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19 <title>DCP-o-matic</title>
20 <author><firstname>Carl</firstname><surname>Hetherington</surname></author>
23 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
24 <title>Introduction</title>
27 Hello, and welcome to DCP-o-matic!
31 <title>What is DCP-o-matic?</title>
34 DCP-o-matic is a program to generate <ulink
35 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package">Digital
36 Cinema Packages</ulink> (DCPs) from DVDs, Blu-Rays, video files such as MP4
37 and AVI, or still images. The resulting DCPs will play on modern digital
42 You might find it useful to make DVDs easier to present, to encode
43 independently-shot feature films, or to generate local advertising for
50 <title>Licence</title>
53 DCP-o-matic is licensed under the <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU GPL</ulink>.
59 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
62 This manual uses icons from the <ulink url="http://tango.freedesktop.org/">Tango Desktop Project</ulink>, with thanks.
68 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
69 <title>Installation</title>
72 <title>Windows</title>
75 To install DCP-o-matic on Windows, simply download the installer from
76 <ulink url="http://dcpomatic.com/">http://dcpomatic.com/</ulink>
77 and double-click it. Click through the installer wizard, and
78 DCP-o-matic will be installed onto your machine.
82 If you are using a 32-bit version of Windows, you will need the 32-bit
83 installer. For 64-bit Windows, either installer will work, but I
84 suggest you used the 64-bit version as it will allow DCP-o-matic to
85 use more memory. You may find that DCP-o-matic crashes if you run
86 many parallel encoding threads (more than 4) on the 32-bit
93 <title>Mac OS X</title>
96 DCP-o-matic will run on Mac OS X version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and
97 higher. To install it, download the <code>DMG</code> from <ulink
98 url="http://dcpomatic.com/">http://dcpomatic.com/</ulink> and double
99 click to open it. Then drag the DCP-o-matic icon to your
100 <guilabel>Applications</guilabel> folder or wherever else you would
107 <title>Ubuntu Linux</title>
110 You can install DCP-o-matic on Ubuntu 12.04 (‘Precise
111 Pangolin’), 12.10 (‘Quantal Quetzal’) or 13.04
112 (‘Raring Ringtail’) using <code>.deb</code> packages:
113 download the appropriate package from <ulink
114 url="http://dcpomatic.com/">http://dcpomatic.com/</ulink> and
115 double-click it. Ubuntu will install the necessary bits and pieces
116 and set DCP-o-matic up for you.
122 <title>Other Linux distributions</title>
125 Installation on non-Ubuntu Linux is currently a little involved, as
126 there are no packages available (yet); you will have to compile it
127 from source. If you are using a non-Ubuntu distribution, do let me
128 know via the <ulink url="mailto:dcpomatic@carlh.net">mailing
129 list</ulink> and I will see about building some packages.
133 The following dependencies are required:
135 <listitem><ulink url="http://ffmpeg.org/">FFmpeg</ulink></listitem>
136 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/">libsndfile</ulink></listitem>
137 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.openssl.org/">OpenSSL</ulink></listitem>
138 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.openjpeg.org/">libopenjpeg</ulink></listitem>
139 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php">ImageMagick</ulink></listitem>
140 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.boost.org/">Boost</ulink></listitem>
141 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.libssh.org/">libssh</ulink></listitem>
142 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.gtk.org/">GTK</ulink></listitem>
143 <listitem><ulink url="http://www.wxwidgets.org/">wxWidgets</ulink></listitem>
144 <listitem><ulink url="http://carlh.net/software/libdcp/">libdcp</ulink></listitem>
149 Once you have installed the development packages for the dependencies,
150 download the source code from <ulink
151 url="http://dcpomatic.com/">http://dcpomatic.com/</ulink>,
152 unpack it and run the following commands from inside the source
163 With any luck, this will build and install DCP-o-matic on your system. To run it, enter:
177 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
178 <title>Creating a video DCP</title>
181 In this chapter we will see how to create a video DCP using
182 DCP-o-matic. We will gloss over the details and look at the basics.
186 <title>Creating a new film</title>
189 Let's make a very simple DCP to see how DCP-o-matic works. First, we
190 need some content. Download the low-resolution trailer for the open
191 movie <ulink url="http://sintel.org/">Sintel</ulink> from <ulink
192 url="http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/graphics/blender/apricot/trailer/Sintel_Trailer1.480p.DivX_Plus_HD.mkv">their
193 website</ulink>. Generally, of course, one would want to use the
194 highest-resolution material available, but for this test we will use
195 the low-resolution version to save everyone's bandwidth bills.
