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. 

In Drastic DDRs and Net-X-Code Server software, VTRs appear as EXT (external) channels. External channels can be set up in either LocalConfig or DDRConfig.  This page describes the settings in detail to allow customization or advanced setup.

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. The outputs are not set up by default, but can be added manually.

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 Server, videoQC, or 2110Scope with network video sources.

(Note: this article provides details on legacy products, which are not offered for sale and may no longer exist) 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.

Note: this area contains legacy information and is presented for reference only)

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.

The Network Device Interface (NDI) 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 Net-X-Code Server (I/O plus ingest/transcode/transwrap), FlowCaster (I/O), videoQC (monitoring), 4KScope/HDRScope/2110Scope (monitoring and analysis), and Test Pattern Generator (output).  This article contains information on viewing NDI streams in Drastic software.

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/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

The Network Device Interface (NDI) 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 Net-X-Code Server, FlowCaster, videoQC, Test Pattern Generator, and DrasticScope (4KScope level and up).  This article contains information on sending the output of editors to Drastic software using NDI.

Drastic software supports a number of IP video standards in videoQC, Net-X-Code Server, 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.  URLs including udp://, rtp://, srt://, rist://, rtsp://, rtmp://, webrtc://, whip://, bls://, ndi://, cdi://, 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.

This article contains video tutorials on various Drastic Products including videoQC, DrasticScope, and Net-X-Code Server.  To see all our tutorials, please visit our YouTube page.

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. 

eMAM provides a number of integrations with Drastic products including Net-X-Code Server, 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 allows the user to access them while they are still recording. This article has the details for that setup.

4KScope (and HDRScope/2110Scope) can be set up to share an AJA board with products like Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, Assimilate SCRATCH, Autodesk Flame, Filmworkz 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 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.

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.

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/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is available in Net-X-Code Server.

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.

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.

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:

Net-X-Code Server, videoQC, sdiScope, 4KScope, HDRScope, 2110Scope

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/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available in Net-X-Code Server.

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.

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.

Drastic's videoQC, MediaReactor Lite, and Net-X-Code Server 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 and MediaReactor.  Accessing these resources requires a second level of setup, beyond the basic software setup, and this article provides an overview on that process. Also see: Sharing Amazon EFS Volumes, and Setting Up Google Cloud OAuth Access.

MRAnalyze 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 Server toolsets.  This article contains the Linux/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.

Normally, Adobe and Avid editing applications require a physical file to be located on a standard file system, shared or local.  MediaReactor Lite (and MediaReactor Workstation) allow all these products to edit files directly from S3/HTTP/HTTPS/TAMS file stores with no third party server, download, or proxy creation step required.  The magic is performed by tiny local text files with the extension .stream.  These are encrypted or unencrypted descriptions of the file's actual location, saved on a local or accessible network storage for Adobe to use.

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

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 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. Also see: Sharing Amazon EFS Volumes, and Setting Up Amazon S3 AWS Access.

Net-X-Copy is part of the 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/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.  A RESTful API is also available.

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 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. Also see: Sharing Amazon EFS Volumes, and Setting Up Amazon S3 AWS Access.

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.

(Legacy 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.

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/macOS/Windows command line API for this tool.

sdiScope, 4KScope, HDRScope, 2110Scope, videoQC, 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.

The Drastic Edit Decision List (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.

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

ccExtract is included in 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 command line API for this tool. A RESTful API is also available.