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Adobe zooms in on film industry with CinemaDNG

Wants open format adopted as standard

Adobe Systems today revealed plans for an open video format which it plans to hand over to a standards body.

The California-based firm said it wants to lead the pack on defining an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files by leveraging its Digital Negative Specification (DNG), first used for still images.

It hopes the new initiative, which will be in collaboration with camera makers such as Panavision and Dalsa, and software vendors that include Iridas and London-based The Foundry, will help streamline workflows and provide easier means of archiving and exchange.

Adobe will detail its plans for the new specification – dubbed CinemaDNG – at the National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nevada today.

The group will punt its high quality raw digital video specification to a standards body at some point this year in the hope of seeing the format widely adopted by the film industry.

Unsurprisingly, Adobe claims the new spec offers a number of benefits to manufacturers and filmmakers who are increasingly embracing digital cinema cameras.

It said in a statement that an open standard would help eradicate incompatibilities due to multiple formats and proprietary technologies – which it sees as two hurdles preventing some filmmakers from going digital.

Adobe also claimed that CinemaDNG, if adopted as a standard, could help push down development costs for vendors because they wouldn’t be required to create conversion tools and specialised formats.

The firm, which has recently been flirting with the open source community even though most of its products are currently propriety, said it plans to support the open format in future releases of its video work-flow products, such as After Effects and Premiere Pro. ®

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