Long gone is the ubiquity of film projection in cinema. Today, if you want to screen your movie for an audience in most theaters, you’ll need a DCP. A DCP, or Digital Cinema Package, has replaced film projection. A DCP is cheaper to create and deliver to festivals, markets, and cinemas, is more secure than a physical film print, and can be screened all over the world.

Encrypted or unencrypted, 3D or 2D, 2K or 4K, delivered on a hard drive or over the internet, Blackwater Digital Services is your source for high-quality DCPs and a truly exceptional cinema experience. You can count on our expertise and skill to ensure your screening is perfect. Blackwater’s DCPs have screened at hundreds of major film festivals, markets, and commercial movie theaters worldwide, including the following.

Why use Blackwater Digital Services for your DCP?

It may sound overly simple, but a DCP from Blackwater just works. Many filmmakers, especially in these do-it-yourself times, try and make DCPs using free or cheap software. The problem is that most first-timers don’t know what they don’t know. Without the necessary expertise, a solid understanding of digital cinema and a grasp of DCI compliance, it’s almost impossible to create high-quality DCPs that will play properly in movie theaters. Even if you’re able to figure out DIY DCP making, it will take you much, much longer than an experienced company, like Blackwater Digital Services. Think of it this way: if you’re having a baby, you go to the doctor. You don’t spend days or weeks reading and watching YouTube videos about prenatal care and delivery with the intention of doing it yourself, at home. Your film is your baby, so bring it to the experts — we’ll make sure it’s well taken care of.
DCP encoding is an extremely complicated process, and there’s a whole lot that can go wrong. With amateur attempts at encoding, those things generally don’t get discovered until the last minute, when your DCP gets to the theater. One of the worst things a filmmaker can experience is sitting through a screening of their film with bad picture or audio. Or worse — turning their audience away because there is nothing that will screen at all. Who wants that stress and headache? Blackwater will get it right, the first time.
We offer turn-key encoding, servicing and distribution solutions for digital cinema. With these “set and forget” services, we handle all the legwork so you can focus on other things.
We can quickly deliver your existing DCP, or a DCP created by Blackwater Digital Services, anywhere in the world via high-speed, encrypted internet transfer.
We offer discounts for non-profits, as well as high school and college students holding a current and valid student ID.
If you find a price better than ours, we’ll do everything we can to match it.

Blackwater Digital Cinema Services Include:

Mastering in 2K, 4K, or 3D
Encrypted or Unencrypted DCPs
InterOP or SMPTE DCPs that play in compatible cinemas, worldwide
Versioning and Rewrapping

Subtitle services
Quality Control Services
Remastering: converting existing DCPs to another format
Servicing and distribution services

Frequently Asked Questions

Why choose DCP over Blu-ray?

We get this question…a lot. Many film festivals are set up to screen both DCP and Blu-ray (and sometimes other formats like DVD or HDCAM), so why choose a DCP over Blu-ray? There is a fairly big price difference between Blu-ray and DCP creation, with DCPs being more expensive, so filmmakers obviously want to make sure they’re only paying for what’s needed. The shortest answer is that Blu-ray is a consumer format, intended mainly for home use. Conversely, DCPs are a much more powerful, secure, robust and stable solution meant for professional, high-end exhibition in theatres. So what does that mean? We’ll break it down for you, without going into too much technical detail:

Video Quality: Both Blu-ray and DCP formats are capable of similar resolutions (Blu-ray is 1080 while DCP is 2K, and Blu-ray can be UHD while a DCP can also be full 4K). However, the video quality of a DCP, which uses a much more efficient and higher quality video compression than Blu-ray, is far superior. DCP color is also superior. Reds pop, blacks will be darker, whites will be more vibrant, etc. In other words, DCPs just look better.
Audio Quality: Nearly all Blu-rays will have the audio compressed, degrading the sound quality to an extent. DCPs use uncompressed, full-quality audio. DCPs just sound better.
Stability: Blu-rays are susceptible to scratches, cracks, smudges and other damage. Since the picture and sound information on a Blu-ray is read from the surface of the disc, that means your screener could be damaged very easily, without you even noticing. That means you might be halfway through screening your film when it skips, freezes or crashes. DCPs, on the other hand, are robust checksum verified packages stored on a tough hard drive. They are ingested by a digital cinema server that verifies their integrity prior to screening. That means the cinema server makes sure there are no issues with a transfer of the DCP data into the system. Additionally, Blu-ray players read the disc at about the same time the picture and audio is displayed. That means a projectionist can accidentally bump the player (causing a skip/freeze) or power off the player in the middle of a screening. With DCPs you won’t have that concern.
Security: Both DCPs and Blu-rays can be protected against copy. A Blu-ray, however, can be played on nearly any home player and be “ripped” or illegally copied fairly easily. A DCP, on the other hand, can be fully encrypted. That means only the permitted venues can screen the DCP at a set date and time (or date/time window). Outside that permitted location and time, the DCP cannot be screened, viewed, ripped or converted in any way.

Is a DCP a single file?

Why can't I play the DCP on my computer?

The short answer is that playing on a DCP on a normal computer is possible, but it’s not simple (or cheap). There are third-party applications out there that let you view a DCP on your computer, but most of them either don’t work well or they are very expensive. Additionally, the hard drive containing a DCP will be formatted in a Linux filesystem that isn’t fully compatible with Windows or Mac computers without special software. As a result, the drives themselves won’t even open properly on a home computer.

Should I encrypt my DCP?

While not required, DCPs can be encrypted. This means they are essentially “locked” and can only be played back by someone who has the “key”. This is so the contents of the DCP cannot be stolen or duplicated. Without the key, the DCP’s contents (specifically the video and audio) are unplayable. The key is non-transferrable and only allows the key-holder to open, manipulate and playback the DCP, at a specific date or time, and for a specific time period. In other words, depending on the key, the key-holder may have full control of a DCP forever, or only be allowed to screen on certain dates/times (like a scheduled screening).

Your specific situation will determine whether you should encrypt your DCP or not. Encryption does offer increased security, but it can sometimes cause problems for a screening. For instance, if you plan on screening your encrypted DCP at a festival or market overseas (i.e. in a different timezone), a miscommunication from the festival about the screening date/time could lead to the key expiring (or not being valid until after) the actual screening date. Because of the time difference between your DCP facility and the venue, the facility that issued the original key may not be open to immediately send a new key, resulting in a cancellation of your screening. Additionally, having an unencrypted DCP cuts down on the cost of issuing a new key for each venue, and also allows festivals and others involved to more easily handle and duplicate your DCP.

If you are unsure of whether encryption is right for your DCP, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to discuss what’s best for your specific situation.