Drastic software outputs a lot of information when running.  Working with our APIs and command line tools, having the debug logging can help sort out interface and programming issues.  Storing these logs locally, off via a syslog server, can also help sort out issues by comparing the unexpected behavior to the corresponding time in the logs.

The Drastic DT3D stereo file is an XML based re-director file that can merge two separate 'eye' files into a stereo pair, as well as adding audio and optional closed captioning. The stereo file reader will open two video files of the same file type, and internal compression type, and an optional set of audio files, and combine them for 3D use in videoQC, DrasticDDR, MediaNXS, MediaReactor and other Drastic products.

Autodesk's creative software, Flame/Flare/Smoke/Lustre, support MediaReactor's file ingest so that the wide array of Drastic supported files can be read and used directly in your projects.  Autodesk supports two modes of import:  16 bit half float and 16 bit integer.  Each has its advantages and disadvantages, which will be discussed here.

Drastic Technologies' VTR and DDR products include the necessary conversion hardware for RS-232 (your computer's serial port) to RS-422 (broadcast VTRs and controllers).  If you are evaluating Drastic DDR software such as MediaNXS, you will need to set up this conversion to test the serial control capabilities of the system. 

Net-X-Code is normally run on a server, where the parts of Net-X-Code run automatically as services. For some applications, only part of Net-X-Code needs to be run, or it only needs to be run some of the time. This article explains how to set up Net-X-Code server on Windows so that its parts can be run manually.

When working with RS-422 protocols (Sony 422, Odetics, Pioneer, VDCP, etc) it is often useful to directly monitor the incoming, return or both serial streams.  This is a cable that can be built to use two RS-422 ports to monitor one or both streams. 

Net-X-Code supports loop recording of multiple bitrate HLS streams from IP or SDI sources.  Setting this up requires configuration of the capture component and of the HLS adaptive bitrate settings.  This article covers the SDI and IP capture.  For the ABR setup, see https://www.drastic.tv/support-59/supporttipstechnical/303-multirate-hls-dash-setup

Drastic software can read many file formats which it does not natively understand.  Formats that have a fixed video frame size and are logically organized can be described using the industry standard HDR text file format (NOTE:  Not the still image HDR).  This page describes the file format. 

Drastic conversion and capture software support single rate and multirate file recording and conversion.  Up to 10 different bitrate/fps/size variants are supported per multirate output.  The actual files may be TS, MP4 or DASH/Fragmented MP4 with associated MDP and HLS files for live replay of recording files, and automatic adaptation to varying connection conditions.

All Drastic server digital disk recorder (DDR) products have a built in web server for local use. If you have a VVW Series, Titan Series, ClipRecorder, or IngestGate server, or the Network Control option for QuickClip version 3.x, then you can also use this web server from any network attached machine.

NewTek^®'s NDI interface is a powerful network video transport that allows simple, high quality video and audio signals to be transported across standard TCP/IP networks.  Drastic supports NDI in most of its products, including videoQC, 4KScope, sdiScope, and the Network Video Analyzer.  This article contains information on setting up NDI sources in Drastic software.

This article contains video tutorials on various Drastic Products including videoQC, 4KScope/Network Video Analyzer, Net-X-Code, MediaNXS and DrasticPreview.  To see all our tutorials, please visit our YouTube page.

eMAM provides a number of integrations with Drastic products including Net-X-Code, Net-X-Convert, and Net-X-Proxy.  For most cases, the main configuration is done within eMAM itself. In the case of live capture, configuring the Drastic server to send messages to eMAM allows eMAM to detect new records and allow the user to start using them while they are still recording. This article has the details for that setup.

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.

Net-X-Copy is part of the Net-X-Convert/Net-X-Proxy workstation and Net-X-Code server software. It supports, among other things, extracting clips from a native card format from cameras like P2, C300/700, RED, XDCam, AVCHD, AS-02, AS-11, GV Infinity and others. It extracts a list of clips, and then a list of elements within those clips and any camera/workflow specific metadata. This article contains the Linux/OS-X/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

Drastic software supports a wide range of metadata elements.  These elements are stored within the actual media files when available, and also stored in a sidebar XMP file, using both the standard, and a custom DTD, with the Adobe specification.  Please see each file format's specification for its metadata.  The XMP file metadata format is outlined here.

Net-X-Copy is part of the Net-X-Convert/Net-X-Proxy workstation and Net-X-Code server software. It supports, among other things, extracting an XMP XML of the metadata in a media file or series of media files. It extracts both the basic information for each channel and any camera/workflow specific metadata. This article contains the Linux/OS-X/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

Drastic software supports a range of standard 3D LUT formats.  These include the following:  3DL, MGA, M3D, TXT, CUBE, DAVLUT and LOOK. Please see the article for more information.

MRAnalyzer is a command line tool that compares an original media file with a compressed version of that file to determine the quality of the compression and note any major compression errors.  It supports the traditional PSNR as well as the more accurate SSIM and MS-SSIM.  It is part of the videoQC and Net-X-Code toolsets.  This article contains the Linux/OS-X/Windows command line API for this tool.

Drastic software supports a range of standard 1D LUT formats for software conversion, and hardware input and output with AJA video boards.

Net-X-Copy is part of the Net-X-Convert, Net-X-Proxy, and Net-X-Code server software. It is designed to convert audio/video files from one type to another and to perform partial file restores from indexed and non indexed files on disk, tape or cloud. This article contains the Linux/OS-X/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

The Drastic LOG format uses the same basic layout as a LOG/~ALG/~ALE. The main differences are the 'Type:' header and the file name in the comment. The comment is broken up into two sections: The initial comment after the ';' and a file name after a second ';'. This page describes the exact file format used for the Drastic log format.

