Supported media: 3D, images, audio and video

WATCHOUT is synonymous with flexibility, especially when it comes to handling media and file formats. It supports a wide range of formats for images, audio and video, as well as playback of fully uncompressed video and image sequences. 

Supported image formats

• JPEG
• PSD
• PNG
• TARGA (TGA)
• TIFF

Supported video codecs

• MPEG-1/2
  • 4:2:2
  • 4:2:0 
• H.264/AVC
  • 4:2:0 
• HAP-family
  • HAP
  • HAP Q
  • HAP Alpha
• Apple ProRes
  • 4:2:2 Proxy
  • 4:2:2 LT
  • 4:2:2 SD
  • 4:2:2 HQ
  • 4:4:4:4
  • 4:4:4:4 XQ
• QuickTime Animation (RLE) 

WATCHOUT will also utilize installed third party DirectShow filters but we do not support filters (decoders and demuxers) that are not supplied by us.

Supported video container formats 

• MP4
• MOV
• MPG
• MXF

Supported audio codecs

• WAV (8, 16, 24 & 32-bit) (Recommended)
• AIF (8, 16 & 24-bit)
• MPEG Audio (16 & 32-bit)
  • MPEG-1 layer 1, 2 & 3
  • MPEG-2 layer 2
  • LPCM
  • AES3

From version 6.2, WATCHOUT supports Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI) and Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) protocol, up to 24 output channels. This feature offers individual channel volume and routing.

We recommend the use of WAV and always to split the audio from the video files, even if WATCHOUT supports embedded audio.  

Supported 3D formats

• 3DS (3D Studio Max)
• OBJ (Wavefront)
• DAE/Collada
• LWO
• LWS (LightWave)
• LXO (Modo)
• BLEND (Blender) 
• FBX (Autodesk Filmbox)

Image sequences

An alternative to video playback, WATCHOUT can play image sequences. This is conceptually similar to video file playback, but instead of storing the entire video in a single file, each video frame is stored as a separate file. Using image sequences has several advantages when it comes to quality, workflow and frame rate.

For image sequences, WATCHOUT support: 

• Uncompressed 8-bit RGB/RGBA Tiff
• Uncompressed 8-bit BGR/BGRA TGA

For performance reasons, the recommended file format is uncompressed TGA.