Category Archives: Video Processing

CGI, X'Y'Z' to P3, there are so many things going on. Here's the news.

Video Processing

Discover8K.com Launched

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Berlin, Germany, August 31, 2020 – The 8K Association (8KA), the cross-industry group focused on facilitating the growth of the 8K ecosystem, today announced the availability of a powerful new website to help educate consumers about the benefits of 8K displays and content.

The newly launched Discover8K.com web site is now available to help consumers discover how the latest advancements in displays, cameras and home entertainment can bring exceptional visual performances to life. With 8K resolution technology, everyone can discover more detail, more depth and more powerful big-screen imagery – all from the comfort of home.

The new Discover8K.com site provides valuable tools to help consumers learn about the 8K ecosystem, including topics such as:

List of TVs from leading brands that meet the 8K Association’s performance standards
Information about current and upcoming sources of 8K content
Guidance for enjoying 8K entertainment at home – including ideal screen sizes and seating distances for immersive 8K cinematic or 8K gaming experiences
The advanced technology behind powerful 8K up-scaling
News about 8K of interest to consumers

“The 8K Association was founded to bring together content creators, technology providers, panel manufacturers, TV brands and more to accelerate the expansion of the 8K ecosystem. But ultimately it will be consumers who determine how quickly 8K technology is adopted,” noted 8KA Marketing Work Group Chair, Aaron Dew. “Consumers who understand the benefits of 8K ultra-sharp big-screen displays, finely-detailed 8K gaming and the power of immersive 8K video are going to speed the transition to 8K. That’s why the 8K Association launched the new Discover8K.com web site to help educate consumers on all the benefits of enjoying big-screen 8K entertainment at home.”

8K refers to the latest and highest-resolution standard for content creation, distribution and television displays that enables over 33 million pixels of resolution, which is 4 times sharper than the UHD / 4K standard. With a growing number of 8K TVs now in the market from several leading TV brands that meet the 8K Association’s certification program standards, along with emerging sources of native 8K content, there is an increasing consumer interest in discovering more about 8K and why 8K resolution is a perfect fit for big-screen TVs.

Along with the newly launched consumer education web site, the 8K Association is preparing a “State of 8K” webinar for press and industry professionals to provide an update on the progress made in 8K deployments and the remaining technical and business milestones needed to complete the full roll-out of the 8K ecosystem. With insights and technical input from all parts of the 8K production, distribution and display segments, the “State of 8K” webinar will serve as a valuable tool to educate industry professional and define the remaining work that members of the 8K Association and others will need to complete before 8K is universally available.

The 8K Association Fall 2020 “State of 8K” webinar will be held on September 15, 2020. Registration information and full details will be available soon at: www.8KAssociation.com

Video Processing

Confusing Definitions – Home and Away | Dolby Vision 4 and More

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 Talking 2020 and pointers colors techThe panelists of both events discussed and showed many things with great nuance. Many flavors of the CIE chart were presented by everyone, with a touch of explanation for each – and the star at both events was Pointers Colors. The undiscussed star was: Library. It reminded one of 2007 SMPTE/NAB CinemaDays, when Chris Cookson from Warners made the point that every effort would be made to encourage producers to produce in 4K, even at greater cost and complication, because: Think of the Library. Now, when asked, what color space do you consider for the producer and how is that influenced, the unchallenged quip was: What color is the ink on the check.

The immediate question of what color space to work in ranges from quick and dirty unscripted television and less demanding wedding productions to movies shot on film and delivered to the Netflix streaming specNetflix streaming spec. All agree that the course of TVs in the home and the high end of cinema is some version of larger color spaces. All agree that the future viewer will be used to seeing at least the P3 space, if not more. Cinema is already there with P3, with an advancing capability toward 2020 – perhaps what Bill Beck used to call 1919, or what Dave Stump calls P3 and a half. Home TV is being sold as 2020 capable, but deliverables are at best – with some exceptions – P3 in a 2020 container. DVD (in the 601 space) and Blu-Ray (in the 709 space) has been on a downward trend, with fewer and fewer sold (notwithstanding the Lionsgate announcement last week of John Wick III selling three million units in combined packaged media (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K HD), EST and Video on Demand rentals), and it seems that industry leader Samsung is throwing in the towel on 4K UHD Blu-ray.

