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#2013
ISDCF Main Meeting Notes – January 21, 2016

Upcoming Meetings

Thursday March 10, 2016 Main meeting at Universal
Wednesday April 27, 2016 Main meeting at Universal
Plugfest Tuesday/Wednesday May 17/18 (probably Deluxe Hollywood)
Thursday May 19 Main meeting at Universal
Thursday June 30 Main meeting at Universal

Part 1: General Reporting

Housekeeping:
• Antitrust Disclaimer – The official antitrust guidelines are posted on our website and are linked from the main ISDCF page. A short verbal overview of guidelines was given.
• Thanks to CineCert for lunch. Upcoming: Dolby March ’16, Fox April ’16, Christie/Kevin May ’16, Barco June ‘16
• Thank you to Universal for the facilities and parking. Universal will be the primary location for future ISDCF meetings
• Thank you to Universal for support of the Chairman.
• Thank you to Inter-Society for providing the funding for notes, travel, general expenses and admin support.
• Thank you to Universal/for the coffee and bagels
• The schedule for future meetings/support for food was made.
• Forum update (Sperling): people are visiting, very few posts. Sperling and CJ are going to do some Q&A to inspire folks to use the forum.
• Meeting notes from December ‘15 was reviewed and approved.
• Legal reminder / press reminder
* Chatham House Rule:
* When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

Attendance is at end of these notes.



Action Items from January 21, 2016

1. Eikon will prep a new version of 3D variable Z comparison and send to Dean for first testing.
2. Deluxe will prep an updated version of 3D test package for standard SMPTE-DCP testing (the old one was in “A” style, not “B” style).
3. Assigned to Chris Witham , Nick Mitchel, Steve - to prepare a draft recommended practice for ingest behavior for TMS/Servers. (Jerry’s draft from prior meeting.)
4. Test content to show the difference between font rendering color and expectations. i.e. create a font color that should match the background and blend in - this would show the issue. Mike Radford?
5. Create new HFR test content that exceeds the specification - up to 3D120fps/4K - clearly marked as NON STANDARD CONTENT. (What bit rate?)
6. Update the digital cinema naming convention website to include information on where to put the name (in CPL metadata, CPL annotation text, PKL annotation text - and they all need to MATCH!)
7. PLEASE look at new Digital Cinema Naming convention site. (http://isdcf.com/dcnc to make sure we did the metadata descriptions correctly.
8. Add to the SMPTE CPL metadata document the use of lower case subtitles indicating burned in subtitles and upper case is rendered. Dean [Post on Forum.]
9. Still looking for DCP that includes Atmos (Dean)
10. ISDCF should have a recommended practice for zip / tar content to create drives - for test purposes - NOT for distribution to theaters. Dean? Nick? Steve?
11. Education is needed for aspect ratios. Jerry/Ernie to create a technical document and (maybe) a YouTube video describing the issue.
12. Revisit alternate main picture files and how to handle. Dean/Mark H. will discuss and bring to next meeting some proposals.
13. Find a way to publish proprietary UL’s as used for unique systems. (Pointed to in the naming convention website.)
14. Maybe not: Ask for a stick-figure description of FLMx / TKR presentation (using Powerpoint:) that would be appropriate for presentation to non-techies on what they do and the problems they solve.
15. There may be a need to create a best-practices security document for digital cinema manufacturers (especially creators of certs, KDM and TDL management). We are tasked with identifying outside organizations that may be suitable for creating this document specifically for digital cinema. Action item: think.
16. Consider assignment of audio channels 15/16 for alternative spoken language for headphones (see below) and we will discuss at next ISDCF meeting.
17. Post on forum information on EXT3 as the preferred format for USB drive / stick delivery.

1. Looking for feature sound level measurement for Theatrical content. Ioan to provide the latest version of feature sound level measurement for posting on-line after September TC meeting. Dean
2. Update “Recommended Practices for SMPTE-DCP Authoring” document to include in posted technical papers at ISDCF (Jerry, John H, Steve L)
3. After the Oscars, contact Andy at the Academy to review their description of aspect ratios - away from full container. Maybe at HPA Tech Retreat.

Follow up on action items:
Projector for ISDCF meetings when we don’t meet at Universal, Barco - Brian Claypool - will see if there is one available when we need it.

