Hi,
I have been asked by Shanghai International Film Festival to submit my film in DCI complaint form:

Form：Hard disk

Port: USB 2.0

Format: MPEG-2 (24P) compressed as MXF or

JPEG2000 (24P) compressed as MXF

Audio: 5.1-channel

Referring to DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) standard


I have no idea how to go about doing this from Cineform 2K without going through hardware encoding etc. Is it even possible? How does the audio and video work in this space?

Need urgent help as I am on a deadline.

Thanks,
Bhaskar

DCI compliance for a film festival is just silly, they should re-think that. But if you have to deal with that nonsense, going from CineForm files is exactly the same as from any other files. Look at the DCI encoder requirements (I don't think there is an inexpensive one available so you will likely using a service) and see what format it/they support, then send that. That might mean DPX files, so do that. They are CineForm AVI to DPX coverters within Prospect or your could use AE (slower.)

DCI compliance for a film festival is just silly, they should re-think that. But if you have to deal with that nonsense, going from CineForm files is exactly the same as from any other files. Look at the DCI encoder requirements (I don't think there is an inexpensive one available so you will likely using a service) and see what format it/they support, then send that. That might mean DPX files, so do that. They are CineForm AVI to DPX coverters within Prospect or your could use AE (slower.)

http://www.openjpeg.org/index.php?menu=doc#encoder

This could be a source for the encoder: http://www.openjpeg.org

This is from their website: Digital Cinema: OpenJPEG is now capable of encoding and decoding JPEG 2000 streams compatible with the JPEG Profile-3 (2K images) and Profile-4 (4K images). These profiles correspond to the DCI specifications.

JPEG2000 is not issue, it is just a slow, but high quality wavelet codec. The issues is DCI, which is X'Y'Z' color space with particular bit-rate target is a particular wrapper format.

JPEG2000 is not issue, it is just a slow, but high quality wavelet codec. The issues is DCI, which is X'Y'Z' color space with particular bit-rate target is a particular wrapper format.

His question could be ours as well: where do we start then?

I've got the link to the pdf on the specification, if that helps. But any light is as always...appreciated:

http://www.dcimovies.com/DCIDigitalCinemaSystemSpecv1_2.pdf

Right now it seems to be service provider function ($$$) or expensive tools like http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/jpeg2000-20322/information-20342.html. Remember CineForm is sometimes used as an alternative to DCI, as we are less expensive and faster, and higher quality (given we don't have such limiting bit-rate caps.)

Right now it seems to be service provider function ($$$) or expensive tools like http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/jpeg2000-20322/information-20342.html. Remember CineForm is sometimes used as an alternative to DCI, as we are less expensive and faster, and higher quality (given we don't have such limiting bit-rate caps.)

Is that why the Bollywood interest in the CF codec?

So now you have me confused. What's the dif? What I mentioned before is FREE and they said "Digital Cinema: OpenJPEG is now capable of encoding and decoding JPEG 2000 streams compatible with the JPEG Profile-3 (2K images) and Profile-4 (4K images). These profiles correspond to the DCI specifications."

Why would anyone want to pay 3-4K for a free codec that produced compliant DCI files?

Well that is cool, if is it works, hope someone can check it out. The reason India likes CineForm is not for the ease of encoding (much faster than J2K) it is the players can be a standard PC -- greatly reducing the costs.

After looking over some of the specifications for DCI in that pdf, I can see what you mean. It's not really about the codec at all, it's about the CONTROL of the whole process of transmission, security, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

I'd pay someone to do it too...

I can also see why CF is a part of the CinemaDNG initiative. Go for it...