Blackmagic RAW -"The world’s fastest RAW format"

According BM website, braw 8:1 is smaller than Prores LT, 12:1 is almost 50% of LT. That is impressive.
 
I'm very curious what Panasonic has up their sleeve for Sep 25 and the rumored GH5 firmware with new codecs. It must be some sort of answer to the competition here. V90 SD cards open a lot of doors, I wonder if they'll push to ProRes RAW internal, or a PanaRAW custom format internally.

It seems like a big reach traditionally, but there is no doubt Panasonic must be feeling the intense pressure in this segment and a market launch like that 1 month prior to BMPC4K would really protect cannibalization of their GHx line sales.
 
Ron Evans said:
Where did you see that? At 12:1 I thought the data rate was 46MBps that is too fast for an SD card even a V90.
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I’ve only seen specs for 4.6K @ 30p.

2mgjpqr.png
 
Ok, I ordered the fuji xt3, and had planned to cancel my bmpcc 4k, this new knowledge may have just taken me off the ledge lol. Exciting times. Think both will compliment each other handsomely.
 
Greg_E said:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursaminipro/blackmagicraw#play-video-raw

I'll rain on this parade... If it is partially demosaiced, then how exactly is it still raw? The variable bit rate setting tells me that there is a lot more demosaic than "partial" demosaic going on. Sounds like they are doing a perceptual compression with the variable setting.

That said, I think this is a good direction and I hope other manufacturers will build this into their cameras and software.
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This may well be a great update for recording options for BM, but I get the feeling they are using "RAW" more for the buzzword aspect than for the actual traditional definition.
 
filmguy123 said:
I'm very curious what Panasonic has up their sleeve for Sep 25 and the rumored GH5 firmware with new codecs. It must be some sort of answer to the competition here. V90 SD cards open a lot of doors, I wonder if they'll push to ProRes RAW internal, or a PanaRAW custom format internally.
Click to expand...
Unless the HDMI licensors see the writing on the wall that is not going to happen. HDMI is quite limited, you can't transfer raw and neither slow motion. Mind you there is no technical limitation it is all about licensing.
If things don't change soon USB-c porst will replace HDMI for prosumer cameras. Pro cameras obviously will keep using SDI connections.
 
I can't see BMD giving this to other camera manufacturers but I can see it being supported by other NLE's, external recorders etc.
Wether BMD are using the term RAW as a buzzword, don't care...... As long as it is as flexible as other RAW codecs (which it seems to be) they can call it what they like.
 
Here's some 12:1 I shot as part of the beta test. Thoughts below:
I've been beta testing the new Blackmagic RAW and it's insane!
All these were shot on the new codec @ 12:1. They are monologues as part of an upcoming project.

-Ursa Mini Pro
-Rokinon 14mm 2.8
-Sigma 18-35mm
-Nikon 50mm 1.4 AIS
-Rokinon 50mm 1.4

Actors:
Thom Delahunt
Reza Leal-Smartt

All either in 23.796 or 60p conformed to 23.976.
There's a wide shot that has soft focus but I'll keep it in for now. In addition, the close-ups have varying focus.
My first impression of Blackmagic RAW, is that it's insanely amazing. Flexible, fast and small. Game changer for the Ursa Mini Pro. This will be my main codec going forward.

sAAabvRh.jpg


7DqTA03h.jpg


BQgLcu4h.jpg
 
Jim Feeley said:
So as I read that, it might not be difficult for developers of external recorders and NLEs to add support for Blackmagic RAW. But this doesn't seem to be the same as saying any camera company can compress data on their cameras to braw. We'll probably learn more in the coming days... Or does anyone know more now?
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In the video, Grant said BMD is in talks with other camera vendors about implementing BRAW on their cameras.

For BMD it's actually a winner because it sells more Resolve licenses, which means more Resolve consoles + more DeckLink/UltraStudio/etc devices and so on.
 
Looks pretty cool, is there a whitepaper on the tech (looked, didn't see one)? I downloaded the Linux SDK, and didn't find any source code to the libraries (only compiled libs included)- is it really an open format, or does open format mean they'll sell you a license (vs. open source)? Shouldn't they at least publish the open format for the file specification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_format
 
Cary Knoop said:
Unless the HDMI licensors see the writing on the wall that is not going to happen. HDMI is quite limited, you can't transfer raw and neither slow motion. Mind you there is no technical limitation it is all about licensing.
If things don't change soon USB-c porst will replace HDMI for prosumer cameras. Pro cameras obviously will keep using SDI connections.
Click to expand...

Internal, Cary. v90 cards are fast enough. Straight to v90.
 
Ok so what exactly is sacrificed with a 12:1 compression? Thats a crap load of tossed out data. There also has to be a valid reason to still provide 5:1 and 8:1 compression levels or else we would always use 12:1. Something is lost and I am very curious to find out what exactly is tossed out here. Whatever data compression method they are using it is nowhere near as efficient as H.264 or similar formats to get down to those sizes. Even ProRes LT in my view pushes the data down way too far and yields too many ugly artifacts that a format like H.264 would never display at the same data rate.

As to the processing method here and is it really raw I say yes it is.

Two things happen in the camera DSP with a bayer sensor. The 1's and 0's need a demoniac process to help fill in the color values for each alternating pixel. That takes a crap load of math and processing to do it correctly. A green pixel for example doesn't have a blue or red value and that needs to be calculated from the surrounding red and blue values. This is the part I think BMD leverages the camera to do.

Once you handle that process you still have completely raw data in the DSP at 12 or 14bits depending on the DSP. You just now have a full array of RGB values for every pixel as if you had a 3 chip camera capable of capturing that RGB data.

It is that second process in the DSP where the white balance, sharpness, noise reduction and color are applied to those RGB data values. This stuff can be handled on the computer (much like we do now with luts and grading) and are much easier to work with vs the complex math used to build actual RGB values based on surrounding pixels on the fly. So you still have the same level of flexibility and control over the image as any other raw format. The only thing you don't get to do is take that alternating bayer data and apply your own home brewed demosiac process. Unless you are the ultimate image processing nerd you wouldn't want to do that anyway. Trust me none of you are handling raw data in that way now anyway.

So what I believe BMD is doing is letting the camera piggyback off of the DSP demosiac process the cameras can already do for ProRes recording and take that unaltered most basic form 14bit RGB data and cramming that into their new format. All before the DSP bakes in anything. So you have raw in its most basic form in terms of a complete lack of camera processing.

What I need to now understand is just what 12:1 compression is doing to that data. That is one hefty reduction process.
 
Hmm! Good questions TS. Answers are required. No doubt all will be 'resolved' in due course.

Chris Young
 
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