A curated list of resources for film technicians in the fields of digital cinema content mastering, delivery, archiving and exhibition.
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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.
- 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.
- Open Services Alliance - for Media – global alliance to enable open media services.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Cinepedia – knowledge base about DCP mastering, delivery and exhibition.
- Knut Erik Evensen – insights into DCP mastering, delivery and exhibition.
- ASWF Landscape – map of open-source projects used in the motion picture industry.
- Awesome Broadcasting – curated, broadcast related list.
- Awesome Colour – a curated list of color science resources.
- Awesome Pipeline – a curated list of pipeline toolkits.
- open-workflows – curated list of resources and workflows for a/v archivists.
- 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.
- 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 RDD 52:2020 – requirements for DCP mastering for playback on the highest percentage of systems.
- SMPTE ST 2125, Public Committee Draft – IMF registration service API.
- SMPTE ST 2126, Public Committee Draft – microservice status reporting and logging.
- SMPTE Standards Overview – active SMPTE Digital Cinema Package standards.
- TASA Leq(m) measurement – trailer leq(m) measurement standard (direct link to PDF).
- 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.
- 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.
- Aspera – a multitude of solutions for large, fast file transfer.
- Bagger – Application to produce a package of data files according to the BagIt specification.
- bagit-python – a Python library and command line utility for working with BagIt style packages.
- 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.
- Signiant – move large files with speed, reliability, and security.
- Qube Wire – deliver DCPs and KDMs to cinemas worldwide.
- 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.
- 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.
- DCP QA Tools – free (sign up only) DCP quality assurance and audio level assurance tools (includes Leq(m) meter).
- 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.
- NUGEN Audio Loudness Toolkit – solution for loudness compliant delivery.
- WLM Plus Loudness Meter – loudness meter plugin from Waves Audio.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- itu-r-468-weighting – a zero dependency Python ITU-R 468 noise weighting filter (1 kHz and 2 kHz).
- Kakadu – commercial JPEG 2000 codec.
- leqm-nrt – a non-real-time implementation of Leq(M) measurement according to ISO 21727.
- 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.
- OpenTimelineIO – interchange format and API for editorial cut information.
- Photon – Photon is an open-source Java implementation of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard.
- python-dcitools – a Python library for working with digital cinema server APIs.
- regxmllib – Java library for the creation of XML representations of MXF header metadata.
- smpte-timecode – a JavaScript library for operations with SMPTE timecodes.
- timecode – a Python module that handles SMPTE timecode.
- 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.
- CORTEX Cloud – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats (not the same as IE's Cortex).
- CORTEX Enterprise – transcode and master DCPs, IMPs (IMF) and additional formats (not the same as IE's Cortex).
- 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.
- 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.
- CPL Translator – a web tool that parses DCPs and IMPs (IMF).
- DCP QA Tools – free (sign up only) DCP quality assurance and audio level assurance tools.
- DIVO – a Dolby Vision HDR web tool. Parse, compare and edit Dolby Vision XML.
- Dolby Log Analyzer – a web app that scans Dolby D-cinema server logs to produce an overview.
- Michael Cinquin tools – web tools, e.g. timecode calculator, DCP-subtitle creator and DCP versioning.
- Online Reg-XML MXF Dump Tool – only a few bytes are uploaded to the server.
- CineFMS – an open-source framework for film festival DCP workflow management, used at the Berlinale.
- Cortex – open-source framework for computation, rendering, and file I/O (not the same as MTI's CORTEX).
- Frame.io – cloud-based collaboration platform.
- Gaffer – open-source framework to automate processes, build production workflows and more (based on Cortex).
- Kitsu – open-source production tracker for indie studios.
- Kitsu, hosted at CGWire - hosted production tracker for indie studios.
- MCMA Project Repos - open-source serverless architecture and media workflows in the cloud.
- Mistika Workflows – standard & user-defined media workflows.
- TACTIC – open-source platform for enterprise workflow solutions (originated in the VFX industry).