Normalisation et compatibilité

Voici un point d’étape sur l’avancement de la normalisation et les efforts de compatibilité.

A la SMPTE :
Voici la liste des documents validés :
* SMPTE 428-1-2006 DCDM Image Structure
* SMPTE 428-3-2006 DCDM Audio Channel Mapping
* SMPTE 429-3-2006 Sound & Picture Track File
* SMPTE 429-4-2006 MXF JPEG 2000 Application
* SMPTE 429-6-2006 KLV Encryption
* SMPTE 429-7-2006 Composition Playlist
* SMPTE 429-8 Packing List (publication pending at this time)
* SMPTE 429-9 Asset Map (publication pending at this time)
* SMPTE 430-1-2006 Key Delivery Message
* SMPTE 430-2-2006 D-Cinema Certificate
* SMPTE 430-3-2006 Extra-Theater Message
* SMPTE-431-1-2006 Screen Luminance Level
* SMPTE 431-2 Reference Projector (publication pending at this time)
* Draft SMPTE 382M Mapping AES3 & Broadcast Wave Audio into the MXF Generic Container

En cours de vote :
* SMPTE 428-5 D-Cinema Distribution Master Mapping of Images into Constrained Tag Image File Format
* SMPTE 428-9: Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM) Image Pixel Structure Level 3-Serial Digital Interface Signal Formatting
* SMPTE430-7; D-Cinema Operations- Facility List Message

En discussion à un stade moins avancé :
* Le format de fichier pour le relief
* Les logs (info de passage de film pour les VPF entre autres)

Au DCI :
Le DCI à mis en ligne une version des spécifications intégrant tous les errata: elle est disponible en suivant ce lien : http://www.dcimovies.com

On trouvera aussi sur le même site les protocoles de tests préconisés par le Fraunhofer Institut: http://www.dcimovies.com/compliance/index.tt2

Le DCI propose un DCP de référence contenant des images de test pour faire des essais de compatibilité. Vous trouverez dans ce DCP un test de synchro son et une mire de cadre et de définition. Ce DCP est fourni par Deluxe pour une somme modique (18$), et les KDM sont générés gratuitement en ligne sur le site de Cinecert

Attention : Ce DCP est conforme à la norme DCI, pas à la version « JP2K interop » qu’utilisent aujourd’hui les serveurs et les encodeurs en attendant la finalisation des normes. Il ne sera peut être pas lisible aujourd’hui dans les salles. La migration vers le « DCI standard » ce fera probablement fin 2007 ou début 2008 par une mise à jour logicielle sur les serveurs.

Panorama Labs Announces Successful Operation of World’s First Magneto-Photonic Projector

"Panorama Labs, the company pioneering magneto-photonic crystal technologies, announced today that it has completed and successfully operated its first magneto-photonic projector. This operational, small-scale digital projector was built to demonstrate Panorama Labs’ groundbreaking technology and is the first step in a process that will yield a revolutionary new display technology with tremendous benefits to the digital cinema and digital display communities.

The Panorama Labs projector shows breakthrough performance features including high-speed switching, pixel remanence, low power requirements and high thermal tolerance. This is the first time that light has been successfully directly manipulated by a projector imager, without utilizing liquid crystal or micro-mirrors, projecting an image on a screen. The heart of the system is a micro display light engine, based on the principle of magneto-optical switching, which will form the core technology for a number of applications including digital cinema projectors, rear projection TVs, home theater projectors, displays, mass storage, and telecom switching devices.

This is a milestone in the development of a 4K digital cinema projector, as it proves magneto-photonic crystal technology can compete with the older and more commonly deployed technologies like LCD, LCoS, and plasma in digital display, and DLP in theatrical display.

“This technology uses an imager that has no moving parts or analog drift, is inherently stable and is virtually heat proof. Our imager is fabricated at 600 degrees Celsius, so temperatures of 85 degrees Celsius or higher that are destructive to all other digital cinema projector imagers are of no consequence,” said Harry Mathias, Panorama Lab’s vice president of R&D for Digital Cinema."

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DCI Announces Contract with Cinecert for D-Cinema Compliance Testing & Validation

"Over the next six months, Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) and CineCert will work to take DCI's compliance test program to its next level.

DCI has entered into a contractual arrangement with CineCert to complete the validation of the compliance test program begun by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits.

In February 2006, DCI contracted with Fraunhofer to develop a standardized set of procedures to comprehensively test equipment for compliance with the DCI Digital Cinema System Specification, commonly referred to as the DCI Specification. The output of the Fraunhofer project was Version 0.9 of the DCI Compliance Test Plan, released February 14, 2007.

However, due to the non-compliant status of digital cinema equipment at the time, Fraunhofer was unable to complete a full validation process. The final plan developed by CineCert and DCI will include errata to the DCI Specification and all relevant SMPTE digital cinema standards, most of which were not officially published at the time of the Fraunhofer effort.

In addition to the final test plan, a specification for test materials and the test materials themselves will be created. Specialized test plans will be prepared for a variety of digital cinema hardware and software products, included servers and projectors. Another deliverable will be standardized test reports, which will allow for meaningful comparison of features and test results between tested products.

Concurrent with the CineCert project, DCI will undertake an open process to identify testing entities to perform the tests identified by the DCI compliance test program. That selection process is under development and details will be announced in the future.

The DCI member studios have approved and published version 1.1 of the Digital Cinema System Specification, dated April 12, 2007. Since the initial publication in July 2005 of the DCI Specification, Version 1.0, the specification has received several rounds of errata. Version 1.1 does not include any new revisions; rather it incorporates all 148 previous errata into the body of the specification document, making it easier to read."

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