DCP planner
Plan a DCP for a festival or cinema before you make it: how big it will be, which container your master fits, any frame rate problems, and the ISDCF name to give it.
Hours, minutes and seconds, or just minutes.
How your master fits
ISDCF name
The Digital Cinema Naming Convention name for this DCP. Fill in the title and languages; the rest comes from the settings above.
Before you deliver
- SMPTE, not Interop, unless the venue asks for Interop.
- Unencrypted, unless you are sending keys (KDMs) for each screen.
- Verify it (DCP-o-matic: Jobs → Verify DCP) and play it through in a DCP player.
- Subtitles checked: 52 characters a line at most and 2 frames between subtitles. Our SRT subtitle checker does this.
- Send the DCP folder whole: never rename, add or remove files inside it.
- Drive or download? Ask first. Drives are usually Linux ext2 or ext3, with the DCP at the top level.
- Keep your copy until the festival confirms it has played.
Rather we made it?
We make festival-ready DCPs from your ProRes master: SMPTE, 2K or 4K, colour converted properly, played through and verified before they come back to you.
DCP creationQuestions
How big will my DCP be?
Roughly the bit rate times the running time. A DCP encodes every frame as a separate JPEG 2000 image up to a maximum bit rate, usually 150 to 200 Mbit/s, so an 11-minute short at 200 Mbit/s is up to about 17 GB, and a 90-minute feature at 150 Mbit/s up to about 100 GB. Most frames come in a little under the maximum, so the real size is usually 90 to 100% of the figure shown.
What is the maximum bit rate for a DCP?
The DCI limit is 250 Mbit/s for the picture. Encoding right at the limit is risky: some frames can go over it and fail verification, and some cinema servers refuse the DCP. 150 Mbit/s for 2K and 200 Mbit/s for 4K leave room and look excellent.
Flat or Scope?
Flat (1.85:1) suits most films, including 16:9 masters, which sit in a Flat container with narrow bars at the sides. Scope (2.39:1) is for widescreen films; a Scope film in a Flat container would play letterboxed and smaller than it should. The planner picks the container that wastes the least of the screen.
Can I make a DCP at 23.976 or 29.97 fps?
No. Digital cinema runs at whole frame rates: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 or 60 fps. A 23.976 film is played at 24, which makes it 0.1% faster and very slightly shorter; DCP software does this for you, but check the sound stays in sync. 24 fps is the safest rate for festivals.
What is the ISDCF name for?
The Digital Cinema Naming Convention gives every DCP a name the projectionist can read at a glance: the title, the type of content, the aspect ratio, the audio and subtitle languages, the sound format, the resolution, the date, the standard and whether it is an original version. Festivals often ask for it.
What drive do festivals want?
Many festivals now take a download link. For a drive, most cinemas want it formatted as Linux ext2 or ext3 (some take NTFS or exFAT), with the DCP folder at the top level. Ask the festival before you copy, because a Mac cannot write ext3 without extra software.