ASSIMILATE, the industry’s leading provider of Digital Intermediate and dailies digital workflow tools, today announced the launch of SCRATCH Play^™, the world’s first truly comprehensive, no-cost media player. SCRATCH Play supports RAW footage from cinematic and DSLR cameras, formats commonly found in VFX and editorial pipelines, and those found across the web. SCRATCH Play also features ASSIMILATE’s unique CONstruct^™ media management timeline, versatile color-grading based on the ASC CDL standard, and robust metadata handling capabilities.

 SCRATCH Play supported formats include, but are not limited to:

• Camera RAW – RED, ARRI, Sony, Canon and DSLRs
• Editorial/VFX – MXF, DPX, OpenEXR, and ProRes
• Consumer – QuickTime, WMV, and MP4

 The CONstruct: A Timeline Like No Other

The heartbeat of SCRATCH Play is the CONstruct, also found in ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH_® and SCRATCH Lab_® professional toolsets. The CONstruct is a visual map to media that starts with a basic timeline, and evolves to resolution and format-agnostic version control. The CONstruct can contain any combination of different formats, resolutions or color spaces, including REC 2020, the new 4K ultra HD color space, all easily framed within a user-defined output resolution. Users can quickly switch between versions, compare with dual-view and wipe capabilities, or use multiple CONstructs to more efficiently manage their media.

Color Grading and Metadata Handling

SCRATCH Play features a real-time ASC CDL color toolset that allows media professionals to generate LUTs, CDLs or JPEG snapshots for sharing metadata or looks across projects. SCRATCH Play also supports features typically found in pro applications such as camera-specific color and metadata control, and real-time clip rotation, framing, and resizing.

Perfect Media Companion – On Set Or In Post

SCRATCH Play is the ideal tool for DPs and DITs to quickly review shots, pull stills, create looks and export CDLs or LUTs – without interrupting DIT cart transcodes. VFX artists can quickly review animations or renders in context: frame-accurately, at full resolution, with full color consistency, and even alpha channels. Even semi-pro shooters and hobbyists now have a free tool that they can use to review the RAW shots from their DSLR cameras.

“SCRATCH Play has been an awesome tool to use on set,” said Josh Diamond of The Diamond Bros, the New York City based producer-director team. “We use SCRATCH Play to pull stills directly from the RED RAW files, and to move through footage fast without standing at the DIT station. Since we have a specific shot we need to get at every location, we can load the previous day’s shot into SCRATCH Play and use it as a framing guide at the next location. This really helps ensure that we capture the perfect frame. All this power in a free application really boosts our productivity, while also significantly enhancing our creative process.”

“Our customers have told us they need a single product that can quickly and easily play any popular video and still format – from web content to cinematic cameras, to editorial and VFX media,” said Jeff Edson, CEO of ASSIMILATE. “SCRATCH Play does that. You can double-click or drag and drop an R3D or Arri RAW file and it just plays. But we didn’t stop with just a single-shot player. We added the CONstruct, the industry’s most powerful timeline, to manage multiple shots and versions; and we added world-class grading and CDL tools that anyone can use to create, manage and export looks. SCRATCH Play is the ultimate companion for the media professional, from DSLR shooters up to A-list Hollywood features. And best of all, SCRATCH Play is free. Because it should be.”

 Pricing and Availability

SCRATCH Play is available immediately for MacOS, Windows and Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablets. Download SCRATCH Play at www.assimilateinc.com/products/scratch-play. An ad-supported version is completely free. SCRATCH Play Premium, also available immediately, offers the same feature-set without the ads, for a price of $5.00 USD.  For more information visit www.assimilateinc.com

About ASSIMILATE

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OS X, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip directors, DPs, on-set professionals and artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for conform, versioning, color grading, playback, compositing and finishing for nearly all popular digital workflows, including, RED, ARRI, Sony F65 and F55, Canon 5D, Phantom, Go Pro and many more. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE is a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, with offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN and markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more, visit www.assimilateinc.com