Movies are typically held on the E:\ drive.

A movie consists of a single folder full of files, where each frame of the movie is a separate file.

You can load movies onto the server via the ‘Movie Drive’ Windows Share, or locally via a Windows-formatted USB external hard drive (USB3 is supported).

Note: TGA files should be placed in a single folder within the Movies folder of the Delta Media Server movie drive and named with a constant number of digits between 4 and 12 digits long, preceded by an underscore like this:
…
my_movie_000008.tga
my_movie_000009.tga
my_movie_000010.tga
my_movie_000011.tga
…

•The frame number must be the last set of characters in the filename before the extension.

•If files are incorrectly named (or have fewer than 4 digits or greater than 12) there will be no output (playback will be black).

➢See the Delta Workflow Guide for more detailed information about Delta media storage requirements.

Movie dimensions matter. On older versions of Delta odd sizes may not run or run badly. From Delta 2.6.74 bad dimensions will generate an alert in the Resource Pool. Please be aware of these requirements:

4:2:2 8-bit must have a width divisible by 2

4:2:2 10-bit 7th (not DPX) must have a width divisible by 8

4:2:0 8-bit must have a width and height divisible by 2

YCoCg must have a width and height divisible by 4

TGA sequences – or 7TH (STH) (preferred)
24 bit RGB or 32 bit RGBA (8 bit per colour)
RLE lossless compression is optional (resolution / performance limits apply to RLE)
RGB colour space

DPX
From Delta 2.6, .dpx formats have been more reliably supported:
8-bit (4:4:4)
10-bit (YUV and 4:4:4)
12-bit (4:4:4)
full support of little- and big-endian
filled and packed types are both supported.
8- and 10-bit RGBA 4:4:4 is supported from Delta 2.7.
HDR is supported from Delta 2.7 build 7.

A7S / CIN / SGI / YUV
30 bit RGB (10 bit per colour) / 8 bit possible
RGB or XYZ colour space

JPG, JPG2000, BMP, TIFF, PNG
Image sequences cannot be played, but can be recorded (sliced / carved) from Delta or DFM utility.

7th420, 7th422, 7th444
Created by DFM or recording from Delta (Note – enable Optimize for SSD)
7th444 is completely lossless; 8-, 10- or 12-bit
7th422 is in YUV colour space, 33% space saved on disk
7th420 is YUV colour space, 50% space saved on disk

Codec filetypes (MXF, MOV, MP4, LXF, ASF, WMV, DV, MPEG-PS, MPEG-TS, GXF, FLV, AVI, MKV, WebM, HapQ, 7thHapQS) are all supported from Delta 2.5
With codec movie formats, the audio is in-built and speaker mapping is encoded in the file itself, so Delta audio control available is therefore only volume control (no channel mapping as is possible with separate audio files – see audio files below).

Since codec playback in Delta is CPU-based, this typically allows only 1-2 movies at HD 60p or equivalent resolutions. For anything more, codec movies should be converted to image sequences using Distributed File Manager.

NotchLC is a Luma & Chroma (YUV) codec that achieves compression rates between 5:1 and 8:1 with minimal perceived quality loss, and is suitable for very large canvases. From Delta 2.8, NotchLC codec in .mov wrappers can be played, but note that audio is not enabled in this format. If exporting from Adobe Media Encoder, first deselect ‘Export Audio’.

Consider the reality of codec (mp4, .mov etc.) playback on Delta servers. Although Delta software can now play these movies they are not optimised for this workflow. Uncompressed movies in the .7th format are a very reliable method of playback, as the files stay the same size, and are standardised, meaning they are very stable and predictable.

Codec movies (.mov, mp4. h264 etc.) come in many types, with different settings, bit rates and sizes. These variances makes it very difficult to predict server performance and stability, as the CPU overhead of the movie tends to fluctuate depending on the content.

Although a server can play a 3840 × 2160@60 fps movie perfectly in .7th format, this does not mean you will get the same result with a .h264 movie of the same resolution/refresh rate. When using codec you will need to do much more stability testing before a show to ensure playback is solid. This difference is due to the high CPU demand of codec movies. In contrast, uncompressed movie playback requires very little CPU at all, instead being processed on the GPU. (Note: video capture is also a high CPU task.)