199 Now, start DCP-o-matic and its window will open. First, we will
200 create a new ‘film’. A ‘film’ is how DCP-o-matic refers to
201 some pieces of content, along with some settings, which we will make into
202 a DCP. DCP-o-matic stores its data in a folder on your disk while it
203 creates the DCP. You can create a new film by selecting
204 <guilabel>New</guilabel> from the <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu, as
205 shown in <xref linkend="fig-file-new"/>.
208 <figure id="fig-file-new">
209 <title>Creating a new film</title>
212 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/file-new&scs;"/>
218 This will open a dialogue box for the new film, as shown in <xref
219 linkend="fig-video-new-film"/>.
222 <figure id="fig-video-new-film">
223 <title>Dialogue box for creating a new film</title>
226 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/video-new-film&scs;"/>
232 In this dialogue box you can choose a name for the film. This will be
233 used to name the folder to store its data in, and also as the initial
234 name for the DCP itself. You can also choose whereabouts you want to create
235 the film. In the example from the figure, DCP-o-matic will create a
236 folder called ‘DCP Test’ inside my home folder (carl) into which it
237 will write its working files.
243 <title>Adding content</title>
246 The next step is to add the content that you want to use. DCP-o-matic
247 can make DCPs from multiple pieces of content, but in this simple
248 example we will just use a single piece. Click the <guilabel>Add
249 file(s)...</guilabel> button, as shown in <xref
250 linkend="fig-add-file"/>, and a file chooser will open for you to
251 select the content file to use, as shown in <xref
252 linkend="fig-video-select-content-file"/>.
255 <figure id="fig-add-file">
256 <title>Adding content files</title>
259 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/add-file&scs;"/>
264 <figure id="fig-video-select-content-file">
265 <title>Selecting a video content file</title>
268 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/video-select-content-file&scs;"/>
274 Select your content file and click <guilabel>Open</guilabel>. In this
275 case we are using the Sintel trailer that we downloaded earlier.
279 When you do this, DCP-o-matic will take a look at your file. After a
280 short while (when the progress bar at the bottom right of the window
281 has finished), you can look through your content using the slider to
282 the right of the window, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-examine-content"/>.
285 <figure id="fig-examine-content">
286 <title>Examining the content</title>
289 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/examine-content&scs;"/>
295 Dragging the slider will move through your video. You can also click
296 the <guilabel>Play</guilabel> button to play the content back. Note
297 that there will be no sound, and playback might not be entirely
298 accurate (it may be slightly slower or faster than it should be, for
299 example). This player is really only intended for brief inspection of
300 content; if you need to check it more thoroughly, use another player
302 url="http://projects.gnome.org/totem/index.html">Totem</ulink>, <ulink
303 url="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html">mplayer</ulink> or
304 <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html">VLC</ulink>.
312 <title>Making the DCP</title>
314 <para>In most cases, some adjustments would be made to DCP-o-matic's
315 settings once the content has been added. For our simple test,
316 however, the default values will suffice, so we can go straight onto
317 making the DCP.</para>
320 Choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel> from the
321 <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu. DCP-o-matic will encode your DCP.
322 This may take some time (many hours in some cases). While the job is
323 in progress, DCP-o-matic will update you on how it is getting on with
324 the progress bar in the bottom of its window, as shown in <xref
325 linkend="fig-making-dcp"/>.
328 <figure id="fig-making-dcp">
329 <title>Making the DCP</title>
332 <imagedata scale="30" fileref="screenshots/making-dcp&scs;"/>
338 When it has finished, the DCP will end up on your disk inside the
339 film's folder. You can then copy this to a projector via a USB
340 stick, hard-drive or network connection. See <xref
341 linkend="ch-files"/> for details about the files that DCP-o-matic creates.
