OMF Interchange

Avid released a specification for a Open Media Framework Interchange file format, capable of containing audio, video, graphics, still images, etc^[1][2][3]. The format was replaced with the Advanced Authoring Format^[4][5]. Previous draft versions used the IFF format developed by Electronic Arts, but this version uses the Bento container specification and application programming interface (API) developed by Apple Computer, Inc.

File Identification

Later OMF files can contain the hex values 6F6D66693A64617461 starting at byte 5, which is omfi:data in ASCII^[6]

Identification can also be made from 24 bytes from EOF.^[7]

OMFI 1 and 2 are different and some later software may not be compatible with the earlier version.^[8]

The main differences between OMFI 1.0 & 2.1 are that in 2.1 the following support had been added:^[9]

• Identification information in the Header object that allows you to determine the application that created an OMF file
• Support for large media files (greater than 2 gigabytes) with 64 bit positions, lengths, and frame indexes
• Support for user comments on Mobs and tagged user-defined information
• Improved support for film pulldown conversions
• Minor improvements to media handling and storage

Software

• OMFTool from Digidesign

References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Media_Framework_Interchange
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030809131248/http://www.peakoverload.com:80/Downloads/omfspec10.pdf
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000815100248/http://avid.com/3rdparty/omfi/index.html
4. ↑ http://www.edlmax.com/FormatOmf.htm
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000816225754/http://www.avid.com/news/press_releases/product_news/aaf.html
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110728123616/http://www.linuxmedialabs.com/Downloads/LSI/omfspec21.pdf
7. ↑ https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/master/tools/omf/loader.cc#L149
8. ↑ https://www.mixonline.com/recording/workstation-file-format-interchange-part-1-364921
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030326012727/http://www.peakoverload.com:80/audio/FileInterchange/omf.shtml