The Basics Which CineForm product is the right one for you?
Which camera sources and file formats can be directly converted to CineForm files?
CineForm Purchases and Product Activation My credit card is being rejected in the CineForm online store. HELP!!
How do I activate my CineForm product?
Activation isn't working for me. What do I do?
How do I deactivate my CineForm product?
Can I use CineForm products on multiple machines?
3rd Party Licensing of CineForm Intermediate - Adobe, Sony, etc Are CineForm Intermediate™ HD components included in Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas?
Are CineForm Intermediate files compatible between different editing applications?
If Adobe and Sony licensed CineForm Intermediate, why do I need CineForm products?
CineForm Intermediate Codec Related What is the underlying compression technology used by CineForm Intermediate?
Are CineForm files cross-platform compatible on
both Windows and Mac?
Are CineForm Intermediate files compatible with other applications like After Effects and Combustion?
How big are CineForm Intermediate File Sizes?
When should I use an AVI versus an MOV file wrapper?
Can I rewrap AVI files to MOV files (and vice versa)?
Are 10/12-bit CineForm files compatible with 8-bit applications?
How do I use CineForm files on multiple machines when I only have one license?
Playback of CineForm Intermediate files stutter in Windows. How can I fix it?
Neo Scene
How does Neo Scene
Differ from Neo HD and Neo 4K?
What NLE (non-linear editors) are compatible with Neo Scene?
Do CineForm's 10-bit files provide extra visual fidelity?
Do files created with Neo Scene work on Mac?
Tell me more about telecine removal....
What CineForm encoder quality mode should I
choose when converting footage?
Why are CineForm files larger than my
source files?
Why do I have a red
render bar over my footage in Premiere Pro CS3?
Aspect HD, Connect HD, Neo HDV, and Other HDV Related Does Aspect HD v5 support both Premiere Pro v2 and CS3?
What features does Aspect HD offer above Adobe's native editing support in Premiere Pro?
Does Aspect HD support Panasonic's HVX-200 camera?
Do CineForm products support special camcorder modes from Canon, JVC, and Sony HDV camcorders?
What is the upgrade policy to Aspect HD v5 and how do I purchase my upgrade?
I don't intend to upgrade to Premiere Pro CS3 right away. Should I upgrade to Aspect HD v5 anyway?
Exporting CineForm Projects from Premiere Pro as M2T files for Export to HDV Camcorders
files for export to HDV camcorders....
How do I export to DVD from my Adobe Premiere Pro timeline and maintain best video quality?
Can I batch capture using Neo HD and Aspect HD
(Windows)?
Prospect HD Related What are the major differences between Prospect HD and Aspect HD?
Does a 10-bit Prospect HD workflow improve visual fidelity on my 8-bit (HDV, DVCPRO HD, HDCam, etc) project?
Does full-raster 1920 horizontal resolution benefit my workflow?
I have uncompressed AVI files. Can I convert them into CineForm Intermediate?
Do CineForm products support Blackmagic's Decklink cards?
Does Prospect HD work well with animated source material?
Does Prospect HD work with 64-bit Windows XP?
Does Prospect HD support editing of DVCPRO-HD material?
Does Prospect HD support both the HS and LH(e) family of AJA HD-SDI cards?
MacOS Products Do CineForm files work on MacOS?
Will CineForm release a QuickTime codec for G5 Macs?
How do I
try the CineForm Neo Products for Mac?
What Mac applications
are CineForm files compatible with?
Will CineForm files work in real time in Final Cut Pro?
Can I online edit 4K material in Final Cut Pro?
CineForm files don't work within Apple's Color? Why?
How can I rewrap files for cross-platform compatibility?
How do I share content with somebody who hasn't purchased a CineForm product?
Are there cross-platform gamma issues between Windows and MacOS?
Wafian HR-1 Direct-to-Disk Recorder Does the HR-1 support timecodes?
Does the HR-1 support RS-422 deck control?
Which component output modes from the HD100U are supported by the HR1?
Will Aspect HD play 10-bit CineForm Intermediate files, or do I need Prospect HD?
Please explain more about the video storage RAID configurations
How do I move data off of the HR-1?
How do I use CineForm Intermediate files on Final Cut Pro or Avid?
I'm mobile. Can I use battery power for the HR-1?
CineForm RAW Workflow FAQ What does "demosaic" or "DeBayer" mean?
Explain DeBayering and the CineForm RAW workflow....
On which NLE platforms can I edit CineForm RAW files?
Explain Active Metadata
What cameras are supported by CineForm RAW?
SetActiveMetadata doesn't
work on my "older" CineForm RAW clips from the SI camera. How do I fix
this?
CineForm Support for Red One and RedCine What is the CineForm workflow that supports the Red camera?
How do I export CineForm files from RedCine?
Other
Is Vista supported?
Do CineForm files work with Avid - or, how do I convert to DNxHD?
Can I convert XDCam HD or XDCam EX files to CineForm Intermediate?
Can I convert JVC TOD files to CineForm Intermediate?
If my source files are AVC or AVC Intra should I still use CineForm Intermediate for post?
How do I convert DPX sequences to CineForm files?
How do I convert CineForm files to DPX files?
