Avid submitted DNxHD to SMPTE as the framework for the VC-3 standard family. It was approved after a two-year testing and validation process. The VC-3 standards support efficient encoding and exchange of HD media and were the first SMPTE standards for intraframe, 720/1080-raster, 8/10-bit, 4:2:2 HD postproduction.
More than 30 Avid partners had licensed the DNxHD codec. VC-3 compliance enables products from those vendors to interoperate with other VC-3 systems. The standard also defines mapping of VC-3 coding units into MXF, supporting professional file exchange and media workflows. As an open standard, VC-3 material can be retrieved and used in media archives without dependence on a single vendor.
“We support Avid DNxHD because our customers need practical, interoperable and cost-effective HD workflows,” said EVS Broadcast Equipment senior manager for product and third-party integrations Mike Shore. He said Avid’s implementation enabled third-party developers such as EVS to build complementary workflow tools.
SMPTE VC-3 is an intraframe 4:2:2 HD compression standard covering 720 and 1080 rasters, low bit rates and 8- or 10-bit processing for compositing, mastering and multigeneration work. Its reference documents are:
SMPTE 2019-1 – VC-3 Picture Compression and Data Stream Format
SMPTE RP 2019-2 – VC-3 Decoder and Bitstream Conformance
SMPTE 2019-3 – VC-3 Type Data Stream Mapping over SDTI
SMPTE 2019-4 – Mapping VC-3 Coding Units into the MXF Generic Container
