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)
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).

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’.
NotchLC is best converted to uncompressed frames using: NotchLC to NotchLC7th utility.

DeltaServer can play most popular codec formats, but it is only recommended for prototyping/utility/testing/preview purposes.  Wrapped codec movies (.mov, mp4. h264 etc.) come in many types, with numerous settings, and are generally variable bit rate with a much higher and varying  CPU load impacting system resources.  This makes it difficult to predict server performance and stability.

Uncompressed image sequence playback results in a flat load on the system, requiring very little CPU.  It relies heavily on GPU, and high bandwidth disks to read the larger files.  DeltaServers are built strongly in these areas, and the result is stable, predictable playback.

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

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

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

➢Side topic: File Size versus ‘Size on Disk’

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, and FLAC (introduced Delta 2.7)

Can apply rate compensation if required to correct production error in audiovisual sync

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