What the colorists group first saw was the latest advancement of finishing tools in Dolby 4.0, presented by Greg Hamlin. Although technically 4.0 has been released for a while, it takes quite a while for the components to be developed and then incorporated into the post production equipment and – pointed out many times – having a great capable monitor, something well above the minimum requirement of 1000 nits. Appreciating his resume, people appreciated his guidance – start with the automated analysis and improve from there depending on what you need. Among the nice improvements that new equipment is starting to facilitate are many nuanced choices in color management like secondary saturation and trims, which have been strong wishes for a while, and the ability to take in and push out to Apple’s ProRes 4444 XQ instead of being ‘limited’ to 16 bit TIFFs.

from grading system output to Dolby Mastering Workflow

Larry Chertoff led part 2 of the Colorists exploration by showing the latest advancements in MTI’s Cortex system – too much detail to explain, but again, automatic analysis combined with elegant views of light and color – almost as if you are watching audio go by – bring very clever precision to the colorists game.

For a roundup of details and the complications, see the SMTPE Technology Essentials Series Webcast HDR, 4K, and Beyond from Molly Hill, Applications Engineer, Dolby Laboratories. 

Mystery Box also has a nice summation at: DOLBY VISION AND INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

  

Video Processing

Confusing Definitions – Home and Away | Dolby Vision 4 and More

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 Talking 2020 and pointers colors techThe panelists of both events discussed and showed many things with great nuance. Many flavors of the CIE chart were presented by everyone, with a touch of explanation for each – and the star at both events was Pointers Colors. The undiscussed star was: Library. It reminded one of 2007 SMPTE/NAB CinemaDays, when Chris Cookson from Warners made the point that every effort would be made to encourage producers to produce in 4K, even at greater cost and complication, because: Think of the Library. Now, when asked, what color space do you consider for the producer and how is that influenced, the unchallenged quip was: What color is the ink on the check.

The immediate question of what color space to work in ranges from quick and dirty unscripted television and less demanding wedding productions to movies shot on film and delivered to the Netflix streaming specNetflix streaming spec. All agree that the course of TVs in the home and the high end of cinema is some version of larger color spaces. All agree that the future viewer will be used to seeing at least the P3 space, if not more. Cinema is already there with P3, with an advancing capability toward 2020 – perhaps what Bill Beck used to call 1919, or what Dave Stump calls P3 and a half. Home TV is being sold as 2020 capable, but deliverables are at best – with some exceptions – P3 in a 2020 container. DVD (in the 601 space) and Blu-Ray (in the 709 space) has been on a downward trend, with fewer and fewer sold (notwithstanding the Lionsgate announcement last week of John Wick III selling three million units in combined packaged media (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K HD), EST and Video on Demand rentals), and it seems that industry leader Samsung is throwing in the towel on 4K UHD Blu-ray.

What the colorists group first saw was the latest advancement of finishing tools in Dolby 4.0, presented by Greg Hamlin. Although technically 4.0 has been released for a while, it takes quite a while for the components to be developed and then incorporated into the post production equipment and – pointed out many times – having a great capable monitor, something well above the minimum requirement of 1000 nits. Appreciating his resume, people appreciated his guidance – start with the automated analysis and improve from there depending on what you need. Among the nice improvements that new equipment is starting to facilitate are many nuanced choices in color management like secondary saturation and trims, which have been strong wishes for a while, and the ability to take in and push out to Apple’s ProRes 4444 XQ instead of being ‘limited’ to 16 bit TIFFs.

from grading system output to Dolby Mastering Workflow

Larry Chertoff led part 2 of the Colorists exploration by showing the latest advancements in MTI’s Cortex system – too much detail to explain, but again, automatic analysis combined with elegant views of light and color – almost as if you are watching audio go by – bring very clever precision to the colorists game.