Part 2: Real Work

A discussion based on burned-in vs open-caption/subtitles and the naming convention. This feature is included in the naming convention, but was not included in the SMPTE CPL document. Bottom line: we need to revisit the SMPTE document for metadata to have it included. Dean will take the lead in reviewing.

Academy seems to be going the wrong way with digital containers and aspect ratio. The latest document seems to point to a FULL CONTAINER (2018x1080 - for 2K releases) and no reference to aspect ratio. This differs from the current digital cinema practice. We will contact Andy Maltz at the Academy after the Oscars. (Distribution is in square pixels!) There is a need for education here.

From the July 2015 meeting:
ISDCF recommended practice that for aspect ratios under 1.85 (such as academy aperture 1.33) pillar box in a flat package. For aspect ratio from 1.85 to 2.30 letter box in a flat package. For aspect ratios above 2.30 letter box in a scope package. The suggestion is to inform the theaters of the actual aspect ratio of the feature and not request/require masking - but if someone wanted to - great! BUT you must not mess up the trailers - so the masking would need to be automated before the feature.
Perhaps we could create a simple YouTube video that describes the issues of aspect ratios. Maybe post on the Forum? This is a recurring theme and takes a while to understand. Ernie/Jerry. Perhaps create a new technical document.

Naming Convention.

The NEW, IMPROVED, Fully functional DigitalCinemaNamingConvention.com (now hosted at http://isdcf.com/dcnc ). We have included the new CPL metadata information on each page.
The ISDCF group was tasked to see what was missing. Immediately we found that the DCNC metadata does not specify that the ContentTitleText should contain the OLD naming convention code, since many servers use this for human display on their UI. (Note: This has been updated on the website.) Mike Radford requests edit capability for the site. Specifically we are going to add:

The information in this site is used to create a text string that describes a particular CPL for a particular version of a movie. (The 5.1 or 7.1 audio version, the French or English version, etc.) This text string is used to populate the "ContentTitleText" of the CPL. Today most servers and theater management systems present this text string to the user and the user uses this site to decode the ContentTitleText string. This will continue but some systems will read the CPL Metadata directly to better inform the user of the specifications of a particular version of the movie. This text string goes lots of other places too: 1) As the entry in the ContentTitle Text of the CPL, 2) in the Annotation text of the CPL AND 3) in annotation text of the PKL (asset map).

There was some desire to have an option for the entire site in one page to assist in searching, but Bill Elswick found a solution - google has indexed the site and if you use Google Search "site:http://isdcf.com/dcnc/: (search term)" and it should work!!

We discussed the need to have an unspecified studio and facility name. After some consideration we added “NUL” as an unspecified facility and “NULL” as an unspecified studio (they were added to the digital cinema naming website in real time during the meeting.)

We should say on the website that something needs to be in all fields. Candidate:
There MUST be an entry in EVERY field. Some systems count the number of "_" (underscores) to parse the information (NOT RECOMMENDED - BUT it's done). If you have a non- relevant field, fill it with the letters "NULL".

Dolby Vision Trailers - example of Non-standard images
This topic started in December ’15 and at that time we suggested to NOT have a MainPicture asset and call it something else - but time to revisit it now. The group generally agreed all DCPs must have a MainPicture. The real problem may be in a trailer pack. The group felt that we need to keep thinking about solutions, nothing proposed so far is right. Dean and Mark H. are in discussion / brainstorming to find some proposals. (A Dolby Vision file should be handled by non-Dolby vision aware systems). It’s an implementation problem, not an content problem. In fact the group is not under agreement that it is a real problem (wishy-washy statement). We don’t want a solution to a non-problem.
Should we have a CPL metadata flag that says “I am 429-2 compliant content” so a system can have a quick check to see validity of playback. It might be solved by encrypting the trailers for non-standard images so it only plays on approved systems. “We don’t want to force automation around stupidity.” As the discussion went on, we are thinking that we shouldn’t do anything…

We want to include the information in the files that allow an intelligent server/TMS to assist the user to make the right choices. It is up to vendors, while working with users, to decide what controls are needed in those systems.

There is a call to publish proprietary CPL extensions. Companies that are using the proprietary UL calls we should allow publishing of these extensions. Maybe another page in the Digital Cinema Naming Convention website?

