Film-Tech Cinema Systems
Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE


  
my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Anyone knows DIGITAL CINEMA UNITED?

   
Author Topic: Anyone knows DIGITAL CINEMA UNITED?
Juan Jose Garcia Calvo
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain
Registered: May 2003


 - posted 01-01-2017 04:28 PM      Profile for Juan Jose Garcia Calvo   Email Juan Jose Garcia Calvo   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Anyone know DIGITAL CINEMA UNITED ?
We just received an email from this company requesting our digital server data, contact adress...
But they are not identifying themselves.
Do we trust in this company? who are these people?
Thanks
(happy new year to everybody)

 |  IP: Logged

Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 01-01-2017 05:03 PM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Well, ask them ;-)

This happens to us occasionally. Most of the time these are mastering/service companies having received an order by a distributor to issue a KDM for a future showing. They may have not been dealing with your cinema before, or they are a newcomer in that service segment and need to collect their screen database before they can start to work. In general, there is nothing secret about your server serials, but I would still ask them for a specific reason why they contacted you.

- Carsten

 |  IP: Logged

Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006


 - posted 01-01-2017 07:34 PM      Profile for Jim Cassedy   Email Jim Cassedy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi Juan-
Feliz Ano to you too!
(one of only about 3 Spanish phrases I know)

I'd be suspicious of any company contacting me 'cold' and asking for
your server info, even though their intentions are probably harmless.

Usually, if it's some entity needing to generate a 'key' they at least
mention somewhere in the e-mail what they need it for.

As Carston suggests, e-mailing them back for more info wouldn't hurt.

As I do a lot of 'festival' work, I recognize the name of the company,
mostly when dealing with "foreign" (from a USA point of view) DCP's

Assuming it's the same company, they are a fairly large, international
DCP mastering and distribution company, with offices all over the globe.

You you can see their website HERE !

- - but I'd still shoot them an e-mail & confirm what they want your info for.

 |  IP: Logged

Juan Jose Garcia Calvo
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: Pedrajas de San Esteban, Spain
Registered: May 2003


 - posted 01-02-2017 05:58 AM      Profile for Juan Jose Garcia Calvo   Email Juan Jose Garcia Calvo   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks you for your replies, Carsten and Jim.

Yes, I visited their webpage and it seem to be a large company.
Of course, before posting here I sent them an email asking what facilities they want to update as they only tell me in their first email that they wanted to UPDATE their records about our cinema theatre.
I explained in my email that now we have 2 cinema theatres working, and I asked him what studios are they working for.
They ONLY answered me that "please, send us all the servers data of all our theatres" to update their records.

That's when I decided to write here my question.
I think I need to send them a new email...
They are doing things bad.
If they don't have no data of our servers (as I suspect), they don't need to lie telling me that they want to update their records.
If they really have any data of our servers, they had to tell me that "we have these data of your servers... Are they correct?

Regards!!
PD: JIM, your keyboard are incomplete. You missed the "ñ" [Smile]

 |  IP: Logged

Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 01-02-2017 08:06 AM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes, their answer shows some inappropriate impatience. I would tell them you are not sharing technical information with them unless they quote a reason/order. It may be though, that the person requesting this information does not know about that reason himself. He may have been told to gather this information by someone else.

We had been asked by Gofilex to send our server data very shortly before we expected to receive a KDM and DCP for a showing though (but in that case, we had been doing business with Gofilex before). So make sure you are not actually missing a KDM...

Which email address did they use for the first contact, a generic one for your cinema, or one that has been used previously for KDM transmission?

I remember that when we went digital, there was an existing base of KDM service providers (and there has been nearly no change since then). Everyone (including us, of course) was eager to forward our server data to them to get going with our first showings. About a year later, a new company entered the market, and they requested all german cinemas to send them their data, listed within their own Excel sheet. I remember quite a few complaints by cinema operators why they should spend time to help a newcomer in that area to establish their business assets. It settled down quickly, though. One of the issues was that every company sends their own sheets and you have to manually fill out all the fields again and again. Would they all use the same sheet, you would simply resend an email and your done. I also remember that some of the complaints were based on the way their request was phrased. One should not leave it to an apprentice or 'the IT guy' to make a first business contact...

Seems that FLM-x got stuck somewhere...

- Carsten

 |  IP: Logged

Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 01-02-2017 10:47 AM      Profile for Mike Spaeth   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Spaeth   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
They are legit. I have gotten several movies (mostly Bollywood) through them.

 |  IP: Logged

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 01-02-2017 01:07 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What really pisses me off is when distributors, especially tiny, mom-and-pop ones, send you a great long "digital cinema readiness form" (or called something bullshitty like that), which takes half an hour to complete and is asking for a whole slew of information that they don't need to issue the KDM and which is none of their business.

Because we're an arthouse chain that books DCPs from many different distributors - they don't all come from Deluxe Technicolor - we're on the receiving end of this bureaucracy quite frequently, though Digital Cinema United is a new one on me.

All they actually need is the media block cert, whether or not you're wired for 7.1 (if the encrypted DCP exists in 5.1 and 7.1 versions) and if you're 3-D capable or not.

 |  IP: Logged

Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 01-02-2017 01:46 PM      Profile for Mike Spaeth   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Spaeth   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I usually just send the PEM files, and don't fill any form for them. Each PEM file is saved with the audi number in the title.

 |  IP: Logged



All times are Central (GMT -6:00)  
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.

© 1999-2020 Film-Tech Cinema Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.