For a roundup of details and the complications, see the SMTPE Technology Essentials Series Webcast HDR, 4K, and Beyond from Molly Hill, Applications Engineer, Dolby Laboratories. 

Mystery Box also has a nice summation at: DOLBY VISION AND INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

  

Video Processing

Confusing Definitions – Home and Away | Dolby Vision 4 and More

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 Talking 2020 and pointers colors techThe panelists of both events discussed and showed many things with great nuance. Many flavors of the CIE chart were presented by everyone, with a touch of explanation for each – and the star at both events was Pointers Colors. The undiscussed star was: Library. It reminded one of 2007 SMPTE/NAB CinemaDays, when Chris Cookson from Warners made the point that every effort would be made to encourage producers to produce in 4K, even at greater cost and complication, because: Think of the Library. Now, when asked, what color space do you consider for the producer and how is that influenced, the unchallenged quip was: What color is the ink on the check.

The immediate question of what color space to work in ranges from quick and dirty unscripted television and less demanding wedding productions to movies shot on film and delivered to the Netflix streaming specNetflix streaming spec. All agree that the course of TVs in the home and the high end of cinema is some version of larger color spaces. All agree that the future viewer will be used to seeing at least the P3 space, if not more. Cinema is already there with P3, with an advancing capability toward 2020 – perhaps what Bill Beck used to call 1919, or what Dave Stump calls P3 and a half. Home TV is being sold as 2020 capable, but deliverables are at best – with some exceptions – P3 in a 2020 container. DVD (in the 601 space) and Blu-Ray (in the 709 space) has been on a downward trend, with fewer and fewer sold (notwithstanding the Lionsgate announcement last week of John Wick III selling three million units in combined packaged media (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K HD), EST and Video on Demand rentals), and it seems that industry leader Samsung is throwing in the towel on 4K UHD Blu-ray.

What the colorists group first saw was the latest advancement of finishing tools in Dolby 4.0, presented by Greg Hamlin. Although technically 4.0 has been released for a while, it takes quite a while for the components to be developed and then incorporated into the post production equipment and – pointed out many times – having a great capable monitor, something well above the minimum requirement of 1000 nits. Appreciating his resume, people appreciated his guidance – start with the automated analysis and improve from there depending on what you need. Among the nice improvements that new equipment is starting to facilitate are many nuanced choices in color management like secondary saturation and trims, which have been strong wishes for a while, and the ability to take in and push out to Apple’s ProRes 4444 XQ instead of being ‘limited’ to 16 bit TIFFs.

from grading system output to Dolby Mastering Workflow

Larry Chertoff led part 2 of the Colorists exploration by showing the latest advancements in MTI’s Cortex system – too much detail to explain, but again, automatic analysis combined with elegant views of light and color – almost as if you are watching audio go by – bring very clever precision to the colorists game.

For a roundup of details and the complications, see the SMTPE Technology Essentials Series Webcast HDR, 4K, and Beyond from Molly Hill, Applications Engineer, Dolby Laboratories. 

Mystery Box also has a nice summation at: DOLBY VISION AND INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

  

Video Processing

DCI – New HDR and Direct View Display Docs

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The difference is that these documents are very fleshed out, reading more like a SMPTE document than a brief one what one should consider, and are complete with Normative References and a Glossary, in addition to the required formulas and charts.