SMPTE-DCP
Thanks to Disney and Warner Bros. for moving forward.
Disney’s “Finest Hour” is going out in January DCDC in SMPTE-DCP test content flavor 2.0. Warner Bros.’ “How to be Single” has released encrypted trailers and ISDCF test content to DCDC and Hard Drive systems.

“How to be Single” is being released in Canada/USA in SMPTE-DCP. It was decided to release in the US first.
There are TMS systems that have trouble with the inclusion of MCA Labeling. Deluxe is in direct contact with those manufactures. The content is ingesting and does not appear in the library. Finest Hour is going out without TKR and without MCA Labeling.
The Warner Bros. encrypted trailers is also having problems on some systems and these same systems had been tested at the plugfest.

The shift from test content “A-V1.0” to “B-V2.0” is causing problems - especially in TMS systems. We were concerned that this might be a problem since TMSs have not been as active as we would like in the Plugfests.

Deluxe is maintaining a database on each system in the field with its capability in their TDL (trusted device list).

We discussed if we really wanted to include TKR now. Some feel that it is not critical since the the issues should be resolved when systems are fully capable of reading the metadata.

Other studios are actively considering a release of SMPTE-DCP titles.

Any hardware manufacture of TMS/Servers can get test content from Deluxe (Steve) to confirm playback.

Europe has been testing Norway/Holland with SMPTE-DCP. These countries were chosen since they had good conductivity. The tests showed that the issues were resolved with software upgrades. It pointed out that are some operators did not have an on-going service plan to maintain equipment and receive/install upgrades. Some first generation servers were seen as not being able to render subtitling and operators are looking to upgrade to newer servers (need to get more information here).

SMPTE-DCP 3D subtitles
The test content on the web has been pulled since it was in test content flavor A v1.0 format. Deluxe has offered to update the 3D test content flavor B v2.0.

FLMx
Facility List Messenger exchange. A method to securely send information between businesses (B to B). Mainly for TDL (trusted device lists). TKR could be used for automated delivery of keys and is in use in some places (mainly to NOCs). Other delivery methods are also in use (email). There was a call for a presentation for non-techies on what all these things do. There was an identified need to socialize these concepts - but most of them are not needed to the smaller exhibitors. There may be a need to standardize TKR - that would happen after FLMx is completed in SMPTE.

For an example, Fox provides keys in both push and pull models. All their current keys are posted on fox’s website and they are pushed to integrators (like Deluxe and large theater chains NOC).
Security
Anecdotally one exhibitor reported receiving keys for a de-commissioned piece of equipment for months after the hardware was removed from their theater. The question of security was addressed at Intersociety and was passed to ISDCF for discussion. Intersociety asked ISDCF to form a committee to inform Intersociety about security issues (is that what I heard?).

Extra keys are not seen as a security risk, just a data management issue.

It is not the task of ISDCF to evaluate the big picture security risks of the Cinema ecosystem. The issue is understanding the difference between real security (mathematical) vs business security (addition of a rouge entry into the TDL). MPAA best practices <http://www.mpaa.org/content-security-program/> Perhaps there is a need for a group to discuss the specifics of Digital Cinema security issue - and a need to get a best practices document for manufactures (creators of KDM / TDL) and all studios should make sure all participants of the security chain are part of the discussion. There is a need for a description of the high level security model being used to protect digital cinema.

We don’t know who should be tasked to do this and we think it’s a good idea. We will discuss next time to see if someone has more thoughts on who might be willing and able to create a best practices document that is pragmatic. (MPAA? MovieLabs? DCI? AdHoc Group?) Nothing is broken, we just think it’s time to review and make sure we are doing the right things.

Alternate Language Tracks (headphones)
There is a desire to allow distributors to deliver additional audio tracks that could be used with headphones for spoken alternative languages. One suggestion is to define channels 15/16 as alternative spoken languages (we would need to add to the naming convention). There is a problem with headphones that only support 2 channels (HI/VI) and would not support additional channels.
One suggestion is to make the assignment 15/16. This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Format of USB sticks/drives
We currently recommend EXT3 as the format. A question was proposed that we should allow other formats - perhaps FAT32. Short answer: no. FAT32 is limited to 4GB and some systems may read other formats, but let’s stay clean on the required format for interoperability. We will post something in the Forum.