In case you thought you had media file formats down pat, Adobe Systems plans a new one called CinemaDNG.

Jim Guerard, Adobe’s vice president of dynamic media, told news media at the National organization of Broadcasters (NAB) conference Monday in Las Vegas that CinemaDNG will extend “open, interchangeable formats for digital still cameras into the realm of digital cinematography.” The DNG, or Digital Negative Specification, format is used by digital photographers to archive images shot in the Raw format.

He added that with the new format, filmmakers will be able to use digital cinema cameras “with confidence,” and camera manufacturers will be able to supply “specialized functionality while ensuring instant file-format compatibility with existing work flows.”

Work-Flow Problems

Adobe said many filmmakers are trying to use digital cinema instead of film, but creating digital cinema files involves a variety of formats, hardware and applications.

The San Jose, Calif., company said it will lead an initiative “to define an

industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline work flows and help ensure easy archiving and exchange.” A work flow for using CinemaDNG is additionally being developed, and a specification will be published.

The company’s DNG format will be the foundation for the new file format, and it announced plans to work with a variety of camera manufacturers and others to define the format. The manufacturers include Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam, and ARRI, as well as software vendors such as Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider Cineform.

Longevity, Metadata

The advantages for filmmakers, according to Adobe, will include avoiding roadblocks created by multiple devices, vendors and file formats. Adobe said using digital cameras now means dealing with concerns about format longevity, since camera-specific formats can become orphans whether a manufacturer ceases operations or changes its product lines.

Instead, Adobe said, digital cinema needs a format that…

Original post by Top Tech News