Amazing Digital Cinema

A curated list of resources for film technicians in the fields of digital cinema content mastering, delivery, archiving and exhibition.

Please contribute to this list!

If you don't know how to contribute on GitHub, please follow this guide and the guidelines of this repository. If this is too much of an effort for you to learn, but you still want to contribute, then post an issue here on Github with your suggestion(s) for adding to the list.

This list was inspired by the awesome-broadcasting list. Which itself was inspired by the awesome awesome list. In contrast, this list also lists non open-source resources. To reflect this matter and out of respect towards the open-source only awesome list projects, I named this list amazing digital cinema instead of awesome digital cinema.

• Contributing
• Interest Groups
• Resources
  • Books
  • Discussion Papers & Articles
  • Education
  • Forums
  • Knowledge Sources
  • Lists
  • News
  • Standards & Recommendations
• Tools
  • Command Line Tools
  • DCP Duplication
  • File Transfer
  • Framerate Converters
  • KDM Tools
  • Leq(m) Meters
  • Mastering Tools
  • Plug-ins
  • QC Player
  • Standalone
  • Transcoding Engines
  • Web Apps

Interest Groups

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) – link goes to the AMPAS science & technology projects.
• Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) – code, collaboration and creativity.
• Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) – joint venture by the majors studios in Hollywood for an open digital cinema architecture.
• European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF) – meeting forum to discuss key issues surrounding digital cinema in Europe.
• HPA IMF User Group – forum for end-users and implementers of the IMF standard.
• Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF) – working group for digital cinema technology, meets about once a month.
• MovieLabs – hollywood onramp for advanced technologies, innovations in digital distribution and consumer engagement.
• SMPTE DCP Migration Project – the project is pushing the transition from Interop to SMTPE DCP usage in cinemas.
• Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) – standards body of the motion picture industry.
• Trailer Audio Standards Association (TASA) – leq(m) audio standard for motion picture trailer volume.

Resources

Books

• Color and Mastering for Digital Cinema – Glenn Kennel, 2006.
• Digital Cinema : The Revolution in Cinematography, Post-Production, and Distribution – Brian McKernan, 2005.
• Digital Image Processing with Application to Digital Cinema – KS Thyagarajan, 2005.
• FIAF Digital Projection Guide – Torkell Saetervadet, 2012.
• Image Processing for Cinema – Marcelo Bertalmío, 2014.
• The JPEG 2000 Suite – Peter Schelkens et al., 2009.
• Understanding Digital Cinema – Charles S. Swartz, 2004.

Discussion Papers & Articles

• DCI Must Do More on HDR – Michael Karagosian, 2019.
• How Loud is a Movie? – leq(m10), a new measurement procedure, Ioan Allen, 2016 (direct link to PDF).
• What’s Wrong with the DCP? – Michael Karagosian, 2015.

Education

• Advanced Media Technology, M.Eng. – digital cinema lab. Program in German. RheinMain University, Germany.
• Creative Technologies, M.A. – computer science, movie technology and arts program. Konrad Wolf University, Germany.
• Media Technology, B.Eng. – digital cinema lab. Program in German. RheinMain University, Germany.
• Motion Picture Science, B.Sc. – Rochester Institute of Technology, USA.

Forums

• dcinemaforum – general digital cinema forum, with slight focus on the DCP mastering software OpenDCP.
• DCP-o-matic User Forum – user forum of the DCP mastering software DCP-o-matic.
• ISDCF Online Forum – online forum of the professional association Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF).
• Lift Gamma Gain – colorist forum, also with focus on digital cinema workflows and DCP mastering.

Knowledge Sources

• Cinepedia – knowledge base about DCP mastering, delivery and exhibition.
• Knut Erik Evensen – insights into DCP mastering, delivery and exhibition.

Lists

• Awesome Broadcasting – curated, broadcast related list.
• Awesome Colour – a curated list of color science resources.
• open-workflows – curated list of resources and workflows for a/v archivists.

News

• Celluloid Junkie – news resource, dedicated to the global film and cinema business.
• CineTechGeek – james Gardiner's video blog about digital cinema technology.
• DCinema Today – industry sponsored press release site about digital cinema technology.
• Digital Cinema Report – news, perspective and analysis on the digital cinema industry.
• mkpeReport – news, perspective and analysis on digital cinema technology.

Standards & Recommendations

• Archive eXchange Format (AXF) – archive file format standard by SMPTE (2014) and later by ISO/IEC (2017).
• Color Transformation Language (CTL) – Color Transformation Language for Digital Motion Picture Pipelines.
• Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) – DCI Spec and Compliance Test Plan.
• EBU Tech Publications – recommendations and guidelines of the European Broadcasting Union.
• EIDR – a universal unique identifier for movie and television assets.
• Interop Recommendations Overview – deprecated, but still actively used Digital Cinema Package recommendations.
• ISDCF Technical Documents – eecommendations and guidelines by the Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF).
• Media Cloud Microservices Architecture (MCMA) – EBU framework for integrating multiple services and processes.
• Media Hash List (MHL) – specification for transferring media data without alterations in the data chain.
• MPAA Content Security Best Practices – compliance with best practices is voluntary and not an accreditation program.
• Open Archive Information System (OAIS) – reference model (ISO 14721) for digital preservation.
• SAWA Leq(m) measurement – advertisement leq(m) measurement standard (direct link to PDF).
• SMPTE Standards Overview – active SMPTE Digital Cinema Package standards.
• TASA Leq(m) measurement – trailer leq(m) measurement standard (direct link to PDF).

