Your Source Files
Video levels: Is your video file in video range or full range throughout? Are those levels consistent — or did your credits get added on a different timeline with different settings? Measure the incoming levels. Do not assume.
Frame rate: Is it a cinema frame rate? 23.976 and 29.97 need to be conformed to 24fps or 25fps. After conforming, verify audio sync with two-pops at head and tail.
Scan type: Is it progressive throughout? Check that no interlaced settings were inherited from a broadcast template. Watch for aliasing on diagonal lines and shimmer on text.
Aspect ratio: If you applied a 2.35 crop, that has been wrong since 1970. The correct scope ratio is 2.39. Check which container your image belongs in.
Credit roll: Does it move at a consistent whole number of pixels per frame? If not, it will judder in the cinema. Fix in source before sending.
Your Audio
Loudness: Has it been measured with a Dolby LeqM meter? A broadcast mix is almost certainly too loud for cinema. Bringing it down reduces your peaks.
5.1 survival: If you have a 5.1 mix, has it survived the export from your editing software? Adobe Premiere silently collapses 5.1 to stereo with no error message. Play each channel in isolation and verify all six are present.
Channel order: Is the channel order correct for cinema? Left, Right, Centre, LFE, Left Surround, Right Surround. Premiere's internal order is different. Verify each channel carries the correct content.
Your DCP
Signing certificate: Is the certificate used to author the DCP current? An expired certificate causes Sony servers to refuse playback — this is what happened to Wonka at New Year 2024.
Naming: Is the full title spelled out — not abbreviated to an acronym? Does the name include content type, aspect ratio, audio, resolution and date?
Checksums: Have you run a verification pass? One corrupted byte will cause cinema server ingest to fail with no explanation.
Your Delivery
Google Drive: Do not store DCPs on Google Drive — it silently renames MXF files and breaks the package. Zip first, or use a proper managed transfer service.
Drive formatting: ExFAT will not work. Mac formatting will not work. NTFS works on most modern cinema servers. EXT2 with inode 128 is the full ISDCF specification.
Folder structure: The DCP folder must sit at the root of the drive, not buried inside other folders.
The honest assessment: None of this is insurmountable. Every item has a solution. The question is whether you want to be the person finding and fixing these things — or the person making your film. At The Post Factory, working through this list is what we do on every job, as a matter of course.