Supported Data Formats

Module information
Modules	BESA Research Basic or higher
Version	6.1 or higher

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	Download	Notes
Alpha-Trace (alpha-trace medical software)	.alp	tested up to v418-05
ATES *
BDF (BioSemi)	.bdf		Link
Beekeeper64 (Telefactor)	.eeg .dat
Bio-logic (CEEGraph) *	.eeg
BrainAmp / BrainVision (Brain Products)	.eeg .vhdr
BrainLab (Schwarzer)	.sig
BrainStar (Schwind Medizintechnik)	.eeg
Cadwell *, ***			Link	Reading EBNeuro Files
Compumedics (ProFusion) *, **	.sdy	ProFusion EEG 4, 5	Link
DCmes, PolyDC (MES)	.dat
Deltamed (Coherence) *	.eeg
Deltamed (Neurofile)	.eeg
Deymed (Truescan)			Link
EBNeuro (Galileo) *, **	.gnt .set	Galileo.NT, Galileo.NET 3.5	Link
EDF (European Data Format)	.edf	EDF, EDF+	Link	Reading EDF Files
EEProbe (ANT)	.cnt
Electrical Geodesics, Inc. - Raw data format	.raw .ses			Reading EGI Raw Files
Electrical Geodesics, Inc. - Metafile Format (EGI MFF) *	.xml	up to MFF v3	Link
ERPSS *
g.Tec (Guger Technologies)	.hdf5		Link
Galileo (EBNeuro) *	.nt
Generic Reader (any ASCII formats; see BESA Program Help)
Grass-Telefactor (TwinRef) *	.ref	up to Twin v3.1	Link
InstEP *, ****	.c .is .ia	up to version 7.3 of the IWave Input/Output library	Link
Konstanz file format *	.raw .sum
ManScan interchange format (SAM) *	.mbi
Medtronic *	.wg1
MEF (Multiscale Electrophysiology File) *	.xml	MEF 2.0	Link	Reading MEF Files
Micromed *	.trc	up to Micromed EEG file Type 4	Link
NeurOne
Neuronic *
NeuroScan	.cnt .avg
NexStim	.nxe		Link
Nicolet (Nicolet Biomedical Inc.) *	.eeg
NicoletOne / Nervus (Nicolet Biomedical Inc.) *	.e .eeg		Link
Nihon Kohden	.eeg	EEG-1100, EEG-1200, EEG-2100	Link
Phoenix II (EMS) *	s*.0 s*.1 …
Stellate Systems (Harmonie) *, **	.sig	Harmonie 5.2c, 5.4, 6.1, 6.2, 7a	Link
Stellate Systems (Monitor) *, **	.eeg		Link
Vangard (LaMont Medical Inc.) *	B****, no extension
XLTEK *	.eeg .erd	up to v8.1	Link

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/Software	File Extension	File Formats Version	Download
ASCII
BESA 2000 / FOCUS High Compression Format	.foc .fsg
BTI (special export program exp2BESAbin in Unix system)
CTF	.meg4
Elekta Neuromag Functional Image File Format (FIFF)	.fif	FIFF v2.0	Link
Yokogawa *	.con		Link

* Install this reader using "Install Additional Readers.htm" in the "Utilities\Additional Readers\" subfolder.