The ISDCF DCNC (Digital Cinema Naming Convention)
When creating DCPs, it is crucial to avoid whitespace and special characters in filenames, because some playback systems will refuse content whose name they cannot parse. So rather than a casual name like “My Super Movie”, the industry names its packages according to the ISDCF DCNC (Digital Cinema Naming Convention) — a single underscore-separated line that packs everything an operator needs to know into one string. Here is an example:
MovieTitle_FTR_F_EN-XX_INT_51_2K_NULL_20230622_NUL_SMPTE_OV
Reading from left to right, that says: a feature called MovieTitle, in the Flat container, English audio with no subtitles, an international version, 5.1 sound, 2K resolution, no studio code, made 22 June 2023, no facility code, SMPTE standard, and it is an original version. Each of these fields is explained below, and a DCP should include all of them to pass the validation tests that distributors and festivals run. When no studio or facility code applies, the convention has placeholders (NULL and NUL) rather than leaving the field out.
The DCNC name is not only the folder name. The same string goes into the content title, the PKL (Packing List) name and the CPL (Composition Playlist) annotation text — and it is the content title that the cinema’s playback system actually displays, so this name is what the projectionist sees when booking and playing your film. For DCPs that contain multiple CPLs, the PKL can either take the name of the primary CPL or get a descriptive name of its own that covers all the compositions inside.
Making a DCNC name
Title
MovieTitle
The title portion is limited to a maximum of 15 characters, letters and numbers only — no spaces and no special characters. Write it in CamelCase, capitalizing the first letter of each word: BigHero6, FastFive, TheMatrix. When the title is longer than 15 characters, use the beginning of it, so “The Incredible Journey” becomes TheIncredible. For remakes it is a good idea to include the release year, so the 2005 King Kong can be KingKong2005 to distinguish it from the original.
Content Type
FTR
The content type says what the package is: FTR for a feature film, TLR for a trailer, SHR for a short film (common at festivals). The content type must match the Content Kind set inside the DCP — a package named FTR must have Content Kind “feature”, or ingest software and operators will be confused about what they are looking at.
A version number can ride on this field in the format FTR-7, meaning the seventh version of the feature. This number is what ties an original version to its supplemental packages: an OV and its corresponding VF must share the same version number, so a FTR-7 OV is versioned by a FTR-7 VF. When you need to distinguish a new package from an old one, change the date code, the version number, or both.
Aspect Ratio
F
The two standard cinema aspect ratios are Flat (F) at 1.85:1 and Scope (S) at 2.39:1, and every cinema projection system supports both. But films come in all sorts of ratios — 1.33:1 Academy, 1.66:1, 1.78:1 (16:9), 2.00:1, 2.20:1 — and a non-standard ratio must be packaged inside either a Flat or a Scope container. The name then carries both, in the format container-ratio: F-133 is a 1.33:1 picture pillarboxed in Flat, F-200 is 2.00:1 in Flat, S-266 is 2.66:1 letterboxed in Scope, F-190 is 1.90:1 in Flat.
The Full container (C) is not recommended — a DCP made in the C format will typically be displayed in Flat with the sides of the picture cropped off.
Trailers are a special case: they are produced in both a Flat and a Scope version, and they are named plain F or S regardless of any black bars inside the picture, so the projection and masking always match the feature they play in front of.
Language
EN-XX
The language field gives the audio language first and the subtitle language second: EN-XX is English dialogue with no subtitles, EN-NO is English with Norwegian subtitles, FR-EN is French with English subtitles.
The case of the subtitle code carries meaning. Uppercase, as in EN-NO, means real soft subtitles — an XML/MXF subtitle track, separate from the image, that can be turned on and off. Lowercase, as in EN-no, means the subtitles are burned into the picture and cannot be disabled.
A film may only have one spoken-language code. If a film mixes languages — mostly English with some French dialogue, say — use the predominant language, EN. Subtitles, on the other hand, can chain: a package with subtitles in two languages carries both codes, so EN-NO-ES is English dialogue with Norwegian and Spanish subtitles. Always verify the language codes against the official ISDCF DCNC registry when preparing a DCP.
Territory/Rating
INT
The territory field says where the package is meant to play, optionally with the local rating attached. INT marks a standard international version, suitable for all territories. When the DCP is made for a specific country with a defined rating, use the territory code with the rating: UK-12A for the United Kingdom rated 12A, US-R, DE-12, NO-15.