The Basics Q: Which CineForm post-production product is the right one for you? A: If you are using:
Q: Which camera sources and file formats can be directly converted to CineForm files? A: Most camera sources and file formats can be converted to CineForm files either during capture or in a second step by converting files already captured. If you have a question about what file types can be converted, the rule of thumb is "If Windows Media Player can play the file, CineForm's HD Link can convert it to a CineForm file". The reason this is true is that we use a DirectShow infrastructure similar to the plumbing used underneath Windows Media Player. The following compressed camera formats are compatible with HD Link
(Windows) and ReMaster (Mac): - HDV (all flavors),
- AVCHD/h.264
long-GOP (except on Mac)
- DVCPro HD (P2 only)
- XDCam
HD/EX
- JPEG2000 (Grass Valley Infinity)
- Red R3D See numerous Tech Notes about CineForm's HD Link
and ReMaster for more details CineForm
Windows products also convert uncompressed HD-SDI sources on-the-fly into CineForm files when using an AJA Xena or Blackmagic Decklink/Intensity card. CineForm also has file-based converters for: - Converting into and out of DPX files (See Tech Note)
- Converting into CineForm RAW from Dalsa and Vision Research Raw cameras (See Tech Note)
CineForm Purchases and Product Activation Q: My credit card is being rejected in the CineForm online store. HELP!! A: Sometimes credit cards (usually non-US cards) are rejected by the credit card clearinghouse used by our online store, even if the credit card is not over its limit. Sometimes this is for simple reasons like mistakes when entering the proper billing name, address, or security code. Other times a rejection can be for "unknown" reasons triggered by anti-fraud algorithms employed by the host bank. In any event, this is frustrating for everybody. You have a couple options: Try a different credit card We accept Paypal - you might try this payment option. Contact us by email and explain the problem. Sometimes we can help by manually entering the order.
Q: How do I activate my CineForm product? A: The serial number you received with your product purchase is NOT an activation code. To get your activation code: - For CineForm Windows products, visit our activation page
http://www.cineform.com/activate.aspx and follow the instructions. - For CineForm Mac products, launch the Authenticator application located in the /Applications/CineForm folder on your
Mac. Click the "Request License" tab and follow the instructions.
This requires that Mac Mail is setup on your Mac. If Mac Mail
is
NOT setup, Mac customers can also activate at
http://www.cineform.com/activate.aspx.
Still have problems or questions with activation? Visit our tech support site and search on "activation", or else email support@cineform.com.
Q: Activation isn't working for me. What do I do? A: Activation problems are usually the result of one of the following: the wrong product is installed - for example you have a NEO HD license, but you installed NEO
4K. the system code (hardware fingerprint) changed from the time you submitted the registration form to the time you entered the info into the activation window. there were two hardware fingerprints in the activation window - an (std) and an (enh). In this case, ALWAYS use the (enh) code. the information was not entered into the activation
fields correctly (usually the NAME is the field that is entered
incorrectly). Both fields need to be input EXACTLY the way they appear on the
automated activation email you received.
If these guidelines don't help, the BEST way to
resolve activation issues is to send a screen capture of the activation window (with the system code displayed clearly) to support@cineform.com. With that we can see exactly what is going wrong and provide a solution.
Q: How do I deactivate my CineForm product? A: Visit
http://www.cineform.com/deactivate.aspx for deactivation instructions.
Q: Can I use CineForm products on multiple machines? A1: Yes! When using Windows, you can install your CineForm product(s) (Prospect, Aspect,
Neo) on as many machines as you like, although only one activated machine is permitted per serial number at one time. But if you have a workflow environment where you need to move around your activation to different machines you can easily do this using the deactivation function within our Activate.exe utility. To see how this works, run Start à All Programs à CineForm à Aspect HD* à Activate.exe
(*or Prospect HD or Connect HD)
If you need to edit on a second machine or a laptop, you can deactivate your primary machine by running the Activate.exe utility and selecting the deactivation operation. Once deactivated, you can immediately activate a different machine by visiting
http://www.cineform.com/activate.aspx and filling in the requested information. Make sure you have your serial number handy when activating the second machine. Your System Code will be different on each of your machines, and your activation code received by email will also be different for each machine. Your CineForm decoder will always remain active on each machine (even after deactivation) so you will always be able to play your material regardless of whether your machine is activated. The deactivation utility is only available on CineForm products beginning in July 2006. If you have an earlier version you will need to upgrade to a current version or else contact support@cineform.com for deactivation instructions.
NOTE: If you don't need to render into CineForm files on the second machine, you can use CineForm's free Neo Player. Neo Player installs a non-expiring CineForm decoder plus the After Effects importer. A2: When using Mac, we don't have the ability to deactivate one Mac for moving the license to another machine. If you are moving from one machine to another contact CineForm technical support support@cineform.com for assistance in moving your license.
Industry Licensing Questions - Adobe, Sony, etc Q: Are CineForm Intermediate™ HD components included in Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas? A: Yes. Adobe and Sony both licensed certain CineForm Intermediate™ software components from CineForm. These components originally formed the heart of HDV editing with Premiere Pro (v1.5.1) and Vegas 6. CineForm continues to work closely with both Adobe and Sony for optimized workflows with their newer products (Adobe CS3 and Vegas 7).
But in general the "old" components shipped within Premiere Pro and
Vegas should be updated with new products from CineForm.
Q: Are CineForm Intermediate files compatible between different editing applications? A: Yes absolutely. CineForm will always make sure this is the case. Supporting both AVI and MOV files (and a re-wrapping feature through HDLink, enhances cross-applications and cross-platform compatibility.
Q: If Adobe and Sony licensed CineForm Intermediate, why do I need CineForm products? A: Neither Adobe nor Sony licensed all of CineForm's technologies - they only licensed basic versions of our CineForm Intermediate HDV codec technologies. Products offered by CineForm include many additional modules built on top of CineForm Intermediate, including 10/12-bit precision, real-time editing pipelines, special capture/conversion modules, deinterlacers, inverse telecine processing, improved chroma interpolation, After Effects importers/exporters, and much more. Our business is optimizing HD workflows. Our CineForm Intermediate codec is the base technology upon which we build efficient post-production tools. But let's get a little more specific. In the case of Premiere Pro, CineForm's
Prospect HD literally triples (on some machines) the HD editing performance compared to Premiere Pro's native HD
support. This is accomplished through our RT video pipeline.
See our Aspect-Prospect product page
for more details. Similar with Sony Vegas, CineForm's
Neo HDV/HD/4K offers many performance and workflow enhancements to users of Vegas 7.0
and 8.0 that are unavailable through the components we licensed to Sony. Please view the Neo HD product page for a complete list of additional performance and feature enhancements.
