It may have gone by unnoticed (there's a final thread on the dcp-o-matic forum), but,
Carl finally solved the issue of encrypted SMPTE DCPs not working on Sony systems.
While it turned out that this was actually a mistake in the Sony server software, Carl was
able to fix it in his code as well. Sony has corrected that behaviour in Sony SRX-R51x and
SRX-R81x projection systems from software 1.54 up. We did, however, still receive
complaints from people who weren't able to control software updates for their target
Sony systems, and thus we insisted to solve this issue from within DCP-o-matic as well.
While originally targeted at enabling encrypted SMPTE DCP playback (unencrypted SMPTE or
encrypted/unencrypted Interop had no problems), the fix also enables proper verification
and validation of all DCPs created by DCP-o-matic on Sony systems, so, no more
'NG/NO' flags in the DCP library. Aside from encrypted SMPTE DCPs, this never
caused actual problems, but, especially for beginners, it was an ongoing reason for
distrust and discomfort. Some other DCP mastering tools had to solve the same issue when
encrypted SMPTE was demanded before Sony 1.54 came out.
The fix is contained in all test versions of dcp-o-matic from 2.13.108 up, and will of
cause be in the upcoming 2.14 stable versions.
Regards, and thanks to Carl for not giving up on this. That issue caused by Sony was
stupid enough to take much more of Carls time than normally needed for such a trivial bug.
Glad it's over. It is also another important step in making SMPTE DCP the default for
dcp-o-matic in future releases. Though not yet for 2.14 I think.
As far as I can guess, 2.15 test versions will see editable SMPTE DCP CPL metadata (e.g.
markers) and also the step to create SMPTE DCP by default.
As some of you may know, the worldwide transition from Interop to SMPTE DCPs is taking
place in 2019, and into 2020 for some areas.
Interop will of cause still be supported by both mastering tools and DCI projection
equipment for the forseeable future.
If you're interested in the details, read here:
https://dcpomatic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1214
- Carsten