MUNICH, GERMANY: Arri announced is adding in-camera support for Avid’s open standard and DNxHD codec in its Alexa line.
Alexa cameras record ArriRAW uncompressed 3K images that preserve the true 35 mm ‘digital negative’ for mastering and feature archival. Expanding Alexa’s parallel recording capability to include native support for Avid DNxHD eliminates a transcoding step for the dailies generated by the Avid editing system and creates a more streamlined editorial workflow with seamless final conformance back to the archived ArriRAW digital negative.
The Avid DNxHD recording function for Alexa will be distributed as a cost-effective, downloadable software upgrade during January 2012 and is now entering beta phase testing with selected broadcast productions. Avid DNxHD codec data rates of up to 145Mbit/s (bit depth 8-bit) and 220MBit/s (bit depth 10-bit) will be supported in the initial release. Avid’s highest quality version of the codec, Avid DNxHD 444, will record at 440Mbit/s at 10-bit depth and will be provided as an upgrade for all adopting customers later on during the first quarter of 2012.