CineForm Intermediate Codec Related Q: What is the underlying compression technology used by CineForm Intermediate? A: The CineForm Intermediate codec is based on a Wavelet
transform architecture designed by CineForm for the rigorous visual quality demands required in a multi-generation post-production workflow. We also designed it for very efficient CPU implementation on PC/Mac architectures. The latter is why we have such very high performance - multiple real-time streams - while editing. An
important characteristic of our Wavelet compression is that it
is "blockless". This means the image is compressed in
a single large "block" with no subdivision of the
image. Although its blockless implementation is more complex, the simple reason we do this is for improved image quality. As most are aware, MPEG (and related algorithms) divide the image into small 8x8 block sizes, each of which is compressed individually and then reassembled upon decoding. In complex image sequences coded with MPEG you often end up with block noise and edge ringing contributed to by the small block sizes. This never happens with blockless Wavelet transforms. Finally, our files are variable bit rate files for improved visual quality, not fixed bitrate. HDV is necessarily a fixed bitrate system because of the constant bitrate demands of tape recording. CineForm Intermediate compression allow bitrates to naturally rise in response to visually demanding scenes and fall during less demanding scenes.
Q: Are CineForm files cross-platform compatible
on both Windows and Mac? A: Yes absolutely.
Simply install the CineForm product appropriate for your Windows
or Mac machine. A comment is in order however.
Windows applications in general prefer an AVI wrapper, and Mac
applications prefer an MOV wrapper. Consequently CineForm
includes a rewrapping utility in HD Link (Windows) and ReMaster
(Mac) that replaces one wrapper with another. This makes
it easy to move files between platforms and replace the wrapper.
We also make
available a free decoder for both Windows and Mac that never
expires. Simply download and install our "Neo Player" for
either Windows or Mac from our Downloads page.
Q: Are CineForm Intermediate files compatible with other applications like After Effects and Combustion? A: Yes absolutely.
That's the beauty of using industry-standard wrappers like AVI
or MOV. As long as our codec (or decoder) is installed,
any application that supports AVI or MOV files should be able to
work with CineForm files.
Further, all CineForm products ship with importers/exporters for AE to ensure 10/12-bit compatibility. For deep precision support within Combustion on Windows you need to use CineForm's MOV wrapper because MOV has more widely used deep-pixel formats than does AVI.
Q: How big are CineForm Intermediate File Sizes? A: CineForm Intermediate files are encoded using a variable bitrate
algorithm, so file sizes vary based on scene complexity, image resolution, frame rate, and chosen compression quality. But the following ranges apply reasonably well: HDV: For 1440 x 1080 60i HDV material, you can expect a range of arount 10 - 14 MBytes/sec, or around 40GB/hour. In comparison, 1280 x 720 24p material will be about half that size. These files are larger than are generated by in-camera MPEG codecs so as to enable more "headroom" for manipulating the files in post, offering significantly improved visual fidelity within multi-generation workflows. HD: 1920 x 1080 10-bit 24p streams usually range from about 15MB/sec to 20MB/sec, or about 60GB/hour. 2K: 2K file sizes are comparably larger than HD files because of increased spatial resolution. Also, if your 2K files originated as film scans they will have a lot of grain in them. It is for this reason CineForm created our two "Filmscan" modes - to preserve the grain structure from film scan sources. 2K file sizes range typically from about 20MB up to 30MB/sec. We've seen complex material such as from the StEM (Standardized Evaluation Material) range upwards to 50MB/sec. CineForm 444: CineForm 444 files are about twice the size (at a given spatial resolution) compared to the equivalent YUV 4:2:2 files at the same spatial resolution. So 1920x 1080 CineForm 444 files will be about 40 MB/sec.
4K 444:
Generally in the range of 60MB/sec (200 GB/hr) up to 90
MB/sec (300 GB/hr).
CineForm RAW:
2K CineForm RAW is generally in the range of 15 MB/sec. 4K
CineForm RAW is generally in the range of 30MB/sec to 50
MB/sec).
Q: When should I use an AVI versus an MOV file wrapper? A:
All CineForm products on Windows allow recording (capturing) into either AVI or MOV files. As a general rule if you are using a Windows workflow you'll want to capture into CineForm AVI files and for a MacOS workflow you'll want to use the MOV wrapper. There are some exceptions. For instance, if you are using Combustion on Windows and want to process 10-bit CineForm files you'll need to use CineForm MOV files. Combustion will not recognize CineForm AVI files as having 10/12 bits of depth.
On Mac we only CineForm
MOV files are created, although we can rewrap from AVI files
into MOV files using ReMaster.
Q: Can I rewrap AVI files to MOV files (and vice versa)? A: Yes. Using CineForm's HDLink software
on Windows you can rewrap from AVI to MOV (and vice versa) without disturbing the underlying compression. This facilitates moving files from Windows to MacOS and vice-versa. Using the Convert tab within HDLink, simply select the AVI or MOV source file(s), then select the "other" wrapper as the output format, and if you don't have any other temporal or spatial processing specified, the file will be rewrapped. If you do specify temporal or spatial processing the the file will be transcoded using the new temporal/spatial parameters you selected.
On Mac, you use the
ReMaster application to rewrap from AVI files to MOV files.
ReMaster will not rewrap from MOV to AVI files.
Q: Are 10/12-bit CineForm files compatible with 8-bit applications? A:
Yes. On both Windows and Mac default interfaces provides 8-bit compatibility for
CineForm AVI and MOV files between different applications if
they are not capable of deeper arithmetic precision.
Q: How do I use CineForm files on multiple machines when I only have one license? A1: You can have CineForm products installed on multiple machines simultaneously, but you may only have one machine activated at a time. This technique is described in more detail here. A2: CineForm's Neo Player is an installable utility
for either Windows or Mac that includes a non-expiring CineForm decoder. Neo Player supports all CineForm formats including active metadata in CineForm RAW. Neo Player also includes an After Effects importer
on Windows so AE can read CineForm files at full bit depth. Neo Player is helpful if: (1) You need to share CineForm content with colleagues who do not have a paid CineForm license. Simply instruct them to download and install Neo Player, or (2) You have render nodes that need to render out of CineForm files to another format. NOTE: The "Player" part of Neo Player is a bit of a red herring as we do not include a CineForm "player" as part of the download (this may change in the future). Neo Player
on Windows is fully compatible with Windows Media Player, QT Player, etc.
