Supported Data Formats
BESA Research supports most major EEG and MEG file formats. Most file format readers are written by ourselves, others are supplied by the manufacturers. This document gives an overview of all the data formats that can be imported in BESA Research 6.1. If your file format cannot be found in this list, please contact us via our support form: BESA support form
The latest installers for the various file formats can be downloaded from the following site: BESA file format readers
Supported EEG data formats
| File Format/Manufacturer/Software | File Extension | File Formats Version |
|---|---|---|
| Alpha-Trace (alpha-trace medical software) | .alp | tested up to v418-05 |
| ATES * | ||
| BDF (BioSemi) | .bdf | |
| Beekeeper64 (Telefactor) | .eeg .dat | |
| Bio-logic (CEEGraph) * | .eeg | |
| BrainAmp / BrainVision (Brain Products) | .eeg .vhdr | |
| BrainLab (Schwarzer) | .sig | |
| BrainStar (Schwind Medizintechnik) | .eeg | |
| Cadwell *, *** | ||
| Compumedics (ProFusion) *, ** | .sdy | ProFusion EEG 4, 5 |
| DCmes, PolyDC (MES) | .dat | |
| Deltamed (Coherence) * | .eeg | |
| Deltamed (Neurofile) | .eeg | |
| EBNeuro (Galileo) *, ** | .gnt .set | Galileo.NT, Galileo.NET 3.5 |
| EDF (European Data Format) | .edf | EDF, EDF+ |
| EEProbe (ANT) | .cnt | |
| Electrical Geodesics, Inc. - Raw data format | .raw .ses | |
| Electrical Geodesics, Inc. - Metafile Format (EGI MFF) * | .xml | up to MFF v3 |
| ERPSS * | ||
| g.Tec (Guger Technologies) | .hdf5 | |
| Galileo (EBNeuro) * | .nt | |
| Generic Reader (any ASCII formats; see BESA Program Help) | ||
| Grass-Telefactor (TwinRef) * | .ref | up to Twin v3.1 |
| InstEP *, **** | .c .is .ia | up to version 7.3 of the IWave Input/Output library |
| Konstanz file format * | .raw .sum | |
| ManScan interchange format (SAM) * | .mbi | |
| Medtronic * | .wg1 | |
| MEF (Multiscale Electrophysiology File) * | .xml | MEF 2.0 |
| Micromed * | .trc | up to Micromed EEG file Type 4 |
| NeurOne | ||
| Neuronic * | ||
| NeuroScan | .cnt .avg | |
| NexStim | .nxe | |
| Nicolet (Nicolet Biomedical Inc.) * | .eeg | |
| NicoletOne / Nervus (Nicolet Biomedical Inc.) * | .e .eeg | |
| Nihon Kohden | .eeg | EEG-1100, EEG-1200, EEG-2100 |
| Phoenix II (EMS) * | s*.0 s*.1 … | |
| Stellate Systems (Harmonie) *, ** | .sig | Harmonie 5.2c, 5.4, 6.1, 6.2, 7a |
| Stellate Systems (Monitor) *, ** | .eeg | |
| Vangard (LaMont Medical Inc.) * | B****, no extension | |
| XLTEK * | .eeg .erd | up to v8.1 |
If files are in one of these formats, they can be read directly and conversion is not required. BESA Research also has a new, flexible interface for importing ASCII files which can be used in conjunction with the ASCII export functions of your software. Any EEG format can be converted to the compressed BESA binary format, ASCII format, EDF+ or simple binary format.
* Install this reader using "Install Additional Readers.htm" in the "Utilities\Additional Readers\" subfolder. ** The EEG data format requires installation of the corresponding EEG system reader software or SDK. *** The Cadwell reader requires the installation of the Cadwell Arc API. If this API is not already installed on your computer, download it from the following link and install it on your computer: Link. The API must be installed in the suggested default path on your C: drive. **** Please note that a valid license for the IWave library is required in order to be able to read InstEP files.
Supported MEG data formats
| File Format/Manufacturer | File extension |
|---|---|
| ASCII | |
| BESA 2000 / FOCUS high compression format | .foc .fsg |
| BTI (special export program exp2BESAbin in Unix system) | |
| CTF | .meg4 |
| Neuromag | .fif |
| Yokogawa * | .con |
* Install this reader using "Install Additional Readers.htm" in the "Utilities\Additional Readers\" subfolder.
