A New Way to Review and Manage Your raw, MXF, DPX, OpenEXR and ProRes Files
Assimilate today unveiled a new free media player, Scratch Play, that supports RAW footage, MXF, DPX, OpenEXR, and ProRes files. The free player, which will run on OS X and Windows computers as well as Microsoft's Surface Pro tablets, also supports QuickTime, WMV and MP4, making it as much a consumer media player as it is an easy way to review shots, create looks or pull stills on set or in the studio.
But this is not just a "simple-shot player," as Assimilate CEO Jeff Edson said in a prepared statement. The inclusion of Scratch's CONstruct timeline, where sequences are organized, versioned, staged and assembled into tracks, makes this player a no-brainer for DPs and DITs who want to export CDLs or LUTs without pausing their cart transcodes already in progress. The CONstruct handles any and all combos of formats, resolutions and color spaces, including Rec. 2020 and 4K Ultra HD color space, and lets users define their output resolution, switch between versions, and compare and manage their media at any point during a production. Scratch Play also features a real-time ASC CDL color toolset to generate LUTs, CDLs or JPEG snapshots and share metadata or looks across projects. You'll also find other pro tools like camera-specific color and metadata control, and real-time clip rotation, framing and resizing.
Josh Diamond, of the New York-based filmmakers The Diamond Brothers, said in a prepared statement that his team is already using Scratch Play to pull stills directly from Red raw files without hovering around the DIT station. "Since we have a specific shot we need to get at every location," he said, "we can load the previous day’s shot into Scratch Play and use it as a framing guide at the next location. This really helps ensure that we capture the perfect frame. All this power in a free application really boosts our productivity, while also significantly enhancing our creative process.”
Scratch Play is not an iOS app and won't work on the iPad for obvious reasons, Assimilate VP of Marketing Steve Bannerman tells us. "iPads have no I/O other than Wi-Fi and run on a consumer-device ARM processor," he says. "There's also very little storage, which is true of Microsoft's SurfaceRT. So, getting R3D or ARRIRAW files onto an iPad and playing them back in real-time would be a real challenge. Surface Pro, on the other hand, has a full Intel i5 processor, USB 3 I/O and a screen that holds calibration. This is the full power of a PC in a tablet form factor, and it runs Scratch Play really well."
The free player is supported by advertising. An ad-free Scratch Pay Premium is also available for $5.
