Constant Bitrate Settings
The names for 3:1, 5:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 18:1 represent the compression ratio. For example,
12:1 compression produces a file size roughly 12 times smaller than uncompressed RAW.
Blackmagic RAW constant bitrate is available on URSA Mini Pro 12K at 5:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 18:1.
URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K support Blackmagic RAW constant bitrate at
3:1, 5:1, 8:1 and 12:1.
Constant Quality Settings
Q0, Q1, Q3 and Q5 refer to different levels of quantization. Q5 has a greater level of
quantization but offers a greatly improved data rate. As mentioned above, the constant quality
setting can result in files that grow and shrink quite a lot, depending on what you are shooting.
This also means it's possible to shoot something and see the file size increase to beyond what
your media card can keep up with. It could result in dropped frames. However the benefit is that
you can instantly see if this happens on a shoot and then investigate your settings vs quality.
Blackmagic RAW constant quality is available on URSA Mini Pro 12K at Q0, Q1, Q3 and Q5.
URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K support Blackmagic RAW constant quality at
Q0 and Q5.
Blackmagic RAW Player
The Blackmagic RAW player included in your Blackmagic camera's software installer is a
streamlined application for reviewing clips. Simply double click on a Blackmagic RAW file to
open it, and you can quickly play and scroll through the file with its full resolution and bit depth.
When decoding frames, the CPU acceleration in the SDK library supports all main architectures,
and also supports GPU acceleration via Apple Metal, Nvidia CUDA and OpenCL. It also works
with the Blackmagic eGPU for extra performance. Blackmagic RAW player is available for Mac,
Windows and Linux.
Sidecar Files
Blackmagic RAW sidecar files let you override metadata in a file without overwriting embedded
metadata in the original file. This metadata includes the RAW settings as well as information on
iris, focus, focal length, while balance, tint, color space, project name, take number and more.
Metadata is encoded frame by frame over the duration of the clip, which is important for lens
data if the lens is adjusted during a shot. You can add or edit metadata in sidecar files with
DaVinci Resolve or even a text editor because it's a human readable format.
Sidecar files can be used to automatically add new RAW settings to a playback simply by
moving the sidecar file into the same folder as the corresponding RAW file. If you move the
sidecar file out of the folder and reopen the Blackmagic RAW file, the RAW settings are not
applied and you see the file as it was originally shot. Any software that uses the
Blackmagic RAW SDK can access these settings. Changes made are saved in the sidecar file
and can then be seen by Blackmagic RAW Player or any other software capable of reading
Blackmagic RAW files.
When shooting video gamma, the file stays in film gamma, and the metadata tells the
Blackmagic RAW processing to display using video gamma. Video gamma is great when you
don't want to grade the image and want to deliver content quickly, however if you want to pull
up the black parts of the image, or pull down the white areas, all the detail is retained.
You never clip the video and all the detail is still there if you want to access it at any time.
Recording
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