Please note: this page provides information about legacy products (which may no longer exist), and is only here for reference.

For current Drastic products, please see the main site.

Drastic Digital Disk Recorders that include more than one channel of HD or SD I/O (VVW 5002/3/4, VVW 7002, Typhon 2) may be used to combine some or all of the inputs and outputs into a single control channel. In this state only one channel appears to the RS-422, GUI or network control system, but when media is recorded or played, two or more channels of I/O are run locked together.  Please note:  This article has been superseded and it is here for reference only.

The DrasticDDR version 3 software was the last version available for the VVW series of Digital Disk Recorders.  Many of those systems have been upgraded to the latest version 7 software.  For those that haven't, the final version of the software installers can still be made available.

(Legacy Page) On supported hardware, Drastic software provides control of any up or down video conversion.  This can be set up in real time from the QuickClipXO, MediaNXS, VTRIF, DTReplay or dTouch interfaces.  The parameters and advanced settings in the configurations are provided below.

These are some of the web panels in use in 2005.  Contains the previous generation VVW DDRs and the early versions of many products still available today.

This is the last version released of the VVCR system sofware.  The disks are self booting and self installing for all VVCR models.

DTReplay, DTReplay Live, HDReplay, BBReplay and Hurricane are slow motion replay systems developed by Drastic.  Originally developed for officiating and broadcast replay, Drastic partnered with XOS (since acquired by Catapult Sports) who handled HDReplay, BBReplay and Hurricane exclusively.

This is one of the original VVCR advertisements from 1995.

Drastic's DDR technology has been used in a wide variety of SAN environments. This page includes documents on the three most widely successful customer configurations Drastic has found.

The VirtualVCR or VVCR was Drastic's first Digital Disk Recorder.  Based on Intel 486 CPUs with a custom built Unix like operating system, the VVCR used Matrox video and compression boards to save high quality SD motion JPEG frames to a standard FAT32 disk or custom, shared disk operating system.

Many companies have claimed to have created a Digital Disk Recorder, or DDR, yet the term remains largely undefined. Drastic Technologies has been working with and creating nonlinear VTR and animation solutions for over ten years. Drastic's background in single frame animation, broadcast VTR control, MIDI systems and automation, audio post editing and traditional video editing systems have culminated in the design and implementation of the Titan Series DDRs. The following description serves as a guide to Drastic's interpretation of what constitutes a DDR. This synopsis is based on Drastic's experience in the markets it has been serving.

Avid's Media Composer, Symphony and NewsCutter software are efficient, powerful industry standard editing systems.  Drastic's MediaReactor Workstation integration allows you to extend and expand the functionality of all three of these products.  The Drastic DDR servers provide extensive content capture options with full DNxHD support and including real time editing while recording without interrupting or breaking up the record file.

Drastic Technologies VVW Digital Video Disk Recorders

After pioneering digital video disk recorder technology with the successful VVCR line of products, Drastic Technologies has introduced its next generation digital media products, the VVW Series digital disk recorders, featuring QuickClip clip control and MediaReactor file conversion software. Once again, Drastic Technologies is poised to revolutionize the way digital video is acquired, managed and delivered in broadcast and post-production facilities.

The Drastic YCbCr codec for QuickTime, Video For Windows and DirectShow allowed third party applications to use files (AVI and MOV primarily) generated by Drastic's Titan Series DDRs, MediaNXS batch I/O software and MediaReactor file transcoding software.  This codec is a legacy software that is still available from Drastic.  It has been incorporated into the MediaReactor Workstation software for Windows and macOS.  The original codec has been kindly maintained by Mickey Lee Jones.

Drastic Legacy License Troubleshooting

Unfortunately, a number of years ago, Drastic purchased a copy protection system from Kenonics called CrypKey. This rather weak and buggy software has been a problem from the beginning and despite repeated releases from Kenonics, has not improved in the many years we have used it. The most difficult issue is reported by our software as the -103 "Network driver reply is bad". As Kenonics will no longer assist us in circumventing any bugs in their software, we have set up this page to help our customers work around Kenonics problems.

Please note: This page only refers to version 3.0 or earlier releases of QuickClip software and version 2.2 or earlier releases of MediaReactor software. All new versions will NOT be using the CrypKey copy protection software, for obvious reasons.

This page was created to provide links to the (Legacy) Version 4 installs that included the Assimilate, QuickTime, Final Cut Pro, DirectShow and Adobe Plugins.

These versions are ancient and the links have been removed. If for some reason you need to reinstall MediaReactor prior to the current version, please contact us with details.

This is the very first version of the VVW interface.  It has been replaced by the more modern Net-X-Code Server HTML/Ajax, Web, and GUI interfaces.  These are here just for historical purposes.

(Legacy page) MediaReactor includes tools it uses to automatically check QA translations using industry standard metrics.  This tool, called MRAnalyze, can be used in conjunction with DrasticPreview Pro to provide both objective and subjective analysis of converted or recaptured video material.  This article provides an overview on how these tools work and can be applied to various video workflows.

After pioneering digital video disk recorder technology with the successful VVCR line of products, Drastic Technologies released its next generation digital disk recorder, the VVW Series, featuring QuickClip capture/control/playback software and MediaReactor file transcoding. These robust devices have been installed around the world and satisfy a wide range of demanding applications in real world environments.

The IndieCam cameras are small, light, HD and 2K recording RAW bayer pattern cameras.  They provide the raw data via HD-SDI by embedding it into a SMPTE standard signal that can be recorded by most uncompressed recorders.  Because the type marked by the recorder is SMPTE YCbCr 10 (v210 in general), the RAW data cannot be automatically detected.  To use these files in Assimilate SCRATCH and MediaReactor, the system must be set up to re-label these files.

