked DCP-o-matic will
2730 locate encoding servers automatically (see <xref
2731 linkend="ch-servers"/>).
2735 Instead of this (or in addition) servers can be specified explicitly.
2736 To add a server, click <guilabel>Add...</guilabel> and enter the host
2737 name or IP address of the server to use.
2743 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2744 <section xml:id="sec-prefs-keys">
2748 The Keys tab (shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-keys"/>) has controls
2749 related to the keys and certificates used in some parts of DCP
2753 <figure id="fig-prefs-keys">
2754 <title>Keys preferences</title>
2757 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-keys&scs;"/>
2763 <guilabel>Export KDM decryption certificate...</guilabel> allows you
2764 to save the certificate that DCP-o-matic uses when decrypting KDMs
2765 that you give it. Use this option if somebody wants to make a KDM for
2766 you and asks for your certificate.
2770 <guilabel>Export all KDM decryption settings...</guilabel> exports a
2771 file which contains all the DCP-o-matic settings related to the use of
2772 KDMs supplied by other people. Use this button and <guilabel>Import
2773 all KDM decryption settings...</guilabel> to transfer settings between
2774 different copies of DCP-o-matic so that they can both use the same
2779 The two <guilabel>Advanced...</guilabel> buttons open advanced
2780 dialogue boxes for detailed manipulation of DCP-o-matic's certificate
2787 <title>Advanced keys settings</title>
2790 At the top of the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> dialogue for signing
2791 DCPs and KDMs is the chain of certificates that will be used to sign
2792 DCPs and KDMs. DCP-o-matic creates a random chain when you first run
2793 it and if you are happy to use this chain you can ignore the
2794 preferences. Otherwise, you can add or remove certificates from the
2795 chain using the <guilabel>Add...</guilabel> and
2796 <guilabel>Remove</guilabel> buttons.
2800 If you want DCP-o-matic to re-create the certificate chain (using new,
2801 random certificates) click <guilabel>Re-make
2802 certificates and key...</guilabel> and specify your organisation and common
2803 names in the dialogue box that opens.
2807 Underneath the certificate chain is the private key that corresponds
2808 to the leaf certificate in the chain. You can specify your own
2809 private key by clicking <guilabel>Import...</guilabel>. You must do
2810 this if you change the leaf certificate, so that the leaf private key
2811 corresponds to the public key held in the leaf certificate.
2815 At the top of the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> dialogue for decrypting DCPs is the chain and key which is used by
2816 DCP-o-matic when you import an encrypted DCP as a piece of content.
2817 The leaf certificate of this chain contains the public key that should
2818 be used when targeting a KDM at DCP-o-matic.
2822 Clicking <guilabel>Export chain...</guilabel> will
2823 export the whole certificate chain.
2828 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2829 <section xml:id="sec-prefs-tms">
2831 <titleabbrev xml:id="sec-prefs-tms-short">TMS preferences</titleabbrev>
2834 The TMS tab (shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-tms"/>) gives some
2835 options for specifying details about your theatre management system
2836 (TMS). If you do this, and your TMS accepts SSH or FTP connections,
2837 you can upload DCPs directly from DCP-o-matic to the TMS using the
2838 <guilabel>Send DCP to TMS</guilabel> option in the
2839 <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu.
2842 <figure id="fig-prefs-tms">
2843 <title>TMS preferences</title>
2846 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-tms&scs;"/>
2852 <guilabel>Protocol</guilabel> should be set to SCP or FTP as
2853 appropriate for your TMS. We know that the Arts Alliance Media (AAM)
2854 and the Doremi ranges uses SCP connections, and that Dolby's TMS uses
2855 FTP. Do let us know if you use any other type of TMS with the
2856 <guilabel>Send DCP to TMS</guilabel> feature.
2860 <guilabel>TMS IP address</guilabel> should be set to the IP address of
2861 your TMS, <guilabel>TMS target path</guilabel> to the place that DCPs
2862 should be uploaded to (which will be relative to the home directory of
2863 the SSH or FTP user). Finally, the user name and password are the
2864 credentials required to log into the TMS via SSH or FTP.
2868 Note that for this to work on Doremi servers you will need to set the
2869 <code>PasswordAuthentication</code> option in your server's
2870 <code>sshd_config</code> to <code>yes</code>.