Interesting highlights include the luminance parameters for 500 candela/m2 (146 fL) with stricter tolerances and roll offs at the edges and corners. A minimum black level of 0.005 cd/m2 is specifically mentioned, which is a 5 decimal point swing, or 100,000:1. It was nice to see that P3D65 makes an appearance as the White Point, coming on the heels of the latest revision of ST 2067-102:2017

SDR ranges are also specified, with a black level under 0.01 cd/m2 being the level under which the display shall never reproduce. This might protect grey fuzzies from appearing in place of blacks in SDR releases shown through HDR machinery. References to 5,000:1 for SDR are mentioned in the Direct View Display document, but not the HDR. In fact, there is an actual paucity of the word Contrast, though not a dearth…it is mentioned once and implied a few times.

High Frame Rates are also detailed in the Direct View document, in Edit Units per second. 

Many other details…go to:

DCI DRAFT High Dynamic Range D-Cinema Addendum version 0.9 (PDF) 
Click here: http://dcimovies.com/drafts/DCI-DRAFT-HDR-D-Cinema-Addendum_v09_2018-1116.pdf

DCI DRAFT Direct View Display D-Cinema Addendum version 0.9 (PDF)
Click here: http://dcimovies.com/drafts/DCI-DRAFT-Direct-View-Display-D-Cinema-Addendum_v09_2018-1116.pdf

Video Processing

DCI – New HDR and Direct View Display Docs

Leave a comment

The difference is that these documents are very fleshed out, reading more like a SMPTE document than a brief one what one should consider, and are complete with Normative References and a Glossary, in addition to the required formulas and charts.

Interesting highlights include the luminance parameters for 500 candela/m2 (146 fL) with stricter tolerances and roll offs at the edges and corners. A minimum black level of 0.005 cd/m2 is specifically mentioned, which is a 5 decimal point swing, or 100,000:1. It was nice to see that P3D65 makes an appearance as the White Point, coming on the heels of the latest revision of ST 2067-102:2017

SDR ranges are also specified, with a black level under 0.01 cd/m2 being the level under which the display shall never reproduce. This might protect grey fuzzies from appearing in place of blacks in SDR releases shown through HDR machinery. References to 5,000:1 for SDR are mentioned in the Direct View Display document, but not the HDR. In fact, there is an actual paucity of the word Contrast, though not a dearth…it is mentioned once and implied a few times.

High Frame Rates are also detailed in the Direct View document, in Edit Units per second. 

Many other details…go to:

DCI DRAFT High Dynamic Range D-Cinema Addendum version 0.9 (PDF) 
Click here: http://dcimovies.com/drafts/DCI-DRAFT-HDR-D-Cinema-Addendum_v09_2018-1116.pdf

DCI DRAFT Direct View Display D-Cinema Addendum version 0.9 (PDF)
Click here: http://dcimovies.com/drafts/DCI-DRAFT-Direct-View-Display-D-Cinema-Addendum_v09_2018-1116.pdf

Video Processing

Light Illusion IBC Show Specials | Probes and Software

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To order any of the following offers please e-mail: [email protected] stating the item requirements.
A quote for payment will be provided, with payment to be made via a bank transfer.
(PayPal payments are possible for an additional fee of 3.5%)
Please note some locations may incur a supplemental hardware shipping fee – this will be defined when a quotation is supplied.

LightSpace CMS Professional Discounts

LightSpace CMS Software – unlimited license availability, until end of IBC show
LightSpace XPT – Book price: £2,175.00 – Discount price: £1,087.50 – Discount value: £1087.50 – Discount percentage: 50%
LightSpace PRO – Book price: £1,875.00 – Discount price: £1,125.00 – Discount value: £750.00 – Discount percentage: 40%
LightSpace CAL – Book price: £1,275.00 – Discount price: £828.75 – Discount value: £446.25 – Discount percentage: 35%
LightSpace LTE – Book price: £525.00 – Discount price: £367.50 – Discount value: £157.50 – Discount percentage: 30%

LightSpace CMS Home Cinema Discounts

LightSpace CMS Software – unlimited license availability, until end of IBC show
LightSpace HTP – Book price: £1,125.00 – Discount price: £675.00 – Discount value: £450.00 – Discount percentage: 40%
LightSpace HTL – Book price: £375.00 – Discount price: £262.50 – Discount value: £112.50 – Discount percentage: 30%

If any of the above software discounts are to be combined with a LightSpace CMS upgrade, say from LightSpace LTE to LightSpace XPT, the discount percentage will be applied ‘after’ the upgrade cost is calculated, as stated on the Support pages of the website.

