Note: The preparing and copying of DCPs to hard drives is not a component of the easyDCP programs. We provide information about our customer’s experience from their practice

Quality and kind of hard disk are not important but it is recommended to use a powerful interface, e.g. eSATA or USB 3.0. Commonly, carriers from the CruDataPort series are used.

The file-systeme is very important. According to DCI specification:

EXT2

or

EXT3

is required. These file systems are supported natively by LINUX. 

Third party drivers/emulations are available for MAC and Windows (e.g. Paragon).
Another recommendation is to install a LINUX system either on a remote or virtual system and have it share the mounted DCP via SAMBA.

The time it takes to copy a DCP onto a mobile hard-drive depends on the DCPs size and on the bandwidth. A 90-minute DCP can take up to 200 GB.

It is highly recommend to verify the DCPs integrity.  To do that, you can start the DCP validation (included in easyDCP Creator+ and easyDCP Player+) and run a Hash-check (e.g. with MD5) of the DCP before copying to the hard disc. After copying run the Hash-check again. The results of the hash-check must be identical otherwise the DCP may crash.

This extra work is in no relation to later exchange of the DCP in the cinema. 

Copying needs to be done independently from the easyDCP application, e.g. with Finder or Windows Explorer. Customers with macOS like to use the program DCP Transfer. 
Also professional mass-duplication software is available and convinient for larger copy batch jobs.

Additional hint: Using of Digital Cinema Naming Convention is higly recommend to ease the workflow in the cinema server. Create correct syntax of Digital Cinema Naming Convention is embedded in easyDCP applications. 

JPEG 2000 files generated with the easyDCP Creator meet the required requirements.

You can also import pre-generated JPEG 2000 files. Make sure that the input format "Option", the entry "JPEG 2000 Re-encoding" is disabled. In this case, easyDCP Creator does not check if these files are compatible with current standards. The software merely copies the files to the DCP.

This may eventually lead to a rejection of the DCP by certain playback devices / digital cinema servers. In such cases, we recommend checking the entire DCP with the DCP validation function of easyDCP Player + or easyDCP Creator +.

Currently, we are not aware of any problems with DCPs that are generated by easyDCP Creator.

Easier & faster packaging:

Rename DCP files with easyDCP Creator+

Imagine the following situation:

• Your DCP has already been packaged and works flawlessly. However, the file names of the DCP do not meet the requirements of the cinema / studio - namely, content title and reel number are missing.
• Now the files shall be renamed so that they contain the DCP’s content title, its reel numbers and are therefore human readable.
• The conversion should be done quickly, easily and without any time-consuming re-encoding.

Tipps:

• The use is very similar for DCPs and IMF packages.
• Also works with the standard version of easyDCP Creator.
• Attention: All custom presets will be used for new projects as well.
• Warning: Do not manually alter any DCP, since this will break its internal DCP structure.

1. Your DCP is e.g. in the following file structure (the root folder already contains the movie title, but the movie title is missing in the individual DCP files and are not human readable):
   
2. To customize the filenames of your DCP, first open your DCP with your easyDCP Creator+. Then select the “Custom” preset under "File > Options > File Naming":
   
3. In the right-hand pane, under "Usage", the available DCP name components are listed as placeholders (% 1,% 2,% 3, ...). Now use the placeholders to create your desired DCP file names by typing the placeholders in the desired order in the Metadata Files and Track Files text boxes. In this way, you allow the easyDCP Creator+ to inherit the components of the DCP to the file names. Check your settings in the instant "Preview":
   
4. Finally, save your DCP via "File > Save Package". The files of your DCP are immediately renamed in-place and re-signed. The file names of your DCP now contain the DCP components you specified (here: the movie title, a half UUID and the respective acronym):
   
5. Attention: Your user-defined file names will also be applied to all new DCPs. If you only want to use these settings for your current DCP, you must reset the file namings after saving your current DCP (see step 2).

Please note:
This template was created with easyDCP Creator+ Version 3.7. Previous versions may not yet include this feature, but in newer versions the process may be slightly different.