Neo Player on Mac is compatible with all QuickTime applications.
Q: Playback of CineForm Intermediate files stutter in Windows Media Player. Can I fix that? A: Yes. Remember, HD files in general require more CPU power than SD files. But the scalability of CineForm's wavelet-based files exceeds other algorithms, so we include a utility to take advantage of this for accelerated playback on slower machines. This utility allows you to choose playback resolution as either i) full resolution (default) or 2) half-horizontal and half-vertical resolution (which requires less CPU power). To enable half-resolution playback select the "Desktop Playback - Fast" option in the CineForm --> Tools directory under Start Menu. Until you change this back to "Desktop Playback - Quality" all desktop playback will be at half resolution.
There is no equivalent
technique to use on Mac.
Neo Scene
Q: How does Neo Scene
Differ from Neo HD and Neo 4K?
A: Neo Scene is
designed to offer high-quality conversions of HDV and AVCHD
source material into 10-bit CineForm Intermediate files, the
same files used in feature film projects. This results in
much higher visual fidelity and higher editing performance than
can be achieved using native files from the camera.
Neo HD and Neo 4K have
additional features including the following:
- support for
CineForm's Active Metadata architecture for
renderless color workflows
- conversion
of additional camera formats: XDCam HD/EX,
HVX200 (P2), Canon 5D Mk II, or
general AVI/MOV formats
- Additonal
pre-processing options including:
- spatial
resampling (e.g. 960x720 --> 1280x720)
- speed change
(e.g. 60p --> 24p slow motion or 24p <-->
25p)
- image flip
(for when using 35mm adapters)
- AVI <--> MOV
rewrapping (for moving CineForm files
to/from a Mac)
- hardware
capture through component, HD-SDI, or HDMI
inputs using Blackmagic or AJA cards
- "Filmscan"
compression modes which offer less
compression for uncompressed sources
- CineForm
DirectShow encoder. This allows many
third-party products to call CineForm's
10-bit encoder
Q:
What NLE (non-linear editors) are compatible with Neo Scene?
A1: Premiere
Pro and Premiere Elements: NOTE: Premiere Elements
does not allow a 24p editing preset. This means that when
converting material for use in Premiere Elements you should not
choose the 24p option.
A2: Sony Vegas
and Movie Studio. Movie Studio does allow a 24p
editing preset, but it is not predefined by Sony. You'll
have to create your own within your project settings.
A3: Pinnacle
Studio is not supported. Pinnacle Studio
doesn't seem to support standard AVI formats even though its
specs claim it does.
Q:
Do CineForm's 10-bit files provide extra visual fidelity?
A: Yes!
Think of it from algebra. "Pi" can be 3.14 or 3.141592654.
The more precision, the more accurate your calculations are.
The same goes for editing video. Even if your source files
begin as 8 bits (as with HDV and AVCHD), it is best to convert
them itno files using deeper precision arithmetic.
Read here for more
information.
Q:
Do files created with Neo Scene work on Mac?
A: Yes.
QuickTime on Mac will read AVI files. But to play the
CineForm files you'll need to install the Mac version of
CineForm's Neo Player. Neo Player installs the
non-expiring CineForm decoder on Mac.
NOTE: Mac will only interpret 10-bit CineForm files as
having 8 bits of arithmetic precision. To have your 10-bit
AVI files interpreted as 10 bits in depth you'll need to rewrap
them to MOV files. Rewrapping is a feature that is
included with Neo HD (not Neo Scene).
Q:
Tell me more about telecine removal....
A: The goal of
"telecine removal" is to create a resulting file that is
progressive (not interlaced) and is 24 frames per second (North
America) or 25 fps (Europe, Japan, Australia) regardless of
whether your material was shot interlaced or progressive.
Telecine Background (as it relates to cameras): Some
cameras shoot only in interlaced mode, while other cameras have
a selector to shoot as either interlace or progressive.
But shooting progressive doesn't mean you get a 24p file from
your camera. In the case of *most* HDV and AVCHD cameras,
when the 24p mode is selected, the image sensor samples at 24
progressive frames per second, but the images are actually
recorded to tape or SSD as 60i (interlace) by adding redundant
fields (a process called "telecine"). Why do they add
telecine instead of leaving the files as 24p? Well, the
creators of the HDV spec never included a 1920x1080 24p mode.
For 1920x1080 resolution the only frame format allowed in the
spec was either 50i or 60i. So to solve the problem,
camera manufacturers added telecine to turn their cinematic 24p
signal into an interlaced 60i signal (yuck!). So the
underlying format is 24p, but to the outside world (including
editing software) the material is actually 60i. Traditionally
you must edit such material as a 60i project. The problem
is that edit points don't always exist on clean progressive
boundaries because of the insertion of interlace fields.
So after editing, 24p material embedded in 60 can have a poor
quality look - certainly not cinematic!
The solution?
Remove the telecine cadence and edit at 24p! Simple as
that sounds, it's actually somewhat complicated. But this
is a process CineForm has been doing for many years, and our
telecine removal algorithms are excellent. The way we do
this is to read the source image and determine whether it is
progressive or interlaced. If interlaced, we then
determine whether the underlying cadence inside the interlace
wrapper is progressive or not. Based on our algorithmic
decision we choose the best telecine removal algorithm.
The result is a 24p file (from 60i source) or a 25p file (from
50i source).
Be aware: For
best quality telecine removal, you should always shoot in your
camera's progressive mode if it is available. Why?
If you shoot in 24p mode (even when wrapped in 60i) we can
perfectly remove the redundant fields. However, if you
shoot in interlaced mode you have never recorded any progressive
frames, so we have to create progressive frames were none
actually existed. This process works, but the resulting
progressive frames are usually "softer" (less crisp) than if you
shot in a 24p mode originally.
Q:
What CineForm encoder quality mode should I choose when
converting footage?
