Hello,

I'm what I'd probably describe as a hardcore hobbiest when it comes to multimedia, and as such I have some familiarity with Cineform. On occasion I use the built-in Cineform capabilities in Vegas in order to be able to edit in real time (no dropped frames). I use a combination of HDV recorded to tape and MP4 (H264) recorded to a pocket cam. Sometimes I drop everything into my timeline and render out one long intermediate in Cineform 720p30, then edit that. It has the pros of nice to edit and cheap (I already own Vegas), but I'd be a much happier camper on occasion if I could use HD Link and batch encode all my individual clips into individual cineform intermediate files.

OK, enough background. I'm in the market for a new 5dMii, which is on preorder, and I've played around already with some raw files in Vegas. Vegas seems to play nice with them, and I had no problem rendering out to Cineform either, which is great. However, I have a feeling I'm going to want to move my workflow more towards an HD Link approach once the camera is purchased (owning Cineform would also be nice from the fact that I have an HV20 too, so 24p would be a lot easier).

Here's the question. I see that NeoHDV can only handle HDV resolutions or lower, but the 5dii puts out 1080p30. Since I do this mostly for fun, I can't really justify much expense, especially considering I can actually make this work in Vegas for free (I may look into scripts for this instead), so I was hoping that the NeoHDV license might work for me if I plan on working in 720p30 on my timeline. So, the question is that when I read that NeoHDV only does HDV or lower res, what I'm unsure about is if the HD Link with that license will be capable of downrezing my 1080p30 to 720p30, and then I can use 720p30 with the cineform codec from that point forward in my workflow?

Thanks!

Bill, the simple answer is YES!

The CineForm decoder is always unrestricted in resolution. The only restriction is rendering into a CineForm file. So you can resize with HD Link to 720p with no problem.

In fact, if you have some 5DM2 footage you can experiment with HD Link in Neo HDV now with the 15 day trial.

Unless the new build has fixed things, there are problems with capturing from the 5D MK II with HDLink. Here's a few threads about it:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/134913-canon-5d-vincent-laforets-footage.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/134161-canon-eos-5d-mk2-video.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/133962-canon-5d-ii-aspect-hd.html

Thanks, I've read a bunch of those threads, but I'll read again. That said, I don't think I would ever be "capturing" from the 5d (say through the HDMI), only converting (files onto the CF). Not sure if that's where the problem lies.

I'm starting the think the cheapest solution for me is going to be GearShift. Can't I just do a rough edit on my timeline, then use GearShift auto batch render the events to individual 720p30 Cineform files? Then I can save that project as the one used to create the intermediates, and use a new project to actually edit the intermediates into my final work. Then at the end, I can delete the intermediates, save the originals, and using the two project files I could always re-create the entire non-destructive workflow from end to end if I had to?

I know GearShift does more, and allows swapping, but honestly I don't fully trust the ability to swap through years and/or multiple versions of Vegas and Gearshift. So, I'd rather just use it as a script to batch encode the rough cut, then use those files in a new project. It almost seems for that, I really just need a way to easily set regions for all events and then use the batch render script from there, and I'd even save the $50 for GearShift would I not? I wonder if there is an easy way to set regions for all events?

Sorry, I meant converting also. I haven't tried converting any of the online downloadable 5D MK II files with the new Cineform builds, but the previous builds gave results like others have described in previous threads.