2876 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2878 <title>Email</title>
2881 The Email tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-email"/>.
2884 <figure id="fig-prefs-email">
2885 <title>Email preferences</title>
2888 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-email&scs;"/>
2894 These settings are used when DCP-o-matic sends emails.
2898 <guilabel>Outgoing mail server</guilabel> should be the host name of a mail (SMTP) server that DCP-o-matic can use. You can also specify the port that DCP-o-matic should use. <guilabel>User name</guilabel> and <guilabel>Password</guilabel> are the credentials that are required to send email through the server you have specified.
2903 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2905 <title>KDM email</title>
2908 The KDM email tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-kdm-email"/>.
2911 <figure id="fig-prefs-kdm-email">
2912 <title>KDM email preferences</title>
2915 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-kdm-email&scs;"/>
2921 This is a template for the email that is used to send KDMs out to
2922 cinemas. You can change it to say whatever you like. A few
2923 ‘magic’ strings will be replaced by information from the
2924 KDM that is being sent; these strings are shown in <xref linkend="tab-kdm-magic"/>.
2927 <table id="tab-kdm-magic">
2928 <title>‘Magic’ KDM strings</title>
2929 <tgroup cols='2' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
2932 <entry><code>$CPL_NAME</code></entry><entry>DCP title</entry>
2935 <entry><code>$CINEMA_NAME</code></entry><entry>Cinema name</entry>
2938 <entry><code>$SCREENS</code></entry><entry>Name of screen or screens that KDMs are being generated for</entry>
2941 <entry><code>$START_TIME</code></entry><entry>The time from which the KDMs are valid</entry>
2944 <entry><code>$END_TIME</code></entry><entry>The time until which the KDMs are valid</entry>
2951 The <guilabel>Reset to default text</guilabel> will replace the current KDM email with DCP-o-matic's default.
2956 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2958 <title>Notifications</title>
2961 The Notifications tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-notifications"/>.
2964 <figure id="fig-prefs-notifications">
2965 <title>Notifications preferences</title>
2968 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-notifications&scs;"/>
2974 DCP-o-matic can notify the user when jobs have completed. These
2975 notifications can be either or both of a message box on-screen (if
2976 <guilabel>Message box</guilabel> is ticked) and email (if
2977 <guilabel>Email</guilabel> is ticked). If you enable email
2978 notifications you can fill in the details of the emails you want to
2983 The bottom box in the tab is the content of the email that should
2984 be sent. DCP-o-matic will replace the ‘magic’ strings
2985 <code>$JOB_NAME</code> and <code>$JOB_STATUS</code> in the with the
2986 details of the job that has completed.
2992 <!-- ============================================================== -->
2994 <title>Cover sheet</title>
2997 The DCP cover sheet configuration is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-cover-sheet"/>.
3000 <figure id="fig-prefs-cover-sheet">
3001 <title>DCP cover sheet preferences</title>
3004 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-cover-sheet&scs;"/>
3010 This is a template for the cover sheet that is written next to every DCP that DCP-o-matic creates. You can change it to say whatever you like. A few
3011 ‘magic’ strings will be replaced by information from the
3012 DCP that has been made:
3016 <title>‘Magic’ cover sheet strings</title>
3017 <tgroup cols='2' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
3020 <entry><code>$CPL_NAME</code></entry><entry>DCP title</entry>
3023 <entry><code>$TYPE</code></entry><entry>DCP content type (e.g. feature, trailer...)</entry>
3026 <entry><code>$CONTAINER</code></entry><entry>The container ratio (e.g. flat, scope...)</entry>
3029 <entry><code>$AUDIO</code></entry><entry>Details of the audio channels</entry>
3032 <entry><code>$AUDIO_LANGUAGE</code></entry><entry>Audio language</entry>
3035 <entry><code>$SUBTITLE_LANGUAGE</code></entry><entry>Subtitle language</entry>
3038 <entry><code>$LENGTH</code></entry><entry>DCP length in hours, minutes and seconds</entry>
3041 <entry><code>$SIZE</code></entry><entry>DCP size in gigabytes</entry>
3048 The <guilabel>Reset to default text</guilabel> will replace the current cover sheet with DCP-o-matic's default.
3054 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3055 <section xml:id="sec-prefs-advanced">
3056 <title>Advanced</title>
3057 <titleabbrev xml:id="sec-prefs-advanced-short">Advanced preferences</titleabbrev>
3060 The advanced preferences are shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-advanced"/>.
3063 <figure id="fig-prefs-advanced">
3064 <title>Advanced preferences</title>
3067 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-advanced&scs;"/>
3073 <guilabel>Maximum JPEG2000 bandwidth</guilabel> specifies the maximum
3074 bit-rate of JPEG2000 that DCP-o-matic will allow you to create. You
3075 are advised to leave this at 250Mbit/s in normal use for maximum DCP
3080 <guilabel>Allow any DCP frame rate</guilabel> removes the limits on
3081 the DCP video frame rates that DCP-o-matic will create. This may be
3082 useful for experimentation. Again, you are strongly advised to leave
3083 this unticked for normal use.