Net-X-Copy is part of the Net-X-Code server and Net-X-Convert/Proxy workstation software. It is designed to convert audio/video/media files to proxy or broadcast/post files, mix audio, extract metadata, and create one or more jpeg preview images.  It can also embed captions into output files like MXF and MOV, and replace the audio or video tracks of a source file during conversion. This article contains the Linux/OS-X/Windows command line API for this tool.

The Drastic EDL format uses the same basic layout as a CMX, GVG or Sony 91xx series EDL. The main differences are the 'Type:' header and the file name in the comment. The comment is broken up into two sections: The initial comment after the ';' and a file name after a second ';'. This page describes the exact format used.

ccExtract is part of ccConvert and Net-X-Code Server software. ccExtract is designed to extract caption tracks from MXF, MOV, h.264, MPEG-2, TS, etc. to SCC/MCC, and to convert between standard caption formats like VTT, XML, EBU, SMPTE DCP, YouTube, Apple, Avid, and others. This article contains the Linux/macOS/Windows command line API for for this tool. A RESTful API is also available.

In QuickClip, QuickClipXO, MediaNXS, DTouch, VVW Series DDRs and Titan Series DDRs, VTRs appear as EXT (external) channels. External channels can be set up in either LocalConfig, DDRConfig or the Drastic Setup Wizard utilities.  This page describes the settings in detail to allow customization or advanced setup.

Most operating systems are not set up out of the box to handle heavy multicast loads. With some, multicast reception is actually disabled.  This article contains setup notes for the OS when using Net-X-Code, videoQC or HDRScope/4KScope with network video sources.

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

Apple's High Sierra operating system has changed the validation system, especially for applications downloaded from the internet. This has caused some systems to go into a 'validation loop' that stops our videoQC and 4KScope software from running, as the Apple validation never completes.  We are working on fixing this, but in the meantime, there is a way to stop the validation so our software can run.

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.

ccEmbed is part of ccConvert and Net-X-Code Server software. It is designed to take MCC or SCC closed caption files and embed them into output MXF, MOV, etc.  It supports re-wrapping the source audio/video, as well as converting while embedding.  This article contains the Linux/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

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.

Drastic software supports a number of IP video standards in videoQC, Net-X-Code, FlowCaster and other products.  To access these streams, a URL style string is used to describe them.  For some sources, like RTSP, this string is fairly standard.  For others, like NDI, a URL style has been developed to allow those streams to be specified.  Currently, udp://, rtp://, srt://, rtsp://, ndi://, s2022:// and s2110:// are supported.  This document describes the URLs' format in more detail.  We have also added some application specific notes for connecting our software to other applications.

Drastic software can support up to 16 channels of audio.  These can be 16 mono channels,  8 stereo pairs or all channels in one, depending on the setup and file type. This article covers the kinds of audio that the software can produce, and the audio setups it is able to read automatically to combine multiple channels of audio with video. 

4KScope can be set up to share an AJA board with products like Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, Assimilate SCRATCH, Autodesk Flame, Digital Vision Nucoda, Grass Valley Edius, and others.  This mode is available on Windows, macOS and Linux. This article explains how it works and how it can be set up.

Drastic server software supports different front panel options:  The original 422 Jog/shuttle, the 4 line LCD with command keys and the newest touch screen VGAs.  This page describes the configuration for these front panels.

Drastic software supports the OpenMXF specification extension to the SMPTE MXF specification (SMPTE 377M). The advantage of OpenMXF is that while the file is still recording (open) you can read it in many popular servers and editing applications.

All Drastic software uses a similar keyboard layout for control.  There are some variations for program-specific functions, but the general transport control is shared.  Currently supported software includes:

MediaNXS, videoQC, sdiScope, 4KScope, HDRScope, Network Video Analyzer

videoQC can be called by external applications with command line parameters, keyboard/mouse, cut/paste and via a full REST/HTML command set. 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.

Deprecated:  The Drastic Technologies YCbCr codec for QuickTime, Video For Windows (VFW/ICM) and Direct Show 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.  The original codec with updated installers is still available here.

All of Drastic's version 6 or greater software supports authenticating directly with Amazon via AWSAccessKeyId/SecretKey through an https transport. This is most useful for Net-X-Code's partial file restore system, but can also be used from videoQC, MediaNXS or MediaReactor.  Accessing these resources requires a second level of setup, beyond the basic software setup, and this article provides an overview on that process.

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.

All of Drastic's version 6 or greater software supports authenticating via OAuth 2.0 across an https transport. This is most useful for Net-X-Code's partial file restore system, but can also be used from videoQC, MediaNXS or MediaReactor.  Accessing these resources requires a second level of setup beyond the basic software setup, and this article provides an overview on that process.

Java on Dual Monitors - NVidia vs. Java.  There are setups required on some systems to allow QuickClipXO and VTRIF to display full screen on the second DVI or VGA monitor.

4KScope, videoQC, DrasticPreview, DrasticPreview Pro, and other OpenGL based apps can have trouble displaying the video in an OpenGL plane when connected via Remote Desktop Protocol or other remote control protocols.  To fix this problem, we supply special start files to be used remotely.

There are some flags that can be used to modify QuickClipXO.