DCP-o-matic vs Instant DCP: When to Make Your Own DCP and When to Pay

DCP-o-matic is free, open-source software that turns your finished film into a DCP a cinema can play, and it does that job well. If you have time, a reasonably fast computer and the patience to learn a few settings, it's a good way to make your own DCP. What it doesn't do is make the decisions for you. You choose the standard, the frame rate, the audio mapping and the name, then you check the result and get it onto a drive or a download link. Paying a lab like Cinematiq makes sense when your deadline is close, when you'd rather not learn the format for one screening, or when your film needs captions, encryption or a surround mix beyond 5.1.

We make DCPs for a living, so weigh what follows with that in mind.

What is DCP-o-matic?

DCP-o-matic is a desktop program for Windows, macOS and Linux that encodes video into a digital cinema package: JPEG 2000 picture, uncompressed audio and the XML files a cinema server reads. It's released under the GPL, it costs nothing, and it's still actively developed.

The download is more than an encoder. It also includes a player for watching a finished DCP on your computer, a verifier that checks a DCP against the standards, a KDM tool for encrypted DCPs, and a Disk Writer that formats a drive for cinema delivery.

What does making your own DCP involve?

The encode is one step out of several, and the other steps are where the hours go.

1. Export a clean master. Picture and sound in one file, the program only, with no bars, tone or countdown on the head.
2. Set up the DCP. In DCP-o-matic that means choosing SMPTE rather than Interop, the container (flat or scope), 2K or 4K, the frame rate and the audio channel mapping.
3. Name it. Festivals expect the name to follow the ISDCF naming convention, a coded string that tells the projectionist the title, content type, aspect ratio, language, audio format and more.
4. Encode. JPEG 2000 encoding is heavy work for a computer. DCP-o-matic can share the job with other computers on your network running its encode server, but on a single laptop a feature can tie the machine up for a long time.
5. Check it. Play it back in the DCP-o-matic player, watch the whole thing, listen in surround if you mixed in surround, and run the verifier.
6. Deliver it. Copy it to a drive formatted for cinema servers, or upload it to the festival's portal.

None of this is hard once you've done it. The first time, expect to spend real time on settings and on reading forum answers.

Where do DIY DCPs go wrong?

Most rejected DCPs fail on settings, not on the encoder. These are the common mistakes, and they apply to any software.

Interop instead of SMPTE

Older DCPs used a format called Interop. SMPTE RDD 52, the 2020 guidance for DCPs that play on old and new cinema systems, requires the SMPTE packaging format. Choose SMPTE unless a venue tells you otherwise.

Frame rates cinemas don't expect

RDD 52 lists 24, 25 and 48 frames per second for 2K, and only 24 for 4K. A film shot at 23.976 has to be played out at 24, with the audio adjusted so it stays in sync. Check sync at the end of the film, not just the start, because drift builds up.

5.1 channels in the wrong order

The SMPTE order is left, right, center, LFE, left surround, right surround. Some audio tools default to a film order that puts center second. Nothing inside the file records which order was used, so the encoder can't catch it. The dialogue ends up in the right-hand speaker, and you only find out in the theater.

A name that breaks the naming convention

Some festivals reject a DCP over its name even when the picture and sound are fine.

A drive the server can't read

Cinema servers run Linux and expect an EXT2 or EXT3 drive with specific settings. A Mac or Windows drive won't mount. Our guide to DCP drive formats explains why.

We've written up the full list of rejection causes in why doesn't my DCP work?, including captions and the plugins we'd avoid.

How do you format a drive for a DIY DCP?

Use a tool that builds the whole cinema format, not just the filesystem. DCP-o-matic's Disk Writer formats a drive as EXT2 with the 128-byte inodes cinema servers expect, then copies your DCP onto it. On a Mac, our own DCP Transfer app does the same job and also inspects the DCP for missing or corrupt files before you ship. Formatting a drive by hand from the command line is possible, but it's easy to get one setting wrong and not know until the festival writes back.

Before you buy a drive, ask the festival whether it takes a download link. Many do, and that skips the drive entirely.

When does paying for a DCP make sense?

Pay when your time costs more than the fee, or when the film needs something DIY makes risky.

• Your deadline is days away. A first DIY DCP that fails the festival's test leaves you starting over with less time. Instant DCP is typically delivered in under 24 hours from your upload, and rush typically delivers in about 6 hours.
• You're making one DCP. Learning DCP settings for a single screening is a lot of setup for one use.
• Your computer is your edit machine. Encoding ties it up, and you may need it for the next cut.
• Your film needs closed captions, 7.1 or Atmos, encryption or several versions. Those are specialist jobs. At Cinematiq they go to Custom DCP, where an engineer builds the package by hand in 5 business days.

Stick with DCP-o-matic when you have time, a simple stereo or 5.1 film, and you'd like to own the process. If you go that way, set it to SMPTE, check your channel order and test on the player before anything ships.

How does Instant DCP compare with doing it yourself?

Instant DCP takes the same single-file master you'd feed DCP-o-matic and handles the rest.

Instant DCP takes one file with the audio embedded, in stereo or 5.1, with any subtitles burned into the picture. Our delivery specs list the export settings for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. If a file doesn't match, it comes back to you for a re-export before any encoding starts, so a problem shows up at upload instead of at the festival.

Both routes end in the same kind of file. The choice is whether you'd rather spend the time or the fee.