3087 <guilabel>Only servers encode</guilabel> makes DCP-o-matic encode
3088 JPEG2000 data only on encoding servers and not on the host. We
3089 suggest you leave this unticked unless you have a good reason to do otherwise.
3093 With the filename format fields you can adjust the filenames that are
3094 used for metadata (CPL and PKL files) and assets (MXF and subtitle
3095 files). Below each field there is a list of the ‘magic’
3096 values that you can use in the format and an example of a filename
3097 that you might see with your current settings.
3101 The checkboxes labelled <guilabel>Log</guilabel> control what
3102 sort of messages DCP-o-matic writes to its log file when creating a
3103 DCP. It is useful to leave <guilabel>General</guilabel>,
3104 <guilabel>Warnings</guilabel> and <guilabel>Errors</guilabel> ticked
3105 as this makes the log files useful for tracking down bugs.
3109 The <guilabel>Timing</guilabel> checkbox will enable extra log entries
3110 to allow developers to investigate and optimise the speed of
3111 DCP-o-matic. It will significantly increase the size of the log files
3112 that are generated, so in normal use it is best to leave this
3119 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en" xml:id="ch-frame-rates">
3120 <title>Frame rates</title>
3123 In an ideal world, a DCP would be created using content at the same
3124 video frame and audio sampling rates as the DCP. This is not,
3125 however, always possible.
3129 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3131 <title>DCP frame rate limitations</title>
3134 There are some limitations to video and audio frame rates in DCPs. This is
3135 complicated by the fact that not all projectors will play DCPs at the
3136 same frame rates. It is possible to create a DCP which one projector will
3137 play fine, but another (of a different type, or even just with a different software version) will refuse to play.
3141 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3143 <title>Guaranteed rates</title>
3146 The only rates that are guaranteed to work on all DCI projectors are
3147 24 frames per second (fps) for video and 48kHz for audio. If you are
3148 sending DCPs to unknown places it is wise to consider using these
3149 rates if at all possible.
3155 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3157 <title>Other often-supported rates</title>
3159 Many projectors now in the wild support additional video frame rates:
3160 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 fps.
3165 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3167 <title>Adapting content to fit the DCP rate</title>
3170 DCP-o-matic has a few tricks to allow you to use content that is not
3171 in one of the ‘approved’ rates.
3175 Audio is easy: DCP-o-matic can resample to 48kHz from any source rate
3176 with minimal loss in quality.
3180 Video rate conversion is harder. DCP-o-matic's strategy to deal
3181 with a non-supported content rate is to run it at the wrong speed, and
3182 to adjust the audio to keep it in sync.
3185 <para>Let us consider the example of a 25fps source for which you want
3186 to create a 24fps DCP. DCP-o-matic will put the frames from the
3187 source directly into the DCP without modification, but will tell the
3188 projector to play them back at 24fps. This means that the DCP's video
3189 will run slightly slower than the original.
3193 If DCP-o-matic did nothing else, the result of this would be that the
3194 audio would be running at the original speed with the video running
3195 slowly. Hence the audio would drift slowly out of sync. To avoid
3196 this, DCP-o-matic also resamples the audio such that the projector
3197 will play it too slow by the same amount. Hence it will sound
3198 slightly different but will remain in sync with the video.
3202 For very low or high frame rates, DCP-o-matic can also skip or duplicate frames.
3209 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3211 <title>Setting up</title>
3214 The <guilabel>Frame Rate</guilabel> control in the
3215 <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab sets the video frame rate that the DCP
3216 will use. Clicking <guilabel>Use best</guilabel> sets the rate to
3217 what DCP-o-matic thinks is the best for your content. With this
3218 button, DCP-o-matic assumes that the most commonly-working frame rates (24,
3219 25 and 30fps) are allowed.