Probe Discounts

Klein Probes – three (3) units available each model, until end of IBC show
Klein K10-A – Book price: £5,482.00 – Discount price: £4,385.60 – Discount value: £1096.40 – Discount percentage: 20%
Klein K80 – Book price: £3,971.00 – Discount price: £3,176.80 – Discount value: £794.20 – Discount percentage: 20%

Jeti Probes – unlimited unit availability, until 17th October
Jeti Spectraval 1501 – Book price £4,859.00 – Discount price: £4,081.56 – Discount value: £777.44 – Discount percentage: 16%
Jeti Spectraval 1511 – Book price: £6,185.00 – Discount price: £5,195.40 – Discount value: £989.60 – Discount percentage: 16%
Jeti Specbos 1211L – Book price: £6,516.00 – Discount price: £5,473.44 – Discount value: £1042.56 – Discount percentage: 16%

basICColor DISCUS probe – three (3) units available, until end of IBC show
basICColor DISCUS – Book price: £746.00 – Discount price: £671.40 – Discount value: £74.60 – Discount percentage: 10%

X-Rite Probes – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
i1 Display Pro OEM – Book price: £227.00 – Discount price: £192.95 – Discount value: £34.05 – Discount percentage: 15%
i1 Pro 2 – Book price: £874.00 – Discount price: £742.90 – Discount value: £131.10 – Discount percentage: 15%

Signal Generators & Analysers Discount

Murideo Generator & Analyser – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
Murideo SIX-G – Book price: £1,982.00– Discount price: £1,585.60 – Discount value: £396.40 – Discount percentage: 20%
Murideo SIX-A – Book price: £1,596.00– Discount price: £1,278.80 – Discount value: £317.20 – Discount percentage: 20%

LUT Box Discount

Murideo LUT Box – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
Murideo Prisma – Book price: £793.00– Discount price: £ 591.20 – Discount value: £147.80 – Discount percentage: 20%

To order any of the above offers please e-mail: [email protected] stating the item requirements.
A quote for payment will be provided, with payment to be made via a bank transfer.
(PayPal payments are possible for an additional fee of 3.5%)
Please note some locations may incur an additional hardware shipping fee – this will be defined when a quotation is supplied.

Video Processing

Light Illusion IBC Show Specials | Probes and Software

Leave a comment

To order any of the following offers please e-mail: [email protected] stating the item requirements.
A quote for payment will be provided, with payment to be made via a bank transfer.
(PayPal payments are possible for an additional fee of 3.5%)
Please note some locations may incur a supplemental hardware shipping fee – this will be defined when a quotation is supplied.

LightSpace CMS Professional Discounts

LightSpace CMS Software – unlimited license availability, until end of IBC show
LightSpace XPT – Book price: £2,175.00 – Discount price: £1,087.50 – Discount value: £1087.50 – Discount percentage: 50%
LightSpace PRO – Book price: £1,875.00 – Discount price: £1,125.00 – Discount value: £750.00 – Discount percentage: 40%
LightSpace CAL – Book price: £1,275.00 – Discount price: £828.75 – Discount value: £446.25 – Discount percentage: 35%
LightSpace LTE – Book price: £525.00 – Discount price: £367.50 – Discount value: £157.50 – Discount percentage: 30%

LightSpace CMS Home Cinema Discounts

LightSpace CMS Software – unlimited license availability, until end of IBC show
LightSpace HTP – Book price: £1,125.00 – Discount price: £675.00 – Discount value: £450.00 – Discount percentage: 40%
LightSpace HTL – Book price: £375.00 – Discount price: £262.50 – Discount value: £112.50 – Discount percentage: 30%

If any of the above software discounts are to be combined with a LightSpace CMS upgrade, say from LightSpace LTE to LightSpace XPT, the discount percentage will be applied ‘after’ the upgrade cost is calculated, as stated on the Support pages of the website.

