DCPs (Digital Cinema Packages) are the highest quality standard format for digital cinema exhibition in movie theaters. The “package” is a collection of video and audio files which make up a single film (usually arriving at the theatre on a large hard drive or via “the internet”), which are ingested into a digital cinema server on site at the theater.

Developed in the early to mid 2000s, DCP projection began to replace 35mm in commercial cinemas around 2010, with almost all first-run theaters fully converted by 2014. Whether or not the quality of digital projection and DCPs matches that of what came before is hotly debated (it decidedly did not when DCP first came on the scene, though digital projectors have improved somewhat over the years). While the Music Box loves 35mm film, almost all new releases are only available in the DCP format and we always strive to exhibit them properly and to the highest standard possible.