NTFS, EXT2, EXT3

[Ely Marques]

What is the format for the HD which is more usual? NTFS? EXT2? EXT3? 

How to make use NTFS if the maximum size per file is 4GB?

Recently I sent a short film for a festival where the projectionist had difficulties and reluctant to open the DCP, claiming the fact be formatted in EXT2, and who is accustomed to receive in NTFS.

Thank you for your attention.
Ely

[Eric Sebalsky]

Hi!

NTFS is fine for most of the newer servers. A Dolby server however cannot read it for example. EXT2/3 is basically the same and is required for old servers that require interOP (24p). the thing about EXT2 is that DCI compliant needs it to have an inode size of 128KB which you have to set manually in linux. i found EXT2/3 very unreliable via plugins for mac or windows.

NTFS has been working fine for me for years now. NTFS has NO file size limit, the 4GB per file only applies to the older FAT32.
EXT3 is EXT2 with journaling, so no real difference. always send a bluray as backup!

[Ely Marques]

Sure, I made confusion between NTFS and FAT32, thank you very much, u have used to format how Tuxera NTFS using the MAC?

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[Manuel AC]

On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 3:34 PM, Eric Sebalsky <seb.l...@gmail.com> wrote:
> always send a bluray as backup!

Not for my festival :) In fact, I will make a dcp from the bluray if
the case arrives. I have seen enough projections cancelled due to
skipping disks, player compatibility problems, etc.

For formatting on a Mac, as Eric said the plugins are not reliable. An
easy way is a Virtual Box with an Ubuntu, or a similar combination.

Manuel AC

[Manuel AC]

NTFS has not a 4GB size limit per file, FAT32 does.
fat32 and NTFS works on most servers, but the recommended format is
indeed EXT2 with an inode size of 128, being 256 the default size in a
recent linux, and an MBR partition table.

What festival said that? All DCP servers are required to accept EXT2
inode 128. If he was using some temporary system for the festival, he
NEED to be able to read linux disks, if not his system will be a pain
more than a help.

Most usual problem I have in festivals is receiving the DCP in an
exfat disk, followed by any combination of wrong EXT2 formatting and
partitioning.

Manuel AC

[Eric Sebalsky]

for the mac there are two good plugins: PARAGON NTFS and PARAGON EXFS (which gives you ext2/3/4 support) - but there are some bugs concerning USB/Firewire transfers (slow or faulty), so be warned. the NTFS plugin performs way better and is fine via USB, i did run into some problems when using it over firewire. and yes, virtual box or parallels with an ubuntu (i use the latter) is the best way for an EXT2/3 disk. for NTFS you might want to consider bootcamp, since apple brings windows drivers to the game that enable mac-formated HFS+ harddisks readable by windows.

[Ely Marques]

Thank you so much guys!

[Yuri Mamaev]

I would like to recommend Tuxera NTFS too, as I had no issues with it so far. Or NTFS-3G (on linux it runs too smooth to be true, at least on my Gentoo systems, on Mac OS X I cannot really tell you much, it was stable enough for me, but I’m Tuxera user now).

Best regards,

Yuri Mamaev

02 авг. 2014 г., в 0:03, Ely Marques <ely...@gmail.com> написал(а):

[Christopher Lowden]

Do Linux servers accept exfat? For Mac owners, that is the I way  get around the fat32 limitation for my windows friends.

Sent from my iPhone

[Eric Sebalsky]

please do NOT use exfat. it is the most painful format you can use. NTFS or EXT2 are standard and widely applicable. exfat would just not work in 90% of the cases.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

I’ve had smoothing sailing for years with DCP by having a dedicated  mini Linux box (I run Unbuntu 12.04 since it plays nice with remote. Don’t run OpenDCP on it as it is very low end hardware but formatting EXT2 iNode 128 is fast and fairly easy.

 

I don’t recommend NTFS as far too many Dolby, older Doremi etc. servers out there simply can’t read them.

