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The
Basics
Which CineForm product is the right one
for you?
CineForm
Purchases and Product Activation
My credit card is being rejected in
the CineForm online store. HELP!!
How do I activate my CineForm
product?
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 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?
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?
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 get the CineForm QuickTime Codec for
Mac?
What Mac applications is the CineForm
QuickTime codec 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?
How to remove the
CineForm QuickTime Codec....
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?
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?
Will 4K
CineForm 444 files work in Premiere Pro and After Effects?
Will 4K CineForm 444 files work in
Final Cut Pro?
Other
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:
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?
A1:
For CineForm Windows products, visit our activation page
www.cineform.com/register.html. Instructions are
also in the PDF user manual after product installation.
A2:
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.
Still have problems or questions with activation? Visit our
tech support site and search on "activation", or else
email
support@cineform.com.
Q:
How do I deactivate my CineForm product?
A:
Visit
http://www.cineform.com/register.html 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 HD,
Aspect HD, Connect HD) 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 and automatically 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
www.cineform.com/register.html 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).
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 Aspect HD literally quadruples
(on some machines) the
HDV timeline editing performance compared to Premiere Pro's
native HDV editing performance. This is accomplished through our RT video
pipeline. A complete list of impressive performance
and workflow features included in Aspect HD that are
unavailable in Premiere Pro are described on the
Aspect HD product page.
Similar
with Sony Vegas, CineForm's Connect HD offers many
performance and workflow enhancements to users of Vegas 6.0
and 7.0 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 temporal Wavelet
structure 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 architectures. The
latter is
why we have such very high performance - multiple real-time
streams - while editing.
The word
"temporal" means there is compression among successive
frames, but MUCH more efficient than MPEG's notorious
interframe coding based on motion estimation (we don't use
motion estimation). Our temporal coding is so
efficient that our codec is "symmetric", meaning that
encoding and decoding take virtually the same amount of
time. It's also why our render times are so fast.
Another
interesting fact is that CineForm Intermediate is "blockless".
What this means is that the image is compressed in one large
"chunk". 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 Intermediate files compatible with other applications
like After Effects and Combustion?
A: Yes
absolutely. CineForm files have a user-selectable AVI or MOV wrapper
around them. 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. As long as the CineForm codec is installed on
PC applications that support Video for Windows or DirectShow,
CineForm files should be
fully compatible.
Q:
How big are
CineForm Intermediate File Sizes?
A: CineForm
Intermediate files are encoded using a variable bitrate
technique, 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.
Q: When should I use an AVI versus an MOV
file wrapper?
A:
Beginning with Prospect HD v3, Aspect HD v5, and Neo v3, all
CineForm products 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.
Q: Can I rewrap AVI files to MOV files (and
vice versa)?
A:
Yes. Using CineForm's HDLink software 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.
Q: Are 10/12-bit CineForm files compatible
with 8-bit applications?
A: Windows
default provides 8-bit compatibility for AVI files between
different applications. But Windows doesn't define a
specific
interoperable format for 10-bit files that is widely
supported in the industry. So if you're a
Prospect HD or Neo HD customer using our 10-bit workflow, we've
provided Importers and Exporters for Premiere Pro and After
Effects to allow interchangeability with 10-bit CineForm
Intermediate files. If you are
using a non-Adobe application, your 10-bit CineForm files
will generally be recognized as 8-bit files.
An
exception to this is Windows applications that support
deeper (10/12-bit) precision for MOV files. Combustion
is an example of this. CineForm MOV files on Windows
can be read by Combustion with their deeper 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 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 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 right
now as we do not include a CineForm "player" as part of the
download (this may change in the future). But Neo
Player is fully compatible with Windows Media Player, QT
Player, etc.
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.
Aspect HD,
Connect 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:
As of November 2007 CineForm (finally) supports export of
CineForm projects from the Premiere Pro timeline to M2T
files for further export to HDV camcorders. See the
M2T Export Tech Note.
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?
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. The 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
-
Some cool features
we have planned but can’t tell you about yet!
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….IIf 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 allow precision to grow to 10 bits,
your arithmetic precision increases and your gradients
will 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 introduced CineForm 444
inside Prospect 2K. 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, but only on Intel Macs. With the CineForm
QuickTime codec for Mac, CineForm files work on MacOS in
QuickTime-compatible applications like Apple's Final Cut
Pro, Motion, and QuickTime Player, Adobe's CS3, Media 100,
etc.
Q: Will CineForm release a QuickTime codec
for G5 Macs?
A:
Maybe.... We'd like to, and Mac users would like us to
do so. At this point we have no plans that can be
discussed publicly.
Q: How do I get the CineForm QuickTime
Codec for Mac?
A:
On our downloads page This is the full version of the CineForm Mac codec,
but without the conversion utilities and real-time editing
engine provided in Neo or Prospect, both of which run on
Windows. The CineForm
decoder as part of Neo Player Mac will never expire. The CineForm encoder
will operate with full functionality for 15 days after
which a CineForm logo will appear on rendered content as
a watermark.
