.bwf file support?

MixNut wrote on 8/29/2002, 8:26 AM

Hello,

I read the following on the ProAud list this morning:

"The main format to be concerned with is Broadcast WAVE which is being
supported by most developers and is currently being written into
purchase orders as our industry's international professional file
standard. Every professional can expect to be required by their
clients to convert and archive all audio files in this format. We
will need to be able to maintain and/or appropriately adjust the
header information which includes a time stamp which should be
maintained from other formats. Headers will also need to be editable."

This leads me to ask...Does/will Vegas support .bwf file format? Being able to record as .bwf would innately add the time stamping/resync to original timecode feature I've been begging for since version 1 and allow time synched transfer to other platforms.

Any plans SF?

Thanks

Comments

fongaboo wrote on 8/29/2002, 8:38 AM

I've never heard of .bwf. What are the features/advantages of it?

SonyEPM wrote on 8/29/2002, 9:05 AM

timecode in a .wav file is not supported at this time.

MixNut wrote on 8/29/2002, 9:11 AM

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Subject: RE: .bwf file support?
Posted by: SonicEPM (Ignore This User)
Date: 8/29/2002 9:05:13 AM

"timecode in a .wav file is not supported at this time."

I am aware of this...

My question was will there be? And, my other question was will Vegas read .bwf files [disregarding the time stamp]?

Thank you

SonyDennis wrote on 8/29/2002, 2:03 PM

Have you looked at the Scott Studios WAV format in Vegas?
///d@

snicholshms wrote on 8/30/2002, 2:01 PM

Dennis, would you briefly explain the features and benefits of using Scott Studios WAV files? I can't find much info in the VV3 manual. It only mentions that these are used in broadcast studios on the Scott Studio system.
Thanks,
Steve

MarkWWW wrote on 8/30/2002, 3:41 PM

There is actually no such thing as a ".bwf" file format.

The BWF format is really just a (restricted) kind of .WAV file that contains an extra chunk which encodes, amongst other things, a timestamp.

The file extension of a BWF is .WAV, and any app that understands .WAV files (like all the SoFo apps) should be able to handle the audio it contains just fine, though they will not be able to take advantage of the timestamp, etc, information contained in the BWF unless/until they support the extra "bext" chunk. So far support for the BWF bext chunk does not exist in any SoFo apps, but I'm hoping it will be added for VV4.

You can read up on this stuff at http://www.ebu.ch/pmc_bwf_ug.html where you'll find the EBU's User Guide for the Broadcast Wave Format.

Mark

SonyDennis wrote on 8/30/2002, 5:00 PM

snicholshms:

It lets you write some additional WAV metadata useful to products from these folks:

http://www.scottstudios.com/

///d@

SonyDennis wrote on 8/30/2002, 5:06 PM

MarkWWW:

> I'm hoping it will be added for VV4.

If support for this format in Vegas or other Sonic Foundry applications is important to you, please submit something to our product suggestions page:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/productsuggestion.asp

This way, the right people will see it. Please refer to the EBU web page describing the format and specification and discuss your needs and who else is using or requiring this format. We'd hate to waste time implementing a file format just because it looked cool <g>, there needs to be an actual need.

///d@

MarkWWW wrote on 8/31/2002, 4:33 AM

Oh I already have, a long time ago (maybe even before VV3 was released), though I never got any reply. But in case it didn't get through I'll do it again.

BWF support is only half the story, of course - the other half of the story is OMF support (which I also requested at the same time). With OMF and BWF support it would be relatively easy to move projects between Vegas and other AV platforms.

It doesn't matter much to me, I'm strictly an amateur working at home, but my brother is a sound supervisor at the BBC and the main thing that stops him and all his Avid/ProTools/AudioFile/Sadie-using colleagues buying into Vegas is the lack of interoperability with the established industry platforms. Remove that stumbling block (by adding BWF and OMF support) and Vegas would be opened up to a whole new area of the industry.

Even Sonar (which I also use, but don't like half as much as Vegas) is apparently about to add OMF/BWF support. Vegas really ought not to get left behind on this.

Mark

MixNut wrote on 9/2/2002, 1:11 AM

Thanks for the clarification on .bwf MarkWWW. I was asking for .bwf support as a way to potentially "back-door" way to get SF to implement time stamping ;-) I'm not sure why time stamping seems of such little importance to them?!

I have long said that OMF support and file interchange with more common and "popular" systems would be the easiest route to MORE SALES for SF. At the very least, a comprehensive CMX EDL import/export/autoconform utility would be a great first step...As it stands now, Vegas could easily be an offline editor of choice if only there was a way to communicate EDL's to other "online" setups or audio editors.

I hope they'll aim high...they're already so far along!

MixNut

MixNut wrote on 4/30/2003, 1:07 AM

This string happened long ago, but I wonder where .bwf, OMF, .aaf, .mxf fall in SonicFoundry's development plans as of now?

Any news on the file interchange front?