<guilabel>Edit..</guilabel> button next to the key.
</para>
+<para>
+The <guilabel>Reels</guilabel> and <guilabel>Reel length</guilabel>
+controls specify how the DCP will be split up into
+‘reels’. See <xref linkend="sec-reels"/> below.
+</para>
+
<para>
The <guilabel>Standard</guilabel> option specifies which of the two
DCP standards DCP-o-matic should use. If in doubt, use SMPTE (the
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
+<!-- ============================================================== -->
+<section xml:id="sec-reels">
+<title>Reels</title>
+
+<para>
+A ‘reel’ in a DCP is a subsection of the DCP, in the same
+way as a 35mm reel is a section of a film. A DCP can be split up into
+any number of reels and the joins (the equivalent to 35mm splices)
+between the reels are seamless.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+There is no reason why you can't just use a single reel for the whole
+of your DCP, as there is no limit on their length. Many people choose
+to do this.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+There are, however, some possible advantages of splitting things up
+into reels:
+</para>
+
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem>
+The picture, sound and subtitle data of the DCP will be
+split up into more smaller files on disk, rather than fewer larger
+files. This can be useful if the DCP is to be transferred on storage
+that have file size limits. The FAT32 filesystem, for example, can
+only hold files smaller than 4Gb. A 6Gb DCP with a single reel could
+not be transferred using a FAT32-formatted disk. If that DCP were
+split up into two 3Gb reels it could be transferred.
+</listitem>
+<listitem>
+It is easier to re-use DCP components if they are in reels. Consider,
+for example, a film company who wants to put a 5 second ident onto the
+beginning of DCPs that they distribute. If they receive a feature
+film DCP they can modify it to add their ident as a separate reel.
+This is easier than attaching the picture data in the DCP.
+</listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
+
+<para>
+DCP-o-matic offers three options for setting up the reels in your DCP:
+single reel, split by video content or custom.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<guilabel>Single reel</guilabel>, as its name suggests, keeps the whole DCP as one reel.
+This is a perfectly good option if you have no particular reason to
+need reels.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<guilabel>Split by video content</guilabel> puts each piece of source
+video content in its own reel, as shown in <xref linkend="fig-reels-by-video"/>.
+</para>
+
+<figure id="fig-reels-by-video">
+<title>Making reels using split by video content</title>
+<mediaobject><imageobject><imagedata scale="100" fileref="diagrams/reels-by-video&dia;"/></imageobject></mediaobject>
+</figure>
+
+<para>
+Here we have three video files (<code>ident.mp4</code>,
+<code>feature.ts</code> and <code>cred.mov</code>). With
+<guilabel>split by video content</guilabel> DCP-o-matic makes a new
+reel to hold each video file.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<guilabel>Custom</guilabel> splits reels by the size of the files that
+will make up their video content. With <guilabel>Custom</guilabel>
+you must specify a reel length in Gb. Then no file in the DCP will be larger than this reel length.
+</para>
+
+</section>
+
+
<!-- ============================================================== -->
<section>
<title>Show audio</title>