345 Alternatively, if you have a projector or TMS that is accessible via
346 SCP across your network, you can upload the content directly from
347 DCP-o-matic. See the preferences in <xref linkend="sec-prefs-tms"/>.
353 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
354 <title>Creating a still-image DCP</title>
357 DCP-o-matic can also be used to create DCPs of one or more still images, perhaps
358 for an advertisement or an on-screen announcement. This chapter shows you
363 As with video DCPs, the first step is to create a new
364 ‘Film’; select <guilabel>New</guilabel> from the
365 <guilabel>File</guilabel> menu and the new film dialogue will open as
366 shown in <xref linkend="fig-still-new-film"/>.
369 <figure id="fig-still-new-film">
370 <title>Dialogue box for creating a new film</title>
373 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/still-new-film&scs;"/>
379 Enter a name and click <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. Now we need to add
380 the content. As before, click <guilabel>Add file(s)...</guilabel>.
381 For our example, we will add a single image file, as shown in <xref
382 linkend="fig-still-select-content-file"/>.
385 <figure id="fig-still-select-content-file">
386 <title>Selecting a still content file</title>
389 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/still-select-content-file&scs;"/>
395 As with video DCPs, most of the default settings will be fine for a
396 simple test. The one thing that you might wish to change is the
397 length of the still. Select the <guilabel>Timing</guilabel> tab and
398 you will see a <guilabel>Length</guilabel> setting, as shown in <xref
399 linkend="fig-timing-tab"/>.
402 <figure id="fig-timing-tab">
403 <title>The timing tab</title>
406 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/timing-tab&scs;"/>
412 This length is a ‘timecode’: it consists of four numbers.
413 The first is hours, the second minutes, the third seconds, and the
414 fourth frames. Enter the duration that you want and then click <guilabel>Set</guilabel>.
418 Finally, as with video, you can choose <guilabel>Make DCP</guilabel>
419 from the <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu to create your DCP. This will
420 be much quicker than creating a video DCP, as DCP-o-matic only needs
421 to encode a single frame which it can then repeat.
426 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
427 <title>Content settings</title>
430 The previous chapters showed DCP generation using the default
431 settings. DCP-o-matic offers a range of features to adjust the
432 content that goes into your DCP, and this chapter describes those features in
437 <title>Adding and removing content</title>
440 At the top of the <guilabel>Content</guilabel> tab is a list of the
441 content that will go into our DCP. There can be as many pieces of
442 content as you like, and they can be of the following types:
446 <listitem>Movie — a file containing some video, probably some
447 audio and possibly some subtitles; for example, a MOV, MP4 or VOB.
450 <listitem>Sound — a file containing one or more channels of
451 audio; for example, a WAV or AIFF file.
454 <listitem>Still image — a file containing a single still image; for
455 example, a JPEG, PNG or TIFF file.
458 <listitem>Moving image — a directory containing many still
459 images which should be treated as the frames of a video.
464 To add one or more movie, sound or still-image files, select
465 <guilabel>Add file(s)...</guilabel> and choose them from the selector.
466 To add a directory of images, choose <guilabel>Add
467 directory...</guilabel> and do similar.
471 You can remove a piece of content by clicking on its name and then
472 clicking the <guilabel>Remove</guilabel> button.
477 <title>Content Properties</title>
480 Below the content list are the controls to set content properties. To
481 adjust the properties for a piece of content, click its name in the
482 content list. The content property controls will then become active
483 for that piece of content.
487 The content properties are split up into four sections:
488 <guilabel>Video</guilabel>, <guilabel>Audio</guilabel>,
489 <guilabel>Subtitles</guilabel> and <guilabel>Timing</guilabel>. Not
490 all of these sections will be active for all content types. The controls
491 in each section are described below.
500 The <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab controls properties of the image, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-video-tab"/>.
503 <figure id="fig-video-tab">
504 <title>Video settings tab</title>
507 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/video-tab&scs;"/>
513 <title>Image type</title>
516 The first option on this tab is the ‘type’ of the video.
517 This specifies how DCP-o-matic should interpret the video's image.
518 <guilabel>2D</guilabel> is the default; this just takes the video
519 image as a standard 2D frame. The other option <guilabel>3D
520 left/right</guilabel> tells DCP-o-matic to interpret the frame as a
521 left-right pair, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-3d-left-right"/>.