A: either Medium
or High. Ultimately it is your choice. High will
produce slightly larger files, but they will also be higher in
quality. You can read more about CineForm quality levels
in this Tech Note.
Q: Why are CineForm files larger than my source files?
A: HDV and AVCHD
files are highly compressed. HDV compression varies
depending on spatial resolution and frame rate, but in general
is about 30:1! AVCHD is compressed even more at about
80:1!
To get to such high
compression, many computationally complex algorithms are used.
When HDV and AVCHD files are used as the source for editing, a
couple things result: 1) poor editing performance (particularly
acute with AVCHD source), and 2) lower quality when rendering.
CineForm designed our
editing format specifically for that purpose. Very high
performance, and very high visual fidelity. Part of the
technique we employ is to allow the sizes of the files to grow
compared to the source. This creates lots of "headroom"
for manipulating your source material in post. It is this
extremely high fidelity that has allowed CineForm to be used by
major feature film post production facilities and studios.
So how large will your
Cineform files be? Generally about 2X to 3X the size of
your HDV source files, and about 5X to 8X the size of your AVCHD
files.
Q: Why do I have a red render bar over my footage in Premiere Pro
CS3?
A: The red bar
shown by Premiere Pro CS3 on top of CineForm footage on the
timeline means that PPro cannot determine whether it can play
the footage in real time without rendering. While the red
bar is a nuisance, the CineForm material actually plays fine.
In other words PPro tries to play the material as fast as it
can. You'll notice on reasonably fast machines Premiere
Pro will play through multiple Cineform streams simultaneously
including transitions.
More on this
topic(1): CineForm's Prospect HD and Prospect 4K products
include CineForm's real-time engine for PPro. In this
case, CineForm (not Premiere Pro) is managing playback, so there
is no red render bar.
More on this topic
(2): In CS4 Adobe changed (a little) the way it uses color
markings. In CS4 the CineForm material will be shown with
an Orange bar (instead of Red). Orange means PPro will
play the material "as fast as it can". Red means Premiere
Pro knows that it must render.
Aspect HD, Neo HDV, and Other HDV Related Q: Does Aspect HD v5 support both Premiere Pro v2 and CS3? A: Aspect HD v5 supports both Premiere Pro 2 and Premiere Pro CS3. If you intend to use Aspect HD with Premiere Pro CS3 you must upgrade to Aspect HD v5.
Q: Does Aspect HD support Panasonic's HVX-200 camera? A: All CineForm products support P2 media from Panasonic's HVX-200.
Q:
Do CineForm products support special camcorder modes from Canon, JVC, and Sony HDV camcorders? A: Yes, most all special camera modes are supported, including telecine removal (24p extraction from 60i), Sony's CineFrame modes, Canon's "F" modes, and JVC's 60 modes.
Q: What is the upgrade policy to Aspect HD v5 and how do I purchase my upgrade? All Aspect HD customers: Any customer who purchased a previous version of Aspect HD (v1, v2, v3, or v4) may upgrade to Aspect HD v5 for $99 through July 31, 2007 using our online store . Beginning August 1 the upgrade price will be $149. All subsequent update releases for v5.x will be provided at no additional charge.
During the ordering process, please include your existing Aspect HD serial number in the field labeled "Special Instructions". This will allow us to automatically validate your previous serial number and send out a new serial number for v5.
Aspect HD v4 purchases after February 1, 2007: If you purchased Aspect HD v4 on February 1, 2007 or later, you may claim a free upgrade to Aspect HD v5 as long as you complete the upgrade by July 31, 2007. Beginning August 1, 2007 your upgrade price will be $149. If you are entitled to a free upgrade click here to begin.
Q: I don't intend to upgrade to Premiere Pro CS3 right away. Should I upgrade to Aspect HD v5 anyway? A: Our recommendation is to upgrade to Aspect HD v5 by July 31, 2007 for the following reasons: All future features will be in Aspect HD v5 and beyond, and will not be rolled backwards into the Aspect HD v4x family. If you upgrade to v5 then all future v5.x features will be provided free of charge. New features in Aspect HD v5 will remain backwards compatible with Premiere Pro 2 You save $50 by upgrading by July 31, 2007.
Q: Exporting CineForm Projects from Premiere Pro as M2T files for Export to HDV Camcorders A:
CineForm no longer supports export of HDV formats from the Premiere
Pro timeline.
Q: How do I export to DVD from my Adobe Premiere Pro timeline and maintain best video quality? A: We have published a Tech Note outlining the steps to master a high quality DVD from Premiere Pro 2 using a CineForm workflow: http://www.cineform.com/products/TechNotes/Export2DVD.htm.
Q: Can I batch capture using Neo HD and Aspect HD
(Windows)? A: HDLink, CineForm's external MPEG I/O utility that ships with both Neo HD and Aspect HD, does
not perform batch capture. HDLink does allow you to seek to a timecode. HDLink records all material after you hit the RECORD button up to the time you hit the STOP button.
When using Aspect HD, and when performing capture within the Premiere Pro capture interface, batch capture to CineForm Intermediate files is supported.
Timecode information is written into the CineForm Intermediate AVI files.
Prospect HD Related Q: What are the major differences between Prospect HD and Aspect HD? A: You’ll find that Prospect HD works almost identically to Aspect HD, including all the same real-time performance. In general, Prospect HD offers increased arithmetic precision, increased spatial resolution, and support for HD-SDI acquisition and timeline monitoring. Here are a few of the extra features Prospect HD offers:
10-bit precision for improved visual fidelity during post Full-raster 1920 horizontal resolution, including (optional) frame resampling of HDV or DVCPRO HD sources to standard square-pixel formats of 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080 (at 10 bits of course) 32-floating-point processing for precise color correction Deep-color I/O module for After Effects allowing the highest-quality composites. Seamless integration with AJA Xena cards supporting HD-SDI and component HD I/O for Ingest, Export, and timeline monitoring
Q: Does a 10-bit Prospect HD workflow improve visual fidelity on my 8-bit (HDV, DVCPRO HD, HDCam, etc) project? A: Yes! For most 8-bit source material a 10-bit post workflow with Prospect HD will provide improved visual fidelity. Think of it this way….If you need to perform operations like color correction, compositing, effects, titling, etc, and especially if you have material with smooth gradients (i.e., blue sky) you will be manipulating your 8-bit source data – adding, multiplying, etc. Each time you render the source data precision is truncated back to 8 bits. The 8-bit truncation operations after rendering introduce “banding” commonly visible in smooth gradients. Instead, when you manipulate 8-bit source data in post but
first allow precision to grow to 10 bits, the extra arithmetic precision
ensures your gradients remain smooth. This is very clear in the image sequence below. Notice the obvious banding in the 8-bit uncompressed YUV image after gamma correction. If you click on the image you'll see a full-resolution (1920 x 1080) version. 
