What is a professionally made DCP?

A professionally made DCP come from a company who specializes in the DCP production process (such as us or a company like Simple DCP).  If we see that a DCP was made professionally, we know the process can be trusted, and when we are curating for festivals, your package can be sent to a theatre with a very high degree of confidence that it will play just fine.

What is a Self-Made DCP?

A self-made DCP was most likely made by a filmmaker through their editing software or through a freely distributed software found online. While these processes can be just fine, we find in many instances where these DCPs are problematic

What is the Validation Process?

We will validate your DCP and give you an industry standard validation report. We will also let you know the pass/fail status of your DCP with the likelihood that it will play fine or have playback issues.

Do you have a professionally made DCP?

What is a professionally made DCP?

• A professionally made DCP is done by a company such as Simple DCP, DCP-For-All, or a professional post house.
• If your DCP Falls into this category, fill out the form below.
• OPTION 1 (Preferred): You can upload directly to our file server; we will curate and deliver your DCP.
• OPTION 2: You can submit a Linux Ext3 or Ext2 hard drive with your DCP directly to the festival (not us).
• (Self-made DCPs will be automatically rejected if submitted here).

Professionally Made DCP Submission Form

Did you or your editor make your DCP?

Made it yourself? Follow these guidelines:

• If you made your DCP using free software, or Adobe, or Davinci plugins, you must follow these guidelines or it will be rejected.
• OPTION 1 (Preferred): You can submit your file for DCP validation below (If it passes validation, we will curate your DCP and deliver directly to the festival). We validate self-made DCPs for a non-refundable $40 fee.
  • Validating and curating DCPs, takes time. By validating DCPs that have not been professionally made, we can assess the likelihood of our DCP playing or having issues at DCI compliant theatres. If you would like to bypass this option, see Option 2 next.
• OPTION 2: You can submit a Linux Ext3 or Ext2 hard drive with your DCP directly to the festival (not us).

DCP Validation Request Form

By Submitting your DCP, you agree to the following:

• DCPs made with the Wraptor Plugin for Adobe Premiere/Encoder are never accepted. They do not work.
• We will send you a copy of the Validation Report and let you know whether or not it will play in the assigned theatre.
• Warnings mean your DCP is at risk of being rejected by a theatrical playback system. If you move forward with playing a DCP that has warnings, you do so at your own risk.
• Errors mean it will not play in the theatre.
• Please keep in mind, theatre rental is very expensive for festivals, so most of them do not rent out a theatre for direct technical checks of your self-made DCP.
• Zipped/Compressed/Rar Files will not be accepted. DCPs are very sensitive and are often corrupted if compressed.

We completely understand the budget of the indie filmmaker and try to reflect that in our pricing. However, keep in mind that curating DCPs for festival is done by us on a voluntary basis and is extremely time consuming. If you provide us with an unprofessional DCP, you are risking a poor theatrical screening and costing a festival money.

If you have to ask what DCP naming conventions mean, what is a DCP, does it have to be Linux, or basic DCP creation questions, you are probably better off leaving it to the professionals to insure you have a fantastic screening! 

DCPs that do not adhere to the following guidelines WILL NOT be accepted.

We cannot accept Adobe Premiere Wraptor DCPs — these will be rejected by most theaters and they are not valid Digital Cinema Packages.

DCPs that do not follow DCI naming conventions will be rejected. Your DCP must be DCI compliant. You can find out more about DCI standards here. Professional DCP houses will do this for you.

All DCPs MUST be received within five days of the festival start (not your screening day, but the actual start of the festival); otherwise we will not have time to properly curate your DCP.

Video

• Acceptable Frame Rates:
  • InterOp DCPs – 24 FPS only
  • SMPTE DCPs – 24, 25, 30 FPS
• All presentations must fit inside an acceptable container size
  • For 2K FLAT content – 1920×1080, 1998×1080, 2048×1080
  • For 2K SCOPE content – 2048×858
  • For 4K FLAT content – 3840×2160, 3996×2160, 4096×2160
  • For 4K SCOPE content – 4096×1716
• DCPs must be formatted to DCI XYZ’ color space
• Maximum bit-rate: 250Mbps
• No 3D, HFR, or High Bit Rate content please

Audio

• 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 mixes only
• 24 bits – 48kHz Linear PCM audio
• Multichannel mixes must use standard SMPTE channel assignments (L/R/C/LFE/Ls/Rs)
• Matrixed stereo mixes (LtRt, Dolby E, etc.) will NOT be decoded to multichannel

Subtitles

• In most cases for festival, subtitles should be burned in to the video.
• 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 mixes only
• 24 bits – 48kHz Linear PCM audio
• Multichannel mixes must use standard SMPTE channel assignments (L/R/C/LFE/Ls/Rs)
• Matrixed stereo mixes (LtRt, Dolby E, etc.) will NOT be decoded to multichannel

Drive Formatting

• All Drives should be formatted with and MBR Partition to Linux EXT2/3 with INODE SIZE: 128 bits
• Please test your DCP drive in a digital cinema server prior to submission!

Naming Convention

• All DCPs must be labeled per DCI Naming Conventions – https://registry-page.isdcf.com/illustratedguide/ 
• Labeling must follow this convention for the XML tag ContentTitleText in your DCPs CPL file.