524 <figure id="fig-3d-left-right">
525 <title>3D left/right image type</title>
528 <imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/3d-left-right&dia;"/>
534 This option can be used to generate a 3D DCP. Other means of creating
535 3D will be added in the future.
541 <!-- ============================================================== -->
543 <title>Filtering</title>
546 The ‘filters’ settings allow you to apply various video
547 filters to the image. These may be useful to try to improve
548 poor-quality sources like DVDs. You can set up the filters by clicking the
549 <guilabel>Edit</guilabel> button next to the filters entry in the
550 setup area of the DCP-o-matic window; this opens the filters selector
551 as shown in <xref linkend="fig-filters"/>.
554 <figure id="fig-filters">
555 <title>Filters selector</title>
558 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/filters&scs;"/>
564 After changing the filters setup, you will need to regenerate the DCP
565 to see the effect on the cinema screen. The preview in DCP-o-matic
566 will update itself whenever filters are changed, though of course this
567 image is much smaller and of lower resolution than a projected image!
572 <!-- ============================================================== -->
574 <title>Other settings</title>
577 The ‘crop’ settings can be used to crop your content,
578 which can be used to remove black borders from round the edges of DVD
579 images, for example. The specified number of pixels will be trimmed
580 from each edge, and the content image in the right of the window will
581 be updated to show the effect of the crop.
585 The <guilabel>Scale to</guilabel> option governs the shape that
586 DCP-o-matic will scale the content's image into. Select the aspect
587 ratio that your content should be presented in.
592 <title>Video description</title>
595 At the bottom of the video tab is a short description of what will
596 happen to your video with the current settings. In the example of
597 <xref linkend="fig-video-tab"/>, DCP-o-matic is telling you that the
598 video file is 1920x1080 pixels (which is a ratio of 1.78:1). Since
599 the controls specify ‘Flat’ for the ratio, DCP-o-matic
600 scales the content image to 1998x1080, which is the DCI flat
605 This description also gives the frame rate of the content and what
606 will happen to it when it is played at the DCP's frame rate.
607 <!-- XXX: link to more detailed discussion of this -->
618 The <guilabel>Audio</guilabel> tab controls properties of the image, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-audio-tab"/>.
621 <figure id="fig-audio-tab">
622 <title>Audio settings tab</title>
625 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-tab&scs;"/>
631 <title>Show audio</title>
634 The <guilabel>Show Audio</guilabel> button will instruct DCP-o-matic
635 to examine the audio in your content and plot a graph of its level
636 over time. This can be useful for getting a rough idea of how loud
637 the sound will be in the cinema auditorium. A typical plot is shown
638 in <xref linkend="fig-audio-plot"/>
641 <figure id="fig-audio-plot">
642 <title>Audio plot</title>
645 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-plot&scs;"/>
651 The plot gives the audio level (vertical axis, in dB) with time
652 (horizontal axis). 0dB represents full scale, so if there is anything
653 near this you are in danger of clipping the projector's audio outputs.
657 There are two plot types: the peak level and the RMS, which can be
658 shown or hidden using the check-boxes on the right hand side of the
663 The channel check-boxes will show or hide the plot(s) for
664 the corresponding channels in the DCP.
668 The smoothing slider applies a variable degree of temporal smoothing
669 to the plots, which can make them easier to read in some cases.
673 Obviously the audio plot is no substitute for listening in an
674 auditorium, but it can be useful to get levels in the right rough area.
680 <title>The audio map</title>
683 The section at the bottom of the audio tab is the ‘audio
684 map’. This governs how sound from the content will be arranged
689 Down the left-hand side of the map is the list of audio channels in
690 the currently-selected piece of content. Along the top is each
691 channel in the DCP. A checked box means that the corresponding
692 content channel will be copied into the corresponding DCP channel.
696 Consider, for example, the case in <xref linkend="fig-audio-map-eg1"/>.
699 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg1">
700 <title>Audio map example 1</title>
703 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg1&scs;"/>
709 Here, we have two channels in the source which are mapped to left and
710 right, respectively, in the DCP. If we modify that as in <xref
711 linkend="fig-audio-map-eg2"/>
714 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg2">
715 <title>Audio map example 2</title>
718 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg2&scs;"/>
724 we now have the content's streams mapped to left and right and also
725 mixed together and placed in the DCP's centre channel.
