What is the CINE file format?
A .cine file is a Vision Research Phantom CINE file - the native raw video container produced by Phantom high-speed cameras manufactured by Vision Research, a division of AMETEK. Phantom cameras are used in scientific research, industrial inspection, and broadcast slow-motion cinematography, recording at frame rates from thousands to millions of frames per second.
Each .cine file begins with the two-byte magic signature CI (0x43 0x49), followed by a header describing frame count, frame dimensions, and bit depth. An ST metadata block at offset 0xE0 stores trigger time, exposure settings, and camera model information. Frames are stored as raw Bayer-pattern sensor data - undemosaiced pixel arrays at 8, 10, 12, or 16 bits per channel - making .cine files fully lossless but very large; a short high-speed burst can easily occupy tens of gigabytes. Vision Research published a formal CINE format specification in 2007 (v1), updated in 2011 (v2).
The authoritative playback and conversion tool on Windows is Phantom Camera Control (PCC); Phantom Cine Viewer (PCV) offers a lightweight alternative. DaVinci Resolve supports .cine natively for professional color grading. Open-source vrptools and FFmpeg provide Linux and command-line access. Cameras can also export to AVI containers or TIFF image sequences, but .cine remains the primary lossless capture format.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWCINE files are specialized raw video data from scientific cameras and pose no practical malware risk. The format is not executable and not a common attack vector. The primary pitfall is software mismatches - darktable/generic players cannot open these files, and unofficial "CINE viewer" sites may bundle PUP. Always download PCC from the official Vision Research site (phantomhighspeed.com).
Format details
in a nutshell- Cin Image Format (Kodak Cineon) - Older Cineon image-sequence format uses .cin (not .cine); not to be confused with Phantom .cine files.
Programs that open CINE files
Windows3 apps
Phantom Camera Control (PCC)
Free Download PCC from phantomhighspeed.com; open .cine directly for playback, trimming, and export to AVI/DPX/TIFF. PCC 3.9 (April 2024) is the current release.
Phantom Cine Viewer (PCV)
Free Lightweight companion to PCC for review/scrubbing. Distributed alongside PCC from the Vision Research download page.
DaVinci Resolve
Freemium Import .cine via the Phantom Cine plugin (install from the Phantom resources page); provides professional color grading of raw Bayer data. 
macOS2 apps
Ouiji (by Glue Tools)
Paid Glue Tools replaced the discontinued Phantom Cine Toolkit with Ouiji for modern macOS; opens and converts .cine files. 
Linux1 app
vrptools (open source)
Open-source Command-line tools for reading CINE files; export frames for further processing. Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Binary |
| Byte order | Little-endian |
| Magic bytes | 'CI' (0x43 0x49) at bytes 0-1; bytes 2-3 are a length field (0x2C 0x00 = 44) |
| Container structure | File header + BitmapInfoHeader at offset 0x2C + ST metadata section at 0xE0 + frame offset index + raw frame data |
| Video data | Raw Bayer-pattern sensor data (undemosaiced); 8, 10, 12, or 16 bits per channel |
| Compression | None (uncompressed raw); optional lossless bit-packing for 10/12-bit depths |
| Typical file size | 100 MB - 50 GB+ (short high-speed bursts at high frame rates fill many GB) |
| Frame rate | Up to millions of fps; e.g., Phantom v2640 reaches 25,000 fps at 2048×1952 |
| Resolution range | 256×256 up to 4 Mpx+ depending on camera model |
| Metadata section | ST section at offset 0xE0 stores trigger time, exposure, camera model, and recording setup |
| Format specification | v1 published June 2007; v2 updated 2011 by Vision Research |
| Checksum/integrity | None (no whole-file checksum in the specification) |
| Associated OS | Windows (PCC/PCV), macOS (Ouija by Glue Tools), Linux (vrptools, FFmpeg) |
| Use context | Scientific research, industrial inspection, sports and wildlife broadcast slow-motion |
| Released | circa 2000s (Phantom high-speed cameras) |
| Latest version | CINE format spec v1.00 (2007); updated spec v2 (2011) |
| Specification | phantomhighspeed.my.site.com |
CINE conversions
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