blackmagic-libre/src/Formats.tex

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% Formats.tex
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% Blackmagic Libre
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% Copyright (C) 2023, Jeff Moe
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% This document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
% International Public License (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Jeff Moe.
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\section{Formats and Codecs Used by Blackmagic}
\label{sec:overview-formats}
\index{formats}\index{codecs}

An overview of the formats used by Blackmagic.


\section{Video Samples}
Video samples of every format and codec combination from the
Cinema 6K are available here:

\url{https://spacecruft.org/spacecruft/blackmagic-libre-data}


\section{LUT}
Film to Video LUT, etc.
Dynamic range.

\begin{mdframed}[backgroundcolor=blue!10,linecolor=blue!30]
\begin{description}
  \item [Ext Video]
  \item [Video]
  \item [Film]
\end{description}
\end{mdframed}


\section{Unorganized Notes}

\begin{description}
  \item Blackmagic BRAW (somemovie.braw) format is proprietary.
  \item There is a Linux player, but you need their proprietary SDK, with registration required.
  \item The camera can do a .mov format, which linux can read.
  \item But that doesn't do the max pixel sizes (6k).
  \item I think the BRAW format is a video HDR format (e.g. takes each photo at multiple exposures).
  \item The raw still images can't be read by gimp or darktable, but rawtherapee can read them.
  \item There is one crappy ffmpeg implementation for braw, but not maintained, doesnt really work.
  \item The 4k .mov works ok.
  \item Video .mov on device at 4k looks good played with mpv. But something is a bit off with colorspace, it is like looking thru an ND filter.
  \item Like Blackmagic RAW (.braw) doesn't work by default in debian, but the ProRes (.mov) does.
  \item I can get HDMI out working. I can get 4K video recording to SD working with libre software.
  \item Not working: 6K, due to it only recording to their proprietary format.
  \item Not working: HDR (multi exposure per frame), due to it only recording to their proprietary format, afact.
  \item Definitely not libre stuff.
  \item But one of their formats is .mov, which ffmpeg, etc can read.
  \item Their other format is .braw, their proprietary raw, which can't really be read libre.
  \item One feature is interlacing of frames with different exposure levels.
  \item So "in software"/postprocessing you can set exposure values with far more control.
  \item And just better detail overall.
  \item Canon has HDR still photo built into the camera.  Or on other cameras you can just do 3 (or whatever) then use software such as darkdable to make the final image.
  \item The Blackmagic has HDR Still Image, .dng, that rawtherapee can read, but nothng else i tried can.(edited)
\end{description}