728 <figure id="fig-audio-map-eg3">
729 <title>Audio map example 3</title>
732 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/audio-map-eg3&scs;"/>
738 As a final example, the map in <xref linkend="fig-audio-map-eg3"/>
739 shows the mapping of a 5.1 source into a 5.1 DCP.
745 <title>Other controls</title>
748 ‘Audio Gain’ is used to alter the volume of the
749 soundtrack. The specified gain (in dB) will be applied to each sound
750 channel of your content before it is written to the DCP.
754 If you use a sound processor that DCP-o-matic knows about, it can help
755 you calculate changes in gain that you should apply. Say, for
756 example, that you make a test DCP and find that you have to run it at
757 volume 5 instead of volume 7 to get a good sound level in the screen.
758 If this is the case, click the <guilabel>Calculate...</guilabel>
759 button next to the audio gain entry, and the dialogue box in <xref
760 linkend="fig-calculate-audio-gain"/> will open.
763 <figure id="fig-calculate-audio-gain">
764 <title>Calculating audio gain</title>
767 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/calculate-audio-gain&scs;"/>
773 For our example, put 5 in the first box and 7 in the second and click
774 <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. DCP-o-matic will calculate the audio gain
775 that it should apply to make this happen. Then you can re-make the
776 DCP (this will be reasonably fast, as the video data will already have
777 been done) and it should play back at the correct volume with 7 on
778 your sound-rack fader.
782 Current versions of DCP-o-matic only know about the Dolby CP750. If
783 you use a different sound processor, and know the gain curve of its
784 volume control, <ulink url="mailto:cth@carlh.net">get in
789 <guilabel>Audio Delay</guilabel> is used to adjust the synchronisation
790 between audio and video. A positive delay will move the audio later
791 with respect to the video, and a negative delay will move it earlier.
795 The <guilabel>Audio Stream</guilabel> option allows you to select the
796 audio stream to use, if the content contains more than one. There
797 might be different soundtrack languages, for example.
805 <title>Subtitles</title>
808 The subtitles tab contains settings related to subtitles in your
809 content, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-subtitles-tab"/>.
812 <figure id="fig-subtitles-tab">
813 <title>Subtitle settings tab</title>
816 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/subtitles-tab&scs;"/>
822 DCP-o-matic will extract subtitles from the content, if present, and
823 they can be ‘burnt into’ the DCP (that is, they are
824 included in the image and not overlaid by the projector). Note that
825 DVD and Blu-Ray subtitles are stored as bitmaps, so it is not possible
826 (automatically) to use non-burnt-in subtitles with these sources.
827 Select the <guilabel>With Subtitles</guilabel> checkbox to enable
828 subtitles. The <guilabel>offset</guilabel> control moves the
829 subtitles up and down the image, and the <guilabel>scale</guilabel>
830 control changes their size.
834 All being well, future versions of DCP-o-matic will include the option to
835 use text subtitles (as is the norm with most professionally-mastered
841 <!-- XXX: timing tab -->
845 <chapter xml:id="ch-dcp" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
846 <title>DCP settings</title>
849 This chapter describes the settings that apply to the whole DCP. The
850 controls for these settings are in the <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab of
851 the main window, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-dcp-tab"/>.
854 <figure id="fig-dcp-tab">
855 <title>DCP settings tab</title>
858 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/dcp-tab&scs;"/>
864 The first thing here is the name. This is generally set to the title
865 of the film that is being encoded. If <guilabel>Use DCI
866 name</guilabel> is not ticked, the name that you specify will be used
867 as-is for the name of the DCP. If <guilabel>Use DCI name</guilabel>
868 is ticked, the name that you enter will be used as part of a
873 Underneath the name field is a preview of the name that the DCP will
874 get. To use a DCI-compliant name, tick the <guilabel>Use DCI
875 name</guilabel> checkbox. The DCI name will be composed using details
876 of your content's soundtrack, the current date and other things that
877 can be specified in the DCI name details dialogue box, which you can
878 open by clicking on the <guilabel>Details</guilabel> button.