3223 After this, the <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab for each piece of
3224 content will give a summary of what DCP-o-matic is doing with that
3229 You can experiment with other non-standard frame rates
3230 by ticking the <guilabel>Allow any DCP frame rate</guilabel> in
3231 the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab of the preferences dialogue (see the
3232 <xref linkend="sec-prefs-advanced" endterm="sec-prefs-advanced-short"/>). You are strongly advised to
3233 use this only on your own equipment, and only for experimentation
3242 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3243 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en" xml:id="ch-servers">
3244 <title>Encoding servers</title>
3247 One way to increase the speed of DCP encoding is to use more
3248 than one machine at the same time. An instance of DCP-o-matic can
3249 offload some of the time-consuming JPEG2000 encoding to any number of
3250 other machines on a network. To do this, one ‘master’
3251 machine runs DCP-o-matic, and the ‘server’ machines run
3252 a small program called <code>dcpomatic_server</code>.
3256 The master and server machines do not need to be running the same operating system, so you
3257 can mix Windows PCs, Macs and Linux machines as you wish.
3261 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3263 <title>Running the servers</title>
3266 There are two options for the encoding server:
3267 <code>dcpomatic_server_cli</code>, which runs on the command line, and
3268 <code>dcpomatic_server</code>, which has a simple GUI. The command line
3269 version is well-suited to headless servers, especially on Linux, and
3270 the GUI version works best on Windows and macOS where it will put an icon in the
3275 To run the command line version, simply enter:
3279 dcpomatic2_server_cli
3283 at a command prompt. If you are running the program on a machine with
3284 a multi-core processor, you can run multiple parallel encoding threads
3285 by doing something like:
3289 dcpomatic2_server_cli -t 4
3293 to run 4 threads in parallel.
3297 To run the GUI version on windows, run the ‘DCP-o-matic encode
3298 server’ from the start menu. An icon will appear in the system
3299 tray; right-click it to open a menu from whence you can quit the
3300 server or open a window to show its status.
3303 <para>If you would rather not bother installing DCP-o-matic on your
3304 server computers, the other option is to use the live-CD
3305 image that you can download from the <ulink
3306 url="https://dcpomatic.com/">DCP-o-matic web site.</ulink></para>
3308 <para>Either burn the image to CD, or write it to a USB stick (using
3309 something like <ulink
3310 url="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">unetbootin</ulink>). Boot a
3311 PC from the CD or USB stick and it becomes a DCP-o-matic server
3312 without touching your standard operating system install.
3317 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3319 <title>Setting up DCP-o-matic</title>
3322 DCP-o-matic periodically looks on the local network for servers. Any
3323 that it finds are given work to do during encodes. Selecting
3324 <guilabel>Encoding Servers</guilabel> from the
3325 <guilabel>Tools</guilabel> menu brings up a window which shows that
3326 servers that DCP-o-matic has found.
3331 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3333 <title>Some notes about encode servers</title>
3336 DCP-o-matic does not mind if servers come and go; if a server
3337 disappears, DCP-o-matic will stop sending work to it, and will check
3338 it every minute or so in case it has come back online.
3342 You will probably find that using a 1Gb/s or faster network will
3343 provide a significant speed-up compared to a 100Mb/s network.
3350 <chapter xml:id="ch-files" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
3351 <title>Generated files</title>
3354 DCP-o-matic generates a number of files as it makes a DCP. <xref
3355 linkend="fig-file-structure"/> shows the files that might be generated
3356 after you have created a DCP for a film called ‘DCP Test’.
3359 <figure id="fig-file-structure">
3360 <title>Creating a new film</title>
3363 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/file-structure&dia;"/>
3369 The <code>DCP Test</code> folder is the one that you specify when you
3370 select the <guilabel>New Film</guilabel> option from DCP-o-matic's
3371 menu. Everything is stored inside this folder.
3375 DCP-o-matic generates some working files as it goes along. These are as follows:
3378 <listitem><code>log</code> is a list of notes that DCP-o-matic makes as it goes
3379 along. This can be useful for debugging purposes if something goes
3382 <listitem><code>metadata</code> stores the settings that you have made
3383 for this film: things like cropping, output format and so on.</listitem>
3385 <listitem><code>video</code> is where DCP-o-matic writes the DCP's
3386 video data as it encodes it.</listitem>
3388 <listitem><code>analysis</code> is used to keep the results of audio analysis runs.</listitem>
3390 <listitem><code>info</code> contains details of each video frame that
3391 DCP-o-matic has written so far. This is used when an encoding
3392 operation is interrupted and DCP-o-matic must resume it.</listitem>
3397 Following this is the DCP itself:
3398 <code>DCP-TEST_EN-XX_UK-U_51_2K_CSY_20130218_CSY_OV</code>. This
3399 contains some small XML files, which describe the DCP, and two large
3400 MXF files, which contain the DCP's audio and video data. It may also
3401 contain subtitles or closed captions in either XML or MXF format. This folder
3402 (<code>DCP-TEST_EN-XX_...</code>) is what you should ingest, or pass
3403 to the cinema which is showing your DCP.
