QubeMaster Xpress

Yes, you can install QubeMaster Xpress on multiple machines but the LICENSE/serial number is a single-user licese and therefore can be activated on only one machine at a time. If you need to run a licensed version on more than one machine simultaneously you will need to buy additional licenses.

QubeMaster Xpress version 2.5 can create encrypted DCPs and also generate KDMs through www.Keysmith.com (link is external), on which you will need to create a user account.

On selecting the “Encrypt” option in QubeMaster Xpress, you will be required to login to www.keysmith.com (link is external), after which the application automatically generates a DKDM targeting your user account on www.Keysmith.com (link is external), from where you will then be able to choose your theatres and generate additional KDMs.

QubeMaster Xpress version 2.0 and higher has the ability to create 3D DCPs

Step 1: Visit the following URL https://www.qubecinema.com/products/Xpress2 and click on the BUY tab.

Step 2: Click on the Blue "BUY" button

Step 3: There are currently four (4) purchase options for QubeMaster Xpress2:

QubeMaster Xpress 2 (Base Application): This is the basic license key that will remove the Watermark for all 2K, 2D, Unencrypted DCPs.

QubeMaster Xpress 2 3D: This upgrade removes the Watermark for all 2K, 3D or 2D, Unencrypted DCPs. - Include Base Application

QubeMaster Xpress 2 4K: This upgrade removes the Watermark for all 2K or 4K, 2D, Unencrypted DCPs. - Include Base Application

QubeMaster Xpress 2 4K+3D: This upgrade removes the Watermark for all 2K, 4K, 3D or 2D, Unencrypted DCPs. - Include Base Application

Please select which module you would like to purchase.

Step 4: Select your "Currency" and Click on the "View Cart" button

Step 5: Enter Your Coupon Code (if applicable) and click on the "Apply Coupon" button

Step 5b: If you are Upgrading from the Base Application or adding either 3D or 4K to an existing purchase of QubeMaster Xpress 2 3D or QubeMaster Xpress 2 4K. Please email Sales-at-QubeCinema.com and we will generate a single use upgrade coupon code which will guarantee each upgrade module is $199 USD.

Step 6: Click on "Secure Check Out" to finalize your purchase.

Important Note - Upon successful completion of your transaction, you will receive a License Key which will disable the watermarking of the downloaded software. To enter your License Key, simply enter this key into the QubeMaster Xpress 2 software via: QubeMaster Xpress 2 --> Activate.

QubeMaster Xpress does not currently have the facility to make a DCP from a numbered sequence of images – it can however accept an assortment of multiple static slides.

QubeMaster Xpress can work with still images in the TIFF, TGA, JPG, BMP and PICT formats. It can also work with avi and QuickTime (mov) video files provided the required codecs are installed on the system. A quick way to check if the codec is installed is to play the file through Windows Media Player (for avi files) and QuickTime player (for mov files). Generally, if files playback on either of these two standard media players, QubeMaster Xpress 2 should also be able to open these files.

If not, the required codecs will need to be installed in order for QMX to be able to open the files.

Additionally, it should be noted that QubeMaster Xpress expects video files to have a CONSTANT FRAME RATE, at any one of the industry-standard frame-rates of 24, 25, 30 (29.97) or 23.98. Variable frame-rate files will cause an out-of-sync DCP.

There are two main stages in the QMX DCP creation process - the encoding stage and the packaging stage. The status bar only indicates the progress of the encoding stage. The packaging stage also takes a bit of time and is dependent on the length of the DCP (and therefore the size of the mxf files), the speed of the hard-drives, CPU configuration and amount of RAM.

Depending on the length of the DCP (and the size of the mxf files) the packaging stage could take up to 5 or 10 minutes.

According to the current specifications (available at http://isdcf.com/papers/ISDCF-Doc3-Disk-Drive-Recommendations-20120906V2... (link is external))

The distribution media partition shall be formatted in either the EXT2 or the EXT3 format. When the file system is formatted, the inode size shall be set to128 bytes

The interlaced scanning methods are relevant only for moving picture files – avi, QuickTime (mov), wmv, mpg etc., and are normally relevant only to sources that were captured at TV frame-rates of 25i (PAL) and 29.97i (NTSC). Film frame-rate of 24p and 23.98p do not normally employ interlaced scanning. Your choice of scanning method in QMX must depend on the method in which the source was captured on camera and/or created in post-production. Normally video files from television cameras and digital cameras, captured for television broadcast, will be shot as interlaced. The Interlaced scanning method saves each frame of the image as two separate halves known as “fields”. Each field contains only the ODD lines or EVEN lines of an image and both fields are separated by a temporal distance of 1/50^th of a second. Combining these two fields does not normally produce a very good quality image – but must be done in order to ensure that a DCP is DCI compliant.

In the “Advanced” setting you have the option to specify the data rate of the DCP (for the image file). DCI specifies that the maximum data rate is 250Mbits, but there is no minimum data rate specification. While deciding on a data rate, just keep in mind the basic tenet that high data rates result in very good quality images but also result in larger file sizes and vice versa. Since data rate specifications affect the quality of an image and the resultant file size of a DCP, the choice should be made based on a good balance of quality and file size.