Is the CineForm RAW™ format an open standard?
No. CineForm RAW™ is a proprietary “visually lossless” compression codec based on wavelet transforms instead of older, inefficient DCT technology. Additionally it supports deep-pixel bit depths and variable bit rate encoding, for maximizing the information contained in a given scene for a given data-rate. While the encoder must be licensed, the decoder is freely available here, and can be used by anyone to view the content recorded with the SI-2K. The codec is VFW compatible, and can be imported and played back in any VFW-capable player, while keeping the RAW data-structure intact. The internal RAW information is only lost if the AVI file is transcoded to another format or rendered out in a non-CineForm RAW™ compatible application.