Q: Does full-raster 1920 horizontal resolution benefit my workflow? A: For many – absolutely, for a few reasons: 1440 x 1080 is not a square pixel aspect ratio, but 1920 x 1080 is. Many post tools prefer square pixel data, so Prospect HD allows high-quality frame-interpolation from 1440 to 1920 horizontal resolution (at 10 bits of course). If you are mixing material from other cameras (from HD-SDI sources or DPX files for instance) the frame sizes are often 1920 x 1080. It is preferable to use a project setting compatible with your highest resolution source material. If you are outputting 1080 material over HD-SDI, 1440 horizontal resolution is not a supported HD-SDI format, but 1920 is. This also answers one of the questions about why we didn’t include HD-SDI support within Aspect HD. It could be done, but it would require real-time interpolation of the data at the time it is routed over HD-SDI. It makes more sense to offer this support as part of a true 1920 x 1080 10-bit workflow within Prospect HD.
Q: I have uncompressed AVI files. Can I convert them into CineForm Intermediate? A: Yes. Uncompressed AVI files can be imported into either Premiere Pro or After Effects. From the Premiere Pro (or AE) timeline they can be rendered into CineForm Intermediate 8-bit or 10-bit files.
Q: Do CineForm products support Blackmagic's Decklink cards? A: Yes, but only for ingest when using HDLink. When editing using Prospect HD, the architecture of Blackmagic Decklink cards is different than the AJA cards, and we haven't yet finished adding Blackmagic editing support. We hope to add support for HD-SDI timeline monitoring using Decklink cards in the future.
Q: Does Prospect HD work well with animated source material? A: Yes, Prospect HD works very well with animated source material. As an example of this, the 3D animated film "Santa's Polar Blast" was originally created with Lightwave. The first step in post was to batch-convert the 2048 x 1500 10-bit animated TIFFs (each frame was a file) into CineForm Intermediate 10-bit AVI files for the remainder of the post-production effort. Because animated sources are usually "clean" (no noise) they also compress more. The 2K CineForm Intermediate files averaged around 16MB/sec. NOTE: Since this was originally written CineForm has introduced its 12-bit CineForm 444 format. Originated source material that remains in RGB format should consider using CineForm 444.
Q: Does Prospect HD work with 64-bit Windows XP? A: Yes, but if using an HD-SDI card check 64-bit Windows compatibility with AJA and Blackmagic drivers.
Q: Does Prospect HD support editing of DVCPRO-HD material? A: Yes! See our HVX200 support page for discussion about the numerous conversion features that are supported.
Q: Does Prospect HD support both the HS and LH(e) family of AJA HD-SDI cards? A: Yes - Prospect HD v3 supports both the Xena-HS and Xena-LH(e) HD-SDI cards from AJA for acquisition and timeline monitoring.
MacOS Products Q: Do CineForm files work on MacOS? A:
Yes, our Neo HD/4K family is designed for Intel Macs.
Q: Will CineForm release a QuickTime codec for G5 Macs? A:
Probably not.
Q: How do I
try the CineForm Neo products for Mac? A:
Fully-functional 15-day Trial versions of Neo HD/4K are
available on our downloads page
Q: What Mac applications
are CineForm files compatible with? A:
Pretty much any Mac QuickTime application. One thing to be
aware of is we haven't (yet) released an importer for Premiere
Pro on Mac, so CineForm files will appear with a red render line
above them. They'll play fine, but PPro won't let you do
any effect, transitions, etc, without rendering.
Q: Will CineForm files work in real time in Final Cut Pro? A: Yes and no, but mostly yes! Sorry if that's confusing, but we scratched our head for a while about this too. See our Tech Note describing Final Cut Pro sequence settings for optimal editing performance using CineForm files.
Can I online edit 4K material in Final Cut Pro? A: Typically "4K" means 4096-wide rasters which is wider than supported by Final Cut. However, FCP will support 4000-wide rasters. For projects which can afford to crop 96 pixels horizontally, the 4000-wide project setting in Final Cut Pro works great with CineForm files. To support 4000-wide online workflows within FCP, CineForm's Raw format converters include a crop feature to 4000-wide rasters The crop includes a window placement feature allowing you to select from a far-left-most through far-right-most window placement (or arbitrary window placement in between) for the 4000-raster extraction. Rendering from FCP to CineForm 444 files also works well at 4000-wide rasters.
Q: CineForm files don't work within Apple's Color? Why? A: CineForm files currently do NOT work in Apple's Color application. Why? Color does NOT support QuickTime codecs. Instead, Color only allows certain codecs
that have been compiled into the code to be used. Apple is
aware of this limitation, but they haven't been to quick to solve
the problem. In the mean time, don't hesitate to send an email to Apple with a strong request for them to fix this problem right away.
Q: How can I rewrap files for cross-platform compatibility? A:
(You can rewrap AVI files to MOV files using ReMaster (part of
Neo HD/4K on Mac).
On Windows you can use
HD Link (part of all CineForm Windows products) to rewrap
between AVI and MOV (either direction).
Q: How do I share content with somebody who hasn't purchased a CineForm product? A: Simple. Have them download and install Neo Player - we have versions both for Windows and MacOS. Then send them your CineForm files. They can even edit CineForm files using Neo Player - you just can't render back to a CineForm file until you purchase.
