DT3D File Format

Technical 128
The DT3D file format is an XML file that describes the video and audio channels that go together to create a 3D or stereo file set. Normally this includes the left and right eye video streams as well as audio streams.

DT3D Stereo File Format
Drastic Technologies Ltd
(c) Copyright 2005-2013, Drastic Technologies Ltd
All Rights Reserved

Contents:
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1. Overview
2. File Format
3. Samples

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1. Overview
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The .dt3d 'stereo' file is a text based XML file that specifies two separate files as the left and right eyes of a stereo pair. These files do not have to have a particular naming convention, or even be of the same file type, but their internal compression must be the same. The stereo file reader will open both video files, and an optional set of audio files, and combine them for 3D use in DrasticPreview, DrasticDDR, MediaNXS, MediaReactor and other Drastic products.

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2. File Format
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The file format is an ANSI or UTF-8 XML file using iso-8859-1 encoding. It has to use the file extension .dt3d to be recognized by the stereo reader plug in in Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Media Composer, etc. If you are only using Drastic or your own software, it can also use the .stereo extension. Extra information may be encoded at any point in the file, but at minimum there must be a Stereo tag with at least two File<number> tags to specify the right and left eye files.

All stereo files start with the xml type specifier:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
This is normally followed by a comment specifying the file's purpose and where the format document can be retrieved:

All of the important information for the stereo reader is contained within a Stereo tag pair
<Stereo>
</Stereo>

The stereo reader is designed to handle more than two video frames (eyes) per read, but for now it is only using two. Each file is enclosed in a File<number> tag pair. The numbering next to the File should be 0 and 1 for the left and right eyes:
<File0>

</File0>
<File1>

</File1>

within these tags are sub tags that specify where the video file is and any offset required to align the two eyes. A typical file tag area will look like this:
<File0>
   
   <Dir>C:\Optional</Dir>
   
   <Name>test_l.avi</Name>
   
   <Offset>22</Offset>
</File0>

<Dir> - Optional, contains the directory or folder in which the file resides. If it is not specified, it is assumed the file is in the same directory as the stereo file.
<Name> - Required, contains the actual file name and extension of the media file. For sequences, simply specify the first name in the sequence and the rest will be found automatically
<Offset> - Optional, if present it will be the frame in the media file that will be read as frame 0. All frames in the file will be offset by this amount. If it is not specified, it is set to 0

There is also an optional <AudioFile> tag that can be used to specify an arbitrary separate audio file to be read with the video files. This section has the same format as the File<number> sections. If it is not specified, then audio will be read from the first (File0/left eye) video file.

An MCC or SCC closed captioning file may also be specified in a <ClosedCaptions> tag, using the same <File> tag as the audio and video formats.

-snip------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>


<Stereo>
   
<File0>
     
     <Dir>C:\Optional</Dir>
     
     <Name>test_l.avi</Name>
     
     <Offset>22</Offset>
   </File0>
<File1>
    
    <Dir>C:\Optional</Dir>
    
    <Name>test_r.avi</Name>
    
    <Offset>0</Offset>
</File1>

<AudioFile>
     
     <Name>test.wav</wave>
</AudioFile>
</Stereo>
-snip------------------------------------------------------------

-snip------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>

<Stereo>
<File0>
   <Name>test_l.avi</Name>
   </File0>
   <File1>
     <Name>test_r.avi</Name>
   </File1>
   <AudioFile>
   <Name>test.wav</wave>
   </AudioFile>
</Stereo>
-snip------------------------------------------------------------

-snip------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>

<Stereo>
   <File0>
     <Name>test_l.avi</Name>
   </File0>
   <File1>
   <Name>test_r.avi</Name>
   </File1>
</Stereo>
-snip------------------------------------------------------------

-snip------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>


<Stereo>
   
   <File0>
     
     <Name>T3D003013_Centre_fast_1080p60_l.yuv</Name>
     
     <Offset>0</Offset>
   </File0>
   
   <File1>
      
      
      
      <Name>T3D003013_Centre_fast_1080p60_r.yuv</Name>
      
      <Offset>0</Offset>
   </File1>
    
   <AudioFile>
     <Name>../Audio_wav/T3a003y113_Centre_fast_act_unc.wav</Name>
   </AudioFile>
   <ClosedCaptions>
     <Name>T3D003013_Centre_fast_1080p60_r.mcc</Name>
   </ClosedCaptions>
</Stereo>
-snip------------------------------------------------------------