 

stephen van vuuren

336.202.4777

 

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/

http://www.sv2dcp.com/

http://www.sv2studios.com/

 

A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

–Stanley Kubrick

[Yuri Mamaev]

It’s strange, that people do not upgrade their software and firmware - it’s free for all. I’ve even used HFS with Doremi and Dolby.

I do not understand either, why everybody (server manufacturers) does not support a lot of filesystems, as this is free functionality (even their very old kernels do support HFS, NTFS (read only), FAT32, EXT[2,3]).

I’d also consider using very standard EXT2. There is ext2fuse for OSX, but I’ve not really played with it, should be stable enough.

Best regards,

Yuri Mamaev

02 авг. 2014 г., в 19:15, Stephen van Vuuren <ste...@sv2studios.com> написал(а):

[Eric Sebalsky]

the problem with all those plugins and 3rd party drivers is that they are not stress-tested, meaning, file corruption can occur (and did for me in the past). for example: paragon extfs has a bug over USB, it is terribly slow but works fine over firewire (depending on the OS). there is also another ext2 driver (open source) for mac that is faster than the mentioned FUSE (3G) but also a little bit more unstable especially on mavericks. so bottom line: as already mentioned, a native linux is best. for my experience in europe NTFS is basically never a problem. but i agree that many people do not upgrade servers. maybe because of "never change a running system" but yeah, in the long run it makes things more complicated.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

I agree it makes no sense.

 

stephen van vuuren

336.202.4777

 

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/

http://www.sv2dcp.com/

http://www.sv2studios.com/

 

A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

–Stanley Kubrick

 

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Per corruption, for DCP disk, I never use just a file copy even though I’m running dedicated Linux box, I use a bit comparison copy (I use Beyond Compare which has a nice GUI linux version).

 

Takes a bit longer but now via eSATA or USB 3.0 it’s really not too bad at all and guarantees files are good. I would consider a utility like that mandatory for using disk driver.

 

stephen van vuuren

336.202.4777

 

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/

http://www.sv2dcp.com/

http://www.sv2studios.com/

 

A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

–Stanley Kubrick

 

[michael castelle]

One issue that hasn't come up in this discussion is that some multiplexes, in my experience, use a Windows-only library management server (LMS) — for longer-term storage and transfer of DCPs — which cannot read ext2; and that the use of these systems has led to NTFS becoming a kind of de facto "standard", even though the original DCI specification clearly envisioned ext2 as the "standard".

As such, my experience has been that NTFS is currently the most reliable format, in the absence of information about the venue's system. However, if you suspect that the venue may be running a non-updated older Dolby or Doremi, then ext2 may be appropriate.

mc

[Stephen van Vuuren]

I’m very familiar with the multiplex library system issues but it’s more complicated. Regal is one chain that uses them but the issue was those Sony library servers were initially running Windows 2000 and relied on a driver for EXT2 processing (since studio films come out that way). The driver works fine on SATA connections e.g. loading off sled but had issues with drives connected USB.

 

However, AFAIK, that issue has been fixed at least at most Regal locations as I’ve not seen this issue crop up in a while.

 

I don’t agree NTFS is the safest since there are quite a few major groups (e.g. IMAX) and manufacturers systems that if not updated (Dolby, Doremi) that won’t load NTFS at all.

Additionally, most major film fests that are DCP based (Cannes, Toronto, Munich) don’t accept NTFS either unless they are changing this year.

 

stephen van vuuren

336.202.4777

 

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/

http://www.sv2dcp.com/

http://www.sv2studios.com/

 

A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

–Stanley Kubrick

 

[michael castelle]

This makes sense, although one Windows 2000 LMS I had trouble with (in 2013) was at a Loews. My experience is mostly with smaller festivals which are often ignorant of the venue's systems (and with independent filmmakers using USB drives), and which had been seeing more and more NTFS submissions. But based on your reply I'll probably go back to using/recommending Linux-formatted ext2 drives in the future. Thanks!

mc

[Christopher Lowden]

Clearly my exfat idea was bad. At least I know now. Thank you

Sent from my iPhone