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NAB: Adobe starts initiative to develop open format for digital cinema files

Posted by Dennis Sellers Apr 14, 2008 at 11:04am

At this week’s NAB show in Las Vegas, Adobe has announced it’s spearheading an effort to begin defining an industry wide open file format for digital cinema files, which is planned to be called CinemaDNG, Simon Hayhurst, senior director for Dynamic Media at Adobe, told Macsimum News.

“We’re excited about reception we’ve got so far, and we’ve got lots of experienced companies involved,” he says. “We’re announcing a working group, the first meeting of which will be at NAB. Any company is welcome to join and express their opinion.”

CinemaDNG is an industry-wide initiative to define an open file format for digital cinema files to ensure accurate archiving, simplify workflows, and provide richer editing possibilities, he adds. Adobe intends to leverage its successful Digital Negative Specification (DNG) file format as a foundation, and Adobe plans to work with a broad coalition of leading camera manufacturers, including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam, and ARRI—along with software vendors, including Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider CineForm—to define the requirements for an open, publicly documented file format that it plans to call CinemaDNG.

Many filmmakers are foregoing film in favor of digital cinema cameras and workflows that offer improved creative flexibility, lower costs, and significantly faster turnaround times. However, those new workflows involve complex hardware and software, with projects passing through multiple vendors along the production pipeline, Hayhurst says. The proliferation of disparate, vendor-specific raw file formats has the potential to erode some of the advantages of digital cinema, he adds. By proactively leading the development of an open, public, and enduring standard that can be adopted throughout the production pipeline, Adobe and other companies through the CinemaDNG initiative are helping to solve an important, emerging workflow issue, Hayhurst told Macsimum News.

“A permanent archive that is lossless is important,” he adds.

Hayhurst says that as a publicly documented and open file format, CinemaDNG would offer several advantages for filmmakers. They could avoid roadblocks caused by incompatibilities in workflows that involve multiple devices, vendors, and file formats. They could adopt digital cinema cameras while minimizing the risk that proprietary or camera-specific file formats would be unsupported in the future, because CinemaDNG would provide an open, durable, standard format that would be available for many years to come. Filmmakers could also rest assured that they have access to a robust archival standard for the new generation of raw-capable digital cinema cameras. CinemaDNG would also provide the foundation for an editing workflow that would allow filmmakers to use the highest quality source material.

For camera manufacturers and software developers, CinemaDNG is intended to help remove a key obstacle to the adoption of new products by providing reliable, instant compatibility with existing workflows, Hayhurst says. Manufacturers may be able to reduce development costs by eliminating the necessity to develop proprietary formats and conversion utilities. CinemaDNG is also planning to deliver support for proprietary metadata, helping manufacturers to differentiate their product offerings from competitors’.

Adobe is currently working to develop the requirements of the CinemaDNG workflow and intends to subsequently publish a specification for the file format based on collaboration with companies throughout the industry.

In addition, Adobe is extending its commitment to tapeless workflows by announcing native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, augmenting its previously announced support of the Panasonic P2 format. Last September, Adobe unveiled native support for the Panasonic P2 camera format in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.

Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM EX are solid-state recording formats for video production that eliminate tape from the workflow, helping to reduce the time it takes editors to find a specific scene and eliminating the need to digitize footage from tape. With support for file-based camera formats, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 provides a rapid, efficient, HD workflow, according to Hayhurst.

Because Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 doesn’t transcode or rewrap XDCAM or P2 formats into another file format, editors can deliver higher-quality footage and accelerate the video production process by editing the camera source files directly. The convenience of editing video natively, retaining valuable metadata information that makes it faster and easier to search through content, according to Hayhurst. Editors can mix other file formats within the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline, combining content from multiple sources. The end result is that broadcasters and other professionals can shorten the time it takes to edit and air content.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. The compatibility update for Sony XDCAM EX is available immediately and will be delivered free to all Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 customers. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is currently available to customers in the U.S. and Canada through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store. Estimated street price for Adobe Premiere Pro software is US $799 for the full version and $299 for upgrades.

Also note that for Mac users, Adobe OnLocation requires Boot Camp and Windows (purchased separately).

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