> Digital Cinema Naming Convention and Metadata/Terminology Registries > Naming Convention > General Tips

The Digital Cinema Naming Convention (DCNC) works best if theaters see consistent naming patterns from all the studios. By following the Naming Convention precisely, studios can help theaters find packages on their servers by eliminating the visual chaos of random information placement.

DCNC is a CONVENTION not a STANDARD. Some will violate certain aspects of the rules to make it clear the intent. See the CTT Examples on this page that show deviation from the rules set forth in this convention.


  • The Digital Cinema Name is divided into fields and sub-fields. Fields are separated by underscores.
    • For example: MovieTitle_FTR etc.
  • Within a field, hyphens separate information into sub-fields.
    • For example: TLR-1-2D.
  • You should NEVER eliminate fields from a digital cinema package name since there are software programs that count fields in order to find and identify certain pieces of information.
  • You can however eliminate the hyphenated sub-fields if you do not need the information.
    • For example, if you had TLR-1-3D-4fl in your Content Type field of a trailer package, you could choose to eliminate 4fl if you mastered the trailer at only this one luminance.
  • You should separate the words in your movie’s title with initial caps.
    • For example: MovieTitle is correct.
  • Do not use hyphens or underscores to separate the words of the title.
    • Movie-Title and Movie_Title are incorrect and can cause problems with some software.

ThankYouService_FTR-4_S_EN-XX-CCAP_US-R-INT-TD_51-HI-VI_2K_UP_20170928_DTB_SMPTE_OV

“Thank You For Your Service”. Feature Version 4. Scope. English Language with Closed Captions. US Rated R/International Texted. 5.1 Audio with Assisted Listening and Audio Description tracks. 2K Resolution. Universal Pictures. Packaged on September 28, 2017, at Deluxe Technicolor Burbank. SMPTE Standard. Original Version package type.

ThankYouService_FTR-4_S_EN-LAS_US-R_51-EN-HI-VI-CCAP_2K_UP_20171013_DTB_SMPTE_VF

“Thank You For Your Service”. Feature Version 4. Scope. English Language with Latin American Spanish subtitles. US Rated R. 5.1 Audio with English Assisted Listening & Audio Description tracks & English Closed Captioning. 2K Resolution. Universal Pictures. Packaged on October 13, 2017, at Deluxe Technicolor Burbank. SMPTE Standard. Version File package type.

HappyDeathDay_FTR-9_S_QFC-XX-CCAP_CA_51-HI-VI_2K_UP_20171003_DTB_SMPTE_OV

“Happy Death Day”. Feature Version 9. Scope. French Canadian Language with Closed Captions. Canada. 5.1 Audio with Assisted Listening & Audio Description tracks. 2K Resolution. Universal Pictures. Packaged on October 3, 2017, at Deluxe Technicolor Burbank. SMPTE Standard. Original Version package type.

PitchPerfect3_FTR-7-DVis_F_EN-XX-CCAP_US-13-CA_ATMOS-71-HI-VI_2K_UP_20171103_DLB_SMPTE_OV

“Pitch Perfect 3”. Feature Version 7 Dolby Vision. Flat. English Language with Closed Captions. US Rated PG13/Canada. Atmos Audio (with 7.1 backup audio) with Assisted Listening & Audio Description tracks. 2K Resolution. Universal Pictures. Packaged on November 3, 2017, at Dolby LA. SMPTE Standard. Original Version package type.

BadTimesElRoyale_FTR-A_S_EN-EN-CCAP_OV_71-HI-VI_2K_TCF_20181003_TCF_SMPTE


Ferdinand_FTR-3D-4FL_S_EN-qbp-QBP-CCAP_BR_ATMOS-VI-SL-DBOX_2K_TCF_20171211_DTB_SMPTE_OV


Logan_FTR-M_S_EN-de_DE_ATMOS-DBOX_2K_TCF_20171213_DTU_SMPTE_OV


TheHateUGive_FTR-B_S_EN-EN-CCAP_OV_71-HI-VI_2K_TCF_20180924_TCF_SMPTE


Cars3_FTR-25-3D-14fl_S_EN-EN-CCAP_US-G_71-HI-VI-Atmos-Dbox_2K_DI_20170605_DTB_SMPTE-3D_OV

SWLastJedi_FTR-26-2D-DVis_S_EN-ar_AE_71-Atmos-Dbox_2K_DI_20171120_DTB_SMPTE_OV

GuardiansGala2_FTR-1-2D_S_EN-FR-AR_LB_71-Dbox_2K_DI_20170411_DTU_IOP_VF

AlitaBattleAngel_FTR-3D-6FL-XBrite_S_EN-EN-CCAP_OV_ATMOS-DBOX-HI-VI_2K_TCF_20190126_DTB_SMPTE_OV

SchindlersList_FTR-14-1993_F_EN-XX-CCAP_US-R-INT-TD_ATMOS-71-HI-VI_4K_UP_20181119_DTB_SMPTE_OV

The Title of the DCP is listed at //ContentTitleText[1]

<CompositionPlaylist xmlns=”http://www.smpte-ra.org/schemas/429-7/2006/CPL”>
  …
  <ContentTitleText>AliceWonder_FTR-1_S_EN-LAS_US-13_51_2K_DI_20060607_TDC_OV</ContentTitleText>
  …
</CompositionPlaylist>

Alternatively, the Title may be listed at //Reel[1]//CompositionMetadataAsset//FullContentTitleText[2]

<CompositionMetadataAsset xmlns=”http://www.smpte-ra.org/schemas/429-16/2014/CPL-Metadata”>
  …
  <FullContentTitleText language=”en”>Alice In Wonderland</FullContentTitleText>
  …
</CompositionMetadataAsset>

  1. Historically this has been the digital cinema naming convention string ↩︎

  2. This field is not meant to house the DCNC. The difference between ContentTitleText and FullContentTitleText is that the former may contain technical information, whereas the latter should contain the actual title of the composition. The language attribute is optional. ↩︎