Probe Discounts

Klein Probes – three (3) units available each model, until end of IBC show
Klein K10-A – Book price: £5,482.00 – Discount price: £4,385.60 – Discount value: £1096.40 – Discount percentage: 20%
Klein K80 – Book price: £3,971.00 – Discount price: £3,176.80 – Discount value: £794.20 – Discount percentage: 20%

Jeti Probes – unlimited unit availability, until 17th October
Jeti Spectraval 1501 – Book price £4,859.00 – Discount price: £4,081.56 – Discount value: £777.44 – Discount percentage: 16%
Jeti Spectraval 1511 – Book price: £6,185.00 – Discount price: £5,195.40 – Discount value: £989.60 – Discount percentage: 16%
Jeti Specbos 1211L – Book price: £6,516.00 – Discount price: £5,473.44 – Discount value: £1042.56 – Discount percentage: 16%

basICColor DISCUS probe – three (3) units available, until end of IBC show
basICColor DISCUS – Book price: £746.00 – Discount price: £671.40 – Discount value: £74.60 – Discount percentage: 10%

X-Rite Probes – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
i1 Display Pro OEM – Book price: £227.00 – Discount price: £192.95 – Discount value: £34.05 – Discount percentage: 15%
i1 Pro 2 – Book price: £874.00 – Discount price: £742.90 – Discount value: £131.10 – Discount percentage: 15%

Signal Generators & Analysers Discount

Murideo Generator & Analyser – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
Murideo SIX-G – Book price: £1,982.00– Discount price: £1,585.60 – Discount value: £396.40 – Discount percentage: 20%
Murideo SIX-A – Book price: £1,596.00– Discount price: £1,278.80 – Discount value: £317.20 – Discount percentage: 20%

LUT Box Discount

Murideo LUT Box – unlimited unit availability, until end of IBC show
Murideo Prisma – Book price: £793.00– Discount price: £ 591.20 – Discount value: £147.80 – Discount percentage: 20%

To order any of the above offers please e-mail: [email protected] stating the item requirements.
A quote for payment will be provided, with payment to be made via a bank transfer.
(PayPal payments are possible for an additional fee of 3.5%)
Please note some locations may incur an additional hardware shipping fee – this will be defined when a quotation is supplied.

Video Processing

Ubuntu/VirtualBox setup followup

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When setting up VirtualBox there are two time sinks that one can be easily get trapped by.

The first is getting an Internet connection. In theory, the Internet link of the computer that you are setting the Virtual Machine onto will be automagically linked to. Open Firefox and off you go.

Yeah; until it doesn’t auto set up. Then, it is poking around until you find the right combination of not-so-obvious tricks. And here is a synopsis that I just had to find and go through, and which hopefully will save you some time.

  1. Shut down the OS. Leave VirtualBox running.
  2. Click onto the Ubuntu VM
  3. Up above or on the right panel, choose Network
  4. Click Adapter 1 and set for NAT
  5. Click Adapter 2 and set for Bridged Adapter, then select the adapter that has the link: e.g., en0, Wi-Fi (Airport)
  6. Click OK.

As long as that is open,

  1. Click on Ports
  2. Click on USB. Make certain that the USB 3.0 Controller is selected. 
  3. Click OK.
  4. When you have the Virtual Machine running, click the icon on the bottom right that looks like a USB plug. Select USB Settings 
  5. On the right side click the icon with a Plus (+) symbol on the USB Plug.
  6. Select a plugged in drive from the list. If the drive that you expect to be showing isn’t showing, it may have been captured by the computers native drive system. Every Operating System is going to have a little different method for disconnecting an attached drive. Technically, it is called an UnMount. It gets a 2nd dose of complication because you can’t just say ‘unmount’…you must say umt (or something like that) and the name of the drive…which you probably don’t know. 
  7. If you are only going to do this once in a while, go to your Disk Utility, find the drive on the list and click unmount.

