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SMPTE DCP mastering · Ireland · ISDCF facility code ZEU

Your film, on a cinema screen.
Without the drama.

Upload your ProRes master. We encode a standards-compliant SMPTE Digital Cinema Package, validate it, test-ingest it, and hand it back as a download or on a cinema-ready drive. Flat pricing, no surprises, no jargon required.

Make my DCP See pricing Shorts from €95 · typical turnaround 48 hours

What a finished package looks like

TheLastTide_SHR-2D_F_EN-XX_IE_51_2K_CLF_20261106_ZEU_SMPTE_OV

Picture
JPEG 2000 · 2K · 250 Mbit/s · X'Y'Z'
Sound
24-bit PCM · 48 kHz · 5.1 or stereo
Wrapper
SMPTE MXF · CPL · PKL · ASSETMAP
Checks
Hashes · validation · test ingest

Named to the ISDCF Digital Cinema Naming Convention, so a projectionist knows what it is before pressing play.

How it works

Three steps. You only do the first one.

  1. Upload your master

    ProRes 422 HQ or 4444, 24 or 25 fps, at 1920×1080 or 2K. Stereo or 5.1 audio embedded or as separate WAV files. Tell us the title, the running time and where it's going.

  2. We encode and check

    Colour is converted from Rec.709 to the X'Y'Z' cinema gamut, picture is encoded to JPEG 2000, and everything is wrapped as a SMPTE DCP with a correctly named CPL. Every package is validated and test-ingested before it leaves.

  3. Download, or get a drive

    Pull it down from a private link, have us push it straight to a festival's upload portal, or rent or buy a CRU cinema drive formatted the way servers expect and posted to your door.

Pricing

A flat fee for the checking, a per-minute rate for the encoding.

All prices in euro, ex VAT. 4K packages are 1.7× the 2K rate. Stereo and 5.1 cost the same.

Short film

€95 up to 10 min

then €4 per minute · 2K · stereo or 5.1

  • Validation report and test ingest
  • DCNC-named SMPTE DCP, unencrypted
  • Burned-in subtitles included
  • Private download link, 90 days
Order a short

Feature film

€350 flat

plus €3 per minute · 2K · stereo or 5.1

  • Everything in Short film
  • Reel-by-reel QC notes
  • One trailer DCP included
  • A 90-minute feature is about €620
Order a feature

Add-ons

Upload to a festival portal
€30 each
Separate subtitle version (VF)
from €60
Timed-text subtitle track
from €100
Rush (24 hours)
+50%
Re-encode after a picture change
half price

Encrypted DCPs and KDMs on request for distribution deliveries.

Cinema drives

Rent the drive. Nobody wants to own one.

Most festivals now take DCPs electronically, but plenty of cinemas and smaller festivals still want a physical drive. The industry standard is a CRU DX115 carrier in a shipping case, formatted ext2/3 with 128-byte inodes, because that is what the servers in projection booths read. It's an odd thing to spend €200 on for one screening, so we lend them.

Every drive goes out loaded with your DCP, verified after copying, with a return label in the case. If a festival loses it, the deposit covers it and you're not chasing anyone.

  • CRU drive rental

    €70

    4 weeks · €150 refundable deposit · postage at cost

  • CRU drive to keep

    €180

    1 TB · carrier and case · loaded with your DCP

  • USB stick

    €25

    ext2 formatted · for venues that accept USB

  • Reload your own drive

    €35

    post it to us · reformatted, loaded, verified, returned

For festivals and venues

Every print checked before it reaches your projectionist.

Programme a hundred shorts and a dozen of them will arrive as broken packages, Interop when you asked for SMPTE, or an MP4 with "DCP" in the filename. We give each selected film a private upload link, validate everything that comes in, chase the filmmakers who need chasing, and hand you a clean drive or folder per screening block with a one-page status sheet.

Filmmakers who still need a DCP made get it at a festival rate through the same link.

Talk to us about print traffic

What we check on every package

  • Asset hashes match the PKL
  • SMPTE (not Interop) structure and schema validity
  • Frame rate, resolution and aspect ratio as declared
  • Audio channel layout and loudness sanity
  • Picture bit rate within the DCI ceiling
  • Naming to the Digital Cinema Naming Convention
  • Real ingest and playback on a cinema server

Questions

The things people ask before they order.

What should I send you?

A ProRes 422 HQ or 4444 QuickTime at your finished resolution and frame rate, with the final mix embedded or as 48 kHz WAV stems. Rec.709 is fine; we handle the conversion to cinema colour. If you only have an H.264 we can work from it, but it will look like an H.264.

SMPTE or Interop?

SMPTE. It has been the standard for years and every current server plays it. We'll make an Interop package if a specific venue insists, but we'll ask them first, because they usually don't need to.

How big is a DCP?

Roughly 1.9 GB per minute at the full 250 Mbit/s. A 15-minute short is about 28 GB; a feature is 150 to 200 GB. That is why downloads come from a fast host and why drives still exist.

Can I make one myself?

Yes. DCP-o-matic is free and good. What you're paying us for is the checking, the test ingest, the naming, the drive logistics, and someone to ring at 5 pm the day before a screening.

Do you keep my film?

Your master and the DCP stay on our servers for 90 days so you can re-download or order a drive, then they're deleted. Ask and we'll delete them sooner. Nothing is ever shared with anyone but you and the festivals you name.

What does ZEU mean?

It's our facility code in the ISDCF registry, the same list the studios' labs are on. It appears in the name of every package we make, so a projectionist anywhere can see where it came from.

Ready when your master is.

Create an account and describe your film: title, running time, resolution and sound format. We confirm a fixed quote, you upload your master, and you follow every step from your account page.

Start an order

Shorts from €95 · typical turnaround 48 hours