How to make dpx and wav files that can be converted to a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) with Fraunhofer EasyDCP Creator using Final Cut Studio 3

Posted by knuterik on January 12th, 2009 filed in dcp

Example:

Convert a short film in 1920×1080 16/9 25fps 10 bit Rec. 709 ProRes 422 (or 4444) with 5.1 sound to a standard DCP (DCI, 24 fps XYZ colorspace, 5.1 sound) .

Use Cinema Tools to convert to 24 fps

• Make a copy of the ProRes file or just rename it to 24 fps and open it in Cinema Tools
• Meny: Clip – Open
• Meny: Clip – Conform: 24 fps

Video

Open the 24 fps conformed Cinema Tools prores file in Apple Color to export a DPX sequence

• Import the 24 fps conformed prores file
• Go to setup tab- Project settings
• Change Render Dir to where you want to render
• Resolution Presets: 1920 x 1080 (or 1998 x 1080)
• Render File Type: DPX
• Printing Density: Linear (0 Black – 1023 White)
• Go to “Render Queue” Tab
• Click “Add selected” button
• Click “Render” button

Sound

Open the 24 fps conformed Cinema Tools prores file in Soundtrack Pro to export wav files (without pitch shift)

• In Soundtrack Pro: Drag the Prores file from browser to a Video track in a Multitrack Project.
• Select Audio Track
• Export
• All Tracks, Wave, multiple mono, 24 bits, 48 khz

These files can now be used to make a DCP with Fraunhofer EasyDCP Creator. Choose the first image in the DPX sequence to make the picture part. Compare the frame count with the sound part, they should be the same.

Link to Fraunhofer EasyDCP Creator (mac/pc)


A mistake some people do when making DCPs is to clip the blacks when converting to a RGB dpx sequence. When converting to RGB in Color you see what values are below zero and can rescue them if you want to.

To ingest a DCP on Cinema Server like the Doremi you can use a NTFS disk with NTFS-3G driver and macfuse or use a linux tool like gparted to format a external USB harddrives to linux ext2/ext3 that the DCP can be copied onto. I use Virtualbox or Vmware Fusion to run Ubuntu on top of MacOS X. Using a Gparted boot cd is also an option. link

In gparted choose the USB disk and make a msdos partition table then format it as ext2. There are some software that lets you access the linux ext2 disk in Mac OS like macfuse and fuse-ext2. link

Fraunhofer EasyDCP assumes the DPX files are in the REC.709 colorspace. If you grade on a 10 bit HD monitor with AJA or Blackmagic video hardware the resulting DCP should look the same in the cinema as on your monitor.

Other stuff



Updated : This step is no longer necessary. Easydcp 1.2.0 support dpx sequences from Color and 16 bit tiff sequences.Convert DPX (changes endian type and dpx version)

Install Macports http://www.macports.org/

• Open Terminal
• Install ImageMagic with this command
  sudo port install ImageMagick
• Go to directory with DPX sequence eg.
  cd /Volumes/RAID/dpx/short1/1
• convert dpx with this command


find . -iname "*dpx" | while read f;do mogrify -verbose -format dpx "$f";done


Or try this: (thanks Eirik Schwenke. see comments for more info).


find . -iname "*.dpx" -exec mogrify -verbose -format dpx "{}" \;


Using Soundtrack Pro with pitch shift

Stretch the sound from 25 fps to 24 fps.
24 fps at 48 khz is 2000 samples per frame.
25 fps at 48 khz is 1920 samples per frame.
23,97 fps at 48 khz is 2002 samples per frame.
Example:
50000 samples 25 fps / 1920 = 26,041666 frames
26,041666 frames x 2000 = 52083,3333 samples 24 fps

source

• Use Process – timestretch to new samplerate.
• Save as Wave, 24 bit 48 khz. This works best if the 5.1 mix uses the center channel only, otherwise phase sync could be lost. Time stretch works best on the source audio files.

Notes on time stretch/pitch shift:

To keep phase sync on a 5.1 mix or music mixed in stereo try Prosoniq TimeFactory 2. Quote from their website: “Version 2 supports all popular file formats and offers 5.1, 6.1 and even N.1 surround processing in perfect phase sync – converting between different frame rates for film and TV has never been easier!”

The pitch change is: 0.706724268642822855 semitones
source

In Timefactory you can use the original sound from the 25 fps file and convert between 25 fps to 24 fps to get the correct pitch shift. You can also keep the formant with the natural setting.

One alternative is to get a professional to do the Pal to film pitch shift in Pro Tools. Bent Holm – Sound designer, Storyline Studios Oslo, Norway (bent at storylinestudios.no) gave me some pointers on pitch shifting:

He pitch shifts submixes/stems that has it’s samplerate changed to run faster or slower like a conform to 24 in Cinema Tools.

It’s easier to do a pitch change when going from 24 fps to 25 fps.

In theory you could use Soundtrack Pro to export three different 5.1 submixes (voice, foley/fx, music). And then use Timefactory 2 to change the pitch and then put the mix together again in Soundtrack Pro.

If the 24 fps mix is the most important, most of the sound mix could be done in 24 fps natively. Then change the pitch to do the 25 fps mix.

Also worked with the audio professional Rune Hansen (mr.rune.hansen at gmail.com) who uses different plugins to get an artifact free result when doing the 25 fps stereo and 5.1 mix to 24 fps 5.1 mix pitch corrrected conversion.