Premiere Pro support for Blackmagic RAW is now available

[Kevin-Monahan]

Premiere Pro support for Blackmagic RAW is now available!

Premiere Pro support for Blackmagic RAW is now available via the Blackmagic RAW 1.5 software update. The new plugin can be found at http://blackmagicdesign.com/support .

As of Feb. 16, 2022, Autokroma BRAW Studio is now free. Info to download: https://www.autokroma.com/blog/BRAW-Studio-Is-Now-FREE

Feel free to discuss this announcement of support below.

More IBC 2019 content here.

[R Neil Haugen]

Evan,

Which BRAW plugin are you using, BlackMagic or Autokroma? And on what computer?  Want to get data points on where problems are.

I'm on a 6 core i7 PC, and both BM and Autokroma plugins are working for my rig.

Neil

[evan.fotis]

currently the native bmd plugin. on an i7 w 24gb ram. needless to say resolve applies all settings instantly. I ended up opening the braw files in resolve, updated the sidecar and then used that in Premiere

[R Neil Haugen]

Evan,

I can't replicate your troubles here ... in my Win10 rig, the BM plugin works as expected, and well. Wish I had some advice for changes but I'm not sure of what to change, although typically for plugin troubles it's best to uninstall the plugin, reboot, then reinstall of course. Sometimes that does fix things.

I do like the presets available via the Autokroma BRAW Studio plugin, and so even though I've got the BM one, I've gone back to using the Autokroma plugin for now. But both are available and working on my computer.

Neil

[jumpymonkey9]

I'm using the BM plugin on my system, and I'm having issues with the image of the final render.  I shot some green screen footage.  I used Ultra Key to key it out, and Lumetri for color correcting.  When I export, the footage looks very bright and washed out.  I started by exporting through AME, and I tried with GPU acceleration both on and off.  They look identical.  I tried exporting directly from Premiere with the same result.  If I export a still frame, it looks correct. 

I am exporting to H.264.  The footage was originally 4K, but I'm downscalling to 1080.  I tried exporting as full resolution, and still the same.  I also just updated my graphics drivers, but that didn't fix it.

I tried exporting with Ultra Key and Lumetri effects turned off, and it still looks way brighter than was recorded and is displaying in Premiere.

Has anyone else experienced this?  Should I start a new post for it?  The only thing I can think of doing right now is pulling it into Resolve and trying to render out a format that Premiere likes better.

[R Neil Haugen]

At this point, how about starting a new and specific thread?

And I can't replicate. On my Win10 system, both the BM and Autokroma plugins work. So let's try and sort this for anyone.

Neil

[Kidfadale]

I downloaded Blackmagic RAW 1.5.  The Blackmagic RAW Player is able to play my braw files, but where is the plug-in for Premiere?  This does me no good without the plug-in, I need the files opened in Premiere so I can cut with them.

[R Neil Haugen]

Kid,

This is the link from the BlackMagic site for the BM-RAW 1.5.2 version.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/professional-cameras

Download/unzip. You get a folder with an installer. Install.

Go to Premiere ... move a clip to a sequence. In the ECP panel, go to the Master Clip tab ... and you should have the controls there. I just installed the 1.5.2 today myself. Though I do prefer the Autokroma plugin, as it has presets available in the plugin itself.

Neil

[CMPP 02]

I'm using windows 10 and Premiere Pro 19, I installed the new blackmagic plugin but it still doesn't import the b.raw footages.

There's something more that I need to do?

[R Neil Haugen]

With either the BM 1.5.2 plugin installed or the Autokroma plugin, which I prefer due to the Presets feature, I can easily work with braw media in Premiere 2020. Or 2019. And I'm Win10 also.

You can't work with both plugins as the BM one insists on taking control if it's installed.

And looking in your Programs/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore folder, you have the following folder and files showing (for BlackMagic plugin) ...

Neil

[Kidfadale]

After installing the BRAW player, I restarted Premiere, and it read the BRAW material seemlessly.  Thanks for all of the input.

[Lazarus55]

These files are not appearing in that folder nor is there a folder included with the BM 1.5 or 1.6 installer for me. 

[R Neil Haugen]

lazurus55,

When you use the BM RAW installer, it doesn't put anything in those folders?

Perhaps there's a permissions issue with that folder.

What do you have in your download from the BlackMagic support site?

Neil

[Wilds]

I'm using windows 10 and Premiere Pro 20 and Adobe Lightroom, I installed the new blackmagic plugin but it still doesn't import the raw 3:1 from Blackmagic micro cinema camera. I need Lightroon and Premiere can read raw 3:1 from BMCC. How do I do this? 

[R Neil Haugen]

Wilds,

The BM RAW plugin often doesn't install itself correctly. Check the chart here ... does your installed files look like this? In a PC, this is the folder in the C:/Program Files/Adobe/Common/Plugins/7.0/MediaCore folder.

