Digital Cinema Initiatives
Encyclopedia
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC or DCI is a joint venture of major motion picture studios, formed to establish a standard architecture
for digital cinema
systems.
The organization was formed in March 2002 by the following studios:
The primary purpose of DCI is to establish and document specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality. By establishing a common set of content requirements, distributors
, studios
, exhibitors
, d-cinema manufacturers and vendors can be assured of interoperability and compatibility. Because of the relationship of DCI to many of Hollywood
's key studios, conformance to DCI's specifications is considered a requirement by software developers or equipment manufacturers targeting the digital cinema market.
DCI released Version 1.1 of the DCI Specification on April 12, 2007, incorporating the previous 148 errata into the DCI Specification. On April 15, 2007, at the annual NAB Digital Cinema Summit, DCI announced the new version, as well as some future plans. They released a "Stereoscopic Digital Cinema Addendum", available on dcimovies.com, to begin to establish 3-D technical specifications in response to the popularity of 3-D stereoscopic films
. It was also announced "which studios would take over the leadership roles in DCI after the current leadership term expires at the end of September."
Subsequently, between August 27, 2007, and February 1, 2008, DCI issued 100 errata to Version 1.1. So, DCI released the current Version 1.2 of the DCI Specification on March 7, 2008, again incorporating the previous 100 errata into the specification document. Version 1.2 can be downloaded from the DCI web site. The previous versions are also archived on the DCI web site.
Based on many SMPTE
and ISO standards, such as JPEG 2000
-compressed image and "broadcast wave" PCM
/WAV
sound, it explains the route to create an entire Digital Cinema Package
(DCP) from a raw collection of files known as the Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), as well as the specifics of its content protection, encryption
, and forensic marking
.
The specification also establishes standards for the decoder requirements and the presentation environment itself, such as ambient light levels, pixel
aspect
and shape, image luminance
, white point
chromaticity
, and those tolerances
to be kept.
Even though it specifies what kind of information is required, the DCI Specification does not include specific information about how data within a distribution package is to be formatted. Formatting of this information is defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) digital cinema standards.
, who applied to the U.S. Department of Justice for anti-trust waivers to allow the joint cooperation of all seven major motion picture studios.
Universal Pictures
made one of the first feature-length DCPs created to DCI specifications, using their film Serenity
. Although it was not distributed theatrically, it had one public screening on November 7, 2005, at the USC Entertainment Technology Center's Digital Cinema Laboratory in the Pacific Theatre, Hollywood. Inside Man
was Universal's first DCP commercial release, and, in addition to 35mm film distribution, was delivered via hard drive to 20 theatres in the United States
along with two trailers
.
Systems architecture
A system architecture or systems architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and more views of a system.An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structure of the system...
for digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
systems.
The organization was formed in March 2002 by the following studios:
- Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
- Paramount PicturesParamount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
- Sony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
- 20th Century Fox20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
- Universal StudiosUniversal StudiosUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
- The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
- Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
The primary purpose of DCI is to establish and document specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality. By establishing a common set of content requirements, distributors
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
, studios
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, exhibitors
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, d-cinema manufacturers and vendors can be assured of interoperability and compatibility. Because of the relationship of DCI to many of Hollywood
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
's key studios, conformance to DCI's specifications is considered a requirement by software developers or equipment manufacturers targeting the digital cinema market.
The DCI Specification
On July 20, 2005, DCI released Version 1.0 of its "Digital Cinema System Specification", commonly referred to as the "DCI Specification". The document describes overall system requirements and specifications for digital cinema. Between March 28, 2006, and March 21, 2007, DCI issued 148 errata to Version 1.0.DCI released Version 1.1 of the DCI Specification on April 12, 2007, incorporating the previous 148 errata into the DCI Specification. On April 15, 2007, at the annual NAB Digital Cinema Summit, DCI announced the new version, as well as some future plans. They released a "Stereoscopic Digital Cinema Addendum", available on dcimovies.com, to begin to establish 3-D technical specifications in response to the popularity of 3-D stereoscopic films
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
. It was also announced "which studios would take over the leadership roles in DCI after the current leadership term expires at the end of September."
Subsequently, between August 27, 2007, and February 1, 2008, DCI issued 100 errata to Version 1.1. So, DCI released the current Version 1.2 of the DCI Specification on March 7, 2008, again incorporating the previous 100 errata into the specification document. Version 1.2 can be downloaded from the DCI web site. The previous versions are also archived on the DCI web site.
Based on many SMPTE
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...
and ISO standards, such as JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
-compressed image and "broadcast wave" PCM
Pulse-code modulation
Pulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
/WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
sound, it explains the route to create an entire Digital Cinema Package
Digital Cinema Package
A Digital Cinema Package is a collection of digital files used to store and convey Digital cinema audio, image, and data streams.The term has been defined by Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC in their recommendations for packaging of DC contents...
