All CineForm products support conversion of DVCPRO HD files from the HVX200 into CineForm Intermediate files.  Besides the inherent workflow efficiencies gained with CineForm Intermediate, it is now straightforward to combine HVX200-originated material on the same timeline with footage originating from other cameras, whether HDV, HDCam, etc.

For multi-generation post production, the resulting CineForm Intermediate workflow offers higher visual quality than editing in native camera formats, plus offers workflow efficiency unmatched by any other solution.  View quality analyses....

Which CineForm Product to Use?

The process of converting DVCPRO HD files to CineForm Intermediate files is similar across all CineForm products.  There are many user-selectable options when performing conversions, so consider the following:

• When using Aspect HD or Connect HD, resulting files converted from the HVX200 are 8-bit CineForm Intermediate files suitable for editing or compositing with all PC applications that support AVI files - Premiere Pro, Vegas, Combustion, etc.

• When using Prospect HD, resulting CineForm Intermediate files have 10 bits for improved precision during your post workflow. 10-bit CineForm files are recognized at full precision by Premiere Pro and After Effects.  Other AVI applications will interpret 10-bit CineForm files as having 8-bit precision but are otherwise compatible.  Also, Prospect HD (optionally) converts DVCPRO HD files to full-raster 1920 x 1080 for mixing with other full-raster content.

Before you can convert DVCPRO HD files into CineForm Intermediate, you must first install the Panasonic P2 Viewer for your HVX200.  If you do not have the P2 viewer installed, it is available from the Panasonic website.
 

Because HVX200 files are recorded as files to P2 flash media, the concept of "capturing" - as it relates to tape-based operation - is different.  The workflow is more about moving files around than streaming content from tape. P2 file conversion is accomplished in CineForm's HDLink application that is included with all of our products. 

• When you launch HDLink you'll select the "Convert" tab (as shown in the diagram) to convert DVCPRO HD files to CineForm Intermediate files.

• When you click the "Select" button, a dialog appears in which you navigate to the P2 files for conversion, then highlight them in the dialog.  When navigating to your clips, you'll find the ".mxf" files in the "VIDEO" directory on the P2 media.  Select the desired clips, and then click "Open".

• Before you click "Start" to begin the conversion process, see the notes below regarding the "Prefs" setup.

• After you click "Start", your P2 files will be converted to CineForm Intermediate files using the chosen preferences. 

• A note about converted files: After conversion you'll see the converted clips in your "Capture Location" directory with .AVI extensions.  You'll also notice a corresponding .WAV file with the same filename.  This file is created to handle the second audio stereo pair recorded by the HVX200.  AVI files only have the ability to store one stereo pair in its wrapper, so we create a second .WAV file which contains the second stereo pair.  When moving clips onto your editing timeline, you can put the .wav file on a second audio track

The graphic below shows the Preferences ("Prefs") dialog from the Aspect HD or Connect HD version of HDLink.

PREFERENCES PANEL NOTES (Aspect/Connect HDLink Panel Shown):

Capture Options: The top three selectors only refer to HDV capture, so ignore these for DVCPRO HD conversions.

Capture Location: Defines destination location for converted media. NOTE: You must select this check box which allows you to define a destination location on your PC for the converted files.

Base capture name: When batch capturing, the clip number is appended to the end of the defined base capture name.
 

CineForm Encoder Options:

Quality: User choice - we often recommend the "Large" mode for awesome multi-generation quality.  NOTE: Prospect HD offers two additional quality settings above "Large" which are suitable for its 10-bit workflow.

Frame Format: For HVX200 material, the Automatic setting is appropriate as the encoder will properly detect interlaced versus progressive material.

10-bit Up-conversion (not shown): Prospect HD option only.
 

Frame Rate Change (Advanced):

Remove 3:2 pulldown: for the selected HVX200 1080p24 mode or Sony CineFrame-24 mode, although see "Workflow" notes below for other uses.

Rate Change: Allows conversion of video frame rates (for instance, 25p to 24p conversion).  You have the option to maintain audio pitch (or not) as part of this process.

Remove duplicate frames: Remove the duplicate frames created in the HVX200 720p modes.  The playback rate of the resulting file is either 24p or 25p as appropriate.
 

Pre-Compression Filters (Advanced):

M2 lens adapter: 180^o image rotation which is useful when using some 35mm lens adapters.

De-interlace 1080i material: Allows conversion of material from interlaced to progressive. The resulting spatial resolution is as specified in the "Resize Video" selector below.  See "Workflow" notes below for additional description

Resize Video: This feature is useful for DVCPRO HD source files because of their non-standard spatial resolutions. When "none" is selected, the spatial resolution of files converted into CineForm Intermediate matches the spatial resolution of the source files. Three resize modes are offered as shown.  For spatial resampling, CineForm uses a high-quality Lanczos filter to maintain highest visual fidelity. 

• 1280x720: If you are converting 720p DVCPRO HD files (960 x 720 source spatial resolution), and select 1280 x 720, the resulting CineForm Intermediate files will be 1280 x 720 YUV 4:2:2.  This is very useful when mixing different source file types on the same timeline.

• 1440x1080: If you are converting 1080i DVCPRO HD files (1280 x 1080), converting into standard HDV resolutions of 1440 x 1080 will be convenient when mixing footage from HDV camcorders.

• 1920x1080 (Prospect HD only): Useful when mixing material from full-raster sources such as from HD-SDI.

Premiere Pro Editing Modes - 960x720 / 1280x1080: Aspect HD does not include new presets for the native P2 resolutions of 960 x 720 (progressive) nor 1280 x 1080 (interlaced).  When converting your P2 files, if you choose to leave them in their native resolutions, they will play in real-time using existing Aspect HD presets of 1280 x 720 and 1440 x 1080 (respectively).  To achieve this we perform a real-time interpolation on the data in our playback engine, up-sampling the material to match the selected preset resolution.  This allows an easy ability to mix P2 DVCPRO HD-originated material with HDV (or other) content, even if each has different source resolution.  If you prefer to create a custom preset that works specifically with the native P2 DVCPRO HD resolutions that is always available through Premiere.

Converting 1080i60 ð 720p30: 1080i60 ð 720p30 conversion is implemented by 1) selecting "Deinterlace 1080i sources", and 2) choosing 1280 x 720p as the "Resize Video" resolution.  Many prosumer HD camcorders don't provide much more than 650 lines of vertical resolution, so this conversion utility does an excellent job of format conversion while maintaining vertical resolution.

Converting 60i ð 24p: With conventional 60i material as source, selecting "Remove 3:2 pulldown" combined with "De-interlace 1080i sources" will convert 60i material to 24p at the defined "Resize" resolution.  NOTE: We have colleagues in the industry who have products designed specifically for converting 60i material into 24p.  The algorithms used in HDLink for 60i to 24p conversion are relatively simple, and you may get better results using Magic Bullet or DVFilmmaker.  But for many productions the frame rate conversion algorithms in HDLink will be adequate.

Timecode: During conversion, HVX200 timecode information is retained and embedded in the CineForm Intermediate files. Embedded timecode is currently interpreted for editing use only in Premiere Pro.

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