Wraptor DCP Export - Video Not Playing

[VijayPostMan]

Hello

I have used the Wraptor DCP export feature in Premiere Pro quite a lot over the last 3 years. I hadn't faced any issues with it. I've played back the exported DCPs off Doremi and Dolby DCP servers. They've played flawlessly.

A few days ago, I was helping a friend out with a last minute problem where she had to urgently make a DCP of her documentary film to screen at a film festival. Considering that I had had success using Wraptor before, I used it running off CC2017, for this film as well. The source material is 3840x2160 25FPS and has been natively edited on a UHD timeline. I exported the DCP as flat 1998x1080 with 5.1 sound directly from that timeline.

I checked the exported DCP off freely available DCP players on my workstation. It read and played fine. However, at this cinema in New York where the festival was being held, they were running a GDC SX-2000AR server. It would recognize the DCP, ingest it, but only playback the audio. It wouldn't play back the picture because it was misreading the resolution, and how! Please see a screenshot below of what it was reading the resolution at!

At first, when I was told that the picture was not playing, I assumed it may have been because the server was not capable of playing back 25 FPS content. So I converted the content to 24FPS, and exported a 24FPS DCP. This too threw up the SAME error in the server, with a complete misreading of the resolution.

I then tried a new export, this time, creating a new timeline, set to the DCP export resolution, placed the content in there, scaled it in the sequence, then exported the DCP. Once again, the same issue persisted. Audio playing, no video because of misinterpretation of resolution.

I was unable to find a solution to this. I do not know whether this is bug specific to the latest CC2017 update, or whether it is specific to GDC servers. But lack of sufficient documentation and support for issues like this is frustrating! QUVIS too hasn't been helpful. They don't have a proper support section and don't seem to think it's important to respond to emails.

Any help will be most appreciated. As of now, I've decided never to export another DCP from Premiere, and would rather invest in a reputed DCP authoring program.

[VijayPostMan · Accepted solution]

So QUVIS finally responded to my email. Here goes:

"Hello Vijay,

I am sorry you encountered this problem!

In the past, GDC players (like all other suppliers in the industry) supported DCPs made by all major

DCP tool providers, but earlier in 2016 GDC decided to release a software update which broke

compatibility with several DCP tool providers including QuVIS.

It appears that GDC issued this update knowing the issues involved, but stated that the update was

"more correct".  One can argue correctness, but for the most part, Industry players have generally

been good about working together, to make sure DCPs provided excellent interoperability.

There are many details which can be classified as "correct" which are known to break certain players

and such changes are generally avoided by the industry.  Interoperability of DCPs has often required putting

functionality ahead of individual company interests, but there have been a few exceptions.

This GDC update issue involved locations in which image size information can "correctly" be placed in the MXF

and XML files.  GDC decided to require image size information in locations which had previously been

optional in industry practice.  No other player model or version, including their own using their previous

software release, makes this placement of size information a hard requirement.

We investigated the problem, and were able to produce a solution for the GDC issue by populating

the mxf and xml files with size information where GDC is now requiring it.

However, because our tools are used for broad US distribution and are annually certified for that purpose for tens

of thousands of screens, we could not make such a product change without broad interoperability testing.

Tests have recently been completed by several organizations, with exhibitors representing about 18,000

screens covering a wide range of brands, models, and software versions of theatrical players. 

That test was successful, with the new proposed Wraptor software update continuing to support all common

cinema players, and also operating on both the new and the old software versions of the GDC player.

That Wraptor version has now been approved for US DCP distribution in 2017 and will be released this month.

It is agonizing for us and those directly involved when this sort of issue arises.

The newly certified versions of Wraptor will be released this month.

Sincerely,

Kenbe D. Goertzen"

[LePrawn]

Hello there!

I have been trying very un-successfully to contact Quvis!! What email address did they email you back from?

Cheers

[andyj9660596]

Were you ever able to resolve the Resolution issue? I'm currently having a similar issue (audio plays fine, no video) on a GDC SX-2001A Series. Source material is AppleProRes422 1920x1080 23.98 48K Stereo. Exporting to 2K Flat 1998x1080 24fps via Wraptor DCP in Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017. It recognizes the DCP, ingests it, then plays only audio, no video. It also shows up as 4K instead of the 2K that I created. The resolution is completely out of whack: 416017920x1. I read the response from QuVIS, but were you ever able to get it to play properly on the GDC server? This has been maddening to solve!

[softananda]

Hi all. I am trying to have a film and a trailer released in theatres. They play well in Doremi and Dolby servers, but not in GDC servers. In the latter, only the sound plays, not the image.

This thread states the question was answered. However, it is unclear to me what I should do to have the film and trailer play in GDC servers. Any suggestion? The trailer was supposed to be released this weekend, and we have had to postpone it.

The DCP was created with Premiere's DCP Wraptor in June 1, 2017. The disk is formatted in Linux 2.