Command line and headless export

The program is BernardReview.exe on Windows (C:\Program Files\Bernard Review\bin\) and bernard-review on Linux. The examples below write BernardReview; replace it with the path of your installation.

Start the player

BernardReview <media or .bpl> [<media> ...] [--video <file>] [--frame N] [--ipc-port N]

• A bare path, or one given with --video, is opened at start-up; several paths are added to the playlist in order. A media file on the command line plays as soon as it is open: that is how a file association or Open with hands a clip to the player.
• --frame N puts the playhead on position N of the first clip, counted from 0 (as the seek command).
• --ipc-port N makes the automation port listen on N instead of 5556. Two players on one machine must use two different ports.
• With options only (--ipc-port), the player starts paused.
• If one of the user's players is already running, the files are sent to it instead of opening a second player, except with --ipc-port or --export, or when Open files in the running player is unticked in the preferences. A script that must drive its own player therefore starts it with --ipc-port.

To drive the player once it runs, see Python API and IPC.

Export without a window

--export runs an export without opening a window, then exits. It comes in three forms.

Options laid over a preset:

BernardReview --export --preset dailies_prores_lt \
  --source "D:/shots/SQ010_SH010_ANIM_v002.mov" \
  --output "D:/dailies/SQ010_SH010_ANIM_v002.mov" \
  --cc "exposure=0.5" --display-space rec709 \
  --burn-in "tl={clip} {version};bl={frame} {timecode};br={date}"

Several sources, each in its own file thanks to <clip>:

BernardReview --export --preset jpg_review \
  --source A001_C001.R3D --source A001_C002.R3D \
  --output "D:/stills/<clip>/" --resize 1920x0 --chroma 444

A JSON job file, with the same fields as the export command (samples in api/export_examples/):

BernardReview --export job.json

Without --format, the output's extension names the format: dailies.mov, shot.####.dpx. For a sequence, the output is a #### pattern or a folder.

The options

The --no- options and their positive forms win over what a preset or a job file set.

A recipe

BernardReview --export --recipe evening_dailies.json \
  --source SQ010_SH010_COMP_v003.mov --source SQ010_SH020_COMP_v007.mov \
  --recipient "Client A"

The recipe brings everything else: each output is made for each source, one after the other. It takes only --recipe, --source, --recipient, --studio and --session.

What the script gets back

• During the export, export: frame N/M lines; at the end, a last JSON line that sums the job up (output, encoder used, and jobs for several sources or a recipe).
• Exit code: 0 when everything succeeded, 1 for a bad command line or recipe, 2 when an export failed.

Before you build it into a farm

• A video source is decoded to 8 bits before export; RAW and EXR keep their precision.
• viewer and clip color mean nothing without a window: they become custom, with the --cc values.
• Drawings come from the player's playlist: without a window there are none to flatten. To export drawings, run the export from an open player (the export command with annotations, see Python API and IPC).
• H.264 and H.265 need a hardware or system encoder on the machine (NVENC, Quick Sync, AMF, Media Foundation on Windows; NVENC, VA-API, Quick Sync on Linux). A farm machine without a graphics card will export ProRes or DNxHR.
• A vector SWF is rendered by Ruffle's exporter, which needs a graphics card; the BERNARD_RUFFLE_EXPORTER variable gives its path on a farm.
• NOVA: --format nvfx with --compression htj2k or wavelet (lossy, --quality), lossless or raw, and --bit-depth 16 or 32.
• The watermark refuses plate formats (EXR, DPX, TIFF, PNG) and NOVA. The recipient appears neither in the summary nor in the log: the summary and the log write <recipient> in its place.

Going further: the complete manual, parts 8.6 to 8.8 and 11 (Help > User Guide in the player).