Adobe Developing Open Digital Cinema Format

The creative-software giant hopes its CinemaDNG format will unite camcorder makers to adopt a single standard for raw video, eliminating the messiness of proprietary formats.

While bouncing between multiple video formats in a project can represent a hassle for amateur filmmakers, for professionals, the conversion process can swallow huge chunks of time and degrade video quality to unacceptable levels. Adobe hopes to dodge this project by developing an open format for digital cinema that could become the standard for pro-level camcorders in the future, dubbed CinemaDNG.

As the name would suggest, CinemaDNG will uses Adobe’s existing Digital Negative Specification (DNG) as a foundation. Since different cameras currently use different proprietary file formats for storing raw, uncompressed video, Adobe hopes that pushing through a single, widely adopted standard will help lower costs, cut down turnaround times, and improve creative flexibility.

“With the CinemaDNG initiative, Adobe is extending its leadership in developing open, interchangeable formats for digital still cameras into the realm of digital cinematography,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of Dynamic Media at Adobe, in a statement. “By taking a proactive role and working collaboratively with leading digital cinema manufacturers, Adobe is helping to define an industry-standard approach that benefits the entire filmmaking ecosystem.”

A number of major camera makers, including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam and ARRI, are already on board with the project, along with Iridas and The Foundry on the software side of the equation. Adobe gave no timeline for rolling out the new format, but since hardware is involved, it will likely be a long-term effort.