3410 <title>Command-line tools</title>
3413 DCP-o-matic includes some tools which allow DCP creation from the
3414 command line or from scripting languages. This chapter covers the
3419 There are three command-line tools in DCP-o-matic.
3420 <code>dcpomatic2_create</code> creates film directories, with the
3421 associated metadata, from a list of content files. Then
3422 <code>dcpomatic2_cli</code> runs the transcode process on these
3423 film directories. Finally, <code>dcpomatic2_kdm_cli</code> can be
3424 used to create KDMs.
3428 Some applications will benefit from setting up the films using the
3429 main DCP-o-matic GUI and then using <code>dcpomatic2_cli</code> to
3430 do the encode. This allows, for example, setup on a relatively
3431 low-powered machine before running the encode on a higher-powered
3436 <title><code>dcpomatic2_create</code></title>
3439 The syntax for <code>dcpomatic2_create</code> is:
3443 <code>dcpomatic2_create [OPTION] <CONTENT> [[OPTION] <CONTENT> ...]</code>
3447 <code>[CONTENT]</code> are the files or folders that you want to use in the
3450 <listitem>‘Movie’ files in almost any common format (e.g. MP4, MOV, MKV, etc.)</listitem>
3451 <listitem>A folder containing and image sequence in almost any common format (e.g. TIFF, DPX etc.)</listitem>
3452 <listitem>Sound files (e.g. WAV, MP3, AIFF)</listitem>
3453 <listitem>Subtitles files (e.g. <code>.srt</code>, DCP XML, <code>.ssa</code> etc.)</listitem>
3461 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="dcpomatic_create.xml"/>
3464 For example, to setup a film using a MP4 file you might do:
3468 <code>dcpomatic2_create -o my_film --container-ratio 185 --content-ratio 185 -c FTR -n "My Film" Stuff.mp4</code>
3472 This will create a folder called <code>my_film</code> which is ready for a DCP to be made by <code>dcpomatic2_cli</code>.
3476 <code>dcpomatic2_create</code> will use any default settings that you have configured in the main DCP-o-matic preferences.
3481 <title><code>dcpomatic2_cli</code></title>
3484 The syntax for <code>dcpomatic2_cli</code> is:
3488 <code>dcpomatic2_cli [OPTION] [FILM]</code>
3491 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="dcpomatic_cli.xml"/>
3494 For example, to encode a film called <code>my_film</code> you might do:
3498 <code>dcpomatic2_cli my_film</code>
3503 <title><code>dcpomatic2_kdm_cli</code></title>
3506 The syntax for <code>dcpomatic2_kdm_cli</code> is:
3510 <code>dcpomatic2_kdm_cli [OPTION] <FILM|CPL-ID></code>
3513 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="dcpomatic_kdm_cli.xml"/>
3520 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3522 <title>Loose ends</title>
3525 This chapter collects a few notes on bits of DCP-o-matic that do not fit elsewhere in the manual.
3529 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3531 <title>Resuming encodes</title>
3534 If you cancel a DCP encoding run half-way through, or your computer
3535 crashes... fear not. DCP-o-matic takes care to ensure that, in most
3536 cases, it can resume encoding from where it left off. When you
3537 re-start a DCP creation, using the same settings are a previous run,
3538 DCP-o-matic will first check that the existing picture frames are
3539 correct, and then resume from where it left off. The checking of
3540 existing frames does take some time, but it is much faster than
3541 running a full re-encode.
3545 This resumption is achieved by writing a digest (hash) to disk for
3546 every image frame that is written. On resumption, the existing MXF
3547 file for image data is read and its contents checked against the
3555 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3556 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
3557 <title>Common tasks</title>
3560 This chapter describes how to carry out some commonly-required tasks
3561 with DCP-o-matic. The full details are elsewhere in the manual: here
3562 we just discuss different approaches to these tasks and how to carry
3567 <title>Adding subtitles to an existing DCP</title>
3570 You have three options:
3574 <listitem>Make a “Version File” (VF) DCP.</listitem>
3575 <listitem>Make a complete DCP with projector-added subtitles.</listitem>
3576 <listitem>Make a complete DCP with burnt-in subtitles.</listitem>
3580 Making a VF DCP is usually the best option. This will be a very small
3581 DCP which contains only the subtitles: it refers to your existing DCP
3582 for the picture and sound. The projectionist will ingest both the
3583 existing and VF DCPs and play back the VF. The advantages of this
3584 approach are that the VF is very quick to generate, and small in size,
3585 making it easy to distribute. This is especially useful if you have
3586 to make VF DCPs in many different languages.
