“BWF” File Extension Elimination
With the removal of the file extension “.BWF” on the 7-Series recorders (as of the most current firmware) we have received numerous inquiries about file formats. To clarify, all 7-Series recorders write Broadcast Wave files all the time. These files end in the extension “.WAV”, which is the only available extension for WAV files in our most current firmware release. If there is ever a need to revert back to naming the files with a .BWF extension then this would be done outside of the recorder. The recorders will still recognize and play back files with a .BWF extension but they will not write files with that extension. Whether ending in .WAV or with .BWF the 7-Series files are always identical.
The .BWF file extension ended up causing more confusion that it eliminated. Many editors are under the impression that only 7-Series files with a .BWF extension carried BEXT information. This has never been the case–our wave files have always been Broadcast Wave files. The extension .BWF was removed from files starting at firmware revision 2.03. If you require files with the .BWF extension, you will need to rename them. Again, the files themselves have always been “Broadcast Wave” files. If anyone wants to geek out on what metadata (BEXT and iXML) is written in Sound Devices files we have assembled this in a PDF available here.
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