Sequence of Images Options (DPX, TGA, etc)

Drastic software supports a wide range of still image formats including TIFF, TGA, DPX, CINEON, PSD, SGI, VPB, ARI, RAW and others.  They are processed as a series of images to create a video stream.  How they are processed can be controlled by a number of configuration settings.

Writing Images

When writing series of stills, there are a number of options available. They are configurable through the registry in version 3.x (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Drastic Technologies) and the DDRConfig/config.xml in version 4 and greater. The setup is in this key:

\MediaReactor\PlugIns\DTLiveStills

<DefaultScale> / <DefaultRate>

<discreetMode>

<DPXVersion1>

<DPXTCContiguous>

<NameEmbedTC>

• 0 = Do not embed time code in file name
• 1 = Use the frame value of the time code as the numeric part
• 2 = Embed the starting time code (initial) as a string in each file name
• 3 = Embed the starting time code and user bit (initial)
• 99 = Embed the starting time code with a tc=

<Separator>

[basename](separator){####}.ext
so, '_' would be
test_000000.dpx
or '.' would be
test.00000.dpx

Reading Images

Often when reading a series of still images there is no way to determine the frame rate they should be played at.  DPX files do contain a frame rate in their headers, but it is most often set to an invalid rate, or is sometimes plain wrong.  To set a default frame rate for your system, there are a number of places you can change it.  In each case, it is a Rate/Scale setting that you will be changing.  The most common Rate/Scale combinations are:

When loading a series of stills where the frame rate is unknown, the reader will look for a default rate and scale in the following places, in the following order.  Once one is found, it stops looking:

• A local metadata xml file in the same directory as the stills, with the same base name.  A sample file is available at the end of this article
• In the config.xml, the <MediaReactor> <MetaData> <Default> OriginalScale and OriginalRate keys
• In the config.xml, the <MediaReactor> <PlugIns> <DTLiveStills>  DefaultScale and DefaultRate keys
• The default rate of any hardware Drastic software is using directly (e.g. videoQC, Net-X-Code, etc.)

The config.xml is a standard text xml, and it is available in these locations:

Windows

C:\ProgramData\Drastic\config.xml

macOS

/Library/Application Support/Drastic/config.xml

Linux

~/.Drastic/config.xml

Sample XML Metadata File:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.drastictech.com/metadata/drastic-metadata.xsl"
<!DOCTYPE dtm:dtm PUBLIC "-//DRASTIC MEDIA METADATA//DCMES DTD 2001 01 01//EN" "http://www.drastictech.com/metadata/dtmes-xml-dtd.dtd">
<dtm:dtm xmlns:dtm="http://www.drastictech.com/metadata"
  xmlns:dt="http://www.drastictech.com/metadata/elements">
   <dtm:Description dtm:about="default*.dpx">
    <dt:OriginalRate>25</dt:OriginalRate>
    <dt:OriginalScale>1</dt:OriginalScale>
  </dtm:Description>
</dtm:dtm>