Q: Are there cross-platform gamma issues between Windows and MacOS? A: There can be, but we think we've nailed most of them. QuickTime gamma problems are a well-known and frustrating problem when moving files between Windows and MacOS, or even between applications on MacOS.
As part of our Neo products on Mac, if you run across gamma issues,
you can launch the "CineForm" panel under System Preferences/Other
and adjust gamma parameters.
Wafian HR-1 Direct-to-Disk Recorder Q: Does the HR-1 support timecodes? A: The HR-1 will read embedded timecodes in the HD-SDI stream and place them in the CineForm Intermediate AVI file. If no timecode information is embedded in the HD-SDI stream, the HR-1 will auto-generate timecode and embed it in the CineForm Intermediate AVI file. As an example, if you're capturing from either the JVC GY-HD100U from its component HD output, or from the Canon XL H1 using its HD-SDI output, neither provides embedded timecode. In this case the HR-1 auto-generates timecodes and inserts them into the CineForm Intermediate AVI file.
Q: Does the HR-1 support RS-422 deck control? A: We intend to add RS422 deck control in the not-too-distant future, but this feature is not yet supported.
Q: Which component output modes from the HD100U are supported by the HR-1? A: JVC's HD100U offers numerous progressive frame rates over its component HD output that are not available when recording to HDV tape. In particular, the HD100U generates 60p, 50p, 48p, 30p, 25p, and 24p. Obviously if you can take advantage of this you have very flexible frame rates to use for beautiful slow motion effects.
Except for 60p, all of these modes add pulldown to create a resulting 60p component HD signal. Obviously the desire is to remove pulldown to recover the original progressive signal. The trick is that there is no signaling information that indicates which frames are duplicates versus original. So our "magic" is to devise an algorithm that can accurately and reliably determine on-the-fly which frames are duplicates. We have finished this work, and can accurately eliminate duplicate frames when looking at a white wall and also with the lens cap on. This pulldown reversal will make its way into both Prospect HD and the Wafian HR-1 in future releases.
Q: Will Aspect HD play 10-bit CineForm Intermediate files, or do I need Prospect HD? A: Yes, Aspect HD will play 10-bit CineForm Intermediate files. There are two restrictions: 10-bit files are interpreted as 8-bit files in Aspect HD via dithering, and rendering resolution out of Aspect HD is limited to 1440 horizontal pixels.
Q: Please explain more about the video storage RAID configurations A: Two different RAID configurations - Raid 0 or RAID 1 - are offered for the Wafian HR-1 selectable at the time of order. RAID configurations are based on 500GB 7200rpm SATA drives: RAID 0 - "Striped". RAID 0 in the HR-1 is a four-drive configuration in which the drives are seen by the OS as a single large drive equal (almost) to the cumulative size of the individual drives. In this case, four 500GB drives organized as RAID 0 appear to the OS as a single 2TB drive (minus striping overhead). There is no redundancy in this configuration, but you get about 36 hours of CineForm Intermediate files at 1080p24 10-bit. RAID 10 - "Stripe across Mirrors". This configuration uses four drives, and uses both mirroring (for redundancy) and striping (for increased capacity). 4 500GB drives yields almost 1TB (minus striping overhead) of usable storage, enough for about 18 hours of CineForm Intermediate files at 1080p24 10-bit.
Q: How do I move data off of the HR-1? A: The HR-1 has IEEE 1394 (Firewire), USB2, and Gigabit Ethernet ports. Because the HR-1 is based on a PC running Windows XP you can move data onto and off of the HR-1 in a manner identical to any other PC.
Q: How do I use CineForm Intermediate files on Final Cut Pro or Avid? A: See below - we answer this question in detail....
Q: I'm mobile. Can I use battery power for the HR-1? A: The HR-1 can be powered from a power inverter with a battery source. It requires about 500W so plan accordingly. A UPS supply for each of two HR-1's was used in the filming of Spoon, and is discussed in the Spoon blog: http://indiefilmlive.blogspot.com/
CineForm RAW Workflow FAQ Q: What does "Demosaic" or "DeBayer" mean? A: First of all, please review the CineForm RAW technology tutorial for more information. In a three-chip (sensor) camera design, each image sensor records only one color component - either Red, Green, or Blue. With proper prism alignment, any R, G, or B photosite located on one of the sensors has a corresponding photosite on a different sensor representing the same pixels point but for a different color channel. This can be considered a 3D array with a 2D dimension representing each pixel location in a grid, and the third dimension representing the three color planes (R, G, and B) stacked vertically. This RGB organization (or YUV through transformation) is understood by NLE and compositing applications. When a single-chip "Bayer" or CFA ("Color Filter Array") sensor is used, all color channels are recorded onto a single (two-dimensional) sensor. This is accomplished by using different (R, G, or B) filters on each adjacent photosite location in a grid pattern. (Remember to read the CineForm RAW tutorial where this comes visually more clear....) Because the Bayer structure has adjacent color elements instead of "stacked" color elements, it needs to be handled in an NLE environment differently than traditional RGB or YUV color spaces. A simple way to think about this is that Bayer-pattern data should be considered a different color space than traditional RGB or YUV. Data acquired from Bayer or CFA sensors in known as "raw" data, and is often considered a "digital negative". You will often see both terms used. For an NLE or compositing app to understand Bayer-pattern data it must be converted into a traditional RGB or YUV format. This is accomplished using a compute-intensive process known as a "Demosaic" or "DeBayer". There are many different algorithms that have been developed in recent years to perform this task, and each varies in resulting visual quality, and each varies in the amount of compute load required to perform the DeBayer. The highest quality of these algorithms are very compute intensive and in many cases (especially 4K) cannot be performed in real time.
