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DPX

Digital Picture Exchange

image/dpx Released 1994 · by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)

DPX (Digital Picture Exchange) is a raster image format standardized by SMPTE. Originally derived from Kodak's Cineon format, it is the worldwide standard for uncompressed, high-resolution digital film scanning, visual effects, and digital intermediate color grading.

Professional & Film Transparency ✦ HDR Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type
image/dpx
Extensions
.dpx
Container
DPX (SMPTE ST 268)
Compression
Uncompressed & RLE (Rarely used)
Algorithms
Uncompressed
Color Depth
8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (Float)
Metadata
None
Capabilities
Transparency
Animation
Progressive Loading
Alpha Channel
HDR Support
Official Specification
Aliases: image/x-dpx

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)
53 44 50 58 (Big-endian) / 58 50 44 53 (Little-endian)
ASCII: SDPX / XPDS
HTTP Headers
Content-Type: image/dpx
HTML Accept Attribute
accept="image/dpx, .dpx"

Browser Support Matrix

Browser Status Min Version
Chrome Chrome
Not Supported
Firefox Firefox
Not Supported
Safari Safari
Not Supported
Edge Edge
Not Supported
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer
Not Supported Legacy

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages
  • Industry standard for transferring uncompressed, high-fidelity film and VFX data
  • Rich industry-specific metadata including timecode, keykode, and film stock information
  • Supports logarithmic color spaces (LogC, Cineon) to preserve the massive dynamic range of film negatives
Limitations
  • Massive file sizes (e.g., a single 4K 10-bit frame is ~50MB, resulting in ~1.2GB per second at 24fps)
  • Zero native support in web browsers or consumer OS image viewers
  • Requires heavy-duty, fast storage infrastructure (RAID/NVMe) to playback in real-time

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
print(magic.from_file('frame.dpx', mime=True)) # May output 'image/x-dpx'
const FileType = require('file-type');
const type = await FileType.fromFile('frame.dpx');
console.log(type.mime); // Typically requires custom parsing for 'SDPX' / 'XPDS'
import "net/http"

// net/http lacks DPX support. Check for magic bytes:
if bytes.HasPrefix(buf, []byte("SDPX")) || bytes.HasPrefix(buf, []byte("XPDS")) {
    fmt.Println("image/dpx")
}
$mime = mime_content_type('frame.dpx');
echo $mime; // Standard server configurations often fall back to 'application/octet-stream'

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/dpx file by reading its raw bytes:

  1. 1 Check first 4 bytes for 'SDPX' or 'XPDS'
  2. 2 Parse the 2048-byte fixed-size binary header for image dimensions, color space, and SMPTE metadata (like timecode and keykode)

Software Support

D
DaVinci Resolve
F
Foundry Nuke
A
Adobe After Effects
A
Adobe Premiere Pro
A
Autodesk Flame
ImageMagick ImageMagick

Conversion Tools

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JSON API

All data on this page is available as a free, open JSON API. Use it in your project, documentation, or tooling.

GET https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/dpx.json Open JSON
Free to use
No auth required
CORS enabled
Use from any domain
Cached 24h
Cache-Control headers set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the magic byte for a DPX file?

DPX files begin with a 4-byte magic signature indicating their endianness. Big-endian files start with 53 44 50 58 (ASCII: SDPX), while little-endian files start with 58 50 44 53 (ASCII: XPDS).

Is DPX supported in web browsers?

No. DPX is a massive, uncompressed professional format designed for motion picture production. It has no native support in any web browser and must be converted to formats like JPEG, PNG, or WebP for web delivery.

What is the difference between DPX and Cineon (.cin)?

DPX is an evolution of Kodak's older Cineon format. While they are very similar and both represent logarithmic color data, DPX includes a much more robust metadata header standardized by SMPTE, accommodating a wider variety of color spaces and bit depths.

Related Formats

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