Blackmagic Raw files

[ThomasM]

Hi andrezagato,

not quite sure why you want to convert BRAW externally, outside from Resolve. In my opinion the Proxy-Workflow in DR is pretty straight-forward and you never lose the connection to the HiRes BRAW. In the Project you can switch between them. But it all depends on Over-All Workflows...

cheers,
tom

[andrezagato]

hey Thomas,
I have been using DR to convert the footage, the thing is that I would like to be able to automate, create workflows. And the problem with DR is that I have to do it all manually.

I have been converting to XDCAM in the delivery page. Because the team uses Avid Media Composer to edit. Can you elaborate how yout Proxy-Workflow works?

[FranceBB]

I am working on a reality show, we are on the pre production and talking about the recording methods. So I am testing different files to see how it will perform.

Gotcha.
Well, last time I had to deal with a Blackmagic Camera was several years ago, but I remember that they used to have a few options you could choose from aside from Blackmagic Raw, namely DNG, Apple ProRes and DNX. If you really wanted to have the best possible quality yet still retain the ability to index files with basically any open source indexer, you would go for DNG lossless, however in terms of space that would be a suicide 'cause it's gonna be either a folder with PCM .wav lossless audio and another folder with 1 .dng lossless image per frame like 000001.dng 000002.dng etc and an xml for metadata OR an .mxf file with Cinema DNG Intra Class lossless video and PCM lossless audio, whose bitrate would be so insanely high that it would take forever to work with it. Back then, since our internal mezzanine format was XDCAM-50 and I didn't care about lossless, I did myself a favor and went for Avid DNX so that I could easily consolidate it via AVID MediaDirector into Interplay while still having the option to re-encode it to XDCAM-50 if I wanted to. Of course ProRes would have been just fine too, but given that we're based on AVID Media Composer, AVID Nexis RAID6 Storage and AVID Interplay Access, going to DNX was the sensible thing to do.

I was going to hit "submit" for this comment, but then I asked myself: "what if something changed over the last few years"?
So I went to the BlackMagic website for the Ursa Mini Pro: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/pro ... /W-URSA-36

and... I was a bit shocked.
In the supported codecs, recording formats and storage rates they only mention Blackmagic Raw and nothing else!
Is it just a marketing gimmick to try to get people to use it OR did they actually remove DNG lossless, ProRes and DNX? (O_O)''

So I went to an older camera like the Blackmagic Cinema Pocket: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/pro ... s/W-CIN-12

and they actually list other codecs, but the "other codecs" are only few ProRes flavors and nothing else, which means that my fear is probably true: they progressively got rid of DNG, DNX and ProRes as they released new cameras and now all people are left with is the proprietary, unaccessible, unindexable BlackMagic RAW

I don't know which cameras your production is employing, but I think you should get the model, go to the website, see the specs and if you're lucky enough it will still have ProRes and in that case go for it, otherwise if it's one of the most recent models, it will probably only have Blackmagic RAW and in that case "good luck" as it means you'll have to do everything manually...
Blackmagic, Blackmagic, you were off to a good start, how low have you fallen...

[ThomasM]

hey Thomas,
I have been using DR to convert the footage, the thing is that I would like to be able to automate, create workflows. And the problem with DR is that I have to do it all manually.

I have been converting to XDCAM in the delivery page. Because the team uses Avid Media Composer to edit. Can you elaborate how yout Proxy-Workflow works?

Hey Andrezagato,

I do not create proxys on the delivery-page. I do this:

- Create a setting in the project-settings
- Proxy Media Resolution: Original
- Proxy Media Format -> What You Prefer
- Create ProxyFolder in the Working Folders-List (just beneath the ProxySettings)

Then, on the MediaPage, I select all Files - or, even better! - Use a smartBin for selecting all files which come in question for transcoding -> Select all, RightClick, Select "generate ProxyMedia". The fine thing with the smartBin is, you can select a date or folder or just only *.braw-Files on a external drive...

After a while you have the same folder-structure in your Proxy-WorkingFolder.

BRAW and avid is pain in the a.. - I quit AVID some years ago.

And one more, there is no encoder for "compressed RAW" at this time in ffmpeg. As (B)RAW is no "hardcoded" video-format, it needs interpretation. At least you have to use a LUT for that. DR takes camera-Data for interpreting that automatically. That is why it works seamless in DR.

As soon the proxys are generated, you can use that folder for automatically run Workflows from FFAStrans from that.

I think, you know most of that, just to give a complete answer.

Just my two cents...

cheers,
Thomas

[andrezagato]

I don't know which cameras your production is employing, but I think you should get the model, go to the website, see the specs and if you're lucky enough it will still have ProRes and in that case go for it, otherwise if it's one of the most recent models, it will probably only have Blackmagic RAW and in that case "good luck" as it means you'll have to do everything manually...
Blackmagic, Blackmagic, you were off to a good start, how low have you fallen...

Hey FranceBB, that is actually the case. They are using newer models, I beleive they can record in BRAW or Prores, at least that is what they told me when I asked.

I think, you know most of that, just to give a complete answer.

Just my two cents...

cheers,
Thomas

Hey Thomas, thanks a lot for your input. I can even see a 2 step process to get from BRAW to OP Atom in a "semi automatic way". But I will have to check how long it would take.
I will try that in workflows that wont need Op atom!

Thanks guys!

[Ben]

I was facing a similar dilemma and was saddened to see that there's no decoding of BRAW outside of Davinci. The closest thing I could find was this braw decoder, but it seems to only work on linux: https://github.com/AkBKukU/braw-decode

Hopefully someday things will improve for this format.

[emcodem]

Well ok, 2 users having interest is enough for me @Ben @andrezagato
I modified one of the BMD example programs to decode and output to stdout, which can be used to feed ffmpeg but it will be pretty slow.
The program ProcessClipCPU has 1 OR 2 parameters. First parameter is the clip path, second "-analyze" if you just want to see the resolution. It will most likely crash if used wrong.

If you add that to a ffastrans workflow, you will first need to -anaylze the resolution because mediainfo is not always correct.
"C:\Libraries\ProcessClipCPU.exe" "C:\temp\sample.braw" -analyze

It will output something you can directly use in -s parameter in ffmpeg.

Final ffmpeg cmd:
"C:\Libraries\ProcessClipCPU.exe" "C:\temp\sample.braw" | ffmpeg -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgba -s 4608x2592 -i - c:\temp\transcode.mov

Don't forget to work through the readme.txt:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkS-A9Jqq09FhBdLonO ... k?e=RHoOFI

@Blackmagic Personal: if i read the license correctly we should be allowed to distribute this here. If not, please let me know in a PM or at post@ffastrans.com and i'll happily delete the link.

[andrezagato]

This is exciting!
I will try it out as soon as I can and let you know how it went!

Thank you so much emcodem!