Tools

Command Line Tools

• ClairMeta – command line tool for checking and probing of Digital Cinema Packages.
• dcp_inspect – tool for inspection and validation of DCPs (SMPTE and Interop).
• IFIscripts – scripts developed and used by the IFI Irish Film Archive.

DCP Duplication

• DCP360 : D2 DCP duplicator – a compact 19 inch stackable device that is equipped with CRU slots.
• dcp.py – open source command line tool for formatting a hard drive for cinema usage.
• DCP Transfer – format hard drives and copy DCPs for delivery (macOS version).
• LIHUE – DCP volume management appliance. Format, copy, validate.

File Transfer

• Aspera – a multitude of solutions for large, fast file transfer.
• MASV – fast, large file transfer in the browser, no client software needed. Pay as you go.
• Media Shuttle – browser and desktop solutions for large, fast file transfer.
• MediaSilo – video asset management & sharing solution.
• Qube Wire – deliver DCPs and KDMs to cinemas worldwide.

Framerate Converters

• Alchemist File – framerate converter.
• PixelStrings – framerate conversions, standards conversion and transcoding in the cloud. Pay as you go.
• Tachyon – framerate conversions, standards conversions, reverse telecine and frame rate normalization.

KDM Tools

• DCPtools KDM Studio – online KDM creation, with cinema database. Pay as you go (bundle prices).
• easyDCP KDM Generator+ – allows to use external DKDM (Distribution KDM) generate KDMs.
• KEYMASTER – online KDM creation, with cinema database. Annual subscription.
• Qube Wire – deliver DCPs and KDMs to cinemas worldwide.

Leq(m) Meters

• Dolby Media Meter 2 – discontinued 2018 (direct link to user's manual PDF).
• Dolby Model 737 (hardware unit) – discontinued 2018 (direct link to user's manual PDF).
• dpMeter 3 – freeware loudness meter plugin from TB Software.
• dpMeter XT – loudness meter plugin from TB Software.
• NUGEN Audio Loudness Toolkit – solution for loudness compliant delivery.
• WLM Plus Loudness Meter – loudness meter plugin from Waves Audio.

Mastering Tools

• CLIPSTER – DCP/IMP mastering, player and KDM creation system for the professional market.
• CORTEX Cloud – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.
• CORTEX Enterprise – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio – all in one solution with DCP, IMP (IMF) mastering capabilities.
• DCP-o-matic – open source DCP mastering, player and KDM creation software.
• easyDCP – DCP/IMP mastering, player and KDM creation software for the professional market.
• MIST – DCP/IMP mastering, player and KDM creation system/software for the professional market.
• OpenDCP – open source DCP mastering software.
• WAILUA – DCP/IMP mastering software for the professional market.

Plug-ins

• DCIconverter, rolling release – RGB to XYZ and vice versa for Adobe After Effects and Premiere (self compile).
• DCIconverter, v0.7, 2014 – RGB to XYZ and vice versa for Adobe After Effects and Premiere.
• j2k, rolling release – open source JPEG 2000 encoder plug-in for Adobe programs (self compile).
• j2k, v2.7, 2012 – JPEG 2000 encoder plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere.

QC Player

• CLIPSTER Play – can play DCPs and IMPs (IMF).
• easyDCP Player – can play DCPs and IMPs (IMF).
• easyDCP Player+ – can play DCPs and IMPs (IMF) – more features than non plus version.
• ICE QC Player – can play DCPs and IMPs (IMF).
• NeoDCP Player – can play DCPs - has multiple software versions. Too many to list here.

Software Libraries

• asdcplib – open source implementation of the SMPTE and Interop MXF “Sound & Picture Track File” format.
• ClairMeta – library for checking and probing of Digital Cinema Packages.
• Colour – a color science package for Python.
• Comprimato – commerical GPU JPEG 2000 codec.
• grok – open source JPEG 2000 codec - fork of OpenJPEG.
• Kakadu – commercial JPEG 2000 codec.
• libdcp – open source library for reading and writing Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs).
• libsub – open source subtitle reading/writing library.
• MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework (MDDF) – framework for the various MDDF standards.
• node-cpl – a Node.js library for CPL-parsing.
• OpenJPEG – open source JPEG 2000 codec written in C.
• Photon – Photon is open source a Java implementation of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard.
• python-dcitools – a Python library for working with digital cinema server APIs.
• smpte-timecode – a JavaScript library for operations with SMPTE timecodes.
• timecode – a Python module that handles SMPTE timecode.

Standalone

• DCP-Subtitle Extract – extract DCP subtitles and save them as SRT (SubRib) file.
• IMFTool – a tool for editing IMF CPLs and creating new versions of an existing IMF package.
• Annotation Edit – subtitle program (macOS only) that supports digital cinema Interop and SMPTE subtitles.
• Subtitle Edit – open source subtitle program that supports digital cinema subtitles.
• Bulk Rename Utility – freeware (Windows only) program for renaming vast amounts of files.

Transcoding Engines

• CORTEX Cloud – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.
• CORTEX Enterprise – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.
• PixelStrings – framerate conversions, standards conversion and transcoding in the cloud. Pay as you go.
• TORNADO – transcoding engine for DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.
• Transkoder – transcoding engine for DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats.

Web Apps

• CineLexi Web Tools – web tools for DCP CPL insides, timecode calculation and timecode bulk conversion.
• Color Space Calculator – online color space calculator for RGB color spaces.
• Michael Cinquin tools – web tools, e.g. timecode calculator, DCP-subtitle creator and DCP versioning.