DCP Maker does not deliver the DCPs to the theater, nor make a HDD which you give the theater. The client is responsible for getting the DCPs’ to the theater and or make the HDD for the projectionist.
If you are using our service, creating the HDD for the theater is simple.
Simply copy the edelivered DCP’s from the deliverables folder on to an external HDD, and give that to the theater. Or better yet, assuming you have the Dropbox app installed on your desktop, set up Dropbox to sync your deliverables folder to an external HDD. You can and should do this in the beginning, even before you receive your first DCP. Dropbox will simply sync DCPs as they are delivered. If you do this after all DCPs are delivered you’ll need to wait for your Dropbox to sync and this will take a LONG time. Setting this up from the beginning saves lots of time and makes it easy to receive a few last minute DCPs at the end vrs having to sync everything at once.
One catch. That HDD needs to be formatted in a way a theater can read it. It needs to be formatted as NTFS or EXT2. It can’t be formatted for a Mac, or exFat. Also, the HDD can’t exceed 2TB in size. Theaters can’t read those harddrive formats. If you wish to use the Dropbox sync process (as recommended) on a PC simply make sure your external HDD is formatted NTFS or ext2. If you are on a mac you’ll need two external HDDs, one that Dropbox sync’s do (mac formatted due to limitations in Dropbox), and a second HDD which is formatted NTFS or ext2 for the theater. You’ll need to copy all the folders from the external mac drive to the external NTFS or ext2 formatted drive at the time you close the festival for delivery. On a mac this two-step drive process is required due to limitations in how Dropbox works on a mac, and the need for the drive to be formatted NTFS or ext2 for the theater.
To be pedantic, the original delivery theaters actually wanted was the HDD housed inside a special container called a CRU. But today, many theaters can accommodate new USB3 type drives. CRU drives are often not even directly supported on the newer projection systems.. Check to confirm with your theater that they are okay with a newer USB3 drive formatted either as NTFS or EXT2. If not here are the official digital theater requirements supported by all theaters worldwide.
The official delivery method is via a HDD contained within a CRU carrier. The HDD must follow a couple rules:
- HDD must be formatted ext2 (or NTFS). exFAT, HFS, etc are NOT allowed, nor do they seldom work
- The HDD can not exceed 2TB in size
- A HDD can contain multiple DCP folders, but file names within the folders must NOT be modified in any manner.