At some future date, this article may be appended to include some more clues about unmounting, but this articles purpose was to get the 1st two points onto this virtual tissue.

Video Processing

Ubuntu/VirtualBox setup followup

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When setting up VirtualBox there are two time sinks that one can be easily get trapped by.

The first is getting an Internet connection. In theory, the Internet link of the computer that you are setting the Virtual Machine onto will be automagically linked to. Open Firefox and off you go.

Yeah; until it doesn’t auto set up. Then, it is poking around until you find the right combination of not-so-obvious tricks. And here is a synopsis that I just had to find and go through, and which hopefully will save you some time.

  1. Shut down the OS. Leave VirtualBox running.
  2. Click onto the Ubuntu VM
  3. Up above or on the right panel, choose Network
  4. Click Adapter 1 and set for NAT
  5. Click Adapter 2 and set for Bridged Adapter, then select the adapter that has the link: e.g., en0, Wi-Fi (Airport)
  6. Click OK.

As long as that is open,

  1. Click on Ports
  2. Click on USB. Make certain that the USB 3.0 Controller is selected. 
  3. Click OK.
  4. When you have the Virtual Machine running, click the icon on the bottom right that looks like a USB plug. Select USB Settings 
  5. On the right side click the icon with a Plus (+) symbol on the USB Plug.
  6. Select a plugged in drive from the list. If the drive that you expect to be showing isn’t showing, it may have been captured by the computers native drive system. Every Operating System is going to have a little different method for disconnecting an attached drive. Technically, it is called an UnMount. It gets a 2nd dose of complication because you can’t just say ‘unmount’…you must say umt (or something like that) and the name of the drive…which you probably don’t know. 
  7. If you are only going to do this once in a while, go to your Disk Utility, find the drive on the list and click unmount.

At some future date, this article may be appended to include some more clues about unmounting, but this articles purpose was to get the 1st two points onto this virtual tissue.

Video Processing

DCP Tools: Windows for Virtual Developers

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And another: https://az792536.vo.msecnd.net/vms/release_notes_license_terms_8_1_15.pdf

Free means not activating the installation. There may be downsides to that, but most people in the ‘every once in a while for testing’ world won’t notice. It has long been the practice of Microsoft to allow users to test the OS before buying, but sometimes you just don’t know where to look through the forest of spam and trojan traps to find the One Safe One.

Good luck to us all.

Video Processing

Validating a DCP

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To avoid black screens, the tech teams at the festivals do the yeoman’s work of cracking open recalcitrant DCPs and re-making them at the last minute. The artist may not even know that they should be relieved, and gets to the next festival believing…or saying, “Hey, it played at the last festival, it must be good.” Alas. Or they take it to a facility that specializes in subtitles likeTitra who is then forced to add a fee for remastering because they know that the old DCP won’t be accepted at a duplicators because of some error they are seeing. More alas, especially when it is going to cost time and money to find the reason for the error too.

One of those teams who have been providing tech support at large and high profile festivals for the past decade, such as the Berlinale, is zweiB, from the northern-most city in Italy – Munich. (This just in. Some are saying that Bavaria is part of Germany. Hmmm. Notwithstanding.) Their site has a tool named DCP-Validator which actually is a front end that humanizes a command line only tool named DCP-Inspect from Wolfgang Woehl’s Digital Cinema Tools excellent package of goodies. 