882 If the DCP name is long, it may not all be visible. You can see the
883 full name by hovering the mouse pointer over the partial name.
887 The <guilabel>Container</guilabel> option sets the ratio of the image
888 in the DCP. If this ratio is different to the ratio used for any
889 content, DCP-o-matic will pad the content with black. In simple cases
890 this should be set to the same ratio as that for the the primary piece
891 of video content. Alternatively, you might want to pillarbox a small
892 format into a Flat container: in this case, select the small format
893 for the content's ratio and ‘Flat’ for the DCP.
897 Next up is the content type. This can be
898 ‘feature’, ‘trailer’ or whatever; select the
899 required type from the drop-down list.
903 The <guilabel>Frame Rate</guilabel> control sets the frame rate of
904 your DCP. This can be a little tricky to get right. Ideally, you
905 want it to be the same as the video content that you are using. If it
906 is not the same, DCP-o-matic must resort to some tricks to alter your
907 content to fit the specified frame rate. Frame rates are discussed in more detail later.
912 The <guilabel>Use best</guilabel> button sets the DCP video frame rate
913 to what DCP-o-matic thinks is the best given the content that you have
918 The <guilabel>Audio Channels</guilabel> control sets the number of
919 audio channels that the DCP will have. If the DCP has any channels
920 for which there is no content audio they will be replaced by silence.
924 The <guilabel>3D</guilabel> button will set your DCP to 3D mode if it
925 is checked. A 3D DCP will then be created, and any 2D content will be
926 made 3D compatible by repeating the same frame for both left and right
927 eyes. A 3D DCP can be played back on many 3D systems (e.g.\ Dolby 3D,
928 Real-D etc.) but not on a 2D system.
932 The <guilabel>Resolution</guilabel> tab allows you to choose the
933 resolution for your DCP. Use 2K unless you have content that is of
934 high enough resolution to be worth presenting in 4K.
938 The <guilabel>JPEG2000 bandwidth</guilabel>; setting changes how big the final
939 image files used within the DCP will be. Larger numbers will give
940 better quality, but correspondingly larger DCPs. The bandwidth can be
941 between 50 and 250 megabits per second (MBps).
945 Finally, the <guilabel>scaler</guilabel> is the method that will be used to scale up
946 your content to the required size for the DCP, if required. Bicubic is a fine choice in
953 <chapter xml:id="ch-preferences" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
954 <title>Preferences</title>
957 DCP-o-matic provides a few preferences which can be used to modify its
958 behaviour. This chapter explains those options.
962 <title>The preferences dialogue</title>
965 The preferences dialogue is opened by choosing
966 <guilabel>Preferences...</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Edit</guilabel>
967 menu. The dialogue is split into four tabs.
971 <title>Miscellaneous</title>
974 The miscellaneous tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-misc"/>.
977 <figure id="fig-prefs-misc">
978 <title>Miscellaneous preferences</title>
981 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-misc&scs;"/>
987 <title>Language</title>
990 If you tick the <guilabel>Set Language</guilabel> checkbox and choose
991 a language from the list, that language will be used for DCP-o-matic.
992 You will need to restart DCP-o-matic to see the new language.
996 The translations for DCP-o-matic have been contributed by helpful
997 users. If your language is not on the last, head to <ulink
998 url="http://dcpomatic.com/i18n.php">the DCP-o-matic website</ulink> to
999 read about how to contribute a translation.
1004 <title>Threads</title>
1007 When DCP-o-matic is encoding DCPs it can use multiple parallel threads
1008 to speed things up. Set this value to the number of threads
1009 DCP-o-matic should use. This would typically be set to the number of
1010 processors (or processor cores) in your machine.
1016 <title>Defaults</title>
1019 The next few options allow you to set up default values for several
1020 properties of new films that you create.
1027 <title>Encoding servers</title>
1030 The encoding servers tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-servers"/>.
1033 <figure id="fig-prefs-servers">
1034 <title>Encoding servers preferences</title>
1037 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-servers&scs;"/>
1043 If you have spare machines sitting around on your network not doing
1044 much, they can be pressed into service to speed up DCP encodes. This
1045 is done by running a small server program on the machine, which will
1046 encode video sent to it by the ‘master’ DCP-o-matic. This
1047 option is described in more detail in <xref linkend="sec-servers"/>.