This area contains legacy material from previous Drastic Technologies websites. It is provided for reference only, and contains information, products and links that may no longer exist and which are no longer supported by Drastic.

Originally Drastic DDRs could be purchased with full featured software, or with a base software and a la carte options.  The original options were the Advanced File Format Option, the Network Control Option and the AutoProxy Option.  The functionality of these options has been integrated into Drastic's current line of products, and expanded on.

This is a partial description of the Sony 9 Pin protocol as supported by Drastic's original VVCR products.  While the basis of this protocol, Sony 9 Pin, has not changed, many of the extended commands have. This document is made available for historic interest only.  For control of current Drastic DDRs, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Drastic VVW Software Download

This area contains legacy material from previous Drastic Technologies websites. It is provided for reference only, and contains information, products and links that may no longer exist and which are no longer supported by Drastic.

There has been a lot of confusion in marketing literature concerning video compression. Most of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the math and the terms involved in compression calculations. What follows is a reasonably accurate method for correlating various ways of describing video compression. NOTE: This method may not allow accurate comparison with some manufacturer's hardware specifications, as their calculations have been found to be inaccurate by up to twenty five percent.

Drastic's Version 2 and Version 3 software supported a wide variety of cards that are no longer supported.  In fact the hardware is no longer available, and systems to support the hardware have long since been considered obsolete.  If you require these software versions or more information, please contract This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Windows MCI VTR Driver

Throughout the early 1990s, Drastic supplied the Windows MCI VTR control driver as an OEM product to companies such as Matrox, HP, Microsoft and many others.  This product is no longer available as an MCI driver, but is part of External VTR Control for Windows/macOS/Linux.

QuickClipDVI Software (Legacy)

QuickClipDVI software provides advanced DDR playback functionality directly from your computer's DVI output. QuickClipDVI supports: AVI, MOV, GEN, JS, DVS, TGA, DPX, Cineon, TIFF, YUV, v210, RAW and MPEG playback at resolutions up to 4096x3112. Standard SD, HD and Vesa rasters are supported at standard frame rates, as well as user definable custom raster and frame rates. QuickClipDVI will run on any Windows XP computer system, but fast Fibre, SCSI or SATA/PATA arrays are recommended as well as a high end NVIDIA (1000~4400FX, 5200/6800/7800) or ATI (9800/x800) graphics adapter. By default 2 channels of audio are supported; for 8 channel audio you will need a supported ASIO audio card. Please contact Drastic for best configuration.

The SMPTE-X Active-X control is no longer offered as a standalone Drastic SDK. Its functionality still exists within the Drastic product line and the below information is provided for reference.

SMPTEX is a time code reader and generator that uses a standard audio board to produce and read SMPTE longitudinal time code (LTC). It provides both a simple interface where the control handles the audio board and a more advanced interface where the caller deals with the audio board. The control is intended to replace the functionality of PC based time code boards (costing as much as one thousand dollars in the old days) without dedicating a slot or being obliged to work with proprietary hardware.

Bluefish444 HD/SD QuickClip Pro DDR Software Download (Legacy)

QuickClip software provides advanced DDR capture and playback functionality for your your Bluefish444 Fury, Lust, Vengeance HD or Wildblue, Deepblue, Envy SD card. It supports standard RS-422 serial communications, digital 422 extensions, Louth and Odetics protocol. It also controls external VTRs for frame accurate batch digitization, EDL import/export, variable speed and playlist playback.

This area contains legacy material from previous Drastic Technologies websites. It is provided for reference only, and contains information, products and links that may no longer exist and which are no longer supported by Drastic.

DrasticPreview and DrasticPreview Pro can be called by external applications with command line parameters.  If there is already an instance of the application running, the parameters will be transferred to the running instance, and the called one will exit.  This is especially useful where the workflow requires the system to display particular aspects of a clip in an automated fashion.

AJA Xena HD/SD QuickClip Pro DDR Software Download (Legacy)

QuickClip software provides advanced DDR capture and playback functionality for your AJA Xena HD or SD card. It supports standard RS-422 serial communications, digital 422 extensions, Louth and Odetics protocol. It also controls external VTRs for frame accurate batch digitization, EDL import/export, variable speed and playlist playback.

Please note: QuickClipXO has been deprecated, and is no longer available. To use our current products in an alternate language, please see: https://www.drastic.tv/support-59/supporttipstechnical/212-alternate-language-interface

The QuickClipXO interface was written in the Java programming language. It supported custom message strings which can be used to display alternate text for most of its controls and displays.

From 1998 to 2006 Drastic Technologies produced the VVW series of Digital Disk Recorders.  The 5000 (standard definition) and 7000 (high definition) were the most popular.  These are the brochures for those DDRs.

Note: This area describes legacy products. Drastic VVW and Titan Series DDRs, QuickClip, MediaNXS and DrasticDDR software can be used to capture single or multiple frames into a sequence of still images which can be played back in real time immediately after recording. These still image files can be stored into individual, time based directories, or into a single directory.

Setting up the Antex SC-2000 for Analog or Digital (AES/EBU) inputs.

Deprecated:  The Drastic Technologies YCbCr codec for QuickTime, Video For Windows (VFW/ICM) and DirectShow, allows third party applications to use files (AVI and MOV primarily) generated by VVW, Titan Series, QuickClip and MediaReactor.  Please note, this codec has been deprecated.  The new codecs are available as part of the MediaReactor Workstation, and should be used instead of the legacy version.

(This page contains legacy information and is here for reference only) Drastic server software includes an HTTP server for local or remote control/access from a standard web browser. One of the files, FileBrowse.html, allows for file selection from selected drives using the web browser. Depending on the command line, FileBrowse can be used to save, load, add, or open files without direct access to the file system.