23.09.2009
Adobe offers CinemaDNG format for raw
Adobe offers CinemaDNG format for raw video
Adobe Systems on Thursday released a beta version of a file format
called CinemaDNG the company hopes will simplify higher-end digital
video processes and improve its quality.
The company behind Photoshop has developed a technology for still
cameras called DNG, short for Digital Negative, and is trying to
standardize it to encourage broader adoption. CinemaDNG takes the
technology and applies it to video
For higher-end cameras such as SLRs, DNG records the raw data from the
image sensor with no in-camera processing. That means there are no
compression artifacts, no sharpening or contrast filters applied, no
camera assumptions made about lighting conditions such as shady or
sunny, and no discarding of richer 12-, 14-, or even 16-bit data in the
conversion to 8-bit JPEG.
The drawback to this flexibility and quality is that images require
processing before they can be viewed.
CinemaDNG is comparable, according to the Adobe Labs description,
including Adobe's hope to provide an alternative to proprietary raw formats.
"In many digital cinematography workflows, captured content is
processed by software and hardware in the camera before it is saved to
a storage device--and assumptions made during this processing could
irrevocably damage the original imagery. Cinema DNG avoids these
problems by capturing raw digital data directly from the camera's
sensor, giving artists the power to make qualitative judgments after
imagery has been saved to disk," Adobe said.
Other companies supporting CinemaDNG are Fraunhofer, Gamma &
Density, Ikonoskop, Indiecam, Iridas, MXF4mac, RadiantGrid, Synthetic
Aperture, The Foundry, Vision Research, and Weissc.
Adobe also released software to let its video-editing
software import CinemaDNG files.
"Adobe and other industry participants have finalized the CinemaDNG
specification and Adobe has made CinemaDNG plug-ins for Adobe After
Effects CS4 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 software
available online on Adobe Labs," the company said in a series of
announcements at the 2009 IBC trade show in Amsterdam.
Adobe also announced beta testing of a new project, Adobe Story for
writing scripts.
"Scriptwriting typically goes through several phases: initial outline,
several drafts, final draft, shooting script and creation of a
production shot list that accompanies the final script. Adobe Story is
designed to help simplify and accelerate this process for virtually any
creative endeavor," Adobe said. Scripts in a variety of other formats
can be imported into the software.
And the San Jose, Calif.-based software company announced Flash Access
2.0, digital rights management technology that can control which
individuals or devices are permitted to view online video. "Flash
Access 2.0 now supports output protection, enabling content providers
to specify requirements for protection of analog and digital outputs,
providing additional safeguards against unauthorized recording," the
company said.
Source: CNET
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