Avid DNxHD codec first to be SMPTE VC-3 compliant
Story Highlights
Avid Technology’s Avid DNxHD, a high-quality, low bitrate HD production codec, is the first codec compliant with the new SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) VC-3 standards. SMPTE VC-3 is the industry’s only 720/1080 raster, low-bitrate, 8/10 bit, intra-frame, 4:2:2 HD compression standard. It is optimized for compositing, mastering, and multi-generational use.
The Avid DNxHD codec was submitted to the SMPTE organization as the framework for the VC-3 family of standards and was approved after a two year testing and validation process. VC-3 standards enable content creators to facilitate efficient encoding and exchange of HD media, and are the first SMPTE standards for intra-frame, 720/1080 raster, 8/10 bit and 4:2:2 HD post production.
With the approval of VC-3, the more than 30 Avid partners who have licensed the Avid DNxHD codec will further drive the adoption of HD workflows across film, TV and broadcast news by working with an industry standard codec. Vendors who design products that are VC-3 complaint, will enable interoperability with other industry VC-3 products, allowing Avid customers more choices when building workflows. This compliance also delivers the availability of a new standard for mapping VC-3 coding units into MXF, the professional standard for file exchange and media workflow. And, because VC-3 is an open standard, data in media archives can be accessed and used without being locked into a proprietary vendor.
Mike Shore, senior manager, product and third party integrations at EVS Broadcast Equipment SA, and a licensee of the Avid DNxHD codec said, “Our support for the Avid DNxHD codec is driven by our customers’ requests for a viable, interoperable and low-cost HD workflow. With today’s announcement, Avid has demonstrated strong leadership by contributing to VC-3 standardization. And, by making their implementation available to third-party developers, EVS can develop complimentary tools that ultimately help our mutual customers design and sustain realistic workflows.”