Q: Explain DeBayering and the CineForm RAW workflow.... A: At some point in a workflow that uses Bayer or CFA sensors, the DeBayer operation must be performed. It is up to your knowledge of the post-production tools and their capabilities to determine when to perform the DeBayer operation. CineForm performs the DeBayer operation in two different ways: Dynamic DeBayer which allows playback of multiple streams of CineForm RAW files (up to 4K) in real time within a calling application, including within an editing or compositing environment. In this mode the source file remains CineForm RAW, but the CineForm decoder DeBayers the CineForm RAW data and presents it to the calling application as traditional YUV or RGB . This mode defers the need to perform a rendered DeBayer until later in the post workflow. The CineForm decoder performs the dynamic DeBayer operation automatically on CineForm RAW data.
DeBayer during Rendering: At the time a render is performed on a CineForm RAW file, the result is always a traditional YUV (CineForm Intermediate) or RGB (CineForm 444) file.
CineForm RAW is based on the same underlying Wavelet algorithm architecture as CineForm Intermediate, and is the name CineForm gives to the compression of raw sensor data. Cineform RAW files (like CineForm Intermediate and CineForm 444) exploit the multi-resolution decoding nature inherent when using Wavelets codecs. The multi-resolution nature of Wavelet codecs assists in the real-time, multi-stream editing workflow provided by CineForm products. CineForm RAW files can be moved onto the timelines of supported NLEs, compositing and effects apps, and even played within Windows Media Player or QuickTime player. Further, within an NLE or compositing environment, you can inter-mix CineForm RAW, CineForm Intermediate, and CineForm 444 media - even on the same timeline. The CineForm decoder understands the differences in each of the file formats and converts the data (including dynamic DeBayering) to the YUV or RBG format requested by the calling application.
Q: On which NLE platforms can I edit CineForm RAW files? A: CineForm RAW files are compatible with all NLE applications that already support CineForm's AVI or QuickTime codecs. Among others, CineForm RAW has a complete editing workflow on Windows using Premiere Pro/After Effects and on MacOS using Final Cut Pro. Please visit our Tech Notes pages for more detailed descriptions about editing workflows using CineForm RAW.
Q: Explain Active Metadata A: Active metadata literally means data that is stored within a compressed CineForm file that specifies an operation to be performed on the decoded bitstream prior to delivering the decoded data to the calling application. Using the Silicon Imaging SI-2K camera as an example, color information is never "flattened" into the compressed video bitstream. Instead, CineForm RAW lightly compresses the sensor data directly, then stores camera color information (white balance, color saturation matrix, 3D LUT) as "active metadata". When you play back a CineForm RAW file, the CineForm decoder decompresses the bitstream, then it explores whether color information is present in the file. If so, the CineForm decoder can optionally apply the color information to the decoded bitstream prior to passing the output to the calling application. This is a valuable technique to preserve highlight detail from the camera's sensor. You see, in a traditional camera, white balance and color matrix processing is "flattened" into the bitstream. Such processing can reduce highlight detail significantly depending on the amount of processing. As long as color information is stored as "active metadata" instead, highlights from the camera's sensor remain in the source bitstream and color processing remains a post process. Color information can always be changed or eliminated altogether without impacting the original source data. There will be many other features CineForm adds that make use of active metadata, but we'll keep some of these ideas to ourselves for now....
Active Metadata is
compatible with all CineForm files formats: 4:2:2, 4:4:4, and
CineForm RAW. Active Metadata can be added and changed on
Windows only using Prospect 4K within Premiere Pro. On Mac
Active Metadata can be added or changed using the SetActiveMetadata
application that ships with Neo HD/4K. For more information about how active metadata is used in CineForm RAW files, please read the CineForm RAW Technology Primer.
Q: What cameras are supported by CineForm RAW? A1: CineForm RAW is the native recording format for the Silicon Imaging SI-2K camera.
A2: CineForm has RAW converters for Red One, Dalsa Origin, and Vision Research Phantom cameras. Visit the Tech Note page to learn more about CineForm's RAW Converters for the Dalsa and Vision Research Phantom cameras.
Q:
SetActiveMetadata doesn't work on my "older" CineForm RAW clips from the
SI camera. How do I fix this?
A1: Active Metadata
is supported for all CineForm RAW clips created after approximately
July 2007 using SI-DVR Build 321 or later. Clips earlier than
this do not have the proper wrapper structure to allow manipulation
of Active Metadata using the SetActiveMetadata utility.
However, you can update older clips to the wrapper structure
necessary for Active Metadata support discussed below.
Running CFRepair:
CFRepair is a command line tool that rewrites source input files
into new source output files. CFRepair will do three things:
Update old headers to new headers. This
corrects the issue of Windows explorer or MacOS showing CineForm
RAW clips as quarter resolution. (For instance, if your
clip is 2K, it might show up as 1024 x 576). It is
actually full resolution, but it is improperly being reported by
the OS. Insert GUIDs
into each stream which is necessary for SetActiveMetadata to
properly adjust Active Metadata with current tools. -
Recover "broken" AVI files. If a
file recording is interrupted (such as loss of power) or a file
is otherwise corrupted, it is sometime possible to recover the
broken clip using CFRepair.
Step 1: Launch
CFRepair. CFRepair is located in the CineForm --> Tools
directory under Start Menu. This will launch a command Window
and show you the syntax used for CFRepair. You might want to
change into the directory in which your files are located in order
to shorten the path necessary.
NOTE: If you change ("cd" command) into the directory in which
your source files are located, CFRepair might not be found. To
fix this,,copy CFRepair.exe from its current location (C:\Program
Files\CineForm\Tools) into your System folder which is usually
C:\WINDOWS\system32.
Step 2: Within the
preferred directory, run CFRepair with the following syntax:
CFRepair v:\media\source.AVI
v:\media\new.avi
You can use wildcards to
convert all files in the folder.
Step 3: Converted
files should now be compatible with SetActiveMetadata.
CineForm Support for Red One and RedCine Q: What is the CineForm workflow that supports the Red camera? A:
See our various Tech
Notes for supporting Red workflows.
Q: How do I export CineForm files from RedCine? A: See the following CineForm Tech Note for instructions on exporting CineForm files from RedCine.
| 
