Blackmagic RAW Codec Introduced by Blackmagic Design

davinci resolve 15.1 with blackmagic raw

Last week, Blackmagic Design introduced Blackmagic RAW. Blackmagic RAW is a new video codec designed by Blackmagic as a replacement for both RAW and video codecs. Blackmagic created their own RAW because, ‘we wanted it to be very easy to use, very fast and much higher quality’.

  • The world’s fastest RAW format (.braw) with much better quality at smaller file sizes

  • Understands the characteristics of the image sensor and camera’s color science

  • Created by Blackmagic Design for their URSA Mini Pro cameras and DaVinci Resolve

blackmagic raw quality

Photo: Blackmagic Design

What is Blackmagic RAW?

Blackmagic RAW is a new, modern codec developed by Blackmagic Design to exceed quality standards of other popular video formats, with all the benefits of traditional RAW recordings. It features multiple technologies to assist in color performance and better quality images.

One of those is the new de-mosaic algorithm. This moves part of the RAW processing out of software and right into the camera so it can be accelerated.

Blackmagic RAW also has extensive metadata support and highly optimized GPU/CPU processing making it the world’s first codec that can be used for acquisition, post production, and finishing.

One of the most interesting aspects is that Blackmagic RAW is cross platform and freely available to anyone with a developer SDK. This means that you could see Blackmagic RAW supported in other popular editing software in the future through third-party integrations and developments.

New De-Mosaic Algorithm

From Blackmagic Design:

Noise management, sensor profiling, and new edge reconstruction algorithms are used to produce high quality cinematic images with incredible depth, crisp details and beautiful image separation.

The partially de‑mosaiced images, along with the unique characteristics of the image sensor, are encoded and saved into the Blackmagic RAW file so you get total control over features such as ISO, white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation and more.

The partial in camera accelerated de‑mosaic allows for extremely efficient compression. This results in significantly reduced processing on your computer, making it faster to decode and use the files while retaining the sensor data needed for full RAW control!

blackmagic raw demosaic

Photo: Blackmagic Design

Fast RAW Performance

Blackmagic RAW is specifically designed to be fast.  It’s highly optimized for AVX, AVX2 and SSE4.1 enabled processors, it’s multi‑threaded and it works across multiple CPU cores. Blackmagic RAW is also GPU accelerated and works with Apple Metal, CUDA and OpenCL.

Clips are stored as single files, not image sequences, making media management easier and file transfers much faster.

Render Speeds

  • 4.6K (4608 x 2592) = 306.67 fps (12.7 streams @ 24 fps)

  • Ultra HD (3840 x 2160)  = 445.96 (18.5 streams @ 24 fps)

  • Standard HD (1920 x 1080) = 740.16 fps (30.8 streams @ 24 fps)

blackmagic raw render speeds

Photo: Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic RAW Player

Any software that utilizes the Blackmagic RAW SDK can ensure accurate and reliable interpretation of color and tonal values rendered to the viewer. Blackmagic created the Blackmagic RAW Player to be a consistent viewpoint for your .braw files.

The SDK manages all color, color transformations, and metadata about the camera’s sensor. Because of this, the Blackmagic RAW Player can reliably display all of the dynamic range and deep color of .braw clips to help you get a better look at the footage.

Download the Blackmagic RAW Player (for Mac OS X)

Blackmagic RAW Player

Photo: Blackmagic Design

Davinci Resolve 15.1 Features

With the release of Davinci Resolve 15, users saw some immense improvements to the software. The 15.1 release includes support for Blackmagic RAW so you can start using the new codec right away in your films and video productions.

According to Blackmagic: “You can even make changes to the RAW settings in DaVinci Resolve, open the files in other applications that support Blackmagic RAW and automatically see the settings, so you have a consistent look and controls between software apps and different platforms.”

davinci resolve 15.1 with blackmagic raw

Photo: Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic RAW is cross-platform and license free. Download the software development kit here. Download the latest version of Davinci Resolve here.

Editor’s Picks

One Reply to “Blackmagic RAW Codec Introduced by Blackmagic Design”

  1. Autokroma says:

    Hi everyone,
    We are happy to announce that your BRAW Files can now be imported in Adobe Premiere Pro with our new plug in : BRAW Studio.
    Only for windows for now, but soon on OSX.
    With this plug in, you will also be able to tweek the source raw parameters inside Premiere !
    Check this out here : https://autokroma.com/
    And send us feedbacks if you like it !

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