Just writting “…providing tech support…such as the Berlinale…” doesn’t do justice to the amount of work it takes to juggle hundreds upon hundreds of DCPs over a two week span at dozens of cinema screens. (Commercial cinemas, it should be added –  who don’t necessarily want to have working software/firmware changed just for the festival at night when they are playing regular schedules during the day, for example.) Likewise, describing DCP-Inspect as just an excellent package or listing a few features doesn’t tell of the years of keeping up with non-existent and moving standards. But here is a list nonetheless, taken from the zweiB’s site:

It is a tool for deep inspection and validation of DCPs. This includes integrity checks, asset inspection, schema validation, signature and certificate verification and composition summarization.

The GUI convinces with its user-friendly operation. Additionally, the Digital Cinema Packages are checked by its test functions for all DCI standards to ensure the playback performance on popular DCI players.

Putting a front end on this is a nice touch. It can print out a list of working DCPs and add a sense of calm in an otherwise rushing preasure situation. Making it available to us on an easy to use site with a running list of versions and fixes is a nice touch and extremely kind. The DCP Validator package works with the Ubuntu and Debian flavors of Linux. 

The article The DCP USB on a Mac; CineTechGeek to Digital Cinema Tools ends with using cinemaslides, another of the Digital Cinema Tools program. So installing DCP Validator is a very logical next step for a HowTo article.

…and easy to do.

Download a copy from the download page of the zweiB site, Zweib Download Site for dcp_inspect DCP Validator

Put the downloaded copy into your Shared Folder if you have downloaded it using your Mac or PC. Go into your Ubuntu installation and drag the installer package (marked at the end as a .deb file) onto the Desktop (or into the Desktop folder.) (This can all be done from the command line, but if you can do this from the command line, you don’t need any of these instructions.) It doesn’t have to be the Desktop, but the package will not install from the Shared Folder.

Right-Click or Command-click on the .deb package and open it using the Ubuntu Software Center…which will actually open if you merely double-click on the .deb file. Eventually the Software Center will put up an Install button, which you should click. 

Eventually the installer will ask for an admin password which, when given, will allow the installation to finish.

Reboot Ubuntu (or Debian.) This allows WebRick, a little webserver to run. DCP Validator runs on this webserver with your browser.

Open Firefox. Go to http://localhost:8080 – The Validator should come up. 

Click on the “Login” button. Type dcp, then click “Confirm”. You are now in the Admin area. 

(The online manuals show where and how to change the port number should you have something else running on 8080, and how to change the password if you into things like that.)

Click “Settings”. We need to put in the route for DCP-Validator to look for your DCPs on your hard drive. DCPs on a USB stick or USB drive will show up without this step. 

Click the “Add” button. If you know how to type in the root path, go ahead. Otherwise, open a folder using the Dock on the side, click on the Shared Folder, then hit the List icon on the top right if required. Manipulate your windows so that you can drag the folder containing your DCPs into the little Rootpath window on the DCP Validator page. If you are like me it will say file:///media/sf_shared_w_ubuntu/DCP_Finals. Erase the “file://” at the front, leaving the Rootpath as: “/media/sf_shared_w_ubuntu/DCP_Finals.”

Click the “Confirm” button. Click the “Back” button.

Click “Validate A New DCP”

Click on the /media folder line in the rectangle on the side.

Click on a DCP. Click on the DCP folder again. You’ll see the innards, the ASSETMAP, the VOLINDEX, and all the audio and video and reference files that make up the DCP. You should be able to hit the Validate button now. 

Click on “Validate” button. Make some coffee. Write a note telling me what was confusing about this or the DCP on a Mac article.

Pass? Green dot or Red? Click Show. Look at the report. Look at the levels. Balanced left and center? right and center? left and right? Surrounds look right? LFE? Cool.

If you followed James’ directions to a T, installing VirtualBox on the computer then Ubuntu as an iso drive, you can follow the zweiB manual to do the installation. Your USB drive should show right up on the list and things should be great without the step of showing the program of where to look.

And that is the end of this particular process.

The final version of the ISDCF document on Hard Disc Drive formats for DCP is just released, so download that from the ISDCF Technical Papers site.

Stay Standard. Do us all a favor, and Join SMPTE.