1048 Use these preferences to specify the encoding servers that should be
1055 <title>Metadata</title>
1058 The metadata tab is shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-metadata"/>.
1061 <figure id="fig-prefs-metadata">
1062 <title>Metadata preferences</title>
1065 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-metadata&scs;"/>
1071 This allows you to set up a couple of identifiers that are written
1072 into the DCP. The default values should cause no problems.
1077 <section xml:id="prefs-tms">
1081 The TMS tab (shown in <xref linkend="fig-prefs-tms"/>) gives some
1082 options for specifying details about your theatre management system
1083 (TMS). If you do this, and your TMS accepts SSH connections, you can
1084 upload DCPs directly from DCP-o-matic to the TMS using the
1085 <guilabel>Send DCP to TMS</guilabel> option in the
1086 <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel> menu.
1089 <figure id="fig-prefs-tms">
1090 <title>TMS preferences</title>
1093 <imagedata fileref="screenshots/prefs-tms&scs;"/>
1099 <guilabel>TMS IP address</guilabel> should be set to the IP address of
1100 your TMS, <guilabel>TMS target path</guilabel> to the place that DCPs
1101 should be uploaded to (which will be relative to the home directory of
1102 the SSH user). Finally, the user name and password are the
1103 credentials required to log into the TMS via SSH.
1111 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
1112 <title>Frame rates</title>
1115 In an ideal world, a DCP would be created using content at the same
1116 video frame and audio sampling rates as the DCP. This is not,
1117 however, always possible.
1121 <title>DCP rate limitations</title>
1124 There are some limitations to video and audio rates in DCPs. This is
1125 complicated by the fact that not all projectors will play DCPs at the
1126 same rates. It is possible to create a DCP which one projector will
1127 play fine, but another (of a different type) will refuse to play, or
1128 even refuse to ingest.
1132 <title>Guaranteed rates</title>
1135 The only rates that are (pretty much) guaranteed to work on all DCI
1136 projectors is 24 frames per second (fps) for video and 48kHz or 96kHz
1137 for audio. If you are sending your DCPs to unknown places it wise to
1138 consider using these rates if at all possible.
1144 <title>Other often-supported rates</title>
1146 Many projectors now in the wild support additional video frame rates:
1152 <title>Adapting content to fit the DCP rate</title>
1155 DCP-o-matic has a few tricks to allow you to use content that is not
1156 in one of the ‘approved’ rates.
1160 Audio is easy: DCP-o-matic can resample to 48kHz from any source rate
1161 with minimal loss in quality.
1165 Video rate conversion is harder. DCP-o-matic's basic strategy to deal
1166 with a non-supported content rate is to run it at the wrong speed, and
1167 to adjust the audio to keep it in sync.
1170 <para>Let us consider the example of a 25fps source for which you want
1171 to create a 24fps DCP. DCP-o-matic will put the frames from the
1172 source directly into the DCP without modification, but will tell the
1173 projector to play them back at 24fps. This means that the DCP's video
1174 will run slightly slower than the original.
1178 If DCP-o-matic did nothing else, the result of this would be that the
1179 audio would be running at the original speed with the video running
1180 slowly. Hence the audio would drift slowly out of sync. To avoid
1181 this, DCP-o-matic also resamples the audio such that the projector
1182 will play it too fast by the same amount. Hence it will sound
1183 slightly different but will remain in sync with the video.
1187 For very low or high frame rates, DCP-o-matic can also skip or duplicate frames.
1194 <title>Setting up</title>
1197 The <guilabel>Frame Rate</guilabel> control in the
1198 <guilabel>DCP</guilabel> tab sets the video frame rate that the DCP
1199 will use. Clicking <guilabel>Use best</guilabel> sets the rate to
1200 what DVD-o-matic thinks is the best for your content. With this
1201 button, DCP-o-matic assumes that the whole range of frame rates (24,
1202 25, 30 and 48fps) are allowable.