Unfortunately, the BM BRAW plugin can be problematic. The last updated one on their site is from December ... and it was buggy enough for me I bought the Autokroma BRAW package for Premiere/MediaEncoder ... which just works on my rig.

The Autokroma staff is nice enough that Farve has been on here several times helping people using the BlackMagic plugin to get it working for them.

Neil

[Wilds]

R_Neil_Haugen, 

My files are installed correctly. But the BMCC does not shoot in braw. The camera is made a long time ago, it shoots raw 3:1 Cinema DNG (name.dng and not name.braw). The Blackmagic player can't read these files either. Only Resolve can read it. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Oh ... that's the old CinemaDNG format, right.

That's ... problematic, unfortunately. It isn't at all the same nor similar to the current BlackMagic BRAW format.

Neil

[Buck Kahler]

I have a project from last year I filmed in BRAW and Premiere had no problem with it. Now it does not recognize the files at all. I updated to BRAW 1.7 from Blackmagic's site, but still nothing. Do I need to downgrade Premiere to CC 2018?

[Nicolas from Autokroma]

Hello,

If it is impossible for you to load any braw files with the BMD Plugin then : 

First try to import a BRAW file from you desktop folder. If it works, then there is a problem in the path of your braw folder that the BMD plugin doesn't like, so change your project files location or rename your folders to have only ASCII chars (<=> Only "normal" characters, no accent, etc ..).

If it doesn't work. In your Mediacore folder, your should have the blackmagic plugin's files. If you don't see anything, then there is a problem in the installation part. You can contact also contact the Blackmagic support.

As Neil said, you can also try with a PPro 2020 project, but the BMD Plugin should work on PPro 2019 as well.

For your next project, maybe you could give BRAW Studio a try, it is a plugin that we are developing at Autokroma, with more features than the BMD Plugins (like Preset, Quick Custom A/B comparison, Timecode correction and more to come)  and (for some configurations) less problems. 
If you are really stuck in your current project with the Blackmagic Plugin, you can switch to BRAW Studio, but we advise to finish a project with the same plugin used from the beginning. We speak about that part in this article : https://www.autokroma.com/blog/Compatibility-Blackmagic-Raw-Plugin-BRAW-Studio

Best,

Nicolas from Autokroma

[robcobpro]

Thanks for the note on path names Nicolas.  Strangely, Premier 14.0 initially imported the .braw's okay from our NAS via media browser with the Black Magic RAW 1.8 plugin.  We were even able to make proxies of the .braw, but now the original files are showing offline with the 'importer reportered a generic error' when I attempt to relink.  This can be fixed by copying the .braw to a desktop location and relinking as you suggested.  Strangely, our QNAP AFP server path has standard ASCI characters and I can't relink the files there by moving them to any different folder location.  So at least it did help me isolate the problem to the network share, which is pretty essential with multiple workstations.  Wonder how many others are in the same boat.  Clearing media cache manually and with their button does nothing naturally.

I've already got too many assemblies, multicam syncs, and rough cuts etc, but next time I'll reccomend they start the project with BRAW Studio as this plugin is ridiculous.  I can fix the xml export for the colorist, but I agree with Neil that this plugin costs way too much time and is far too inconsistent for production workflows. 

EDIT:  Somehow it started working again after I installed the new beta plugin Blackmagic RAW 2.0 Beta 2 Update.  YMMV

[R Neil Haugen]

Rob,

I agree ... the hassles of dealing with the "free" BM BRAW plugin were far more costly than just buying the Autokroma plugin. Which always ... works. And has more options, like presets.

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

sgtbuk1,

It should function. Try clearing the cache/media cache database files then relaunch Premiere. If that doesn't work, try creating a new project in 2020, then from that project in the MediaBrowser, navigate to and import the assets of the current project. See if that works.

I will say I gave up on the BlackMagic plugin and bought the Autokroma ones sometime back. Always had issues with the BM one. The Autokroma plugin just works.

Neil

[default0xaiyfu54nxr]

I downloaded the BRAW Developer SDK

27 Aug 2020

Blackmagic RAW 1.8.1 Update.  I know this is an older thread but how exactly do you install this into Premiere?

[R Neil Haugen]

I believe if you go to the download of that plug-in, there's an installer that you simply click or double-click to start. Then it installs itself.

Then in Premiere, check the Windows/Extensions to see if its listed. If so, it's installed. And you can click on the extension typically to bring up a panel for that extension.

Neil

[default0xaiyfu54nxr]

I should have mentioned.  I'm using MacOS.

[R Neil Haugen]

Not "Windows" as in the OS, Window as in the menu item in Premiere ...

Neil