3590 Making a complete DCP with projector-added subtitles gives you a new,
3591 single DCP which the projectionist can ingest and play. It will be
3592 the same size as your existing DCP, and fairly quick to create. This
3593 approach relies on the projector (or server) to create the subtitles
3594 and overlay them on the image, which mostly works well but is not
3595 100% reliable.
3599 Making a complete DCP with burnt-in subtitles gives you a new, single DCP
3600 but with the subtitles rendered by DCP-o-matic and copied into your
3601 image. This is slower to create than a DCP with projector-added
3602 subtitles as every video frame with a subtitle must be re-encoded.
3603 The advantage of this approach is that it is less likely to go wrong,
3604 especially if you are using unusual subtitle positioning or character
3609 <title>Making a VF DCP</title>
3612 <listitem>Start a new DCP-o-matic film.</listitem>
3613 <listitem>Click <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> and specify your existing DCP's folder.</listitem>
3614 <listitem>Go to the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab and choose <guilabel>Split by video content</guilabel> for <guilabel>Reel type</guilabel>.</listitem>
3615 <listitem>Go to the <guilabel>Video</guilabel> and
3616 <guilabel>Audio</guilabel> tabs in turn and tick the <guilabel>Use this DCP's audio as OV and make VF</guilabel> checkboxes.</listitem>
3617 <listitem>Add your subtitles to the film in whatever format you have.</listitem>
3618 <listitem>Check the subtitle appearance in the preview; it will be
3619 slow to respond as it is having to decompress images from the existing
3621 <listitem>Choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> from the menu.</listitem>
3627 <title>Making a complete DCP with projector-added subtitles</title>
3630 <listitem>Start a new DCP-o-matic film.</listitem>
3631 <listitem>Click <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> and specify your existing DCP's folder.</listitem>
3632 <listitem>Add your subtitles to the film in whatever format you have.</listitem>
3633 <listitem>Check the subtitle appearance in the preview; it will be
3634 slow to respond as it is having to decompress images from the existing
3635 DCP. Adjust the appearance using controls in the
3636 <guilabel>Timed Text</guilabel> or <guilabel>Closed Captions</guilabel> tabs if required.</listitem>
3637 <listitem>Choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> from the menu.</listitem>
3643 <title>Making a complete DCP with burnt-in subtitles</title>
3646 <listitem>Start a new DCP-o-matic film.</listitem>
3647 <listitem>Click <guilabel>Add DCP...</guilabel> and specify your existing DCP's folder.</listitem>
3648 <listitem>Add your subtitles to the film in whatever format you have.</listitem>
3649 <listitem>Go to the <guilabel>Subtitle</guilabel> tab and tick the <guilabel>Burn subtitles into image</guilabel> checkbox.</listitem>
3650 <listitem>Check the subtitle appearance in the preview; it will be
3651 slow to respond as it is having to decompress images from the existing
3652 DCP. Adjust the appearance using controls in the
3653 <guilabel>Timed Text</guilabel> or <guilabel>Closed Captions</guilabel> tabs if required.</listitem>
3654 <listitem>Choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> from the menu.</listitem>
3661 <title>Adding soundtracks or subtitles in different languages</title>
3664 If you have a film that is to be dubbed or subtitled in several
3665 languages, the best approach with DCP-o-matic is as follows:
3669 <listitem>Make a DCP with the common elements (perhaps just the video, or maybe the video and sound); this is known as the Original Version (OV).</listitem>
3670 <listitem>For each language, make a new Version File (VF) DCP which refers to the OV.</listitem>
3674 Once you have done this, you send the OV DCP to every cinema and then
3675 the appropriate VF to each cinema depending on what language they want
3676 to play the film in. The projectionist ingests both DCPs and then plays the VF.