Q: What Mac applications is the CineForm
QuickTime codec compatible with?
A:
We've done lots of testing with Adobe CS3, Apple (Final Cut
Pro, Motion, QuickTime Player), Media 100, and Pomfort
Silverstack. In general we're compatible with most
(Intel) Mac apps that support QuickTime.
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 somehow been anointed) to be used. We are
in communication with Apple about this, and hope they solve
this problem for us soon. 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:
CineForm's HDLink utility contains numerous conversion
options, including telecine removal, spatial resampling,
deinterlacing, speed change, etc. In addition, AVI
files can be rewrapped to MOV files (and vice versa).
More information is here. Currently
HDLink only works on Windows, but it is compatible with both
Bootcamp and Parallels.
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.
If you want
to re-wrap the CineForm files from MOV <--> AVI, download and install CineForm's Neo product. When Neo
is installed, the HDLink utility will re-wrap MOV to AVI
(and vice versa) for flexible cross-platform and
cross-applications compatibility. Re-wrapping does NOT
re-encode your content - it simply replaces one wrapper with
another. HDLink only runs on Windows, but it is
Parallels compatible.
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. In particular, if you create a CineForm file on
Windows, rewrap it to MOV, place it on the FCP timeline,
then render it back to a CineForm file you *may* see a gamma
shift, although in most cases this is now handled properly. This is because Windows presents gamma at 2.2
and MacOS at 1.8. To fix this problem if it occurs, apply a levels
adjustment (0.82) in Final Cut Pro on top of your rendered
CineForm clip. This generally solves the problem.
Second-generation renders in FCP should not show
continued gamma movement.
Q: How to remove the CineForm QuickTime
Codec....
A:
If you suspect the
CineForm QuickTime Codec (or any QuickTime component) is
causing problems, you can move it from the components folder
(to the desktop, for example), run the affected
applications, and move the codec component back into the
QuickTime components folder as needed. To delete it entirely
you can move it into the trash.
The CineForm QuickTime Codec
is in the folder /Library/QuickTime. Drag the file
CFHDDecompressor.component and the
CFHDCompressor.component to the desktop or the trash.
This is all that you need to do to uninstall the CineForm
QuickTime Codec. In some cases you may need to restrat your
Mac to eliminate the codec from the active cache.
Also, the CineForm folder in
the applications folder contains an application called
"Uninstall CineForm Codec". Double-click this application to
run the uninstaller. The CineForm QuickTime codec in the
QuickTime components folder will be removed and the CineForm
folder in the applications folder will be removed. The
CineForm folder contains also contains a ReadMe, the end
user license agreement (EULA), the Authenticator, and the
uninstaller. All four of these files will be deleted and the
CineForm folder itself will be removed from the applications
folder.
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....
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 (not yet
shipping), 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.
CineForm Support for Red One and RedCine
Q: What
is the CineForm workflow that supports the Red camera?
A: You can
export directly from RedCine to CineForm MOV files on both
Windows and MacOS. When spatial resolution of HD
(1920x1080) or smaller is selected, the CineForm 4:2:2 encoder is
automatically selected. For any selected spatial resolutions
above 1920 x 1080, the CineForm 444 encoder is
selected.
NOTE 1: Currently CineForm 444 export on the Mac is
limited to 2K. This will change in the near future.
NOTE 2: Some Windows applications prefer AVI files
over MOV. The HD Link utility installed with Neo 4K
will replace the MOV wrapper on the exported CineForm 444
MOV files with an AVI
wrapper without disturbing the compression underneath.
Because no recompression is involved, the re-wrap process is
very fast.
Q: How do I
export CineForm files from RedCine?
A: See the
following CineForm
Tech Note for instructions on exporting CineForm files
from RedCine.
Q: Will 4K CineForm 444 files work in
Premiere Pro and After Effects?
A: Yes.
We recommend Prospect 4K for Premiere Pro (Windows)
workflow. Either Neo 4K or Prospect 4K work with After
Effects or other 4K-capable applications. See the
CineForm Tech Note for using
Prospect 4K with Red
One source footage.
NOTE 1: The large frame sizes may cause
problems with Premiere Pro's memory architecture (PPro
didn't really contemplate an online 4K workflow) and may
cause
crashing when rendering at 4K. We're looking into
modifying Premiere Pro's memory architecture to better handle these large
frames.
NOTE 2: For
Premiere Pro, we recommend setting up a 2K project not a 4K
project. 4K CineForm 444 material exported from RedCine plays very well in a 2K Premiere Pro project.
This workflow allows you to maintain 4K source during post,
but to use a 2K project as we expect most final
outputs will be delivered in 2K RGB. (This also solves
the memory-related crashing problem mentioned in Note 1.
Q: Will 4K CineForm 444 files work in
Final Cut Pro?
A: No, but 2K
CineForm 444 files work fine, which you can easily export
out of RedCine.
Currently the maximum spatial resolution handled by FCP is
2K.
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