Developer of the digital cinema engine SCRATCH, Assimilate made an announcement this morning about their free new massively inclusive, cross-platform media player SCRATCH Play, which supports a wide array of video formats, including cinematic and DSLR RAW files and VFX formats, while at the same time offering color-correction capabilities, as well as metadata control. Continue reading to find out more about what this powerful player can do.
Operating on MacOS and Windows, SCRATCH Play claims to be the "world's first universal media player," a welcomed improvement on multi-format media players, like VLC. Here's an incomplete list of formats it supports:
- RAW files: RED, Arri, Sony, Canon, Phantom, DSLRs RAW files
- Editorial: MXF, WAV
- VFX: DPX, EXR, etc.
- Consumer: QuickTime, Windows Media, MP4, H.264, etc)
- Still image formats: TIFF, JPG, PNG, etc.
Check out this introductory video on Assimilate's new media player:
SCRATCH Play also utilizes the "CONstruct," their version of a timeline. CONstruct not only serves as a timeline, but as a version manager and media organizer, capable of combining multiple formats at the same time, as well as framing them within a single resolution, which makes managing data much simpler.
Below are some demos on how to utilize CONstruct:
Another feature of SCRATCH Play is a real-time ASC CDL color-correction toolset, which is also used in Assimilate's powerful color-grading SCRATCH app. It allows users not only to generate LUTs, CDLs or JPEG snapshots for sharing metadata, but also to set looks on set.
SCRATCH Play seems ideal if you're working with dailies or wanting to refer back to footage quickly and easily. Most players focus on specific file types or only operate on one platform, so SCRATCH Play's format neutrality is a big plus for users who work with multiple formats.
For more information on SCRATCH Play, or if you're ready for the free download ($5 gets you the ad-free premium version,) head on over to their site.
What do you think of SCRATCH Play? For those who have managed to mess around with it, what do you think about its usability? Let us know in the comments below.