3680 The advantage of this approach is that the VF DCPs are much smaller
3681 than the OV since they only have the language-specific parts. If you
3682 are just changing the subtitles you can often ship the OV by normal
3683 transport means (e.g. a hard drive or high-speed download) and send
3688 The full details of OV and VF files are discussed in <xref linkend="sec-overlay"/>. The steps can be summarised as follows:
3692 <listitem>Create a new DCP-o-matic project for the OV, as normal, adding video and perhaps sound. Make the DCP.</listitem>
3693 <listitem>Create a new DCP-o-matic project for the VF.</listitem>
3694 <listitem>Use <guilabel>Add folder...</guilabel> to add your OV DCP to the project.</listitem>
3695 <listitem>Select the video tab and tick <guilabel>Use this DCP's video as OV and make VF</guilabel> (you may need to select <guilabel>By video content</guilabel> for <guilabel>Reel type</guilabel> in the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab).</listitem>
3696 <listitem>Do the same in the <guilabel>Audio</guilabel> tab if your OV has audio.</listitem>
3697 <listitem>Add your language-specific audio and/or subtitles and Make DCP.</listitem>
3704 <chapter xml:id="ch-player" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
3705 <title>Playing DCPs</title>
3707 <para>DCP-o-matic includes a DCP player, and although it requires a
3708 very high-speed CPU to play DCPs in full resolution, it can also
3709 play DCPs at reduced resolutions with slower CPUs.</para>
3711 <para>To use the player, start <guilabel>DCP-o-matic
3712 Player</guilabel>, and load a DCP using the
3713 <guilabel>Open</guilabel> option on the <guilabel>File</guilabel>
3716 <para>If you load a VF and/or encrypted DCP you can add your OV
3717 and/or KDM using the appropriate options on the
3718 <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu.</para>
3720 <para>During playback the <guilabel>Performance</guilabel> area at
3721 the bottom right of the window will give details of how many frames
3722 are being dropped; these are frames that were not decoded from the
3723 DCP quickly enough. If this number is high you can increase
3724 performance at the cost of rendering quality by choosing an option
3725 from the <guilabel>View</guilabel> menu. If you set the player to
3726 decode at less than full resolution the DCP's data will be decoded
3727 at this lower resolution, which is quicker than decoding at full
3731 <para>Another way to improve performance is to set the <guilabel>Video display mode</guilabel>
3732 in <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> to <guilabel>OpenGL (faster)</guilabel>. This should provide
3733 a significant speed-up on most systems, although this mode has not been so widely tested so may
3740 <chapter xml:id="ch-verifier" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
3741 <title>Verifying DCPs</title>
3744 The DCP-o-matic Player (see <xref linkend="ch-player"/>) also offers a DCP verifier. To check a DCP,
3745 open it and then select <guilabel>Verify DCP</guilabel> from the
3746 <guilabel>Tools</guilabel> menu.
3750 The verifier will report three kinds of problems:
3754 <listitem><emphasis>Errors</emphasis> — serious problems with the DCP that are likely to cause problems on playback.</listitem>
3755 <listitem><emphasis>Bv2.1 errors</emphasis> — errors described by the <ulink url="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9161348">SMPTE Bv2.1 standard</ulink>.</listitem>
3756 <listitem><emphasis>Warnings</emphasis> — small problems that may not matter.</listitem>
3760 The following sections list what the verifier checks for in each category.
3764 <title>Errors</title>
3765 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="verify_errors.xml"/>
3769 <title>Bv2.1 errors</title>
3770 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="verify_bv21_errors.xml"/>
3774 <title>Warnings</title>
3775 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="verify_warnings.xml"/>
3781 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3782 <chapter xml:id="ch-writer">
3783 <title>Writing DCPs to disks</title>
3786 Once you have your DCP, you need to get it to the cinema or theater who
3787 will play it. Sometimes this is possible via the internet, using a
3788 service such as Filemail. If that's an option: go for it! Network
3789 transfers avoid a lot of the difficulties that other methods have.
3793 However, your DCP may be too large to make that practical. In that case,
3794 the usual approach is to copy the DCP onto a USB hard drive or stick and
3795 physically take it or send it to the cinema.
3799 <title>Hard drive formatting</title>
3802 In theory, this should be as simple as dragging and dropping the DCP's
3803 files onto a USB-connected drive. Sadly, though, things are not always
3804 that simple. This is because not all hard drives are formatted in the
3805 same way. The most common formats for hard drives are:
3809 <listitem>APFS — used by macOS 10.13 and later for solid state drives (SSDs).</listitem>
3810 <listitem>HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) — used by macOS on 10.12 and earlier, and on all macOS systems for spinning disks.</listitem>
3811 <listitem>NTFS — modern format used by Windows.</listitem>
3812 <listitem>ExFAT — another modern, but less common (and buggier) format used by Windows.</listitem>
3813 <listitem>FAT32 — old format used by Windows.</listitem>
3814 <listitem>ext2, ext3, ext4 — often used by Linux.</listitem>
3818 You can format a drive however you want, but a drive set up on macOS will usually use APFS, just as one set up on Windows will probably use NTFS or ExFAT.