1206 After this, the <guilabel>Video</guilabel> tab for each piece of
1207 content will give a summary of what DCP-o-matic is doing with that
1216 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
1217 <title>Encoding servers</title>
1220 One way to increase the speed of DCP encoding is to use more
1221 than one machine at the same time. An instance of DCP-o-matic can
1222 offload some of the time-consuming JPEG2000 encoding to any number of
1223 other machines on a network. To do this, one ‘master’
1224 machine runs DCP-o-matic, and the ‘server’ machines run
1225 a small program called ‘dcpomatic_server’.
1229 <title>Running the servers</title>
1232 There are two options for the encoding server;
1233 <code>dcpomatic_server_cli</code>, which runs on the command line, and
1234 <code>dcpomatic_server</code>, which has a simple GUI. The command line
1235 version is well-suited to headless servers, especially on Linux, and
1236 the GUI version works best on Windows where it will put an icon in the
1241 To run the command line version, simply enter:
1245 dcpomatic_server_cli
1249 at a command prompt. If you are running the program on a machine with
1250 a multi-core processor, you can run multiple parallel encoding threads
1251 by doing something like:
1255 dcpomatic_server_cli -t 4
1259 to run 4 threads in parallel.
1263 To run the GUI version on windows, run the ‘DCP-o-matic encode
1264 server’ from the start menu. An icon will appear in the system
1265 tray; right-click it to open a menu from whence you can quit the
1266 server or open a window to show its status.
1271 <title>Setting up DCP-o-matic</title>
1274 Once your servers are running, you need to tell your master
1275 DCP-o-matic instance about them. Start DCP-o-matic and open the
1276 <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> dialog from the
1277 <guilabel>Edit</guilabel> menu. At the bottom of this dialog is a
1278 section where you can add, edit and remove encoding servers. For each
1279 encoding server you need only specify its IP address and the number of
1280 threads that it is running, so that DCP-o-matic knows how many
1281 parallel encode jobs to send to the server.
1285 Once this is done, any encodes that you start will split the workload
1286 up between the master machine and the servers.
1291 <title>Some notes about encode servers</title>
1294 DCP-o-matic does not mind if servers come and go; if a server
1295 disappears, DCP-o-matic will stop sending work to it, and will check
1296 it every minute or so in case it has come back online.
1300 You will probably find that using a 1Gb/s or faster network will
1301 provide a significant speed-up compared to a 100Mb/s network.
1305 Making changes to the server configuration in the master DCP-o-matic
1306 will have no effect while an encode is running; the changes will only
1307 be noticed when a new encode is started.
1314 <chapter xml:id="ch-files" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
1315 <title>Generated files</title>
1318 DCP-o-matic generates a number of files as it makes a DCP. <xref
1319 linkend="fig-file-structure"/> shows the files that might be generated
1320 after you have created a DCP for a film called ‘DCP Test’.
1323 <figure id="fig-file-structure">
1324 <title>Creating a new film</title>
1327 <imagedata fileref="diagrams/file-structure&dia;"/>
1333 The <code>DCP Test</code> folder is the one that you specify when you
1334 select the <guilabel>New Film</guilabel> option from DCP-o-matic's
1335 menu. Everything is stored inside this folder.
1339 DCP-o-matic generates some working files as it goes along. These are as follows:
1342 <listitem><code>log</code> is a list of notes that DCP-o-matic makes as it goes
1343 along. This can be useful for debugging purposes if something goes
1346 <listitem><code>metadata</code> stores the settings that you have made
1347 for this film: things like cropping, output format and so on.</listitem>
1349 <listitem><code>video</code> is where DCP-o-matic writes the DCP's
1350 video data as it encodes it.</listitem>
1352 <listitem><code>analysis</code> is used to keep the results of audio analysis runs.</listitem>
1354 <listitem><code>info</code> contains details of each video frame that
1355 DCP-o-matic has written so far. This is used when an encoding
1356 operation is interrupted and DCP-o-matic must resume it.</listitem>
1361 Following this is the DCP itself:
1362 <code>DCP-TEST_EN-XX_UK-U_51_2K_CSY_20130218_CSY_OV</code>. This
1363 contains some small XML files, which describe the DCP, and two large
1364 MXF files, which contain the DCP's audio and video data. This folder
1365 (<code>DCP-TEST_EN-XX_...</code>) is what you should ingest, or pass
1366 to the cinema which is showing your DCP.