Audio
51
51 means 5.1 surround sound — Left, Right, Center, LFE (subwoofer), Left Surround and Right Surround — and it is the most common format for an original version, because every theater can play it. 71 is 7.1 surround, and 71-ATMOS is a 7.1 bed with a Dolby Atmos object-based immersive track on top.
The enhanced formats are typically released as VF packages on top of a 5.1 OV: the OV in 51 guarantees maximum compatibility everywhere, and the 71 or 71-ATMOS VF provides the premium experience in the theaters that support it.
Resolution
2K
2K or 4K, matching the four kinds of DCI containers:
- 2K DCI Flat 1.85 — 1998 x 1080
- 2K DCI Scope 2.39 — 2048 x 858
- 4K DCI Flat 1.85 — 3996 x 2160
- 4K DCI Scope 2.39 — 4096 x 1716
Studio
NULL
The studio field identifies the film studio or distributor, using short codes standardized through the ISDCF — WR is Warner Bros., for example. When no studio code applies — independent productions, content without a distribution deal, or simply when no studio is involved — use the placeholder NULL, always in uppercase. The field must be present for the name to be compliant, so NULL is not optional decoration; it is the correct value when there is no studio. Only use a real studio code if you actually have the rights to, keep it consistent across related DCPs, and use NULL when in doubt.
Date
20230622
The date is written as eight digits in the format YYYYMMDD with no separators: four-digit year, two-digit month, two-digit day, with leading zeros where needed. So 22 June 2023 is 20230622, January 1, 2023 is 20230101, and December 25, 2023 is 20231225. Beyond saying when the package was made, the date is one of the handles for telling versions apart — a re-export on a new day gets a new date code.
Facility
NUL
The facility field is a three-letter code identifying the facility that created the DCP, registered through the ISDCF (Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum) — DLX is Deluxe, for example. Facilities can register their own code through the ISDCF, which guarantees the code is unique and makes it possible to trace where a package came from.
When no registered facility is involved — independent productions, personal or small-scale DCP creation, or when the facility code is simply unknown — use NUL. As with the studio code, keep it consistent across related DCPs and use NUL unless you actually have a registered code.
Standard
SMPTE
SMPTE is the current industry standard for DCPs and the format to prefer for anything new — it is the actively maintained standard with the full feature set, including proper encryption support. IOP marks the legacy Interop format, which is still around for older projection systems and is required in some territories, but offers a more limited feature set. Default to SMPTE unless something specifically requires otherwise, and verify theater compatibility if you are unsure.
Package Type
OV
The last field says what kind of package this is. OV (Original Version) is the master — the complete, self-contained DCP with the original language and format, and the basis every later version builds on. VF (Version File) is a supplemental package: it contains only what changed from the OV and references the OV’s files for the rest. VFs are used for different territories and languages (dubbed audio, added subtitles, localized text) and for technical variations (a 7.1 or Atmos mix on top of a 5.1 OV).
Because a VF physically depends on its OV, the two must be clearly related in their names — same title, correlated version numbers, consistent fields. For example:
OV: MovieTitle_FTR_F_EN-XX_INT_51_2K_NULL_20230622_NUL_SMPTE_OV
VF: MovieTitle_FTR_F_EN-FR_INT_71_2K_NULL_20230622_NUL_SMPTE_VF
Here the VF adds French subtitles and a 7.1 mix to the English OV. Keep track of what each VF changes, document the relationship between the packages, and stay consistent — a cinema that receives a VF without its OV, or with an OV whose name does not line up, has a problem you will hear about.
Using the free naming tool on tools.dcpformat.net
Building a name by hand from the registry works, but it is easy to get a field code wrong or put fields in the wrong order. I have made a free naming tool at tools.dcpformat.net that builds and validates DCNC names directly in the browser. It is synced with the ISDCF DCNC registry and describes each part of the name as you fill it in.
The build tab walks through the fields — title, content type, aspect ratio and container fitting, languages, territory and rating, audio configuration, resolution, studio, date, facility, standard and package type — and assembles a compliant name from your choices. The validate tab works the other way: paste an existing name and it parses every field, flags anything that is off, and explains what each part means. It also checks that an OV name and a VF name are correctly linked, which is worth running before any supplemental package leaves the building.
The tool runs entirely as a web page, nothing to install and nothing uploaded — the name is just a string. You can even link straight into it: tools.dcpformat.net/?tab=validate&name=MovieTitle_FTR_…_OV opens the validator on this post’s example name.