3822 The problem you have as a DCP maker is: the only format that is
3823 guaranteed to work in all cinemas is ext2. This format is not easy to
3824 use directly from Windows or macOS: both operating systems need extra
3825 software to write ext2 drives.
3829 The “DCP-o-matic Disk Writer” provides a possible
3830 solution to this problem. It allows you to format and copy DCPs onto ext2-formatted disks from Windows, macOS or Linux.
3837 <title>Caution</title>
3840 DCP-o-matic is made by one developer in his spare time. As a project,
3841 we do not have any quality assurance department, testing team or
3842 anything like that. Though we try our best to ensure quality using
3843 automated testing, and by the great efforts of our users to find and report problems,
3844 bugs do get into the code and things do go wrong.
3848 Though very undesirable, bugs in most parts of DCP-o-matic are usually
3849 not disastrous; they most often result in an error message, or some
3850 problem with a DCP. The Disk Writer tool, however, is a bit different. It obtains
3851 permission from your operating system to write directly to disks connected to the
3852 computer. Though we have done as much as we can to prevent problems, there is a chance
3853 that a bug in the Disk Writer could cause irretrievable data loss (for example, if
3854 the writer wrote to the wrong drive by mistake).
3858 No such problems have been reported, nor found by us during testing, but I would
3859 like to warn you that they are possible. As always, make sure that you have backups
3860 (somewhere that is not directly connected to your computer) of anything that you do not want
3868 <title>Writing a DCP to a disk</title>
3871 Starting up the Disk Writer will give open a confirmation window to make sure that you understand the risks involved, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-disk-writer-notice"/>.
3874 <figure id="fig-disk-writer-notice">
3875 <title>Starting the Disk Writer</title>
3878 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/disk-writer-notice&scs;"/>
3884 If you are sure you want to continue, type <code>I am sure</code> into the text box and click <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. This will open the window shown in <xref linkend="fig-disk-writer"/>.
3887 <figure id="fig-disk-writer">
3888 <title>The Disk Writer</title>
3891 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/disk-writer&scs;"/>
3896 <para>Next, click <guilabel>Open...</guilabel> and choose the DCP that you want to write.</para>
3899 Now we need to choose the drive that the DCP will be written to from the drop-down menu.
3900 <emphasis>Whichever drive you choose will be irretrievably wiped!</emphasis>
3901 If the drive you want is not listed, click <guilabel>Refresh</guilabel> to search the system for drives.
3905 Finally, click <guilabel>Copy DCP</guilabel>. After a confirmation window, the drive will be formatted,
3906 and the DCP copied and then read back to check that it was written correctly.
3914 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3916 <title>Keyboard shortcuts</title>
3917 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="shortcuts.xml"/>
3921 <!-- ============================================================== -->
3922 <chapter xml:id="ch-config" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
3923 <title>Configuration files</title>
3925 <para>Most of DCP-o-matic's configuration is stored in an XML file called <code>config.xml</code>. This is stored in different places depending on your operating system:</para>
3928 <listitem>Windows: <code>c:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Local\dcpomatic</code></listitem>
3929 <listitem>OS X: <code>/Users/your_user_Name/Library/Preferences/com.dcpomatic/2</code></listitem>
3930 <listitem>Linux: <code>~/.config/dcpomatic2</code></listitem>
3933 <para>Possible XML tags are as follows:</para>
3935 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="config.xml"/>
3941 <!-- LocalWords: dbcent DCP matic Hetherington DCPs KDMs GPL XP sid
3943 <!-- LocalWords: matic's jessie Tahr Xenial Xerus Centos Mageia GTK
3945 <!-- LocalWords: Karner FFmpeg libsndfile libsamplerate OpenSSL waf
3947 <!-- LocalWords: libopenjpeg libssh wxWidgets libxml xmlsec libzip
3949 <!-- LocalWords: asdcplib libdcp libsub libcxml sstream sudo Sintel
3951 <!-- LocalWords: dcpomatic TMS SCP timecode DCP's unencrypted OV Gb
3953 <!-- LocalWords: Decrypting KDM decrypt decrypted MOV VOB WAV AIFF
3955 <!-- LocalWords: PNG srt ssa xml wav Lfe XYZ colourspace sRGB RGB
3957 <!-- LocalWords: colourspaces pdf fader CP Doremi CaptiView SubRip
3959 <!-- LocalWords: SubStation BluRay
projects / dcpomatic.git / blob