What is a DCP?
A DCP or Digital Cinema Package is a collection of files (MXFs, WAVs and XMLs) created from your finished movie in order to play back correctly on cinema projectors.
When you make an export for YouTube, it’s usually a highly compressed format like MP4 that squeezes the quality of your image and sound.
DCPs are encoded in a way that results in zero quality loss and preserves consistently accurate color and translation of the audio mix across multiple venues.
Many young filmmakers question the validity of creating a special group of special files instead of just sharing a final ProRes export of their movie.
The reality is that the DCP format is just a more streamlined and infrastructure-supported way of screening a high volume of films with consistent results.
ProRes files may be played back differently depending on the venues’ software. The audio routing for 5.1 files may not play back correctly. There are many variables that could be inconsistent across multiple screenings and venues.
The DCP format exists to solve these issues and ensure the creative integrity of the screening based on the filmmaker’s choices.