If you intend to play codec movies rather than converting to .7th using DFM, you need to test the particular codec(s) (and settings) thoroughly. This testing should be conducted with the server fully loaded, driving all displays and captures.

For a stable and predictable codec workflow, use a professional conversion software to create your own customised and proven preset .mov or h264/5, then convert new movies using that profile, before playing them on the server. This will minimise playback issues, and reduce the need to thoroughly test each new movie.

The playback capability of servers is set by the disk and graphics configuration specified. Typically each server is configured to meet the customer requirements, playing fully uncompressed 4:4:4 unless otherwise specified.

Typical playback rates for common resolutions in 4:4:4
1080p30 = 180 MB/s
4k30fps = 760 MB/s
4k60fps = 1.52 GB/s
8k30fps = 3 GB/s

NanoSDI-1: 1 × 3G-SDI output used as HD30 or 60p or 1 × 2K 30p compressed or 1 × 2K 30p uncompressed* or 1 × 2K 60p uncompressed*

NanoSDI-4K: 1 × 6G-SDI output used as 4K 30p SDI or 1 × 2K 30p or 1 × 4K 30p (upgradable to 12G-SDI output**: up to 1 × 4K 60p 4:2:2 uncompressed*)

* Disk upgrade required
** AES Audio not available for 12G

Nano-1: 1 × HD (1920 × 1080), WUXGA (1920 × 1200) or 2K (2048 × 1080) 30fps in 4:4:4

Nano-2: 2 × HD, WUXGA or 2K 30fps in 4:4:4

Nano-3: 3 × HD, WUXGA or 2K 30fps in 4:4:4

Nano4K: 1 × WUXGA or 2K 30fps or 4K 24fps

Proton: 5 × HD, WUXGA or 2K 30fps in 4:4:4

Nucleus: 2 × 4K 30fps in 4:4:4

Infinity: up to 8K × 4K 60fps 10 bit in 4:4:4

Playback of 2 layers of 2 × 1080p30 equates to 4 × 1080p simultaneously, which would specify the Delta Proton model as minimum, as the smaller units would not manage these requirements.

Movies can be any aspect ratio (example 12000 × 1080, 3200 × 3200) to best fit the resultant resolution of the display surface.

Up to Disk and Graphics limit – don’t carve, just copy to all servers and they ‘look’ at the right part in real-time.

Above disk limit, carve via DFM or Delta recording to create server-specific portion or channel mapped media or choose 7TH422 or 7TH420 or reduce resolution.

Servers are specified to meet user media size requirements. Some examples of available movie disk space:

➢File Size versus ‘Size on Disk’: know the differences and why.

JPG, JPEG2000, BMP, DPX, PSD, TIF, TGA, PNG, GIF, A7S. From Delta 2.7 build 7: DPX 2.0HDR.

PNG, TIFF and TGA can have 8-bit alpha plane

Up to 1920 × 1200 in size (Nano-1)

Up to 8192 × 8192 in size (Nano-2, Nano-3)

Up to 16384 × 16384 in size (Nucleus / Infinity)

Image sizes add up and will fill up RAM (normal Mode) – see Dynamic Image Loading

Mono WAV preferred

Can adjust Speaker Mapping for Mono files

Stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 also played

Note a 2 GB file size limit for WAV files

Can also play MP3, AIFF

Can adjust frame-rate compensation if required

Any Direct Show Compliant Capture Device

1 – 12 DVI Inputs (auto-detect most PC formats)

2 – 8 SDI inputs (manual HD format selection)

Composite, sVideo, Webcams

No HDCP available (DVD or BluRay players)

Number of possible inputs dependent on free slots in the server

Number of onscreen live inputs dependent on overall load (other content, graphics resolution)

Can ChromaKey, warp, position etc

Some capture cards can spoof DVI EDID: example is 3000 × 3000 30 Hz input

For fullscreen media, match the size to the display canvas size.

Wrong size media means poor aspect ratio, fat or thin people!

Content should be supplied full size, do not let content creators carve it up, apply geometry or blends, or create overlap – Delta does all that.