Cinepedia

The Technology Behind The Big Screen

  • System
    • System Basics
    • DCI & SMPTE
  • Packaging
    • DCP
    • The Composition
    • Title Versions
    • Composition Playlist (CPL)
    • Track Files
    • Track File Encryption
    • Packing List
    • Additional Metadata
    • Interop DCP / SMPTE DCP
  • Security
    • Trust Model
    • Encryption
    • Trusted Device List
    • Digital Certificate
    • KDM
    • Media Block
    • Security Log
  • Picture
    • Picture Introduction
    • Color Distribution & Display
    • Color Gamut
    • Contrast & Dynamic Range
    • Resolution & Aspect Ratio
    • Light
    • Picture Track File & Compression
    • Projector Image Formation
    • Projection Screens
    • Stereoscopic 3D
  • Sound
    • Cinema Sound Basics
    • Sound Formats and Soundfields
    • MainSound Track File
  • Accessibility
    • Accessibility Overview
    • Accessibility & Audio Track File
    • Timed Text Track Files
    • Reel Flexibility for Timed Text
    • Communications for Off-Screen Timed Text
  • FAQs
    • Technology FAQs
    • Business FAQs
    • Accessibility FAQs
  • History
    • Early History
  • Terminology
  • References
  • Interop DCP
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Terminology

Packaging Basics

Composition: The name given to the complete digital representation of a title.

Composition Playlist (CPL): The high level playlist that defines the play order of the essence Track Files that make up the Composition.

Digital Cinema Package (DCP): The name given to the collection of motion picture files sent to a cinema. A DCP may not represent a complete motion picture.

Essence: By example, (and without limitation), an essence type could be picture, sound, subtitle and/or caption

Interop DCP: The original implementation of Composition and DCP deployed during the rollout of digital cinema, based on an early draft of this work in SMPTE.

KLV: Key-Length-Value is the data encoding method used in MXF Track Files.

MXF: Material Exchange Format, the file structure used for digital cinema Track Files, containing essence and metadata.

Packing List: The manifest of files carried in a DCP.

Reels: The name given to the collection of Track Files that make up a temporal portion of a title.

SMPTE DCP: The implementation of Composition and DCP standardized by SMPTE.

Track File: A file containing a single essence type. A component of a Composition.

UUID Universally Unique Identifier, the method for generating identifiers associated with all digital cinema files.

Package Descriptors

Asset Package: A DCP that contains a partial Composition. When intended to be paired with an OV Package, an Asset Package is called a VF Package.Composition Package: A DCP that contains one or more complete Compositions. The Compositions may share common Track Files.

OV Package or OV Composition: Original Version, a name applied to a complete Composition where certain Track Files of the Composition may be shared with other Compositions.

VF Package or VF Composition: Version Files, a name applied to a partial Composition intended to utilize Track Files of an OV Composition. A VF Package can also be thought of as an Asset Package.

Security Basics

Certificate: A data file carrying the public key of an asymmetric or RSA certificate and descriptive metadata.

Encryption: The mathematical modification of data such that it is unrecognizable. Conversion back to its original form requires a “key.”

Forensic Mark: A hidden mark, such as a watermark, in picture or sound. The mark, when decoded, provides identifying information about the location where the picture and sound were experienced.

Key: In encryption, the data value used to either encrypt valuable data, or decrypt valuable data.

KDM: Key Delivery Message. The data message type used to carry encrypted keys to a target player, authorizing the player to decrypt and play the associated encrypted content.

Media Block: A player whose security characteristics and behaviors are fully defined by DCI.

TDL: Trusted Device List. In common use of the term, a TDL is a database of trusted devices in the field, normally maintained by a fulfillment entity. However, it can also refer to the list, incorporated in the KDM, of devices authorized for use with the target media block.

Sound

Soundfield: The sound as experienced by the audience.

Soundfield Group: A collection of sound channels that define a Soundfield.

Sound Format: A distribution format for sound. Typical sound formats are 5.1 Sound, or 7.1 Sound.

Surround Sound: The term applied to sound in the auditorium produced by the speaker system that’s not associated with the screen.

Organizations

DCI: Digital Cinema Initiatives. The consortium of the six major Hollywood studios responsible for the DCI Digital Cinema System Specification and the DCI Compliance Test Plan.

IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force

SMPTE: Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

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