Blackmagic Design Blackmagic RAW codec
Blackmagic Design announces the public beta of Blackmagic RAW, a new, modern codec designed to combine the quality and benefits of RAW with the ease of use, speed and file sizes of traditional video formats. According to a company announcement, Blackmagic RAW is a more intelligent format that gives customers stunning images, incredible performance, cross platform support and a free developer SDK.
Blackmagic RAW has been in development for years and is a next generation codec that features multiple new technologies such as an advanced de‑mosaic algorithm, extensive metadata support, highly optimized GPU- and CPU-accelerated processing and more. It can be used from acquisition throughout post-production for editing and color grading, all from a single file.
Traditional RAW codecs involve large file sizes and are processor-intensive, making them potentially hard to work with. Other video file formats are faster, but can suffer quality problems due to the use of 4:2:2 video filters that may reduce color resolution. A press release from Blackmagic Design says the new codec solves these problems with an intelligent design that moves part of the de-mosaic process into the camera where it can be hardware-accelerated by the camera itself. This results in improved and more efficient encoding that gives customers the same quality, bit depth, dynamic range and controls as RAW, but with much better performance and smaller file sizes than most popular video codecs. Because the processor-intensive partial de-mosaic is done by the camera hardware, software such as DaVinci Resolve doesn’t have to do as much work decoding the files. In addition, GPU- and CPU- acceleration make decoding of frames faster, improving performance for editing and grading.
According to the company announcement, Blackmagic RAW is much more than a simple RAW container format. Its intelligent design actually understands the camera and the sensor. This means the image data, along with the unique characteristics of the image sensor, are encoded and saved into the Blackmagic RAW file, giving customers much better image quality, even at higher compression settings, as well as total control over features such as ISO, white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation and more.
In addition, Blackmagic RAW uses Blackmagic Design Generation 4 Color Science designed for improved imaging that results in reproducing extremely accurate skin tones and lifelike colors that are said to rival those of cameras costing tens of thousands of dollars more. Images are encoded using a custom non-linear 12-bit space designed to provide the maximum amount of color data and dynamic range.
Blackmagic RAW is also designed to make it easy for any software developer to access this technology. The free developer SDK lets any third-party software application add Blackmagic RAW support on Mac, Windows and Linux. The Blackmagic RAW developer SDK automatically handles the embedded sensor profile metadata, along with Blackmagic Design color science, for predictable and accurate image rendering that yields consistent color throughout the entire pipeline.
Blackmagic RAW features two types of file compression. Customers can choose either constant-quality or constant-bitrate encoding options, depending on the kind of work they are doing. This lets them prioritize image quality or file size. Constant-quality uses variable bitrate encoding so complex frames are encoded at higher data rates to preserve detail and maintain the highest possible quality. Blackmagic RAW Q0 has minimum quantization and yields the highest quality, while Blackmagic RAW Q5 uses moderate quantization for more efficient encoding and a smaller file size. Blackmagic RAW 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 and 12:1 use constant bitrate encoding to give customers the best possible images with predictable and consistent file sizes. The ratios are based on the unprocessed file size of a single frame from the camera’s sensor, making it easy to understand the relative amount of compression being used.
The native quality of Blackmagic RAW Q0 and 3:1 are designed for effects-heavy feature film and commercial work. Blackmagic RAW Q5 and 5:1 are designed for episodic television and independent films. Blackmagic RAW 8:1 and 12:1 offer high quality and speed, making it suitable for productions that wouldn’t normally consider shooting RAW. Now, more customers than ever will be able to use high quality RAW images in an efficient way that was impossible before, according to the announcement from Blackmagic Design.
“Blackmagic RAW could entirely change the workflow going from camera through post production,” says Kees Van Oostrum, director of photography and president of the American Society of Cinematographers. “A superb image quality, fine detail and incredibly small file sizes could possibly make Blackmagic RAW the go-to format for filmmakers. It will be an important change for post because the editorial team can work with the camera original files, which are fast enough to use for everyday editing. That means less confusion in regards to creative choices I make at the camera. The images can now travel throughout the entire workflow because we’re shooting, editing and grading with the same files. Blackmagic RAW could be a game changer in the way films, television shows and commercials are made.”
Blackmagic RAW is designed to dramatically simplify and speed up post-production workflows. DaVinci Resolve 15.1, which was also released recently, includes full support for Blackmagic RAW. The performance of Blackmagic RAW is much faster in DaVinci Resolve than any other RAW format. This makes editing, color correction and visual effects incredibly fast. In addition, working with single files instead of folders full of still image sequences greatly simplifies media management. When the RAW settings are changed in DaVinci Resolve, a .sidecar file can be generated or updated if one already exists. When opened in other software applications that support Blackmagic RAW, the .sidecar file, which contains the RAW settings made in DaVinci Resolve, will be automatically used to display the image. If the .sidecar file is removed then the file will be displayed using the embedded metadata instead. This innovative new workflow gives customers a non-destructive way to change RAW settings while working between different applications.
Featuring a fully scalable design and modern CPU and GPU acceleration, Blackmagic RAW is optimized for AVX, AVX2 and SSE4.1 enabled processors, multi-threaded, works across multiple CPU cores and is GPU accelerated with support for Apple Metal, CUDA and OpenCL. Frame decoding and image processing is reported to be extremely fast, making it super smooth for editing, color correction and visual effects in DaVinci Resolve. Another benefit of media being stored as single files, and not image sequences, is it makes media management easier and file copying much faster.
“Blackmagic RAW is the world’s only truly modern, high-performance, professional RAW codec that is open, cross-platform and free,” adds Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “It’s exciting because customers can get the visually lossless image quality of RAW with the speed of traditional video workflows. Best of all, there are no hidden licenses or ongoing fees. Blackmagic RAW has been designed to provide the industry with an open, elegant and standardized high quality image format that can be used across products and in customer workflows absolutely free.”
Blackmagic RAW is available immediately as a public beta via the Blackmagic Camera 6.0 Beta Update for the URSA Mini Pro camera. The final release of Blackmagic RAW is expected to ship in several weeks’ time once further testing is complete.
