I am on the verge of purchasing a CineForm product. My delay is based on confusion as to which product to buy. I realize the choice basically comes down to which NLE I use to edit. I use Premiere Pro most of the time but Vegas 8 as well.

I know that Aspect HD gives me a real time rendering engine within PPro 2.0 as well as a realtime series of effects and transitions. I am also looking at Neo HD because I like the fact that with it I am able to convert my HDV footage to a full raster 1920x1080 10 bit square pixel format. The confusing point for me is if I decided to go for NeoHD, how would I go about editing the material in Premiere if I opted to go with that NLE for a given project. I tried it last night with M2T files converted to CineForm 1440x1080 files. The Aspect templates still appeared in PPro but were non functional because the trial expired long ago. I figured this would leave me essentially in the position I would be in if I purchase Neo HD. I was unable to set up a template from those available or in the custom options which would play back the footage in realtime on the timeline or an output format in the export menu which would output a decent functional file. As far as a rendering codec none of the available options seemed right either. I had a trial for Neo installed for a short time but unfortunately a technical issue which was eventually resolved prevented me from fully investigating the software.

I guess basically my question is what the editing options are there for Neo HD if I decide to use PPro? The only options that sound remotely appropriate are the Adobe HD-SDI 1080p template and possibly the Canon HDV 24f one, but for CineForm intermediate I kind of doubt it. I'm wondering if anybody would have any advice with this stuff. Thanks!

P.S. Using a Canon XH-A1 and forgot to include that info.

Hi Edwin,

For use within Premiere Pro you really need either Aspect HD or Prospect HD. Both products include CineForm's RT engine for PPro with numerous presets, transitions, effects, etc. In this regard think of both products as kind of like using a Matrox card, except there is no HW required. The good news is that Vegas is able to use the CineForm codec just as if you had Neo HDV/Neo HD installed.

Looking at it the other way around, if you install Neo HD, then PPro will see the CineForm codec, but none of the RT effects are present. You'll be able to play CineForm files, but they will show up with a render line on them. So, Neo HD is not a good solution for PPro. But Aspect HD and Prospect HD support Vegas just as if you had Neo HDV/Neo HD installed.

Hopefully this was helpful.

It was helpful, thanks very much for the reply. I think I will be getting Aspect HD then. Could you tell me if there is an upgrade path to Prospect from Aspect? I did see on the website that there was an upgrade path from Aspect HD to Neo HD but was wondering if there was one within the same family. It sounds like Prospect is really what I'm after but funds right now would limit me to Aspect so an upgrade path would be a perfect temporary compromise.

Edit: I looked at the page and the answer to my question was right there....$499.00 to upgrade. Could you tell me if you are able use the software immediately upon purchase. Thanks again David.

Edwin, regarding upgrades, we have always allowed our customers to upgrade to a new product within a family while getting full credit for the current MSRP during the upgrade. So the upgrade to Prospect HD would be $500. (If our website said $499 for the upgrade from AHD to PHD I should locate it and fix it).

After purchase you should get a serial number within minutes. You can activate immediately. It will also operate with full functionality for 15 days in Trial mode without the need for Activation. However, if you have a Trial installed already and it is expired then you'll need to activate right away.

Thanks for your help David. I actually went ahead and purchased Prospect after all last night and everything is working great! Appeciate the guidance!

Glad to hear it Edwin - thanks for the purchase!