(DCP) from a raw collection of files known as the Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), as well as the specifics of its content protection, encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
, and forensic marking
Forensic identification
Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts"....
.
The specification also establishes standards for the decoder requirements and the presentation environment itself, such as ambient light levels, pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
aspect
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...
and shape, image luminance
Luminance
Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square...
, white point
White point
A white point is a set of tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates that serve to define the color "white" in image capture, encoding, or reproduction. Depending on the application, different definitions of white are needed to give acceptable results...
chromaticity
Chromaticity
Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance, that is, as determined by its hue and colorfulness ....
, and those tolerances
Tolerance (engineering)
Engineering tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in# a physical dimension,# a measured value or physical property of a material, manufactured object, system, or service,# other measured values ....
to be kept.
Even though it specifies what kind of information is required, the DCI Specification does not include specific information about how data within a distribution package is to be formatted. Formatting of this information is defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) digital cinema standards.
Image and audio capability overview
- 2D Image:
- 2048x1080 (2K) at 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s, or 4096x2160 (4K) at 24 frame/s
- In 2K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 2048x858 pixels of the imager is used
- In 2K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 1998x1080 pixels of the imager is used
- In 4K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 4096x1716 pixels of the imager is used
- In 4K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 3996x2160 pixels of the imager is used
- 12 bits per color componentColor depthIn computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
(36 bits per pixel) via dual HD-SDISerial Digital InterfaceSerial digital interface is a family of video interfaces standardized by SMPTE. For example, ITU-R BT.656 and SMPTE 259M define digital video interfaces used for broadcast-grade video...
(encrypted)- 10 bits only permitted for 2K at 48 frame/s
- CIE XYZ color spaceCIE 1931 color spaceIn the study of color perception, one of the first mathematically defined color spaces is the CIE 1931 XYZ color space, created by the International Commission on Illumination in 1931....
- TIFF 6.0 container format (one file per frame)
- JPEG 2000JPEG 2000JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
compressionImage compressionThe objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form.- Lossy and lossless compression :...
- from 0 to 5 or from 1 to 6 waveletDiscrete wavelet transformIn numerical analysis and functional analysis, a discrete wavelet transform is any wavelet transform for which the wavelets are discretely sampled...
decomposition levels for 2K or 4K resolutions, respectively - Compression rate of 4.71 bits/pixel (2K @ 24 frame/s), 2.35 bits/pixel (2K @ 48 frame/s), 1.17 bits/pixel (4K @ 24 frame/s)
- from 0 to 5 or from 1 to 6 wavelet
- 250 Mbit/s maximum image bit rateBit rateIn telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
- 2048x1080 (2K) at 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s, or 4096x2160 (4K) at 24 frame/s
- Stereoscopic 3DStereoscopyStereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
Image:- 2048x1080 (2K) at 48 frame/s - 24 frame/s per eye (4096x2160 4K not supported)
- In 2K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 2048x858 pixels of the imager is used
- In 2K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 1998x1080 pixels of the imager is used
- Optionally, in the HD-SDI link only: 10 bit color, YCbCr 4:2:2Chroma subsamplingChroma subsampling is the practice of encoding images by implementing less resolution for chroma information than for luma information, taking advantage of the human visual system's lower acuity for color differences than for luminance....
, each eye in separate stream
- 2048x1080 (2K) at 48 frame/s - 24 frame/s per eye (4096x2160 4K not supported)
- Audio:
- 24 bits per sample, 48 kHz or 96 kHz
- Up to 16 channels
- WAVWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
container, uncompressed PCMPulse-code modulationPulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
Related information
The idea for DCI was originally mooted in late 1999 by Tom McGrath, then COO of Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, who applied to the U.S. Department of Justice for anti-trust waivers to allow the joint cooperation of all seven major motion picture studios.
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
made one of the first feature-length DCPs created to DCI specifications, using their film Serenity
Serenity (film)
Serenity is a 2005 space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is a continuation of the short-lived 2002 Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2518, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a cargo ship...
. Although it was not distributed theatrically, it had one public screening on November 7, 2005, at the USC Entertainment Technology Center's Digital Cinema Laboratory in the Pacific Theatre, Hollywood. Inside Man
Inside Man
Inside Man is a 2006 crime-drama film directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe and Jodie Foster. The film's screenplay was written by Russell Gewirtz and produced by Brian Grazer...
was Universal's first DCP commercial release, and, in addition to 35mm film distribution, was delivered via hard drive to 20 theatres in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
along with two trailers
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
.